Having forgotten about it for about 15 years I then remembered and thought it would make a good full length roof rack for the Commer with a bit of modification. So far i’ve Made the front section by cutting the frame and letting additional poles
The Snail
- Thread starter sunbeamsam
- Start date
I used my beer gut to bend the poles to match the front of the Commer. I then cut some beech strips, gave them a few coats of yacht varnish and screwed them on with strainless screw. Attaching to the van with some period desmo mounts.
Maybe I’ll get the rear section done next year...
Maybe I’ll get the rear section done next year...
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I know I’ve been saying for about 11 years now but spring may well be the time I start to experiment with the carbs. So I spent an evening last week building an old air fuel ratio meter kit I had lying about. I’ve also sent my stainless down pipes off to Commerracer to get a lambda boss welded on. So hopefully i’ll be able see what’s going on the mixture as I try a few things.
Hope you like the box... black abs plastic didn’t feel quite right sitting on the dash. There is still some room in there for some other gubbins
Hope you like the box... black abs plastic didn’t feel quite right sitting on the dash. There is still some room in there for some other gubbins
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So many impressive mods on this thread, so good to re-read - more added now to my own jobs list !
First up for me is the oil seal on the timing cover - do you have any information on the seller please ?
First up for me is the oil seal on the timing cover - do you have any information on the seller please ?
Many thanks, a bit pricey but rather nice 
I see they also do a lightweight pulley wheel fitted with a trigger wheel but already have Tim modifying my original with a trigger wheel (as I will be using with a 'Nodiz' management unit).
I see they also do a lightweight pulley wheel fitted with a trigger wheel but already have Tim modifying my original with a trigger wheel (as I will be using with a 'Nodiz' management unit).
Paul, I’m guessing you need to remove the dizzy to make room for the supercharger that you can’t fit on the other side because that’s where the turbo is going to go?
A cheap option (<£3) on the crank seal is to fit something like a V seal to the pulley, you might need to machine the back of the pulley down to make enough space and the polish up the mating surface on the timing chain cover so as not to rip the seal.
A cheap option (<£3) on the crank seal is to fit something like a V seal to the pulley, you might need to machine the back of the pulley down to make enough space and the polish up the mating surface on the timing chain cover so as not to rip the seal.
Thanks Tim! No idea what the O2 sensor is off, but it was only £5
So exhaust is now back on, I got distracted making some additional not-entireley-necessary-overly-complicated modifications as seems to be the way.
I’m using a standard sunbeam alpine exhaust manifold with aftermarket stainless down pipes. These hang slightly lower than the sump which has always annoyed me (I’m odd like that). So I cut 40mm out of them which now means I can lift the exhaust system up a bit. I also got massively distracted with the idea of fitting individual exhaust gas temperature (EGT) proves. My (cider fuelled) logic being that when I have the quad carbs fitted I can use this to help set them up - my lambda sensor should tell me when I’ve got the right mixture on average across the 4 cylinders, but my EGT system will tell me if they cylinders are equally fuelled. A hotter one will be leaner, a colder one richer. This might be nonsense, but it is keeping me busy for now. Clearly there might be a reason why the entire automotive industry has not adopted this approach.
I’m using a standard sunbeam alpine exhaust manifold with aftermarket stainless down pipes. These hang slightly lower than the sump which has always annoyed me (I’m odd like that). So I cut 40mm out of them which now means I can lift the exhaust system up a bit. I also got massively distracted with the idea of fitting individual exhaust gas temperature (EGT) proves. My (cider fuelled) logic being that when I have the quad carbs fitted I can use this to help set them up - my lambda sensor should tell me when I’ve got the right mixture on average across the 4 cylinders, but my EGT system will tell me if they cylinders are equally fuelled. A hotter one will be leaner, a colder one richer. This might be nonsense, but it is keeping me busy for now. Clearly there might be a reason why the entire automotive industry has not adopted this approach.
So first photo, cheap K-type quad thermometer from China costing an eye watering £16. Added to one of the ports is a high temperature probe costing another £5. As you can see it seems to make sense.
Next step was mounting these into the exhaust manifold. This didn’t go so well as the 1/8 npt tap I bought on eBay made a whole too big... I’ve had to bodge glue two of them in with a fire cement, not sure this is going to work. The other two holes I used a 3/8 uni tap which seemed to work well
Next step was mounting these into the exhaust manifold. This didn’t go so well as the 1/8 npt tap I bought on eBay made a whole too big... I’ve had to bodge glue two of them in with a fire cement, not sure this is going to work. The other two holes I used a 3/8 uni tap which seemed to work well
I then decided that having half the engine bay on the passenger seat wasn’t enough chaos so decided to change the stereo and add more speakers. Found this to replace the not so period CD player in the centre of the dash. CD player current half moved to under the drivers dash.
this
thisMakes sense to my own cider addled brain
I remember tuning my old cars using the ColorTune sparkplug to see the burn colour !
I've got the same Alpine exhaust manifold, where did you get your down pipe please ?
I'm going to play with that and try options for custom inlet manifold to reduce the height of my Weber 32/36 DGV to feed my Holbay 1725.
I remember tuning my old cars using the ColorTune sparkplug to see the burn colour !
I've got the same Alpine exhaust manifold, where did you get your down pipe please ?
I'm going to play with that and try options for custom inlet manifold to reduce the height of my Weber 32/36 DGV to feed my Holbay 1725.
Thanks Panky but that was intended for for SunbeamSam re. their Alpine exhaust manifold - if I recall you're running the original Hunter type exhaust manifold ?
‘No idea of what’s going on...’ at least i’m not the only one!
I’m using the earlier type of cast iron manifold which exits the twin down pipes vertically between cylinders 2&3, panky you look to be using the later hunter type which exits the pipes at about 45degrees from near cylinder 4. The problem with the earlier type is it runs the pipes tight under the starter motor which doesn’t do it any good - I’ve had a problem a few times after stopping after long traffic jams where the (cooked) starter really struggles to turn over. A home made heat shield has since fixed this.
Anyway, to answer your question Paul, the stainless down pipes came from alpine parts guru John hayter. But they had Double SS exhausts stickers on them - which Googles. I made the mistake of only ordering the downpipes to start with, only to be annoyed that the Y piece isn’t included and had to order that separately, which nearly doubled the price. Had I known that I might have just ordered their tubular manifold kit - I.ve got them one the alpine and they’ve performed well over the past 15+ years.
I’m using the earlier type of cast iron manifold which exits the twin down pipes vertically between cylinders 2&3, panky you look to be using the later hunter type which exits the pipes at about 45degrees from near cylinder 4. The problem with the earlier type is it runs the pipes tight under the starter motor which doesn’t do it any good - I’ve had a problem a few times after stopping after long traffic jams where the (cooked) starter really struggles to turn over. A home made heat shield has since fixed this.
Anyway, to answer your question Paul, the stainless down pipes came from alpine parts guru John hayter. But they had Double SS exhausts stickers on them - which Googles. I made the mistake of only ordering the downpipes to start with, only to be annoyed that the Y piece isn’t included and had to order that separately, which nearly doubled the price. Had I known that I might have just ordered their tubular manifold kit - I.ve got them one the alpine and they’ve performed well over the past 15+ years.