260Alpine
Silver Level Sponsor
There have been a few to put aluminum Volvo DOHC heads on the old 2.3 Pinto.
http://www.mgexp.com/phorum/read.php?40,2980072
http://www.mgexp.com/phorum/read.php?40,2980072
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Enjoy.
Winter Rebuild
- Thread starter Bill Blue
- Start date
Charles Johns
Donation Time
Barry, like many of us I got the 2.3 in a "deal" then read up on them. Not really a race motor but solid and can make lots of torque for its size. On the street torque is better than HP...usually, and that is why I did not swap a 302 into my 65 Mustang but stayed with the 200" SIX...YES, SIX! I would love an aluminum head but will make-do with what I have. With a mild cam, Esslinger intake, 2150 two barrel, hotter ignition, head work (basic polish, valve job), cool-air intake, custom header and tuning for the highway, it should make 130 HP and with the A4LD - 3.89 gears get high 20's MPG. NOT UP TO TODAY'S STANDARDS, but okay for me and no computers! Remember, I started out building street rods that were basically Hot Rods setup for the street. With a heater, better insulation, suspension rebuild and new interior, it should be ready for 500 miles a day. I covered 600/700 miles a day in a 289 powered 1932 Ford 5 window coupe...no AC, just baby-wipes and a crank-open windshield. Which reminds me, you ever try to swat an angry Yellow Jacket while doing 75 mph down the interstate? The wife hit me 5 or 6 times before we got it smashed against a door frame. The picture is my 200 SIX that I am very happy with...but most speed stuff must be made or found on ebay.
Attachments
Well, winter went well, spring was hell.
The "to do" list presented no real stumpers, mostly a lot of time, figuring out my original wiring job and how to incorporate that into the new wiring. However, "stuff" hit the fan on assembly. Water poured (literally) out the back of the engine as water was poured into the radiator. Now understand, the back of the engine, when measured at the water rail, is about 1/4" from the firewall. No way anybody is gonna see anything. So I unbolted the trans mount, engine mounts, drained and removed the rad, propped up the trans, unbolted and lowered the crossmember three inches, unbolted the exhausted manifold from the engine and slid the engine forward three inches. Three or four hours work, measured in Bill Blue time, might be only an hour for normal people. Removed the water rail, 3 minutes.
Bench testing of the water rail revealed a minor leak in my welding job, No big surprise, but dammit anyway. Also the gasket surface looked sort of dodgey. So I patched up the leak with JB, and redid the gasket. I did not reweld as the interior of the rail has been treated with POR15 tank treatment and I did not want to burn it up. Re-installed the water rail and reassembled the 'Pine. About a days work. Added water, water poured out. Disassembled the Alpine, removed the water rail (see above). This process was repeated 5 or 6 times, I really don't remember, we like to forget these painful experiences. Anyway, I finally discovered the water was gushing out because I had rotated a blocking plate 180 degrees, leaving a coolant hole unblocked. It then took another few tries to fix the minor leak. I finally got it down to where it was weeping under pressure, at which time Bar's Leak finished the job. I think this kept me entertained for about two weeks. I asked Barb, she chuckled and look at her calander. Her estimate - eighteen days.
When the engine started, it ran very ragged for a minute or so, then died. It had blown the coil circuit fuse. Fixed what I thought could have caused a short, restarted, ran smoother for a longer time, then died. Blown fuse. Decided to use a 7.5 amp fuse instead of 5 amp. That fuse held until it hit 5,000 rpm. Replaced that with a 10 amp fuse. So far, very good. So we hope the problem was my stupidity in using the wrong fuse. Sure. But the engine had run for thousands of miles, using the 5 amp fuse!? No change in tune, just a rewire and different intake manifold.
Other Gremlins that were slaughtered include a fusible link that decided to divorce it's self (both ends) from the rest of wiring system. Leaky intake manifold that let the engine idle at 1500 rpm with the throttle totally shut. An alternator that refused to alternate. Radiator hose that decided to leak for no obvious reason. Steering column that rotated inside it restrainer. Steering wheel misclocked about 90 degrees.
Gremlins yet to be killed. Temperature gauge that shows no sign of life. Clock face that does not light up, even though the bulb is on. Cruise control that suddenly decided not to turn on.
On the positive side:
Power steering works, although a mite more sensitive than I'd like
11/16" clutch master cylinder is pretty much as I had thought
6:1 brake pedal is good. Braking effort is noticeably reduced
Redone shifter works good. Shifting into a gear from a stop is much easier
Engine is running good, I have yet to retune
The brake pedal and shifter are working fine, but they have picked up a degree of vagueness, which is to be expected. Not that they are sloppy, just not as sharp as before. I really doubt anyone will notice.
As I said in the initial post, piece of cake.
Bill
The "to do" list presented no real stumpers, mostly a lot of time, figuring out my original wiring job and how to incorporate that into the new wiring. However, "stuff" hit the fan on assembly. Water poured (literally) out the back of the engine as water was poured into the radiator. Now understand, the back of the engine, when measured at the water rail, is about 1/4" from the firewall. No way anybody is gonna see anything. So I unbolted the trans mount, engine mounts, drained and removed the rad, propped up the trans, unbolted and lowered the crossmember three inches, unbolted the exhausted manifold from the engine and slid the engine forward three inches. Three or four hours work, measured in Bill Blue time, might be only an hour for normal people. Removed the water rail, 3 minutes.
Bench testing of the water rail revealed a minor leak in my welding job, No big surprise, but dammit anyway. Also the gasket surface looked sort of dodgey. So I patched up the leak with JB, and redid the gasket. I did not reweld as the interior of the rail has been treated with POR15 tank treatment and I did not want to burn it up. Re-installed the water rail and reassembled the 'Pine. About a days work. Added water, water poured out. Disassembled the Alpine, removed the water rail (see above). This process was repeated 5 or 6 times, I really don't remember, we like to forget these painful experiences. Anyway, I finally discovered the water was gushing out because I had rotated a blocking plate 180 degrees, leaving a coolant hole unblocked. It then took another few tries to fix the minor leak. I finally got it down to where it was weeping under pressure, at which time Bar's Leak finished the job. I think this kept me entertained for about two weeks. I asked Barb, she chuckled and look at her calander. Her estimate - eighteen days.
When the engine started, it ran very ragged for a minute or so, then died. It had blown the coil circuit fuse. Fixed what I thought could have caused a short, restarted, ran smoother for a longer time, then died. Blown fuse. Decided to use a 7.5 amp fuse instead of 5 amp. That fuse held until it hit 5,000 rpm. Replaced that with a 10 amp fuse. So far, very good. So we hope the problem was my stupidity in using the wrong fuse. Sure. But the engine had run for thousands of miles, using the 5 amp fuse!? No change in tune, just a rewire and different intake manifold.
Other Gremlins that were slaughtered include a fusible link that decided to divorce it's self (both ends) from the rest of wiring system. Leaky intake manifold that let the engine idle at 1500 rpm with the throttle totally shut. An alternator that refused to alternate. Radiator hose that decided to leak for no obvious reason. Steering column that rotated inside it restrainer. Steering wheel misclocked about 90 degrees.
Gremlins yet to be killed. Temperature gauge that shows no sign of life. Clock face that does not light up, even though the bulb is on. Cruise control that suddenly decided not to turn on.
On the positive side:
Power steering works, although a mite more sensitive than I'd like
11/16" clutch master cylinder is pretty much as I had thought
6:1 brake pedal is good. Braking effort is noticeably reduced
Redone shifter works good. Shifting into a gear from a stop is much easier
Engine is running good, I have yet to retune
The brake pedal and shifter are working fine, but they have picked up a degree of vagueness, which is to be expected. Not that they are sloppy, just not as sharp as before. I really doubt anyone will notice.
As I said in the initial post, piece of cake.
Bill
Barry, here is (I hope) a picture of the 6:1 brake pedal. The original pivot pin was removed and a steel plate was bolted onto the original pedal bracket. The new steel and bracket were drilled to accept a 3/8" I.D. bushing and the pedal was drilled and reamed to .374" and a 3/8" dowel pin pressed in. I pressed the pin into the pedal and the bracket be assembled with the pin in place as I did not want to compromise the friction fit with assembly/dis-assembly. The pushrod was not modified.
Please feel to improve on the idea. While it is pure barnyard engineering, I think it has merit.
Bill
Please feel to improve on the idea. While it is pure barnyard engineering, I think it has merit.
Bill
Attachments
Barry
Diamond Level Sponsor
Bill,
Neat solution! Don't see any obvious way to improve your design or fabrication. It mounts to the original pedal arm pivot bracket, maintains the original pushrod alignment and provides a much higher pedal ratio that will either provide lower pedal force or allow the use of a larger / more available master cylinder diameter.
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After 6000 miles, I think the 6:1 brake pedal is one of the best things I have done to the Alpine. While my brake system is a hodge podge of OEM parts, the system is compatible. I am using a 13/16" master cylinder because the 3/4" master bottomed out under hard braking. Even so, the pedal effort was higher than desired. The difference between the stock pedal and the 6:1 is dramatic.
Every Alpine that is driven on the street and does not have power brakes needs a 6:1 pedal.
Bill
Every Alpine that is driven on the street and does not have power brakes needs a 6:1 pedal.
Bill
todd reid
Gold Level Sponsor
Bill,
Very creative! I assume (always dangerous!) that the trade off in ratio is longer pedal travel? The reason I ask is that when I was running the old .70 master with no servo, that was the trade off. Unfortunately, our local traffic conditions have deteriorated to the point where I felt unsafe in rush hour traffic. The car had decent brakes, but it took too damn long to get them applied. I went back to a servo, although I am not fond of them.
If you try to compensate and leave space (remember 1 car length for every 10 mph? it seems to be 1 foot now!), some numskull always dives into the gap!
TR
PS: did you cut the top of the pedal (containing the old pivot) off or leave it there?
Very creative! I assume (always dangerous!) that the trade off in ratio is longer pedal travel? The reason I ask is that when I was running the old .70 master with no servo, that was the trade off. Unfortunately, our local traffic conditions have deteriorated to the point where I felt unsafe in rush hour traffic. The car had decent brakes, but it took too damn long to get them applied. I went back to a servo, although I am not fond of them.
If you try to compensate and leave space (remember 1 car length for every 10 mph? it seems to be 1 foot now!), some numskull always dives into the gap!
TR
PS: did you cut the top of the pedal (containing the old pivot) off or leave it there?
Yes, the trade off is longer pedal travel, but its not much more before the brakes take hold. It also feels a little bit mushy, at least while not moving. I do not notice either while braking at road speed. As one guy put it. "I now stop with authority."
Since upgrading to 15" tires, I found it difficult to lock up the wheels. Part of the problem is that the Alpine is the only vehicle I have driven in the past 30 years that does not have power brakes. So the hard pedal is a bit foreign to me. Locking up the tires is not a problem. Did it last week in Hannabal, MO. The guy in the left lane about one length ahead of us flipped on his right signal and immediately started to make his move. I can report drivers respond to squealing tires much quicker than they do to a horn!
I had never done that with the stock pedal.
I did not remove the stock pivot point as I had no idea how the mod would perform.
Bill
Since upgrading to 15" tires, I found it difficult to lock up the wheels. Part of the problem is that the Alpine is the only vehicle I have driven in the past 30 years that does not have power brakes. So the hard pedal is a bit foreign to me. Locking up the tires is not a problem. Did it last week in Hannabal, MO. The guy in the left lane about one length ahead of us flipped on his right signal and immediately started to make his move. I can report drivers respond to squealing tires much quicker than they do to a horn!
I had never done that with the stock pedal.
I did not remove the stock pivot point as I had no idea how the mod would perform.
Bill
Charles Johns
Donation Time
I drove Bill's Beam and the brakes felt fine to me. A street rodder friend cut a custom brake pedal out of 3.4" plate, attached a stock rubber pedal to it, fabricated a bracket that mounted just above the brake rod hole, drilled the rod attachment hole and TA-DAH...one great brake pedal. Our problem is the lack of room below the brake master hole. This is why I like Bill's idea. I'll give it more thought (dangerous) when I get to that point.