Hillman imp + Honda flat 6. Musical engine swap game..

[georgeb]

Mar 29, 2018 13:13:33 GMT kitch said:

Hi yoeddynz

Ventured over from PH and caught up with this thread. You're doing some good work there, and especially surrounding all the rules it seems you guys have. I like the cut of your jib! Quite jealous of your surroundings too. Falling out of love with the UK at the moment - NZ looks nice!

If you need any advice from someone who's been there and done it (or some of it at least) just give me a shout

Rich

I'm loving the thread. Never had an Imp myself, but a cousin had a Californian that was a bit of fun.

Fell out of love with the UK a good few years ago. Don't get me wrong, proud to be English but hate the mediocrity. Only one thing to do...

[yoeddynz]

Buy an Imp? :-)

[georgeb]

Having never seen an Imp here, I had a look on the interweb and lo and behold. In a history of Philippine motoring, www.autoindustriya.com/features/sixty-five-years-of-philippine-motoring-part-1.html,  I find...

"Chrysler, besides their stateside Dodge, Plymouth and DeSoto brands, imported Simca's from France and Rootes Group's Hillman Minx, Imp and Hunter from Britain. Ford, through Mantrade, not only brought its Fairlane, Galaxie 500 and Custom along with Mercury and Lincoln but also the Cortina from Britain and Taunus from Germany.

British Motor Corporation, Britain's equivalent of GM, brought in the Austin Cambridge diesel, Morris Oxford, MG 1100 and the Triumph Herald."


And I haven't yet seen a single example of any of the above mentioned. But just maybe, there's one out there?

[greencarfritz]

Mar 23, 2018 20:58:02 GMT Darkspeed said:

Mar 23, 2018 20:47:35 GMT yoeddynz said:

....Once you finished the work you could sell the tools on to some one else ;-)

WHAT! - murder is less of a crime - SELL TOOLS!!!! - - Once finished you sell the car and buy more tools surely.

I've equally got some sort of tool obsession.. and sell tools?  OUTRAGEOUS!

Brilliant Imp project, I keep getting the want for one of these and to do a BMW K bike motor conversion... or maybe the same in a Davrian.  Excellent to see one (or more!) being worked on.  Keep up the excellent work!

Also.. what is the hillclimb scene like where you are?  I see you mentioned it...

[yoeddynz]

Mar 29, 2018 13:13:33 GMT kitch said:

Hi yoeddynz

Ventured over from PH and caught up with this thread. You're doing some good work there, and especially surrounding all the rules it seems you guys have. I like the cut of your jib! Quite jealous of your surroundings too. Falling out of love with the UK at the moment - NZ looks nice!

If you need any advice from someone who's been there and done it (or some of it at least) just give me a shout

Rich

Hey Rich. Cheers. I'm enjoying this one which is always handy.. however the engine conversion isn't mine so it doesn't hold the same value to me as if it would had I adapted the Datsun engine myself. However... I have more Imps on the way plus this race car shell. between them I can create another Imp to which I can start a fresh with my own take on my ideal Imp This I look forward to very much and hence I am very interested in seeing as many other engine conversions as I can so I can absorb ideas and info

I really did enjoy reading your thread and it certainly got my creative juices flowing!

I do have 3 spare V6 engines kicking about....

[yoeddynz]

Mar 30, 2018 6:16:39 GMT greencarfritz said:

Also.. what is the hillclimb scene like where you are? I see you mentioned it...

We don't have lots of purpose built hillclimb tracks like in the UK except for one up in the Coromandel (look up Leadfoot ranch)

However there are lots of fantastic climbs of which some, like our local climb, get closed off once or twice a year for a race if lucky.

[vitesseefi]

Mar 30, 2018 6:16:39 GMT greencarfritz said:

Mar 23, 2018 20:58:02 GMT Darkspeed said:

WHAT! - murder is less of a crime - SELL TOOLS!!!! - - Once finished you sell the car and buy more tools surely.

I've equally got some sort of tool obsession.. and sell tools?  OUTRAGEOUS!

Brilliant Imp project, I keep getting the want for one of these and to do a BMW K bike motor conversion... or maybe the same in a Davrian.  Excellent to see one (or more!) being worked on.  Keep up the excellent work!

Also.. what is the hillclimb scene like where you are?  I see you mentioned it...

@ greencarfritz, There's a guy doing a Ginetta G15 with BMW K series just across Dartmoor from you. John is very skill and fussy about detail - it'll be lovely when done, as his previous creations have been

www.locostbuilders.co.uk/forum/66/viewthread.php?tid=211756

Nick

[Darkspeed]

NZ G15 IMP Engine - I considered the K route for my G15 but I have decided to stick with the original engine as they are still very capable - The Rally G15 that turns up in Strato's thread pushes 105BHP reliably with a good torque spread and they do love to rev.  - Not a bad colour on this one either.  The Imp engine build for my G15 is crawling along - too many other things to get done. Funnily enough whilst going through all my clearing up work I found a pot with a set of back cut Imp sport valves in it - probably from some Imp related flow bench tinkering. 

I have been down to see John a number of times - the last was to collect my roll cage that I lent him to prepare the chassis sleeves etc. He went the K series route as the car dig not come with and engine and scratch building a 998 is not a cheap thing to do. He occasionally rings for the odd bit of advice when he gets stuck, the last time was on the G15 steering shaft.

[vitesseefi]

Ah, you actually know him. I know him from the Triumph side of his activities and try to call in whenever passing. We did talk about the Imp engine route (I have some tenuous links with a guy in Dorset who builds very special Imp engines) but as you say, lack of a base unit and the scary costs involved in build a really good one swayed the K decision.

Nick

[yoeddynz]

Ooooooohhhhh man is love a g15. That yellow one in the vid sounds great.

The dude in the locost thread mentions 875 pistons are hard to get? I presume he means forged pistons?
Is 998 the max you can bore an 875 block out to?

This next imp sounds great too. Its a bit more racey being a 1040 on bike carbs. Looks pretty damn quick too...

[Darkspeed]

The really good 998 pistons are harder to get - not forged as there is no need the good cast ones are safe to 10,000 - the latest ones are not quite as good as the older ones, 998 is not the maximum - the Rally G15 is now at 1020 the next OS is 1040. You can also go long block where you fit longer liners a stroker crank and a block spacer to take the engine to 1200+ which is what a mate of mine is building and what we have had the big drive shafts made for. I may cover it when I start my G15 rebuild thread. I have an early chassis #100 and the has chassis #13.
You cannot bore the block very far as the liners are very thin, best way is to machine out the cast in liners and then fit new wet liners. The Millington book has to be high on the agenda for purchase. But have trawl through the Strato's thread as I strengthen a pair of trailing arms in there somewhere.

[yoeddynz]

Yes- I need to strengthen my rear arms too so would be interesting to see where to add gussets. Its something you cant just guess at.. It needs to be learned through experience first hand of where they fail I guess.

I'm kind of keen to see how far I could go with an Imp engine in the next one (without spending much money that is...)

[Darkspeed]

Mar 31, 2018 7:42:03 GMT yoeddynz said:

I'm kind of keen to see how far I could go with an Imp engine in the next one (without spending much money that is...)

Building a hot Imp engine can run up quite a tab - For a budget build you would need to find a good Imp Sport as a foundation, 180 head, Twin stroms etc. A Sunbeam B1 930 modded is also a good option.
Normally aspirated and as is the sport runs 50BHP but with some careful head works you can get them to 60 BHP, which is as good as the stock 998.

The trailing arms crack here




Sport arms have an extra bit of bracing behind the brake back plate on the underside of the bearing block - this is a standard one without the bracing.

[sciclone]

I still would like to put a 1.0l Ecoboost engine from a ford fiesta or ecosport into something like this or a skoda estelle, or similar Rear mounted RWD.

probably small enough to fit, but with a usable 92kw turbo oomph.

[yoeddynz]

The 3pot? Would be fantastic. Expensive engines here in nz though. Anything euro and newish costs to much.
Toymota also make a neat little 3pot I think. Must look it up.

[dadstaxi]

What about some of those Japanese 600 odd cc 3 cylinder turbos or even the engine from a Daihatsu Charade Gtti?

[Darkspeed]

The main reason for going the BMW K route is that there are very few options for final drive ratio's (Zero in fact)in the Imp transaxle - The Ginetta and Dav generally go up to 13" rims to improve the final ratio to around 16MPH per thousand - The Imp 875/998 etc. when tuned rev up to max power at 7500 to 8500+. At 8500 that gives 136mph. If you fit a turbo that will be cammed to run out of puff at 6500 that equals 104mph and at 60mph its at 4000 - in an Imp it's pretty pointless really. Due to the low final ratio the route to fun in an Imp is rev's, lots and lots of rev's. To get the most out of an Imp you need to have an engine with at least 8000RPM capability with peak power up at 7500.

There is just no point going for loads of torque - Turbo's superchargers or big capacity in an Imp/G15 - if that's your aim then first job is to chuck the transaxle away. Then again the K is not perfect either as the power is probably a little too far up the rev range, fine for being a hooligan and what's wrong with that, but not for when you want to drive normally shifting at 3-4000. The Imp total package is hard to beat - The best route is probably the K1200 with the cam timing tweaked a little to bring up the bottom end torque.

I also pondered the Honda Goldwing lump for that mini 911 Vibe

[v8ian]

Dihatsu turbo, now theres a thought turbo nutter engine, and this is from the man who got George Bevan out of retirement to build engines for our Davrian Imp

[dadstaxi]

And as it's FWD, could you not drop it in with it's own gearbox?

[bstardchild]

Mar 31, 2018 20:30:32 GMT dadstaxi said:

And as it's FWD, could you not drop it in with it's own gearbox?

You'd probably need to sit it where the rear seats are