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!

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.