Multiple dilemmas

[Peter Truman]

look on the positive your still here!

For my sins in an earlier life I designed and built iron/steel making plants and rolling mills all over, Canada 3No, SA, Greece, Brazil, Japan. The Korean plant was a Gas Production facility, try getting US trucks around a very tight plant designed for UK trucks, a lot of onsite mods?

 

[ahebron]

What a superb example of thread drift.

Though I will add to the carburettor discussion.
I have a pair of brand new Mikuni HSR42 to fit to one of my Vitesse, will try the 6 first.
The rubber mounts should bolt on but the manifold will need opening for the bigger bore.
Got to get the car finished and road legal first.

And back to Webers when the Lada Rally (Stasys Brundza) team competed in NZ International Rally in the 1980s they sent out cars without carbs, rally wheels and other bits and bobs. These they bought locally.
Unfortunately the car threw a rod early on in the first day so it was out, being a driver for the support team we went in to recover the car which had a nice hole in the block. I put my hand in the hole and fished out as much of the piston as I could but it was still missing a large amount of it.

Back in Wellington they stripped down the engine to salvage parts and as I was removing the air filters out fell nicely chopped pieces of piston. When the rod had let go it must have been on the upstroke as pieces of the piston had been fed through the intake valves, Weber and come to a stop at the filters. 

[Ian1208]

So, back on thread.

Thanks for all the 'for' and 'against' advice guys. Much appreciated. 

Since the plan was to give the car away (in standard form) when I had finished using it, I've decided to shelve the twin cam options as they pose more issues than answers. I would have loved to have done this though being something different with a bit of get up and go.

So, going down the standard 1500 route I need a head. Stage two probably with a usable fast road cam. With this in mind, and allowing 1k for this. I have to think of manifold and carbs. Any suggestions to get the power up bearing in mind I have a grand in budget. Second hand is an option. Brakes. They are only there to slow you down but when you need them, you need them to work. I have standard original front discs and callipers and drums on rear. Is there a headache free conversion for bigger front and rear disc conversion? Am I correct in saying the GT6 fits the bill? I have purchased a steel lightened and balanced flywheel that was supposed to have been fitted when the clutch was replaced last month but the 'mechanic' didn't see the box in the boot. Is it worth the effort to fit now? I know it made a huge difference in my Mini days.

Apologies in advance (again) if some of the above seem irrelevant but I like to have practical experience of those who have been there and done it.

Ian

[Nigel Clark]

A Stage 2 head plus a new camshaft will eat most of your £1k budget. I would suggest refurbish the existing head, smoothing the ports slightly and getting triple radius seat cuts for the inlet valves. Finish off by skimming for 10:1 compression ratio, assuming 97-99 octane fuel is available in Thailand. If you can only get 95 octane don't go above 9:1 CR.  Fit a fast road camshaft, either Spitfire Mk3 profile or or something with a little more performance from Newman, Piper or a reputable cam grinder. For longevity, the cam should be ground from a new blank and must be fitted with new followers. Choose a camshaft profile that will give plenty of mid-range torque as 1500 engines don't like to rev too high. The best cam suppliers should be able to offer advice.

Spend the remainder of the budget on getting the SU carbs and ignition properly set up on a rolling road with an operator who is experienced in tuning SU carbs. A rolling road session may well give more performance than any of the modifications!

As for the lightened steel flywheel, sorry, in my opinion it's an unnecessary extravagance for a road-going car. And 'balanced' means very little unless the complete rotating assembly of front pulley, crankshaft, flywheel and clutch have been balanced together. I would sell the flywheel and spend the cash on a sports exhaust and tubular manifold.

Nigel

[Iain T]

Nigel is spot on! 

As to brakes buy Mintex 1144 pads from the Club. 

Iain 

[Ian1208]

Apologies been a while. An update.

Having shelved the twin cam route and deciding to go stock with ported head and fast cam for the 'trip' I received an email from the organizers informing me that my entry had reluctantly been declined/ rejected because the car was TWO months too young on the start date of the event. Disappointed to say the least. At least it came a full six weeks before the car was stuck on a container to be shipped out.

On hindsight it was a blessing. I was grossly underestimated how much work was needed and not being able to find reasonable costing guys to help. Family/covid issues also meant cancelling our holiday. The 'other' car arrived as it should have done. In many many bits on a part load with the engine/box and other stuff like a door a bonnet etc 6 weeks later. Its still in many many bits in my garage over in Thailand. Moving on.............

I still 100% want to do this event next year but have time to organiz properly. I have used the car every single day as my daily (but short) commute of about 8 miles plus a few more miles thrown in. Every week I stick in 20 quid and the juice clock says half full. It still needs a clutch! It still needs replacing many bolt on's but my parts list is growing slowly but surely. Just labour.

A not so near neighbour has bought himself a rat spitfire. looks shit with bits and bobs all over the place but impressive enough on power. Bit of a Q car really. Its a 1300, got single webber, fast road cam and s/s exhaust.

I came across a face book page of a lad who rebuilds race/rally engines north of the border. A quick chat suggested that my 1500 could be rebuilt as a 1300, lightened and balanced, trick fast road/rally head, cam etc etc for not a lot of money. He can set it up on his dyno if I give him the relevant parts to bolt on. Impressive BHP and a load of torque. The lump is coming out anyways for the clutch and front suspension renewal so this is my preferred method to date. Im assured the performance could scare me.

I can now finance all of this with the sale of the twin cam engine and box. I just wish I was more able to do some of the work myself. I'm even struggling to find a coil. Seems there are many variants to choose from...