Projects time to build a new car for the hills

Hi Pete.Love the videos.The car is superb.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

Wow what a great build! Really like your take on the rollbar and carbs wow again. Car looks great and super with no bonnet sides. Roger

 

So I said to my self this morning," you have time to check the HAMB for 10 minutes this morning"........Well almost two hours later I have scanned this wonderful build thread and am in awe of your talent Pete. Thanks for sharing your build with us!

 

Yep. One of the best build threads!

 

Wow! Just wow!

 

I was going to say the frame looks great but now that I saw the body, I don't know what to say! Just GREAT work!!!
and you started off saying that you needed something that you would not feel so protective of.

 

Help need more pic's info. You can't leave us hanging! Roger

 

I can't believe it's been so long since my last update, and so much has happened I don't know where to start.
I think the next step in the process was modifying a pair of Edelbrock heads to twin plug. Details of which are here.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/tech-week-twin-plug.861929/

At the same time I fitted the heads I also fitted a schieder 270F cam with a .395 lift, nice cam too, fitted and time easy.
So car was ready for another season of racing on the hills, and it was quick, very quick, but still lacked a bit of grunt on the power tracks. Shame the motor gave up after only two meetings. Rod end on number four appeared to run out of oil, picked up, spun and stacked the bearings and locked up the motor. Bugger!

That was it for he season, crank was too far for a regrind, two rods were oval and so many of the bits had gone round the oil ways it needed a complete strip and rebuild. As usual for me money was tight and if I was spending cash it would have to be for an improved motor. So did my research, talked to Jim at Royal Kustoms, great bloke, and his advice was taken on board.
A phone call to Reds Headers and the parts were ordered. 3-5/16" Pistons, 4-1/4" scat crank, 1.6" stainless valves, new guides, new springs, Mellings oil pump, full flow filter kit, H-beam rods. New mains, rod end and cam bearings etc.
Now I have to wait a month or so for the parts to travel across the Atlantic so take the time to pull the motor from the car and start to strip and clean, and at this point is where it all started to go tits up!
The block had liners, all eight cylinders had liners. Bugger! Took the block to Jim to have a look. The liners were to thin too bore to 3-5/16" and too big to press out for 3-3/8". So now I have a bunch of expensive parts on the way over and a block that they won't fit. Arse and bugger!
What was needed was another block, searched around a bit but nothing that would be of use. Then a block came up for sale. Already bored for 3-3/8" and including low mileage pistons. The story behind the block was it had been built up but after only a 1000 miles one of the bores cracked and filled with coolant. Being disappointed the owner then wanted to build a slightly more dependable motor so used another block to build a 3-5/16" bore motor. He then had the cracked block bored and sleeved on the one cylinder and sold it on complete with matching pistons and rings. I took a chance and bought it. First thing I had Jim look over the block and had his machinist fly cut the three faces and open the valve seats to suit the 1.6" valves that were on the way. So far so good.
Although the block had already had the ports smoothed over, I wanted to have a go at porting and so set about it with a flexi drive in the bench drill with a selection of burs. I have a high speed air die grinder, but my garage is very close to houses, and not wanting to upset any of the very understanding neighbours I have I chose the quieter but slower option. I spent about 25 very therapeutic hours removing smoothing and polishing metal.
With the porting done I gave it quick clean up and tried a dry build to plastigauge all the bearings etc before it was hot dipped and painted. This was the point I found the centre main cap was the wrong one. Arse, bugger and poo!
Jim came good and sorted me a billet ally cap and local race engine builder line bored it, gee that's an expensive game. But all done now and block is sent to be hot dip cleaned. Within 2 hours of it coming out of the tank and still slightly warm I painted it in the same MG maroon as the old motor. Job done and ready for the build. The build went easy, all the preparation work, the dry build etc was worth the time. All new ARP studs fitted, any plugs and oil fittings were replaced with either bought or made brass fittings.
One thing I wanted to do was to upgrade the sump pan. The reason? I couldn't find any tangible reason why the motor failed in the first place and all I could think of was an oil starvation issue. The problem occurred while full throttle, 5k rpm competing up Prescott hill and I think it just ran low in the sump when cornering and bang went my motor. So I made a much bigger pan and welded it up with baffles and mesh screens to remove the air. It will now hold 5 lts minimum and up to 15 lts if I thinks it needs.
So that's it, motor built and fitted, heads and intake cleaned and fitted, plumbed up to the rad and fuel, dizzy's fitted and set up. Time to fire it. Yup, straight into life, count to ten watching the oil pressure, gonna go up at any time, any time now, must be time now, really? No bloody oil pressure. Arse, bugger, poo and fuck!
A week later and after trying everything including taking half the motor apart, trying to manually pressure the system with a hand pump, rechecking all the bearings and annoying the shit out of Jim, it became apparent that I screwed up with the plug that replaced the fuel pump bush. The bush was removed before I bought the motor and in my ignorance I just fitted a plug that plugged the top of the oil way and all my oil pressure was being lost through the bottom hole, passed the rear cam bearing and into the oil pump drive. So with that sorted the motor ran with good pressure.
Motor's in and running, so I'll leave you with some pics then continue the story in another post.

 

Now with the motor being 304ci and hopefully putting out a bit of power I got to thinking the rear axle wasn't going to last very long. I did rebuild it a while back but I was always a bit unsure of how much stick it would take. So I bit the bullet and called Hot Rod Works and ordered a complete Winters QC axle complete with Winters Wedgelock diff and 9" type axle shafts. That made a dent in the pocket but once it arrived I was pretty pleased with the quality.
After making all the brackets for springs and wishbones and welding them to the bells the axle was lovingly assembled again, and Arse, bugger, poo and fuck again. The bloody axle shafts were 3/4" too long on each side. Sits on the floor with head in hands. Ten minutes later I had a plan to make spacers, modify the brake backing plates and trim 1/4" from the ends of the shafts. Took about two days but it all worked out and now I have a back end that looks great and works very very well.
While on the drive line I also upgraded the clutch to a ZF Volvo pressure plate, I have a Volvo Amazon box fitted, and also had a heavy duty prop shaft made.







As I use steel wheels without caps for competition I found the flat ends of the axle shafts a bit plan looking so made a set of dummy banjo axle ends.

To go from this


To this. I made some threaded inserts and machined up a couple of brass castle nuts but can't find a photo.

 

That`s a beauty.Hope it runs as good as it looks.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

The tech week win for the twin plug heads gave me some cash to spend with Baileighs and after chatting with Shane I purchased hydroilic press from the UK branch along with a couple of louvre tools. It would be a real shame not to use it so I louvered the shit out of my car.



All done and ready for the road. Goes well but carbs need a little work so book myself in for a session on the rolling road. Spent a fair bit of time playing with fuel and timing and by the end of the day it had 180 HP and 280 ft lbs of torque. Reasonable good but I was a little disappointed with the numbers and did even bother getting a printout.

 

^Was that to the wheels?

 

Just went through the complete post, and may I say you are a real craftsman and one hell of a welder.
You have built one bad ass hot rod. Sorry to see this build come to a end, but so glad you get to take it out and drive the crap out of it.
I can't wait to see what you do next......

 

No, flywheel. If I remember rightly it was 160hp ish at the wheels.

 

Hi Pete,
Love the build!
Could you point me in the direction of rules and venue list for the Class Z hill climb championship please?
Do vehicles have to be road legal or could for instance a Model T based single seater with OHV conversion take part?
Thanks, Steve

 

Hi Steve, I'm trying to find the rules but I think it's any sidevalve motor including ohv conversions. Cars have to be period defined and on cross ply tyres.
Cars don't have to be road legal, but if it's registered it'll be easier as the MSA can be a little over zealous. Technically if it doesn't have a reg it needs an MSA logbook.

Pete

 

Thanks for looking into this for me Pete, it is much appreciated.

 

Awesome! Thanks for taking the time to document it all and share it here. I started this morning, before I realized it was an old thread...Like a good book you just cant put down, I went through the whole thing.

 

Yet another Holy Shit...I regret not seeing this when it started. Saw the link on another thread spotlighting your "fuel gauge". What's new?

 

Not only is the build superb but the way you have presented this thread is as well it easy too read and the photos tell the story well thanks and well done.

 

Love that steering wheel. I think you could sell reproductions. I have to say, I got a kick out of the anticipation of a car 'for the hills' as I live in 4x4 country in the American West.
Your hills are cool too, though.

 

Just a thought- Moroso makes an "Accusump" device that injects extra oil into the engine when oil pressure drops, then takes it back out when pressure goes up. I haven't used one, but a number of friends in boats and circle track racing swear by them.

 

Absolutely Outstanding!! Thanks Chad for sending the thread to me. I love this kind of work.Keep the pictures coming please.

 

"No bloody oil pressure. Arse, bugger, poo and fuck!"

Well, we've all had days like that...

What a great build, your work really raises the bar for your audience. Plus, its nice to see someone who really enjoys the hobby and isnt afraid of building a crazy good racer! Hats off to you and your car.

 

This thread appeared during the week, and I started reading before realising it was an old thread. I'm glad I found it.

Wonderful build, and amazing talent.

 

For those who are asking for more updates, here goes.
Last update was the rolling road. I was a little disappointed with the numbers so once I got the car back home I pulled the rad and checked the cam timing. Having twin plugs means I don't need to take the heads off, so set it all up and cam timing spot on.


Can't find anything amiss so bolt the car back together and take it for a drive.
Bugger, bugger, and bugger again plus a holy crap thrown in. Three miles, three bloody miles the gearbox lasted before ripping second gear out. Guess the Volvo box isn't up to the job.



It's Tuesday lunch time, and on Friday morning I'm off to Pendine Sands and need the car. What to do? I could swap the box for another the same, but I'm guessing that the box isn't up to the job any more and there's a very high chance of the same happening again especially with the drag of the sand and my heavy right foot.
I could go for a t5 etc but that means lots of chassis work as well as clutch, drive shaft etc and only two and a half days!




Now I know there are guys who race the old Volvos so I hit the net to see what I could find. Bingo! Found a UK company selling Quaife (makers of fine racing gear clusters) gear clusters for the M40 Volvo box. Great news, and after a quick call and selling my soul at the cross roads I had a complete Volvo box with straight cut close ratio Quaife on its way for 24 hour delivery.
Yay! Lunch time Weds and the knock on the door saw a man with a gear box. Yay!
No time for pics, just check it over, fit the top from the old box and bolt it up. 5pm on the weds and the car was back in one piece. Test drive time. The gearbox sounds like a bag of bits and can be heard over the exhaust. That can't be right I thought, but yup, that's what straight cut gears sound like. But when they're running they howl like a screaming banshee. Bloody love it.

Pete

 

Hi Pete,

In those early pix the inside rear wheel is off the ground. Were you running a spool or some kind of limited slip back then?

How does that Winters diff behave in the corners with one wheel in the air?

thanks

Dan T

 

Super cool! First time seeing this thread, and I must say, that looks like one well built flathead! The little modified has a beautiful front end on it, too!

 

humbling and inspiring, great work, thanks for posting

 

Don't know how I missed this but as usual I'm late to the party. Amazing work and craftsmanship to say the least! I have a dumb ass question, will your plates stay with the hot rod should you ever sell it? Don't know why but I was just curious. And thank you for this great thread.