62/1500 Midget

Long time reader first time poster. A few years back I aquired a1962 midget body/rolling chassis. No engine , transmission, and most other parts... basicly a naked roller with a very solid body. During my quest to find a drive line for this car I found a 75 midget parts car and decided to use that drive line. I now know that this may not have been the best way to go but with the engine in the shop and new pistons in hand its what I've got. My question is....what are my options , other than webber, for a carb/intake set up for the 1500? I do have the stock intake with z/s carb.

great forum Mike

Mike, just one man's opinion, but this is a really bad idea. The a-series is such a better engine, and the 1500 isn't really a bolt-in, is it? 1275's are easy to find and 1098's are a good engine and you could probably get someone to give you one of those. Anyway, if you held a gun to me and made me use the 1500 I'd want to source a european/uk spec intake that would allow me to use SU's. They are not too hard to find if you watch ebay uk.

The '62 midget is a really desireable early model and the 1500 is just going to kill the value if you ever decide to sell it.

I tend to agree with Ryan. Find a good 1275 engine and you'll be happier.

Mike for a 1500 I'd use the Weber unless you can find a set of SUs from a British or Canadian market car. The Zenith Stromberg isn't a bad carb, but the intake manifold design is terrible and really limits performance. Same with the exhaust, so go with a Weber and a header and you'll have a nice combo. If you're rebuilding the 1500 anyway, go for the flat top pistons, get the compression ratio up around 9:1 or so and use a mild cam, you'll like the result. Before you invest anything in the 1500 check out the fit of the transmission in the tunnel, I think there were some mods made in that area and it may not fit without some "massaging".
You'll have to cut out the center of the steering rack crossmember for front pulley clearance. The factory cut these just inside the rack mounts and then angled the ends down to the main crossmember at about a 45 degree angle. It's a try it and fit operation on an older body. Other than those things the rest should be fairly easy to convert. I agree with Ryan, not the best choice perhaps, but cerainly it's not that difficult to do and you'll probably be pretty happy with the end product.
One plus to using the 1500 over a 1275 is that you can use a Triumph Sptifire overdrive transmission with that engine if you want. Takes a bit of expanding the sheet metal in the tunnel and reworking the rear transmission mount and crossmember but it really does make a nice highway car.

I put a single SU HIF 4 on my stock manifold and loved it. You must make sure that you have the one with holes the match the 1500 manifold. A couple of mods for linkages and elongate the mounting holes of the new carb and you're set to go.

I agree that the 1275 would be a better way to go. But I've got 400 wrapped up in the 1500 machine work and flat top pistons. I guess I got my horse on the wrong side of the cart again. If anyone would like to make a trade I'm open to that. But with this little car a 72 camaro and a open wheel modified stockcar to support my money tree is starting to develop root rot.

Sell the Chevy to finance the Midget. I bet for the $$ the Camaro would bring, you could buy a fleet of killer Midgets (and the Midgets are more fun to drive anyway). Hey, just a thought. (I do like Camaros and '72 is a good year).

The spitfire used dual carbs for most of it's import life to the US and HS-4 or HIF-4 will fit the manifold.

If you are building a 1500, do as Bill Young suggested plus get the crank balanced.
Rik