VitesseEFI

Nice…. But once you’ve seen one on Maserati wheels…… nothing else will do!

Yeah…. If the engine wasn’t freshly built and completely un-mapped….. and his road want steeply sloping and fairly busy…… I might have been tempted to try to drive it…. Perhaps advancing age and dodgy experiences are bringing wisdom /caution /cowardice (you choose!) Yes, all of this. One possibility though is that the diaphragm fingers are shaped to give a raised landing area for the release bearing. I’ve not personally had the change to view them together but eyeballing the spare pressure plate, I have concerns that our bearing might be a bit big for the landing zone, so there might be a bit of a ‘rolling down a cone” effect robbing some motion but I still feel the bigger m/c should have overcome that - unless it’s causing the pressure plate to tip. My other thought is simply that when he’s shortened the splined boss in the friction plate he’s not de-burred it well enough after, and it’s just hanging against the flywheel….. which would at least be and easy fix - bar all the dismantling and reassembly….

Releases enough to roll the car in 4th gear easily, but not enough to get it into gear with the engine running.

My son has classic engine-swap disease…. Probably my fault. He's been busy putting a Ford Sigma 1.6 from a Mk1 Focus in his Spitfire MkIV. Doing a nice job too (obviously I’m biased) To complicate matters he’s used an NA Mazda gearbox, which is not even nearly a natural fit on the Ford engine or in the Spitfire. This has involved grafting a section of Ford bell housing onto a cut down MX5 front casing and a concentric slave cylinder. https://sideways-technologies.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/7107-chriss-mkiv-basket-case-restored-to-glory/page/14/#comments It’s getting exciting now. We got the engine fired up last Sunday (it’s on Speeduino with Triumph bike ITBs) This showed up a few issues including a non-functional clutch. Had another day on it yesterday (pity he’s 100kms away) and have resolved all issues but the clutch. Copy of my last post on the above linked thread - in the hope that someone can magic a solution that doesn’t involve pulling it all to bits again…. (Yep, fat chance I know, but still) As I mentioned before, we previously had a clutch which passed the “roll in gear without turning the engine” test, albeit with the pedal near the floor. This didn’t allow the engagement of gears though. The 0.625 m/c was suspect, so got a good clean out and rebuild. A thorough bleeding seemed to improve the pedal feel and raise the biting point (determined by the roll test), albeit still below mid-travel, but it remained impossible to engage a gear with the engine running. It was possible to start the car in gear but it was tugging quite hard and would not release further. Frustrated, we tried a 0.7” m/c. The effect of this was to raise the biting point (determined by roll test) to well above mid travel, but no improvement on ability to engage gears with the engine running, and it tugs just as hard if started in gear and the rate of “tug” increases with revs. Bollocks!! But why? It's the OE Ford flywheel with OE (Sachs, used but apparently good) clutch cover. Friction plate is Mazda of similar diameter and thickness to the Ford one. It’s had (quite radical) reduction surgery to the splined boss to prevent contact with nose of the concentric slave cylinder (the issue I had on my GT6). Pilot bearing is an oilite bush (tight in crank, running clearance on the input shaft. We’ve checked there is still end float on the crank. Slave cylinder is the Omega CSC as used on my GT6 MX5 gearbox conversion. Possibly the thrust bearing is a bit big for the profile of the diaphragm fingers (I’ve not seen it myself) so there could be some motion lost here, but increasing the hydraulic travel raised the apparent biting point by about what I would have expected so….? No strange noises. No “sensation” fed back through the pedal. Pedal feel is very light, even with the 0.7 m/c. Perhaps a little “mushy” at the top of travel and no obvious feel of it going over-centre. So WTF is wrong with it? Seems we (he) is faced with the taking it apart again - unless anyone has any bright ideas. I have a (short) list of suspects but would very much like more suggestions! To add that we are pretty confident of the bell housing alignment re. parallel and concentricity and I’m told the box goes all the way onto the engine easily.

Do you know where all your 10mm spanners are? Really? But seriously, if this is now your biggest problem on this car, you are definitely winning

Actually LOL’d at this (seems my self-flagellation of choice is mid 2000s Audis) Good luck with the finding and exterminating the gremlins!

Dunno how I’ve not seen this before but it’s bloody lovely. Superb attention to detail. Well done sir! Engine recipe and execution looks quite familiar. Wishing I’d kept my pimento Mk2 PIe now….. That made 148bhp on the factory cam and TR6 cast manifold, so I imagine this goes rather well…. Updates?

Two metres??!!! Hmm…. I do have a Myford ML7 too. Though I’m happy enough with the electric motor on that thanks.

By strange coincidence I was messing with that exact model Villiers engine earlier today. I have one on my Mayfield motor scythe. Yours looks much fresher and less abused. Finding one with a working magneto is a major win. Mine doesn’t work as the coil is dead, which is normal apparently. Coils are available, but at the cost of a complete new China engine. I’ve cheated and got mine running with a battery and 12v coil. I’m only expecting to use it a few hours a year. The patch of meadow it’s supposed to cut is in the background. If I get some useful work out of it I’ll give it a birthday…. BTW, does yours have a keyway for the flywheel or any timing marks? Mine has neither, which caused some head scratching…..

‘Cause it is…. Just rendered in aluminium. Actually awesome!

Yup…. Not perfect, not very civilised, not very fast, but fun. Whether I’m pottering in local lanes, hooning around a track or cruising in the Alps, I’m having fun in my car that’s the same age as me.

Not just Imps. All very familiar in the world of Triumphs and modifying/not modifying them. More selective about which parts of that world I venture into as I can no longer be bothered to argue with the stupid /closed minded. It’s true that cars of that era are a bit shit in some ways. In my book this just provides opportunities for improvement

Looks bloody brilliant on those wheels . Good news on probably finding (and curing) the noise. Sounds very plausible.

K conversion maybe. Suspect the flat 6 would take at least two Cat paralysis does sap productivity somewhat.

Hah, should’ve known Not sure the Honda flat six will gain the same following though - too much like work

Some very classy panel making happening here. Looks proper! I hear what you say about the hours vs. Buying panels/section - but do they actually fit without hours of fettling anyway? Getting close now - keep on it!

Quite a well trodden path for Imps and Imp based cars over here - as I’m sure you know. A friend of mine built a Ginetta G15 a few years back and put the BMW engine it. There’s a guy sells conversion parts making it pretty easy. Was a good looking result and apparently went very well. He sold it pretty quick so I never had a go in it unfortunately. Some details of the build here https://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=211756&page=2 Hope it’s something “easy”. Or at least cheap. ISTR mine ate an alternator bearing and changing that was a bit of a mission. Mind you, my definition of “mission” has since been shifted by Audi ownership….

While I was briefly an X1/9 owner I came across a guy who was mostly a Morris Minor specialist but also was developing a thing for X1/9s and Lancia MonteCarlos. He was also based 10ks from the official last resting place of all the Lancias culled in the great front subframe rust recall. Officially they were all crushed whole. Unofficially quite a few of the 2L TC power-trains tunnelled under the wire and ended up in grass trackers and….. one of this fellas X1/9s. I did have a close look at it - was a bit of a coat-hangers and zip tie death-trap special. Apparently it was very brisk…. Can’t say I felt the urge to try it at the time, but done right it would be a proper weapon.

Hmm…. You got lucky maybe. I tried something similar a few years back….. blew a window out of the greenhouse and got some frizzy hair and eyebrows for my trouble. Should know better. As a kid we tried the old “bit of petrol in a screw top (cocoa) tin and put it in the bonfire” trick. That was frikken’ huge bang and blew the bonfire out and into small pieces. Brought Mum out of the house to see what we were up to…… “what was that noise …..thought you had a bonfire?” Errrm…. Kids running feral on the farm in Swaziland. We did all kinds of mad shit….. there were occasional injuries, but nothing permanent and no one died, looking back I sometimes wonder how

Fact that you even thought about doing this conversion, let alone successfully completing it suggests you probably need a wheelbarrow for your balls already. Sounds great. I’m not quite sure what sounds like, but it certainly doesn’t sound like an Imp

Because all black wheels are just wrong. Especially when nice wheels like these….. painting them matt black disappears them…..

8mm sounds small for breathers to me. Doesn’t take much crankcase pressure to cause leaks.

Me either…… unless it’s made it through the breather system?

17 now Black (or at least darker) centres might be ok, but all black…. Solid nah! from me.

Hell yeah!!