Carb won’t come off

[BruceK]

I'm trying to remove my HIF44 carb and I've run into a problem.  There is not enough clearance between the bottom of the carb and the firewall to move the carb  away from the manifold studs to clear them.   The top manifold bolt closest to the front of the engine even looks like it has not been fully seated in the manifold body.   But even if it was, I still don't think I can get enough clearance to pull the carb off.   The engine steady is off now and I've tried putting the car in first gear and rocking it back-and-forth to get the engine to swing a little but it doesn't move far enough.  Any ideas? 

[BruceK]

Just realized that I'm going to have to take the intake manifold off with the carb mounted on it. Right? 

[MiniDave]

Right, that's the easiest way, then clamp the manifold in a vice and you can easily work on the carb.

Why are you removing the carb? More cleanup?

If you have access to one, bead (or sand) blasting makes the aluminum parts look new again.

Of course you'll probably need to get a new intake gasket - which means removing or at least moving the exhaust back - as it's all one gasket. If you need one I have extras.......or you can get them from Victoria British for only a couple bux.

[Jimini II]

In the early 90's with the introduction of the HIF carb and the bulkhead issue they moved the engine forward by drilling the engine mounts about 3/4" to 1" forward and also used a longer engine stabilizer. If you loosen the intake sometimes you can get enough clearance and i have jammed a 2x4 down between the firewall and engine/exhaust before to gain enough room. Also if you have the same issue with the exhaust when changing the gasket you can slot the mounting holes and drop the new one in once all the old gasket is removed of course, i have done this on an SPI for a quickie repair once and it worked fine.
Another option is to remove the head studs.
The MG Metro intake manifold clears the firewall better.

[BruceK]

Yes, cleanup.  I'm cleaning up the area around where the master cylinders mount - light surface rust hidden under the paint.  So I am scraping all that away and I'll prep and POR15 it, then paint it body color.  But I saw a little wrinkled paint on the firewall under the carb.  Probably from some fuel hitting it at some point.  So I decided to I might as well remove the carb, to gain better access to the firewall there.  And I might as well clean up the carb at the same time.

I'm sure I was able to remove the HIF carb on my old Mini wagon without having to pull out the whole intake manifold.  Must have been a thinner spacer or something different on that car.

Anyway, I'm not too thrilled I need to pull the intake manifold now.  Murphy's law that the day after a big order arrives from MiniSpares is when I find out I also need a manifold gasket.

However, my intake manifold is of the heated type, and I just pulled the hoses off either end, and I can see that the nibs are severely corroded.  Looks like they are made of steel instead of brass?!   Some accountant at Austin/Rover saving a new cents?  I'm going to wire brush them and see how bad they are.  If they are bad I might have to consider getting a new intake manifold too...

[Willie_B]

I have to take my intake off to get my carb off. I have done it several times without changing the gasket. I figure if there was no sealant of any type used then it should come with off without damage and so far it has.  I cut off the water tubes on my manifold as they were a rusted mess anyway so no heat to the manifold.

[MiniDave]

I have an extra new manifold if you need it. Once again, assembling these parts with grease on one side of the gasket (manifold side) means you can easily reuse them.

I use silicone paste on the hose barbs when I put them together - they never leak and it's an inert so it won't cause rust or corrosion - it also makes it easy to get the hose off again if you have too. It's especially effective on the lower radiator hose going onto the radiator, and it also helps on the aluminum parts like the thermostat housing and water pump.

What corrodes them is not using a good coolant and changing it every couple of years. A lot of people in the southern states don't bother with coolant cause it never freezes there and just use water, but then you need to use rust inhibitors and water pump lube.

[BruceK]

Thanks for your help guys.   I appreciate the suggestions. 

Dave, I've got a spare manifold too, but thanks for your offer.  As Brad points out, the heated part of the manifold can easily be bypassed if needed.

I've decided to leave the carb/manifold in place and drape plastic around the engine compartment to protect other stuff while I clean it.  I just taken too much stuff off the car recently and I really need to stop going in that direction and start moving in the effort of putting stuff back together.  For example, this morning I removed the pedals and to do that I had to dismount the heater to get the pedal arm pivot pin out.   

[MiniDave]

I completely understand about project creep - with Buzz I was just gonna pull the head and have hardened seats put in - then look what happened!  ::)

[jeff10049]

Is there room to use double nuts to back the studs out and use them like they were bolts?

[MiniDave]

I don't think so, you'd have to move the carb out as you back them out....there's little room especially around the top ones.