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Learning how to build Lotus Seven replicas...together!
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 Post subject: Smitty's V8 Lightweight
PostPosted: May 20, 2009, 10:43 am 
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I've been working on almost 5 yrs. on a 7 clone starting with a Tiger Avon kit from England, designed to take Ford Seirra drive train. I already had the U.S. version of the Seirra, the Merkur XR4Ti, and installed it in the chassis, but the intake will not clear the hood. When I found out what the 2.3 Turbo inline 4 weighed, I decided it would be easier to shoe horn a Rover V8 into the chassis. The 3.5 Rover Alum. V8 saved me over 100 lbs. and is backed by a '61 to '63 Buick bellhousing, custom flywheel, Supra Turbo racing clutch & pressure plate, a '88 Jeep hyd. throwout bearing, Camaro T5 trans. custom driveshaft (21/2" rigid alum. conduit), and Merkur alum. diff. & axles. The front is Cortina hubs & spindles, with SAAB vented rotors & Wilwood GMIII alum. calipers (pre-'77 GM fullsize)on custom mounts. Rear braking is Merkur vented front rotors & S10 blazer alum. calipers.Mastercylinders for clutch and brake are '88 Jeep Comanche, and uses Wilwood residual valves, adj. bias control and hyd. parking brake from Speedway. Steering is by Merkur column, Nissan pickup lower shaft, & Chevette rack.
The one piece fiberglass body was damaged and fit poorly, so I cut it up and saved the front & rear fenders, snout, cowl and hood. An old friend Mike Pavletic (Pavletic Metal Shaping) taught me how to make the rest of the body new out .040 alum. from Chassis Service.
Lighting consists of Deitz headlights, Harley-Davidson taillights, and Yamaha front turn signals. The interior is made up of Kirky's narrowest Drag racing alum. buckets, and upolstery. Dash and console were formed out of alum., the dash then covered with 3/4" foam and vinyl, inset with period correct used SW gauges from an old kit car.


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Last edited by smitty on March 11, 2010, 10:21 pm, edited 9 times in total.

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PostPosted: May 20, 2009, 12:12 pm 
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Location: Massachusetts
Welcome, that sounds great - what an assortment of parts!

I'll bet it sounds nice :)

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PostPosted: May 20, 2009, 8:57 pm 
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Location: Darboy, WI
Sounds like fun! Can you post a picture of your front brake setup? From my research the cortina rotors are the same as my '77 Capri, and I'm looking for a vented rotor and caliper setup for it. Any information really would be helpful too!

Thanks in advance
Ross


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PostPosted: May 21, 2009, 12:08 pm 
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Location: Under the weather. (Seattle)
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PostPosted: May 26, 2009, 11:22 am 
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RossD wrote:
Sounds like fun! Can you post a picture of your front brake setup? From my research the cortina rotors are the same as my '77 Capri, and I'm looking for a vented rotor and caliper setup for it. Any information really would be helpful too!

Thanks in advance
Ross


Ross, I don't know if I can be much help, as my setup requires custom made mounts, machining & welding. You may be looking for an easier bolt together setup.
I redrilled the hubs to fit SAAB bolt pattern, cut up some stock Chevy mounts. The trick you maybe able to use is this: If you take some washers and put your lug nuts on backwards, you can secure your rotors to your hubs. If you make an adapter to go from your brake line or bleeder to plug into your air line. Cut a strip of corrugated card board to go on the circumference of your rotor to maintain clearance to your caliper. Place your caliper where you want it (with the pads in place) and apply air pressure to it via the adapter. This uses the caliper as an air clamp allowing you to measure, make up, and/or weld whatever mounts or adapters you need to get the calipers to bolt to your spindles. This won't hurt your calipers as shop air goes 100 to 150 psi., and brake systems normally run 1000 to 1500 psi.


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PostPosted: May 26, 2009, 12:10 pm 
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Thanks for adding the pics...Looks fantastic! :cheers:

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PostPosted: May 26, 2009, 12:54 pm 
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Location: Darboy, WI
I was hoping for some magical bolt up solution of stock parts but I guess I'm back to using the original stock brakes or fabbing up new stuff. Thanks for the help and it looks like your car would haul with that v8! Nice going :D


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PostPosted: May 26, 2009, 2:06 pm 
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Very nice project, I have alway admired the Avons nosecone.
Al

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PostPosted: May 30, 2009, 2:00 pm 
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Racer Al, nice AMX. yesterday I retired from the plant it was built in, AMC main plant, also known as Chrysler Kenosha Engine Plant. Started in '74 when there was still some AMXs around. My father was there for 11 yrs. before me. Smitty


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PostPosted: May 30, 2009, 7:15 pm 
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Great car. I like your selection of pieces and parts. It looks like it will be a ball to drive and should sound wonderful doing it.


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PostPosted: May 31, 2009, 1:21 am 
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Congratulations on your retirement, Smitty. I have found retirement to be the best job I have ever had :D .
My AMX was built on the east assembly line Dec 22, 1968, originally Castillian Grey, it was fairly well optioned for its day with leather, full tint, 8 track, 390 Go Pack with auto and air.
You must have a lot of good memories of those days, as well as lots of interesting stories.
Al

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PostPosted: February 5, 2010, 2:59 am 
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Location: Fresno, California
Smitty:
Monte here (Fresno ). I have been at least a year in deciding on the engine for my project. The Rover V8 has my interest but understand parts are not easy to find and the heads do not flow very well. Can you share a bit about your decision to build one and have you been happy with the results?

Thank you,
Monte
Fresno, Ca.

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PostPosted: February 5, 2010, 9:33 am 
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Very nice bulid!!! The rover V8 was on my short list. I knew a rover guy who had an extra that needed
a re-build. The parts aren't cheap and in the end My donor was super cheap even though the Volvo
Redblock is still as heavy as the Rover motor (Still a good bit lighter than the Ford 2.3) My other choices

in order (More or less)

Alfa 2L 4 Both Alfas easy to find parts but expensive.
Alfa 3L V6
ROVER V-8 Hard to find parts and expensive
Mazda Gen2 Turbo Rotary Not cheap in good condition
Suzuki Swift GT /Samurai (VERY LIGHT) Not too expensive
Volvo 140/122/ P1800 ( Pushrod motor is quite short and produces good power when modified)
Volvo 240/740

Turns out the Volvo stuff is cheap and easy to get

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PostPosted: February 9, 2010, 5:02 pm 
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Joined: April 23, 2009, 11:34 pm
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Location: Grand Rapids, Michigan
I'm glad I stumbled across this build thread. I love the drivetrain combo (and the rest of the car). I just sold my land rover discovery and have a parts truck with a good Rover 4.0 setting in it. It got me to thinking about possibly doing a similar build by changing the front engine cover and some other bits to accomodate running a distributor, and then going with an aftermarket intake and carb.
AluminumV8.com actually now sells custom bell housings to adapt a few different kinds of gearboxes. I think this is the best compromise between a V8 engine and the lightweight spirit of the Lotus Seven. Thanks for sharing! 8)

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PostPosted: February 21, 2010, 2:47 pm 
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Monte & Bremm, Sorry it took so long to get back to you.
I started this build with a partial Tiger Avon kit. It was supposed to have a Ford Seirra 2.3 in it. I had a Merkur XR4Ti donor car (the U.S. version of the Seirra) . I had the drivetrain all in except there was no way to get the intake to clear the hood. Faced with having to make an intake, I started looking at other possibilities, then I found out the 2.3 was 410 lbs. I had the Rover motor on a stand & all rebuilt (with Buick parts). It was laying behind a friend's shop (AKG Motorsports) under a tarp, and Andy gave it to me free! A little measuring told me it would be a tight fit. Then my son and I put our fingers in the exhaust ports and lifted the long block (complete minus Alt., starter, carb , & ex. manifolds) onto the bathroom scale, 225lbs.! Even when we added headers, an aluminum flywheel, a mini starter, and a Kubota alt., we had to be saving over 100 lbs. Friends told me to use a six speed, but when we were adapting one to an AMX, it weighed in at 135lbs. The T5 5 speed from a Camaro weighed 75lbs., and bolted up to the Buick style (open bottom) belhousing from D&D fabrications Another 50 lbs. saved. As it turned out it was easier to cut and move frame tubes, than to fab a new intake. Its really not that hard finding parts for the Rover V8, and they are building them over 5 liters now. Thanks for your interest & good luck with you projects. Smitty


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