JCV 750L Clan *

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Richard Claydon
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JCV 750L Clan *

Post by Richard Claydon »

How's this for you?

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Cheers

Rich
Richard Claydon

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66 Imp Deluxe
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Post by fsmlittler »

Rich
Thanks very much. How????

The story so far.
I started hillclimbing my Imp in 1986 and kept seeing the Clan parked outside a little back street garage in Cornwall. The garage proprietor expalined that it had come in for some minor work and the owner had lost interest but refused to sell it. After about 12 months of repeated requests to buy it the owner agreed and I was the proud owner of a Carnival Red 875cc Clan, supplied originally by Roseland Motors and sister car to their racer JCV 749L. By this stage the car had about an inch of water in it and was in a state. On the advice of the COC I took it to a supposed expert, ex Clan driving production car trialer, who took a load of my money and parts and rebuilt it.
After 4 months the car was ready complete with my shiny new Dave Weedon 998 R17 motor. Unfortunately my Trials expert restorer could not get it to run properly and another 2 months passed before I worked out he had replaced my new Competition distributor with a normal Vaccuum job. Doh!
During the rebuild I had repeatedly asked for the rear subframe mounting to be checked and reinforced and it was with huge delight that I found the entire rear end moved significantly whilst competing in my first Sprint.
Eventually that got sorted and a replacement 998 with R23 from Roy Simms single seater replaced the tamer unit. I had some great fun with the car until the inevitable laying up for a few minor repairs occurred which somehow went from a few weeks off the road to near enough 15 years! In the first few years I was lucky enough to navigate for another hillclimber who had moved onto tarmac rallies with a beautiful 1200cc Imp.
So late last year with the help of my very patient father-in-law we recovered the poor car from it's damp 15 year incaceration to his nice dry workshop in Devon. Once out in the daylight the true horror of the work hit us. You wouldn't believe the corrosion to every metal component on the car.
Our plan is to rebuild the car to it's last spec in time to take it to France in September for our third trip to a great road based hillclimb down in Brittany. For the last 2 years I've been fortunate enough to compete in my roadgoing GT3 but I have to say I cannot wait to use the Clan instead. I very much doubt it will be slower....
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Post by fsmlittler »

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How lovely is that?
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Post by fsmlittler »

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One small step....You're right though it was criminal to leave the poor thing for so long but I intend bringing it back better than ever.
I'd be really interested in finding out how many cars Roseland supplied-it seems almost bizarre that a little dealer in Cornwall sold any.
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Post by fsmlittler »

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It's amazing what a few weekends work can achieve...not to mention how well fibreglass survives damp conditions for 15 years
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Post by fsmlittler »

Just had a very traumatic day. I went up to see Ben Boult about my engine rebuild and i'd forgotten that Imp engines are so expensive. Ben told me the great news that my flywheel was originally machined to take a full race AP stlye clutch-great except he quoted around £400 to supply one! THink I'll try the helix cover and paddle plate at half the price and replace the flywheel.
My valves are all slightly bother so I need valves, guides and springs-ouch.
Aside from that the engine is great!
I desperately want to do everything properly but my rebiuld budget has already been blown to peices by the £200 gearbox rebuild that ended up being nearer £500 not to mention the engine build which I can't even think about without sweating. Trouble is these suppliers are all evil and keep tempting you with extras.
Just waiting for the electric fan to go my Cinquecento rad and the disc brake kit from CV. Hopefully next week will see the brake system finished.
Any thoughts on header tanks/swirl pots would be appreciated. What to use and how to plumb in. I'm doing away with the thermostat and bypass circuit as there's no heater but I'm not sure what header to use.


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Crude strengthening plates were fitted 15 years ago after the bobbins pulled through. No idea what the number is?
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Post by fsmlittler »

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Original photo from a photo shoot for 'Your Classic' Magazine with 998s-all R23s all on Revolutions. Me with the yellow overalls Mark's Imp and 'Nobby' Nimrods G15.

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Couple of shots of Tregrehan Hillclimb in Cornwall
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Post by Useless Eustace »

And I should also have said that I do like the look of your Clan. Criminal wot you did but I suppose that the current re-build does make partial amends !!

Hopefully my batmobile should be up & running before I'm too old to get in the thing !!!!
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Post by Grahame59 »

[quote="fsmlittler"]No idea what the number is?[/quote]

Looks like 104 to me. I can see it written on the plywood bulkhead visible in the interior shot. My Clan had it similarly marked in a few places around the car too (and so have others I've seen), under the dash and one headlamp pod I think.
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Post by fsmlittler »

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Been to Ben Boult's for the regular cup of tea and to catch up on progress. Massive sigh of relief when he confirmed that the Crack testing didn't show any problems with my Crank. All parts were back from Vapour-blasting and look even better than the photo shows. It's now more obvious what had been done to install the engine upright in a single seater including the modified dipstick housing.

Next stage is replacing the valve guides then the head can be rebuilt plus reassembly of the block. I still expect we could be some weeks away from getting it back but I'm sure it'll be worth the wait.

Out of interest I asked Ben what he thought a sensible rev limit was for a 998 with R23 etc and was surprised at the 8500rpm response which is apparently peak power, although he suggested they're fine upto 9200rpm. Seems like either my rev counter used to be miles out (admitedly that's quite likely) or I used to over rev the poor thing (10,000!).

Next week off work so should get a fair bit done-
1) Fit the front calipers and shocks/springs.
2) Refit the master cylinders and bleed the brakes and clutch.
3) Fabricate and fit the front rad ducting.
4) Finish the vented bonnet.
5) Fit the header tank.

More photos next week.
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Post by fsmlittler »

Just got back from a few days in Devon with most jobs completed, albeit taking longer than expected. Boxing the rad in was a two day marathon due in part to my father-in-laws insistence on making sure there were no areas whatsoever where air could get by and his determination to make the final assembly bomb proof.

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After much debate the mesh in the bonnet was fitted by using expanding foam in the cavity between the skins and araldite, although my acomplice felt it would have been more secure with some sort of alloy frame and nuts and bolts! Apologies to anyone on the site who may have something similar-yes yours was the inspiration...

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Following further heated debate I felt it was sensible to give in and allow F-I-L his say and bolted the mesh in front of the rad.

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Shocks, springs and disc kit fitted easily and gave me a real boost to get finished.

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After three templates and a very nervous time cutting, we finally finished the rear screen which just needs sealing and bolting in to finish. The drivers doorhinge assembly has all been rebuilt and the door should be back on very soon-thank god as the site of the gloss black interior nearly gave me heart failure but you can't be too ungrateful when someone else does the work (could have wished that he didn't paint the starter and alternator red though-ughh)

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The next job will be fitting the header tank when I finally decide what to use and get it bought then we must be getting close to engine and box installation, albeit subject to Ben (which could be some time...)
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Post by rootes »

tressles and planks look to be a good idea!
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Post by fsmlittler »

The 'engineer' responsible for our sophisticated 4 post jacking system and king of the black paint. Also one of the few people who likes Clan headlamp pods!

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Post by fsmlittler »

The doors when we first got the car home.

Starting to look a little better.

Iterior was in a pretty nasty state.

Still a massive amount to do but starting to look a bit more habitable.

I've now realised that I need to put in a high back seat for Competition so I'm struggling to know what to put in with the limited space and whether to put one in and keep the passenger seat original?

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Post by fsmlittler »

After much debate I have finally conceded that we should keep the headlamps original, pods and all. Unfortunately all of the metalwork was rotten and needed redoing as you can see. Just need to find one replacement headlamp unit now to finish them off.
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Having boxed the radiator in we needed to reposition the battery so here's the first mock up which will just about allow us to get the new battery in and out when the tanks back in. Also thought the washer bottle could be mounted next to it. Need to fabricate the mounting and battery clamp plus we need either a waher pump for the original bottle.

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Post by Gerry M »

Just buy a jump start pack and take the battery out it, they are motorcycle batteries usually
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Post by Impudence126 »

Yes, I'm also a convert of the PC680 - I wouldn't go back to a wet cell after what the Odyssey does with ease.

Val.
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Post by benwick3 »

I still say do it yourself. As regards the block strengthening kit, forget the block spacer type, its too fiddly to set up and is, in my opinion, no better that the studs and nuts type as used by Ian Carter that I myself have used for years with no problems. Studs can be made by any machine shop.

I honestly believe that even if you give it to one of the other experts, that I believe may have been recommended by pm, the slow progress will only be transferred and you will be no nearer to getting a complete engine quickly. Quick is a word that appears to be missing from the vocabuary of specialist Imp engine builders.

Pete Richards
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Post by fsmlittler »

Baz
Thanks for the offer but I can collect it next week.

All
Appreciate all the advice on batteries and would definitely consider a modern 'gell' battery if I hadn't just bought a small traditional lead acid unit.
Deadlines agreed with engine builder so lets see what happens in the next 3 weeks....

This weekend will be seats, engine cover and bonnet fitting. The latter will be on pins so I suspect we'll waste loads of time just getting the positions right and have little to show for our efforts.

The 2 high back seats that were promised to a friend for his Jeep will just fit and have harness slots so should be perfect for the time being.

Also want to check all wiring before the engine comes back so that we're a little nearer to getting it running when we put it all back together.


We're having a debate over the engine cover at present. Father in law thinks black as per original, kids think body coloured and I like primer-cheap and easy since the rest of the paintwork is scruffy. I love the idea of having it great mechanically but rough looking externally-bit wierd I guess.
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Post by ImpManiac »

Keep on at the engine builder. Just the way it is, unfortunately. :(

It really sounds like it's getting there now! Very quickly and yet very, very nicely, if I may say! 8) Will we be seeing this at the national?

IM 8)
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Post by fsmlittler »

Just got back from another weekend of working on the car. As ever seemingly easy jobs take forever and if I never have to refit the fuel tank it'll be too soon.
We have now finally finished the front end with the battery fitted and secured plus the new washer bottle and pump. Fitting the Bonnet pins took an age just to get everything lined up but hopefully the results don't look too bad.

We ended up having to fabricate some pretty substantial brackets for the pins to fit but at least they aren't going to fall apart and day soon.

I was amazed to find that barring a couple of earth problems everything electrical worked perfectly including all lights, wipers etc. I've now got two switches mounted in a panel where the Radio was fitted to operate the cooling fan and the headlights. We will replace the nasty looking screws that you can see with something a bit neater.

The seats are awful but they'll have to do for now-they are too big and make access to the rear impossible.

Just to be on the safe side I tried them with a helmet on and can just fit although you'd be amazed how difficult it is to get in and out of the car.

At the back we made up some alloy plates for the bonnet pins and everything fitted a lot easier than the front.

The engine cover is going to be primered and signed by everyone that's help put the car back together with a clear coat to protect it. Not exactly pretty but nice to remember all the hard work from everyone.
Finally fabricated a bracket to mount by the coil to hold the clutch flexible hose.

Sorry if these are getting a bit boring. Hopefully the next decent photos will actually have the engine back in.

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Post by fsmlittler »

What a weekend of highs and lows.
Went up to Pete Richards to collect a rear screen and saw an amazing selection of parts and cars-enough to remind me what I'm aiming for and what they can look like finished (although I'd rather not have a huge hole in the side of my block).
Most of the weekend was spent trying to find out why my wife's Fiat 500 has suddenly decided to run on one cylinder-when you only have two to start with that's pretty major. After hours rebuiding the carb and the entire ignition system I finally discovered my 6-month-old new engine has 50PSI on one cylinder and 140 on the other. Who said simple cars like these go on forever.
Had a surprise call from the engine builder this evening telling me I don't need valve guides and my engine could be ready by Friday. Perhaps he's read the thread?
Not much action on the car but we stripped and repainted the original Cosmics and started to put the drivers door back on.
Collecting the 'real' wheels tomorrow, hopefully next week we'll have some photos without the planks and bandstands and with some more appropriate wheels....
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Post by fsmlittler »

Great day today. Collected the wheels from the reburbisher-I couldn't make my mind up whether to leave them grey or not but seeing them today I think I made the right choice. They've done a great job powder coating and diamond-cutting them as the grey paint was flaking and the lacquer had gone cloudy and blistered.

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Post by fsmlittler »

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The wheels look even better with the tyres fitted-how many brand new sets of Yoko 032s are still around?
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Post by fsmlittler »

Whilts most of you were enjoting the big event I was down in the west country fighting with a rear screen and generally trying to finish off a few of the jobs left before the engine comes back. It was great driving back to Windsor this afternoon and seeing Imps driving down the M4 although it just made me even more frustrated to have missed the event.
At least I got to drive the car today, albeit for 30 feet and being pushed-it did give me the first chance to try the brakes which seemed superb at 2 mph.
The good news is the wheels look even better on the car-the bad news is there's a tiny hole in one rim causing the tyre to go flat so it's going to need the tyre off for repair.

After months of working in a barn with an earth floor we finally wheeled the car into the luxury of the neighbouring barn complete with concrete floor and power. Next move should be under it's own power....hopefully.

I've had so much support from friends and family and it's been such an adventure for all of us that we're all going to sign the engine cover and then have it clear coated.

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Post by rootes »

i think it would depend on the style of inlet janspeed used when the felt like it..

I have see a big variation in the grooves, but defer to Peter advice here..

would take a look first before doing work though
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Post by Lotus-e-Clan »

Hi si

didn't see your post before mine went in ...but my grooves are pretty deep I must admit.

Also I think I may have overtightened them at some stage which makes the plain side rubber spread more than the grooved side (which traps the rubber) therefore inducing a tear.

Peter
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Post by fsmlittler »

Not sure if the engine builder is reading this thread but he phones daily with detail questions like which type of oil I'll be using (R40 just for the smell) and is very concerned that I don't have to wait any longer than is absolutely necessary.
Final call this afternoon was to let me know that it's going to be run tomorrow-wow the first time in 15 years. Now I'm panicking like waiting for an MOT except much more expensive it it goes horribly wrong.
My father-in-law cannot understand why there could be any problem or why it won't just slot in the car and work perfectly out of the box. If only tuned Imp engines were that straightforward-there again that would take half the fun away.
New screen goes in later this week and my Ally header tank should be fitted tomorrow so we're nearly there barring a few coolant hoses (I can't make my mind up if Blue Samco has become Chavvy?).
Ferry is booked for France and there's a sprint in Devon mid September that I'm going to enter if everything is o.k. tomorrow to give us a chance to iron out the inevitable teething problems.
My ever supportive wife thinks it's highly amusing to tell everyone that the car will make it all the way to Brittany but will almost certainly blow up on the first pratice run. Nice!
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Post by ImpManiac »

Progress on the engine front! :shock: Great news! I bet you're well chuffed.

Get it. Fit it. Drive it. Enjoy it. :wink: Probably what you had in mind already! :lol:

Oh yeah, put some photos and videos of it up too.

IM 8)
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Post by fsmlittler »

Massive day today.....reinstalled the engineand box, finished plumbing and got it running for the first time. Cooling system stubbonly refused to work until we forced water round with a hose and finally got rid of the air bubbles. The welding on the manifold gave up so it's blowing like mad but it ran. Can't seem to work out how the hell you set the static timing with Magnetronix and the slightest touch of throttle made it stall but it ran, and restarted every time we tried it.

Sorry the attached clip is very short and there's no exciting, wild revving but as I said it still has 'issues'

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Post by fsmlittler »

Just a couple more photos.
I'm going to swap the very old and Tatty K&Ns for either a single ITG or Pipercross foam Sausage filter.
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Post by benwick3 »

As regards the static timing, have you tried connecting a bulb between the + coil terminal and earth and turning the dizzy. That works with the Aldon ignitor. The bulb comes on at the equivalent of points opening.

Alternatively connect bulb between both terminals of the coil and see what happens when you turn the distributer.

Pete Richards
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Post by fsmlittler »

Thanks to everyone for all of the support and ideas.
I need to have another go at setting the static timing but I'm not sure whether this is causing the main problem.

It starts reasonably easy without touching the throttle and ticks over, albeit quickly, but every 20 seconds or so it slows down, nearly stalling, then the idle picks back up. Any touch of the throttle either stalls it or has no impact at all.

The carbs have been rebuilt (by me so that seems to be the primary suspect) and all the jets etc are exactly as they were when it was ast in use and seem in line with everything I've read about the spec of engine.

Could the timing be out enough to cause the above syptoms?

Also we have no working rev counter and the alternator charge light stays on. How do you check the output and could this be connected to the rev counter not working?


Learnt the hard way about mounting the silencer to the body when it broke a weld on the manifold because it couldn't move! I'll have a look at the waterpump bracket. Thanks.
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Post by fsmlittler »

After last weeks disaster with the maifold I had loads of offers of help from club members with various people offering to lend me their own manifolds whilst I get sorted which really raised my spirits. In the end I called Ben Boult who was having a batch of manifolds re-piped and immediately suggested I borrow one of him as he coldn't be sure how long it would be until the new ones came back. He absolutely refused to take any payment. After a few initial worries about the engine build I have to say Ben has been superb. Nothing is too much trouble for him and his bill was exactly what he said it would be. The process may not have been especially fast but so far he's been first class and I actually feel quite guilty about ever doubting him.
Taking advice from various more experienced club members I managed to work out how to set the static timing on my Magnetronic ignition and re-fitted the carbs using Ben's manifold late last night. The engine now starts and revs when you open the throttle. It isn't very keen to pick up revs from low down but I guess that's the nature of the cam and once it's got a few more revs it picks up cleanly. Sadly I didn't have much chance to run it for ong as we need to do some more work to the slincer to get it fitting better and running the engine with no silencer isn't great, especially early on a Sunday morning! I did manage to 'drive' the car 5 feet forwards and five feet backwards under it's own power-wow.

I managed to get hold of a scond-hand Stack rev counter with compressed 0-4000 scale and 25 mins recording time (real useful when a hillclimb rarely lasts more than 1 minute!). Sadly it only reads to 8000 but it's still an improvement on the existing one that flickers around a fair bit.
This week, assuming we get the silencer mounted, should be MOT week so I can get roadworthy next weekend and do the 100 miles running in that the gearbox needs.
Can't believe what a difference a few months has made.


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Post by fsmlittler »

I said it was going for the MOT-passing it might be a little more of a challenge....
Thanks all for the kind words of encouragement.
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Post by fsmlittler »

After endless last minute teething problems we loaded the car and set off for France last Thursday. On arrival at the hillclimb on Friday morning we set too changing the knackered alternator for our new uprated unit which initially didn't want to fit until we realised the mounting plate was on slotted mounts! We then timed the engine in at 4000rpm with our new timing light and had a couple of runs up and down the nearby road. Once over 7000rpm it did seem to get going a bit and we had reasonable expectations for a good weekend.
Saturday's first practice was scheduled for 8:15 am so we decided to pass it up and enjoy an evening with the french competitors along with their huge 'taches and Pastis.
The 2 practice runs later on Sturday revealed the major lack of power and the problem caused with having standard ratios...it was impossible to keep it fully on cam when changing from 2nd to 3rd so the faster sections of the hill were hopelessly slow. Having only done 2 miles since the rebuild I thought it unwise to start trying to push too hard and clearly the engine wasn't making good power, or was it my 'rose tinted view of how well it went 16 years ago?
When the times came through my worst suspicions were realised-a time 20 seconds slower than I managed last year with the Porsche.
On a more positive note the brakes were awsome with Colin Valentines kit spot on and the frot rad conversion worked brilliantly in red hot conditions.
During the course of Sunday we played around with fuel pressure rates and plugs but it seemed to be running very lean. A fellow brit running a Pilbeam single seater complete with massive motorhome came over to have a look and inisted on stripping the carbs and generally checking it over. Although I've known him for nearly 20 years I never knew he had any Imp experience until he started saying 'sounds like an R23 to me...'
Using a length of ose held by the trumpets he balanced the carbs then started playing around with the jets before confirming that they were diabolical and needed new jets and a complete strip and rebuild. He believed they were so bad we risked ruining the motor if we ran it much more so the last run was sacrificed. As an aside he also offered to replace all the jets for free from his stock (all the more amazing when you find out he's a motor trader!).
So not a complete success but far from a failure and best of all I may yet find the 20 seconds missing when it's sorted and had the time on a rolling road it deserves not to mention the mapped ignition we're determined to now fit.
Apologies if the video takes a while to load and bigger apologies for the appalling driving!

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Post by fsmlittler »

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Post by fsmlittler »

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Previous years event-unfortunately the video was taken early in the morning with the sun shining very low straight into the car but it gives a good comparison with the Clan this year.

At least it's reaar engined!
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Post by fsmlittler »

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Just been sent this photo from France. The smoke is from me locking up the brakes coming into the corner. Proof of the stopping power of Colin Valentines brake conversion and my lack of braking finesse!
fsmlittler
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Post by fsmlittler »

Just dug out some old photos of my last Imp from 1986/7.
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Last shot taken hillclimbing in Spetember 1987.
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Also stumbled across this photo from the Imp National 1985 at Donnington.
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Re: JCV 750L Clan *

Post by fsmlittler »

Since last posting I have had the carbs completely cleaned, repaired and rebuilt plus we've spent hours re-doing the throttle linkage as it was so difficult to sync the carbs and was almost fouling, running the risk of the carbs jamming wide open. I found it very difficult locating any parts that were desinged for the Imp, most being either Alfa or Lotus parts (doubtless would have been easier if they were Webbers).
After much reading and research I finally took the decision to go ahead with the conversion to Mapped Ignition. I am reliably informed by everyone that has done this that it will make the car significantly easier to drive and should improve the off-cam driveability appreciably which is the real aim as I am determined to persevere with my R23 inspite of all good sense suggesting I try something more sensible. I blame a drive in Si's old Clan for inspiring the swap.
As ever there is loads of useful information on the forum if you spend some time looking yet I nearly failed at the first hurdle-trying to sort out the trigger wheel. It appears that you can no longer buy the Sierra type from Ford and even when you could they came complete with pulley (albeit not impossible to seperate). With little time or enthusiasm for visiting local scrap yards I spoke to one of the suppliers listed in Impressions who caould supply a nice shiny alloy crank pulley although he didn't have a suitable trigger wheel in stock. He suggested speaking to Burton who would definitely be able to supply a trigger wheel. I should point out at this point that every time I mentioned 'Tigger-Wheels.com' I seemed to get no response inspite of them seeming to be the obvious choice. Eventually the wheel arrived from Burton, for twice the cost of other 'universal' wheels and better still it only had a 1 inch centre hole (yes I am being sarcastic). My pulley supplier said not to worry as he'd easily machine it to fit. At this point I mentioned that I hadn't yet decided where to fit the trigger wheel sensor so I needed to be able to fit the trigger wheel to the pulley myself once the position was decided.
A few days later I had a call to say the pulley and trigger wheel had been assembled with the latter attached to the former by 6 bolts meaning a choice of 6 positions.....not much use unless one of the 6 positions happens to match our fitment for the sensor. In the words of Homer- DOH.
All thoughts of mounting the sensor at the top side of the wheel had now gone so we ended up with the position shown below which has the advantage of being easliy accessible but concerns me due to the proximity of the exhaust. We have mounted and wired everything else so that we can switch from the Mapped set up to the traditional coil and distributor whilst we get it all set up and are planning on getting it on the rolling road in the next couple of weeks in anticipation of our annual trip to France at the start of August.


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Whilst discussing these plans with a long time friend, forum user and fellow Clan competitor (Amazingly neither a Pete or a Chris) it came up in conversation that he had stopped using his half Jack Knight box for Rallies as it was too low geared for his 1200 and he had not used it in years since it was rebuilt by Dave Weedon. To my amazement his response to my request for a loan of the box was not only met with a positive but followed up with great enthusiasm to see how it all works together once the box is fitted and the Mapped ignition working. This and the ignition should make the car not only massively more competitive but much nicer to drive.

Whilst all this has been going on I also swapped the starter for a Maxi/AllAggro Pre-Engaged type and I can already report that this is one of the best alterations we've made. Not only does it tidy up the wiring but the ease of starting when the engine starts coughing into life is brilliant. A definite 10 out of 10.

Just waiting for the new plug leads then we'll be able to start mapping and report back on progress.
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Re: JCV 750L Clan *

Post by fsmlittler »

Having taken delivery of my personalised Magnecor leads and complete with connector cable to hook up the laptop to my MJL box I raced down to Devon to get it all working this weekend. After a slight delay caused by some muppet connecting the throttle pot up incorrectly, we were soon ready to fire the car up for the first time on the Mapped ignition. Even though we didn't have a map installed, so it was running 10 degrees everywhere, it still seemed happier starting.
Maybe it's just me, but there's something really cool about sitting there watching a Laptop tell you how much advance the cars got and how much throttle opening there is in real time whilst sitting in the car with the engine running. It all seems very F1.
As it was all newly installed we took the precaution of checking the map on the computer matched a timing light at various revs and advances. Once that was all ok we put in a map I'd taken off the forum last year (can't remember what the engine spec was but it was mapped up to 8379rpm (in case anyone recognises that).
The first drive up and down the nearest hill instantly confirmed everything I'd been told. The improvement is unbelievable. Considering we're running an R23 you would think it was an R20 and the driveability in the mid range is completely transformed, all without the final fine tuning of a rolling road.

With confidence at such a high we removed the distributor and coil immediately.

If you haven't already done this conversion I cannot recommend it highly enough and if I can manage to get it working with my complete lack of mechanical sympathy anyone can.

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Re: JCV 750L Clan *

Post by ImpManiac »

Glad to hear it went well! You are inspiring me to get mine fitted and running sooner rather than later... :wink:

IM 8)
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Re: JCV 750L Clan *

Post by fsmlittler »

We've finished fitting the fusebox and relay that not only gives us a bit more peace of mind but helps tidy up the wiring and makes fault finding a lot easier. We also fitted the new starter panel that now means we can turn the engine over without the ignition on plus we now have a seperate switch for the fuel pump so that it's not running all the time that the ignition is on which is handy when playing around with the mapping.
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Whilst we were tidying up all the wiring under the dash and around the steering column we thought we ought to do something about the steering wheel which was looking very scabby with big chunks of the paint coming off so that's now been polished. You might also notice the bigger 2kg fire extinguisher we've fitted which is the minimum requirement now in france whereas last year we only needed the 1kg. As it turns out it fits better than the old one anyway.
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As mentioned in my last post we cut holes in the engine cover to try and aid engine bay cooling and to try and get a bit more air flow in. Obviously this is hardly the last word in sophisticated solutions and may not be ideal in the rain but early tests have been quite impressive, especially in conjunction with our new carb heat sheild.
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With just over a week to go before we head over to France I have run out of time to try the various ignition maps that people have kindly donated so we'll be using the Saturday practice runs to compare the different maps. I'm really looking forward to seeing the reaction of the serious competitors with the big single seaters etc when we start programming the ignition with a laptop in the middle of the paddock-very F1.

On a different note we decided that a gazebo would be useful to give us and the car a protection from the sun or rain so I started looking for good deals on the internet. The adverts are unbelievable. In the headlines they often say things like 'ideal for the british summer' then in the small print 'not to be used in wet or windy conditions'!!!! Chocolate fireguard anyone?
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Re: JCV 750L Clan *

Post by bazzateer »

Glad you said that as I've just bought a stainless heat shield for my SU set-up. :D
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Re: JCV 750L Clan *

Post by bazzateer »

'cos it's shiny! :wink:

Also, until I can sort the high speed cooling I'm just defending the float bowls from excessive heat, had a little bit of fuel vapourisation after a hot run recently.
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Re: JCV 750L Clan *

Post by fsmlittler »

As it's been a few weeks since we came back from our annual trip to France I thought I ought to do an update.
Last year was the cars first competitive run for over 15 years and although it survived a weekends competing without major disaster it didn't exactly run smoothly or particularly fast.
This year we had the benefit of a very generously loaned 1/2 Jack Knight box, newly refurbished carbs and the newly installed mapped ignition complete with a selection of maps to try.
Although we'd done plenty of road tests with the various maps we knew the hillclimb would be the best place to find out what worked best.
The first immediate benefit of the new set up was that the car starts on the button first time every time now whereas before it would take 10 minutes of trying before it properly caught, especially when it was really cold.

Saturdays practice runs showed that the car was not only much quicker but much much more driveable and the third and final practice run was miles quicker than any run last year even though we now seemed to have a constant misfire most of the way up the hill. Once it was time to have the last practice run we discovered that the battery had mysteriously run flat. With the jump leads connected it started but by pure luck somebody spotted that the fan belt didn't seem to be going round. Oooops. Further investigation revealed that the alternator was out of alignment so we spent a good hour scratching our heads until someone suggested replacing the long top bolt with two shorter ones. Instant cure and charging fully restored.

On sunday morning I decided to try another map that was kindly passed on by another generous benefactor and that had been set up on a 998 with the same spec as mine. I cannot put into words the difference this made to the car. From having no real power under 6000rpm and no chance of pulling at all under 5000rpm the car is now running like it's got an R17 but with all the top end power you'd expect from an R23. I could now pull a gear higher on most sections of the hill and it will not only take big throttle openings from as low as 4000rpm but has genuine power that low down. I had heard that mapped ignition made the biggest difference to big cammed engines but this is unbelievable. If you're thinking about Megajolt or any other systems my advise is DO IT.

Whilst all of the British lined up for the last competitive run on Sunday afternoon the rain was chucking it down so we all agreed to have a fun run up waving and flashing the marshalls to thank them since no-one was likely to go any quicker. I ran up the hill in third and fourth most of the way and never pulled over 7500rpm whilst I flashed my lights and waived at everyone. How embarassing to then discover it was my fastest run of the day!

Bearing in mind the British all run as one big class (35 competitors in all sorts from a Goodwood prep'd A40 upto a Methanol powered Pilbeam) and last year the only car slower than us was a 1930s Aston, this year we were mid-table right up with the Mk2s, a GT40 and beat a number of single seaters.

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A huge thanks to the two other Clan competitors for their help and support. You know who you are.
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Re: JCV 750L Clan *

Post by fsmlittler »

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Sorry about the 'quality' but the cameraman was suffering from a huge Lager and Pastis fueled hangover....
I'm not sure about Curborough yet but we might get there.
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Re: JCV 750L Clan *

Post by ImpManiac »

^^ Awesome video! The car looks and sounds fantastic! :D

IM 8)
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Re: JCV 750L Clan *

Post by fsmlittler »

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