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Bill, you are now part of an exclusive club. Not only do you have a car with a rare device known as a carborator, you have a car with TWO carborators! On top of that, they are BRITISH carborators. When I had my '68 144S, I got a lot of strange looks from friends and neighbors who saw me pouring ATF into my carbs. Made for great conversation.
Seriously, tuning these carbs. is a bit of an aquired skill. The Haynes Manual for the SU carbs is quite good. The Haynes book on the 140 also gives some good direction. One of the keys is to understand how these carbs work. They are very different than the two barrel Rochester found in the GM cars of old, or the 4 barrel Hollys everyone wanted on their V8s when we were kids in the 70's. One device I found helpful was a balancing tool. This was essentially a manometer that measured the air flow into the carbs. The idea is to get both carbs doing equal work. Don't know where to get one today. I borrowed one from a friend who had a early 60's MG. IPD I think used to carry this device, but doubt they carry it now. Calling a local car club (preferable a classic car club) may give you some direction.
Once tuned, I found the carbs reliable. There were only two problems I had with them. One was air leaks around the throttle shafts. The holes in the castings had worn, so air was leaking in and leaning out the mixture at idle. Lived with it until I sold the car a few years later. But there are shops that will fix this problem. The other problem I had was carb icing. This is the same problem small airplanes have when the pilot is not on the ball. In the winter, if the weather is damp and cold, icing can occur in the venturi of the carbs due to the air expanding and hence cooling. Under certain conditions, I found ice forming that prevented the car from running properly and forget about starting. Most other cars have duct work around the exhaust system to feed warmer air into the carb in cold weather to get around this problem and give better emissions.
Good luck and have fun. You are not hereby initiated into the SU Carb Club. In some ways, I miss those old carbs.
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