35 replies to this topic

[nev_payne]

how bizzare

well yeap save them before they dissapear again!

[timbo]

That is very perculiar!! I have them now saved to my computer. But if anyone else has any pics.

[fishy]

Just spotted this thread, I do own a reece fish carb, but have never used it. I've got in mind for a Mk1 850 rebuild. Mine is semi-downdraught as the picture on the yellow car, yours is downdraught, not sure without looking whether they can be converetd between types. The semi downdraught type will fit on a standard mini SU manifold, but I seem to remember seeing in one of the Gold Portfolio books pictures of an early tuning firms converted Cooper S fitted with a 1 1/2" Reece Fish downdraught.

I've just gone to check this, and found a picture of an Ogle SX100 fitted with a downdraught reece fish on page 69 of the High Performance Minis Gold Portfolio, sadly the puicture is not clear enough for the level of detail you require, but does mean threre must be a suitable manifold out there somewhere, however the Ogle may have had more clearance between the manifold face and the bulkhead, allowing for a longer manifold, which may be why yours doesn't fit.

Interestingly, (or not) I went on a tour of Scotland in my Mk1 Cooper a couple of years ago, and got chased though Lochgilphead town centre by a bloke in a sooty van who was desperate to talk minis and have a look at the car etc. He knew and worked for the guy who bought the rights to the patent, and manufactured the carb as Minnow Fish from Lochgilphead in the late 60s/70s. As far as I am aware the rights are still owned by this guy, along with a hoard of Cooper S stuff, and a Maguire space frame which I was unable to acquire.

If you want I can dig the carb out and take pictures, but I'm not sure there will be anything to be gained by it. If the manifold is wrong, it may be worthwhile getting one fabricated, or modified from the old Weber 28/36 manifold.

Paul

[timbo]

cheers for the help.

How would I go about getting one fabricated?

[fishy]

I think fabrication would be difficult but not impossible. I reckon you might have a few prototypes, before you get something to work.

If Dave Dorrington at Maniflow can't help you, or you are not willing to pay the money for Maniflow, then the starting point would be to have flanges laser/plasma cut from mild steel flat bar. You can then attempt to create a "skeleton" manifold by bolting the flanges to the engine and carb, and then tack weld lengths of threaded rod to the flanges to maintain the required relative positions.

From this point forward, things are more difficult, but you can either use your skeleton to create the manifold in mild steel, by cutting and shutting steel tube/sheet, or use it as a model for having the datum faces machined onto an Aluminium alloy billet. You can then get the ports rough machined, and finish the rest by hand. Either way, this is a much simplified view, and it will be difficult, full of pitfalls, and may be expensive.

I think I would look into the possibility of modifying an existing manifold, perhaps the 28/36 or even an SPI. There may be others on here that can help with that, a good starting point would be to make an adapter plate to convert the stud patterns, and bolt it straight on if that is possible. From there you can start to develop the manifold from a performance point of view. Either way it's a nice little project

Where does the manifold you have appear to be wrong?

Paul

[timbo]

well I tried to fit it onto a 998 engine and it was far too wide to match up with the exhaust manifold and the ports. When i brought the carb I was told it was off of a racing mini. So I'm not sure what type of head he was using on that.

[fishy]

well I tried to fit it onto a 998 engine and it was far too wide to match up with the exhaust manifold and the ports. When i brought the carb I was told it was off of a racing mini. So I'm not sure what type of head he was using on that.

Could be a B-series manifold, for MGB, 1800, Austin Cambridge etc.

[Lund]

Reece Fish Carburettors, 'as used by the Mini 7 formula champions 1967 & 1968'

Leonard Reece and Co.
Beeches Avenue, Canshalton, Surrey 01-6473646

Advert in Tuning The Mini 3rd edition ByClive Trickey, Page 41 - Chapter 5 Speed Sport motorbooks, £0.90

He highly recommends them throughout the book!

Clive Tricky " In my opinion this is the ultimate carburettor for the 850, whether it be for road use, mild competitions, rallies or even competitive circuit racing"

[glovermini]

Hi,

that's my website you are all trying to link to above (the one with the yellow clubman with the fish carb). Sorry about the access problems, its a stupid Geocities free page, with an hourly or daily download limit, so if youy all look at once, it stops playing!

That is an electronic ignition system, but the carb does have a vacuum take off for the dizzy. The 1.25inch and 1.5 inch sidedraught carbs both have the same vertical stud pattern for fitting, which matches an HS2 SU carb, so either will fit onto a standard 850 manifold. The downdraught versions tended to be off VWs, so who knows what foreign bolt pattern they have? The manifold problem described does sound like an MGB manifold.

My mini does drive like a dream. I have just reconditioned the head, and replaced the dizzy, and retuned the carb to suit (a 15 minute job), and its wonderful! I use the mini in autocross and motorkanas (strange NZ motorsport, involving driving round cones on muddy fields, the first without any reversing, the second with! I beat a Subaru WRX and a Celica GT4 this weekend, not bad on bald 3.5" by 10 tyres!

Read some of the stuff on the page, particularly the tuning instructions for a better idea of how it works.

I have a 1.5 inch fish (Reece variety) which I am having difficulty getting tuned, I think it might be a bit much for my standard 1275, but the 1.25 is great for now.

Regards

Dave Glover

[glovermini]

Site now updated with latest pics, showing maniflow Freeflow manifolds, steel inlet manifold and Fish, not the grotty 850 manifold I was using.

[timbo]

The setting up instructions are very helpful mate. I can now go to a rolling road (when i have the car made) and get it properly setup.

[jaapio1984]

[url="http://i315.photobucket.com/albums/ll451/jaapio1984/Woody/RF1.jpg"]http://i315.photobucket.com/albums/ll451/jaapio1984/Woody/RF1.jpg[/url]

[url="http://i315.photobucket.com/albums/ll451/jaapio1984/Woody/RF2.jpg"]http://i315.photobucket.com/albums/ll451/jaapio1984/Woody/RF2.jpg[/url]

[mike.]

This thread is like 5 years old

[maggies_minder]

put down the cyber shovel and stop digging up old threads especially when they're so old the pictures have faided.

[Midas Mk1]

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