Monte's winter mechanical make-over.
Posted: Fri Nov 15, 2019 7:13 pm
Monte has served me well for the summer pool season, but I've been gathering bits and making notes with a view to making 'him' more suitable for use as an everyday work van. So to keep me occupied in the swimming pool off season I'll be trying to achieve the following.
1: Better stopping power.
2: Better load carrying ability and road holding.
3: More power, for dealing with the hills in The Chilterns when laden and to make the drive a little more relaxing and pleasurable.
4: Higher gearing.
5: Stronger drivetrain to deal with 2 & 3.
The plan is as follows, as Monte has a servo and (now) discs, I'm just going overhaul the rest of the system, new master cylinder, a properly engineered remote reservoir and check and replace any dubious pipes and hoses.
To deal with the load carrying issue, new springs as the rear springs are suffering from a few months of carrying a fairly light load and new dampers. Rossendale are making me some new springs and Avo have supplied some dampers, hopefully that will solve the issue.
Engine wise, after keeping my eyes open for a 1275 engine and seeing the prices that they command, my tame engineering chap suggested something a little different. So we're building a 1215cc engine, basically a 1098cc over-bored to take 68mm pistons, a very mild cam, 12g202 head modified by Keith Calver (a friend from my racing days), Maniflow manifold and system, Minispares inlet manifiold topped with an HIF44, ignition will be dealt with by a Polestar management system. Improved torque at sensible revs is the main aim, rather than outright power, hence the small bore head and mild cam.
The diff is being rebuilt with a 3.9:1 cwp and a Quaife ATB LSD, with Peter May 1/2 shafts.
There are a few other bits to be done that will become obvious as we go along.
1: Better stopping power.
2: Better load carrying ability and road holding.
3: More power, for dealing with the hills in The Chilterns when laden and to make the drive a little more relaxing and pleasurable.
4: Higher gearing.
5: Stronger drivetrain to deal with 2 & 3.
The plan is as follows, as Monte has a servo and (now) discs, I'm just going overhaul the rest of the system, new master cylinder, a properly engineered remote reservoir and check and replace any dubious pipes and hoses.
To deal with the load carrying issue, new springs as the rear springs are suffering from a few months of carrying a fairly light load and new dampers. Rossendale are making me some new springs and Avo have supplied some dampers, hopefully that will solve the issue.
Engine wise, after keeping my eyes open for a 1275 engine and seeing the prices that they command, my tame engineering chap suggested something a little different. So we're building a 1215cc engine, basically a 1098cc over-bored to take 68mm pistons, a very mild cam, 12g202 head modified by Keith Calver (a friend from my racing days), Maniflow manifold and system, Minispares inlet manifiold topped with an HIF44, ignition will be dealt with by a Polestar management system. Improved torque at sensible revs is the main aim, rather than outright power, hence the small bore head and mild cam.
The diff is being rebuilt with a 3.9:1 cwp and a Quaife ATB LSD, with Peter May 1/2 shafts.
There are a few other bits to be done that will become obvious as we go along.