1971 Reliant Scimitar - final engine run - no exhausts

[Smiler]

The first and porobably final run-up of the engine in my Scimitar SE5 for 2017 prior to its removal and possible replacement.

[Deleted]

Man, that does sound good though when it's burbling after the initial start up. Goes a big boggy and weird towards the end but maybe that's the mic pick-up?

What are you plans for the engine swap Smiler?

(If you're wondering why I've just bumper a thread from January... you just liked a post and I had a quick look at your 'latest threads' list and found this!)

[Smiler]

Cheers Tim,it was filmed on an old 'Bridge' camera so limited sound quality.

The car has little by way of interior as the video shows and the doors both need repairs to their forward edges where the check straps have cracked the fibreglass shells. The electrics are also ina sorry state, the overdrive unit is goosed and the engine is a rattler.

Therefore I am going to strip it out and start again with the eventual aim of a road legal hill-climb and sprint car.

The engine and gearbox I have lined up for it is the 3.0ltr all alloy unit from a Jaguar S-type. It is already wearing a home-brewed baffled sump and I am looking to fit individual throttle bodies to it for that period race-car sound track.





Or I could go electric...

Smiler

[Deleted]

Ooooh, thats a nice choice of engine.

I must ask... with the swirling fog of confusion about the MOT exemption thing... what are your thoughts on that re: this engine swap? Are you just doing it and taking whatever bureaucracy comes from doing it, or is there some update (I've stopped checking as it all got so confusing) that means such a swap might be safely under the radar of what is permissible and acceptable?

I ask because I'm a little bit in limbo with my own Scim at the moment. I can either throw money at improving/helping what is highly likely to be a worn out engine with many imperfections, or I can consider throwing that money into an engine swap. I like to play it safe though and for me personally the idea of being free to determine my own MOT-style check points is very welcome, and I'm reluctant to lose that - if it's actually coming - by sticking a 4.0 V8 under the hood.

The MOT exemption story is too hard to follow though, consisting of 2% fact and 98% wild frenzied speculation, so I'm sort of waiting for clarity before I decide my next move.

Just wondering what your thoughts have been!

[Smiler]

Things always take a bit longer with me, I decided on the engine swap and acquired the engine about three years ago, long before the MoT thing popped up.

I am happy to still pay for an MoT so long as I keep the vehicles identity and tax free status which it had been suggested this might be aimed at. To count for historic status apparently you will have to state that the vehicle is original. If it isn't then you may have to get an MoT but so long as you retain the correct number of points you retain the vehicles I'd. This should winkle out the ringers (such as a V8 powered coil-sprung series 2 land rover that is pandered as tax free).
However, I have also heard that they are looking to change away from the points system which is a bit of a concern.
It's not the tax free bit I'm worried about with loosing the vehicles i.d., it's trying to get a car designed in the 1960s through a modern biva test.

[Deleted]

Dec 13, 2017 21:07:02 GMT Smiler said:

it's trying to get a car designed in the 1960s through a modern biva test.

That's the part that worries me with regards to swapping. Hence, I think I'll tease a few more miles out of my stock lump and see how the dust finally settles next year.


Then I'll fit a Merlin once they give me the all clear.

[MkX]

The Ford Essex is actually a very good engine, it had its Achilles Heel which can be easily remedied now but it's a very robust lump, (designed for use as as petrol & diesel originally).
With a few tweaks could be as meaty as one of these;
www.ricwood.com/essexv6.html

[Deleted]

I briefly became very interested in a Rick Wood engine until a well known Scimitar racer/builder pointed out they cost £12k. Then I lost interest and just put some sticky tape on mine.