A couple of events and plans for 2014

Since I last wrote, we have taken the Imp to Wiscombe Park again, and to Manor Farm at Charmouth which some people consider a 'mickey mouse' course but we quite like.  It is very different to Wiscombe, being open apart from going through a bridge under the A35, which provides the threat of concrete contact!   This year it was a damp weekend so we spent it experimenting with how the car behaved in the wet, while still keeping it on the black stuff. At least spinning off at Charmouth you're not likely to hit anything too hard.

The car is going well with the 930cc engine in, but we have our sights set on going faster and have just ordered a 998cc engine to be built for us, by the chap who built the 930cc and is ex-Hartwell.  It's a bit of an investment but once we have that we won't need to tinker with engines any more, at least that is the idea!    There are loads of ways we could make the car lighter to be more competitive, but firstly we want to stay in the production road car class, and more importantly we like the car as it is.   We don't want to strip out stuff to the limit of the class because we get a kick out of competing in a car in genuine road-going standard condition; and we think other people appreciate that too.

Photo www.simonrawling.com

We are making more and more friends as we go along on the hill climb circuit, whether it be ladies who have been competing for 26 years, or other newcomers to the sport, and everyone in between.  I was discussing the welcoming spirit of hill climbing with the aforementioned lady and we were comparing it with other sports and hobbies that we had done, most of which seem to have a hierarchy, snobbery and bitchiness which hill climbing just doesn't have.  We could chat away to a chap by the burger wagon and find out that he had won fastest time of the day, while we were slowest, and it doesn't matter! It's really good to feel part of it, I can't imagine anyone feeling like an outsider in this sport.

 

Photo www.simonrawling.com

Our next event will be at Wiscombe on 27/28 July, a National A Championship event as well as National B, so all the fast boys will be there (and girls, but usually there are only 2 or 3 of us at events).   The week after that we are venturing down to Cornwall to a circuit we haven't been to before, at Castle Hill which is near Lostwithiel.  We then have the rest of August off before a full programme in September, and that is the end of the season!  

The 998cc will go in for 2014, we'll run the rest of this year with the 930cc, firstly for consistency and secondly to save stress mid-season trying to get a new engine set up and running properly.

Pre event stresses!

We had a bit of a stressful couple of weeks with the Imp.   With the date for Wiscombe Park hillclimb looming, we had some work done including overhauling the twin Stromberg carburettors and fitting correct K&N paper air filters. We are rapidly discovering that some of the parts of our 930cc engine were apparently done 'on a budget'.

Next we changed the oil from fancy stuff to bog standard engine oil, and after discovering an oil leak apparently from the head gasket, decided to change that.  We'd never done a head gasket before, but how hard could it be?  It took an entire Sunday, with Alex meticulously dismantling the engine.  We sweated over getting the valve caps and shims off without dropping them everywhere, and I made a specially designed cardboard tray that wedged in under the cam cover ready to catch everything.  While I popped out to mow my parents grass, Alex cleaned up everything and applied the new head gasket, and measured the thickness of all the shims and made a note of them.

We eventually got it all back together only to discover - no compression. None. Zero. Zilch. In any of the cylinders.  I think we both wanted to just sit down and cry - what had we done??  

Much internet research ensued, after which we had come to the conclusion that the shims must not be seating properly on the valves, and basically we had to take the cam off and the shims/caps, and put them all on again. This time, we cleaned all the oil off, and glued the shims on with grease, and the caps into the cam so nothing was slithering about all over the place.

Cylinders 1, 2, 3 all ok.  Cylinder 4 - no compression.  ****

We decided to double check the list of shim thicknesses, and came to the conclusion (after converting everything to 64ths) that the two shims in cylinder 4 had accidently been swapped over.

So, it all came off again, cleaned up, greased, back together.   Everything else back on and the key turned. And she started!! better than she had in the last 3 weeks. 

By now it was 9.30pm on Tuesday night, so with 4 days until our first hillclimb, the relief was palpable!  

The irony was, that there was still an oil leak.... and it wasn't from the head gasket after all. It was seeping out around a tapered screw in the head, which wasn't tapered.  Some PTFE tape seems to have fixed that, for now anyway.

Countdown to Wiscombe

Well, our little Imp has had a transplant and is now a 930cc.  Isn't it funny how your brain can so easily switch from thinking a 1 litre engine is small, to thinking 'wow! 930cc, feisty!' - it's all relative.

Having started the winter engine change project back in October, our collection of engines has grown from one (the original) to four.  We bought a second hand 875cc Sport engine + spare, but couldn't get it running very well, and spent some time choking on exhaust fumes even with all the garage doors open.   

We then bought a 930cc engine which was supposedly built for hill climbing and had only been bench run.  "Perfect," we thought, "it's tricked up and can go straight in."    We toyed with the idea of trying to get the Sport engine going properly before changing them over, but then decided to just put the 930 in so we had more time to drive it around before our first event at the end of April.

Well... it turned out to not be quite so ready as we thought.  We knew it needed an alternator, since we'd be using for every day driving and not just competition, so we got a second hand one sold as 'working ok'.  The plug leads looked a bit iffy and didn't fit very well, and we discovered that the distributor cap had a massive crack in it so had to be replaced. 

Having got the engine fitted we spectacularly failed to get it started, and with about 5 weeks to go until Wiscombe Hill Climb we decided to give it to our local mechanic to have a look at, as we were running out of time.  Just to frustrate this plan, having put on a new brake master cylinder we then had trouble with the brake bleeding, and it took us at least 2 evenings of pedal pumping to get the brakes in a fit state to be able to tow the car down to his workshops.

The alternator turned out not to work ok so we got a new one, along with new plug leads.  Our mechanic managed to get the engine started but it was running extremely rich, so the next thing was to get the correct jets etc. for the carbs.  Our bank balance was rapidly shrinking and our stress levels rising, but the good news was that it passed the MOT! 

The car now ran and had been fiddled with, and after two and a half weeks without it we went and picked the car up. We then discovered that both carbs were leaking fuel when the engine wasn't running.  Adjustment of the fuel pressure seemed to fix that (fingers crossed), but the car was a complete b*** to start, although once it did start, it ran like a dream!

Head-scratching ensued. Plugs were cleaned, and a new battery has just arrived that should cope better with the higher compression. The next job is to adjust the timing to stop it pinking. Oh and the head gasket is weeping a bit of oil so we've ordered a gasket set.  What did I say about the bank balance?  It's currently on the downhill stretch of the roller coaster.

So, it's now two and a half weeks until Wiscombe and every day involves either working on the Imp or spending money on it, or both.

It's worth it for the huge grin on our faces when we drive it!

Shopping!

By Jenny

Just back from a weekend's camping and shopping, not IN the Imp, but FOR the Imp. The final collection consisted of:

One Imp Sport engine 875cc
One standard spare engine 875cc
Twin Weber carburettors and manifold
Montecarlo springs front and rear
New handbrake cable
Brake kits
Replacement dash from which we can take a temp gauge. At the moment we just have The Light of Doom.

So that's a few things for us (well mostly Alex let's face it, while I'm studying) to work on while waiting for hillclimbs to resume in April!

Vehicle choices, and collecting engines

Sometimes friends ask us why we need to own a VW Transporter van, surely a normal car is sufficient? Mostly these are people who rarely travel further than 20 miles from home. Also, if any of them had owned a van themselves they would understand just how vital it is for:

• Filling with camping gear for a week in Scotland + large dog
• Being able to see over hedgerows, and the car in front in traffic jams
• Using to collect car engines, bonnets, and other sundry large items
• Room for a double sofa bed mattress for in-van sleeping
• Taking 3 months worth of garden rubbish to the tip
• Moving house

This weekend it will be collecting two Imp engines won on eBay for a bargain (one Imp Sport, one standard 875cc), as well as carrying gear for us to camp for a night in the Peak District, plus dog of course.

What do you mean, "camping? but it's October!"   We camped for 2 weeks in Scotland in November once; it rained for 12 out of 14 days, so I'm sure we'll manage...

Preparing for the winter project

Over the winter we plan to va-va-voom XLB a bit.  It would be lovely to be able to buy a ready re-built 998cc engine with all the bells and whistles but unfortunately our budget doesn't stretch to that, so instead we'll be putting bits together to do it ourselves (with a bit of help from some friends).

So we have a long watch list on eBay including a Sport engine and other bits and pieces, and will be talking to Malcolm Anderson about some other things.

Tonight we've won a front radiator + fan, although that is more of a long term plan.  Imps have a reputation for over-heating, though so far (touch wood) we've not had an issue; when we put a bigger engine in then the front radiator will be a good addition.