Underhood bling – or “man jewelry”

You might need sunglasses for this post! There’s nothing quite as sexy to a car guy as a set of big, honking, ….. side-draft carbs. And a set that has been completely gone through and refurbished – every piece checked, all hardware re-plated, all new gaskets and the correct jets installed – is a work of art. “Man jewelery” as my friend Mike likes to say. And if they have been polished by hand and machine for untold hours – serious underhood bling.

This is a pair of Mikuni Solex 44PHH carbs on an intake manifold for the Datsun 2000 U-20. A rare factory option or a Nissan Motorsports (now called NISMO) add-on for the racer or fast-road car. These replace the stock Hitachi SUs and add a nice intake growl. They can also lower your gas mileage significantly if you like put your foot down – though I have seen 28 mpg cruising on the freeway.

Here are the specs for this particular set:

Jet Block: 8
Emulsion Tube: N
Pilot Jet: 52.5
Fuel Jet: 135
Air Jet: 140
Needle/Seat: 1.8
Pump Nozzle: 35
Starter Jet: 130

The carbs are the work of Portland Solex Master Dan, and if these are anything like the previous set he rebuilt for me, should just bolt on and go. I never had to touch them to adjust anything for the five years I owned the car. Try that with a set of Webers or Dell’Ortos!

I polished the aluminum bodies of the carbs, and it took much longer than I ever anticipated. The covers and tops were relatively easy to do with buffs and rouge on my bench grinder, but the bodies have so many nooks and crannies that I had to finish them by hand. Mother’s polish seemed to work the best, but it took hours and hours.

The linkage is a reproduction and works beautifully. The Mikuni Kogyo stickers are also repro’s – but they add the finishing touch!

After a year’s work and great expense – I no longer have a running U-20, so this set is for sale.

What would you need to add this underhood bling to your 2000? I was not able to track down useable fuel inlets – Aeroquip connectors would work just fine and look great. An aircleaner or some velocity stacks. I have been working on custom heat shields, but I do not have anything ready to go at this time.

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