I've had the car for about 15 years and kept it in largely standard spec until now. I have copied the posts from another forum so hopefully it all makes sense.
Time for a change of project, this one even has a deadline so may be completed before I die
The Jensen has been laid up for about 3 & ½ years, primarily because the valve guides are worn in the borrowed engine that is in it. The proper engine has been in bits for about 6 years since needing a bottom end rebuild.
I dug the car out of the garage a couple of weeks ago and it all looked to be in pretty good nick still. It started first turn of the key after hitting the fuel pump with a hammer and changing the battery, apparently 3 years of trickle charging has boiled it dry :dunno:.
The plan is to get it ready to use for my wedding next year and then to take it to Europe for a few weeks and hopefully hit a trackday or two.
With this in mind the 4spd box is being replaced with the 5spd W58 box from Steves supra.
That was removed last weekend and cleaned up.
size comparison against a spare 4sd I have
It should fit without any need to modify the car but will need to be fitted to a lotus excel bell housing, modified remote, different clutch, modified mounting and either converting to cable clutch or most likely convert the car to hydraulic clutch and a custom prop.
Next will be the engine.
I am currently looking a two possibilities, one is to fit the later 2.2l crank, rods and pistons, different cams and a few other mods to bring the engine up from 140hp to 180ish.
The second option is to just buy a 2.2hc engine and give it a freshen up. The hc engine has a much stronger block but is much wider which means it won't fit without some serious modification.
I will also get a roll hoop fabricated just in case putting cars on their roof runs in the family.
I also need to look at the back axle as there is some play between it and the diff, the perfect time to fit an LSD if only someone made one that fitted.
Phase two of the project which will likely be the early part of next year will be to get a couple of small bits of body work sorted, tidy up the couple of doggy bits of interior and decide if the brakes and suspension need upgrading.
If its dry tomorrow the plan is to take it for a little FTP run to see if anything else needs sorting that I have forgotten about
Took a trip to lotus bits in Coventry yesterday with Steve.
Cam back with this lot on the redjet
I have basically bought a complete 900 series engine in bits made up of all the right parts to do what I need.
Second hand parts.
Sump - esprit 907 this has a symmetrical pan so oil performance is the same round right and left bends, is also baffled. The Jensen sump is offset to the left and only has one crap baffle. This will need a slight modification to clear the subframe.
Block- esprit 907 This is the same as the mk2 engine fitted to the Jensen (mine is a mk1) except the tag for the mains are on the opposite side, this is to take the bearings to suit the cross drilled crank. Compared to my existing block this is stronger whilst having a much better breather set up.
Cam carriers - 907 series2 these are the same style as mine but unlike mine have ‘o’ring seals rather than a gasket which sits between the carrier and the head and made shimming a nightmare.
Head studs - Series 2 higher tensile strength.
Pistons & rods 912HC – rods designed to throw oil at the back of the pistons to keep them cool. Higher compression mahle piston. These are of a better quality material than my hepolite ones. They expands less so are a tighter tolerance in the liners which causes less piston slap which the earlier engines suffer from.
Crank – 912HC 2.2 cross drilled crank with fresh regrind -10thou.
Bell housing – Excel long, this will fit the supra box onto the 912 crank
New bits.
Cams – reground Kent L14
Pulleys – HTD pulley set with vernier cam pulleys. The earlier engines had a square belt which were prone to snapping with increased power.
Valves - +1mm lotus bits valves.
Head – CNC ported with freshly cut seats, new guides and a skim. Was planning to do this myself but after seeing a sectioned head and how close the porting takes it to the coolant ways, which seem to vary in postion due to core shift (he recommended buy 3 heads if I was going to do it myself to allow for scrapage lol) plus adding in the cost of guides, skimming & valve seat cutting plus all the time I decided this was the sensible route.
All the servicing items required to rebuild including liners, Bearings water pump & head gasket.
Some of these bits will be being posted later and should be here in about 2 weeks.
On top of this I still need
Decide what do do with flywheel – could use standard one but heavy and aparntly should not be revved over 7,200, could use lighter esprit one but will need redrilling to take the clutch to fit my box. Excell ones are apparently crap so the 3rd option is to buy a lightened one.
Need to buy an excel friction plate & uprated pressure plate.
Need to convert the bell housing to cable operated but at £400 for their kit will probably make my own, he did offer to let me have some dims to make my life easier.
Carbs – for this level of tune I need the spec 9 or 10 45’s. He has some spec 10’s in stock that need a service which he offered at a sensible price, it is probably cheaper to buy these and service the ones I have to sell on, rather than change the chokes and jets in mine. Additionally the spec 10s are tri jetted so have an extra jet enabling better power delivery and maybe slightly better economy.
I also picked up a copy of the engine section for the workshop manual, some engine stands to make it easier to work on, he wanted £80 so is said no and would make my own so he threw them in for free. Was up there for about for about 5 hours in total, very helpful and knowledgeable bloke. All in all a good but expensive day out.
Still waiting for the rest of the bits to turn up, have also ordered an AP racing clutch but that is also delayed due to manufacturing problems. Been concentrating on cleaning all the bits up, have lightened & balanced the gudgeon pins. Have decided to put an MOT on it before I take the old engine out to make life easier when running the new engine in. Took it in this afternoon, went straight through:D but unfortunately broke down 25 yards from home on the main road in the p155 rain, fuel pump decided it preferred resting to working for a living
, got that working again, just need to get it registered as historic and get my free road tax:thumbs:.Turned out not to be fuel pump after all and broke down 4 times in 12 miles last Saturday, swapped the dizzy for a spare. completed 90 trouble free miles today and yesterday. Looks like its the second electronic ignition I have killed in that car now. Should get the rest of the engine parts next week with a bit of luck then can start the build properly.
Car has been behaving itself and has now covered a few hundred miles this year, Weather permitting the engine will be coming out next weekend ready to check the new sump and box fit, before removing the front suspension and subframe for a repaint as it was last done 15 years ago and bits are starting to look a bit tired.
Most of the bits I was waitng for turned up on Monday, Crank with 10thou regrind, lightweight fly wheel,liners, bearings, ported head & carbs.
Heavily machined rear of the billet flywheel.
The head has been ported, chambers machined, vale seats cut and new guides fitted.
I have cleaned and fully rebuilt one of the 45's that I had, just the second one to go. Then these will be up for sale
The new set of tri jet 45's, also in need of a clean and full rebuild.
Cylinder head from the original engine compared to the new ported head.
Current engine removed from the car.
New engine and box laid next to the old one for comparison. Unfortunately it looks like I wont get away with modifying the existing remote so will probably have to get a shorter one and modify that instead.
modified esprit sump clears the subframe nicely
W28 gearbox fits in the tunnel nicely with more clearance than I had expected. Will need to fabricate a new gearbox mount later.
Clutch finally turned up this week, only for the friction plate to be the wrong one:(. Also checked the rad and as I suspected its a standard 2 core one so will either need to get it recored with 3 cores or fit an uprated ally one.
The correct clutch finally turned up last week, only took 4 months:mad:. All of the required parts were delivered for balancing today, should take 7 to 10 days. Head is largely built up now. Liners have been fitted to the block. front suspension & sub frame has all been removed from the car, shot blasted and painted ready for reassembly. need to sort the gear linkage and get the radiator recored whilst I wait for the crank etc to return.
So much for having it back in one piece before the end of the summer:rolleyes:
Front subframe has been fully stripped down , knocked up a temporary shot bllast booth and blasted all the parts.
All primed
All blasted and ready for reassembly
New gear lever remote designed, machined and fabricated, has since been fully welded.
original Toyota one can be seen here, this moves the gear lever forwards about 3.5" which shoul hopefully line it up with the hole in the tunnel.
Cylinder liner clamps machined up, liners lapped to correct nip height and glued in place.
Parts all cleaned ready to go off for balancing.
Sump modified to around my subframe and baffle cut ot modified and made removable.
Went to start building the bottom end up yesterday only to discover that the center upper main bearing shell had the tag on the wrong side, this is due to my shells being for the 2.2 crank which is of a different design to the 2 litre crank which is what my block is from, so I ground out a new groove in the block for the bearing tag.
Balanced pistons and rods all assembled.
Crank fitted and 2 halves of block assembled, pistons were also fitted today.
Went to fit the front crank seal cover this morning and discovered that there was no hole in the block for the cambelt tensioner, if only I had realised before fitting the crank, anyway missing hole drilled and tapped and cover fitted, I guess this is the joys of building a mix and match engine
Few more bits ordered, decided to buy the a spigot bearing and sleeve rather than make an oillite one and the same for the release bearing sleeve, decided time was more important than saving a few pennys.
Block carefully covered up as the crank and pistons were fully exposed and put on the pillardrill to drill off the hole for the cam tensioner.
Cam tensioner stud, front housing and pistons fitted.
Cylinder head, oil pump, rear seal housing, flywheel and clutch cover all fitted.
The Engine is pretty much complete now, Still need to time the cams in, decide on what distributer to use, fit the clutch plate and the ancillaries & rebuild the carbs.
Next is to finish sorting a couple of bits on the body, modify the bell housing to suit the cable clutch, finish rebuilding the front subframe and make the upgraded front brakes fit.
FRont subframe straight from A series manta with added brackets 
