Ive been trying to get my engine up and running. Ive managed to get it to idle at about 1000 revs and set the timing to about 12 degrees. It has a performance cam, an aldon ignitor dizzy and twin 40's. The 40's are second hand and they were apparently ok and were set up for the engine before in terms of tubes etc. The problem i have is the engine sounds real rough as though its almost 3 cylinders, theres fuel leaking out of the carbs and it backfires a bit. I presume that the problem is down to getting the carbs set up properly and now im looking to get a mobile tuner to have a look. Ive set the fuel regulator to 3 bar but still no joy and also set the carb idle mixture 1 and a 1/4 turns as per the book and even tried altering this. Do you think it sounds like the carbs?

If fuel is leaking out the carbs, things to check first are:
floats - do they have free movement?
fuel pressure - is it too high?

BTW 3 BAR is far too high - this is injection pressure.

3 PSI is more normal for carbs

Have you got them bolted up to tight, you use special spring washers and just nip them, the carbs effectively float on the rubber 'O' rings.

Overtighten and they toss fuel around, it dribbles out the back of the trumpets etc. Years since I did this but I remember lifting my bonnet to a and feeling pretty scared as everything was awash !

sorry i think thats whati mean 3psi. This was the lowest i could set it as i had already had a problem with too much fuel and it was on 4 psi, seemed much better when i set it to 3. Then after running it a while it seemed to run real lumpy and thats why i can only think its the internal setup of the carbs.

Take the lids off the carbs and check the float heights and that the float valves are installed properly, also clean the jets particularly the idle jets.

If the float settings are ok and the float valves are OK but it still floods ditch he high pressure pump and regulator and fit a proper low pressure pump either a standard Pinto mechanical or a a low pressure electric such as an SU or the AC electric pump off a carb equiped Rover.
High presure pumps feeding carb engines are a bad idea even with a regulator --- regulators can not regulate properly in a zero or low flow situation.