Winter upgrades

[erictharg]

Took the plunge despite the freezing conditions and went into the garage yesterday. Pulled the head and drove over to MED with for their opinion on what needs upgrading next. The head is not bad for fast road use, but it's not a race head. Plus the guides are pretty worn so to re-use it would need quite a bit of re-furbishing. So, one MED Clubman race head ordered. Should have it in 3 weeks or so.
Then I've got to re-build the twin HIF 38's I bought earlier and buy a Maniflow inlet manifold for them, to suit the big port race head. MED advised a Weber 45 for best power but I've not enough in the budget for that and the new head (unless I find a good used carb meanwhile). The SU's should only be 4 or 5 hp shy of the Weber. Also got some 1.5 rockers on the list, but again they'll have to wait until I can find a used set .
I'm also going to pull the block out and replace the bearing shells for good measure. Bores look perfect so I'm not going to disturb the pistons and rings.
Hopefully this will all give me a bit more go, but also means the current cooling set up won't cope, so the Metro turbo rad has to go in as well.
Otherwise it's just a good check over and clean up ready for the first race at Mallory 3rd April. And a session at Peter Baldwin's to set up the carbs and timing.
Anyone else got winter plans?

[techbod]

Are your twin HIF's going to need a bonnet cut out to fit - or is the maniflow manifold low enough to avoid it?

Winter plans for me involve trying to find out why cylinder #1 on the xflow seems to permanently have oil on the plug tip. Compression check is ok at 180, so maybe its valve guide or perhaps oil scraper ring issue...

Also try and work out why my air corrector jets in the twin 40s seem to be so much smaller than everyone else with a similar setup - despite being setup on a RR by the previous owner.

Have another attempt to fabricate a decent lightweight bracket to reduce the amount of independent movement between the carbs and stop them loosing balance so quickly.

Work out if I can find a way into the fuel gauge, without destroying it, to check/replace the damping circuit.

Move the battery from under the carbs to infront of the passenger footwell.

Finally carry on the very very long term 3d ignition upgrade - this month make a decision about the trigger wheel going on the back or front of the crank pulley and get the damn thing fixed on so I can start the car again.

Of course none of this is eleven related.

So are we going to have another jolly for your 2011 debut at Mallory?

[erictharg]

Support always welcomed. Early April could be a bit fresh mind you. But good to see anyone there, even if they've driven there in their daily driver. Will keep you posted on progress. You've got a good list to keep you busy...

[Mknight702]

I've a pair of 1 3/4 SUs if you want to go completely mad. They probably won't fit under the bonnet though! I did look at using a single 1 3/4 but the manifolds were too tall and I would have needed a Tharg (tm) bonnet adjustment.

Let us know how the upgrades go, I would like to come and watch in April too, and help spanner in the mean time if that is required.

[sgrant]

My only plan is to try another pair of front wheel bearings, in the hope that the slight wobble goes away.

Plus i'd like to plumb in the back of the head into the cooling system, but somehow I just suspect it won't happen.

The engine and carbs are just lovely at the moment, so i'm not touching anything there at all.

[erictharg]

Matthew - I may call you re. the big SU's. Could be a cool alternative to the 45...