Nicks VR4

Slighty off topic

I had a Viva 1800 and a Magnum 2300
Had many a fun time in the Magnum

Meet a guy at Santa pod years ago with a Firenza that was bloody quick
He wouldnt tell anyone what was under the bonnet

BrynO

I had a Firenza back in the '80's fitted, I fitted it with a droop snoot front end.. then i bought the droop snoot 'Sports hatch' - any one remember those?
they were built using the left over nose cones from the HP Firenzas, same grey centred alloys, 187 were made IIRC, all with the Magnum 'estate' shell, 2.3 engine with twin strombergs, finished in very dark purple with red bumpers and side stripes, red carpets & tartan seats.. a true classic!!

Sold mine to my bro and it sadly rotted away in a field somewhere, finally canabalised by someone who wanted the nose cone..

jeff66

HP firenza... I now have one! Stole it from Ebag... Wanted one for 20 odd years now. Even though I have a 10 sec. street legal car. The Firenza does it for me.

MTR

Simon,
I thought the Vauxhall head and the Lotus head differed, in that on the Lotus head the cams ran in a removable cam carrier not directly in the head as per the Vauxhall head layout, or it may have been the other way round.
They may be interchangable but I don't know.
A friend owned a Jensen Healey some 20+ years ago, and he told me the oil pump was £xx from Lotus and was considerably less for the same pump from Vauxhall, so apparently some of the bits were common.
The Lotus derived 907 engine was used in the Jensen Healey. IIRC.

Proper engines with carburettors, eeh them were the days.

Cheers
MTR

GC8

Im sure that youre right about the Jensen Healey; Id forgotten all about those. With regard to there being differences between the Lotus head (2.2l based on a 2l slant-four) and the Vauxhall head (2.3l 'developed' by Lotus from a 2.3l slant-four) I honestly dont know; there certainly was a good while between Lotus's developing the 2.2l for themselves and their providing the 2.3l for Vauxhall. From what I recall of the artice though, the block was the same and irrespective of other differences the castings will fit together. Id still source both appropriate head gaskets to double check before buying a '907' head though.....


Simon

NotoriousREV

The Vauxhall head has a removeable cam carrier, this I know as I've got more cams than carriers and more carriers than heads At last count I had 5 or 6 heads (including the ones on the 3 complete engines)

MTR

Simon,
Yes the head gasket comparison is an easy way of confirming things.
Assuming a motor factor has them both in stock for comparison.
Lockstitch in Rochdale Lancashire refurbish cylinder heads and might be able to confirm similarities betwen the heads.

Is the HSR Chevette 16v head the same as the ones you have, or are they the ones that are similar to the Lotus 907 heads used on the Healey but with a different cam carrier arrangement? Is yours a 2300 single cam 8v engine/head?

Perhaps I have got it wrong, and both heads use seperate cam carriers.
The chap I worked with who told me about the differences wasn't the most reliable source of information, but he owned a Jensen Healey at the time so I assumed he knew what he was talking about.

The other chap I worked with who told me about the oil pump was probably more reliable as he was rebuilding his Healey with his brother, who also had a Lotus Elan Sprint.


Cheers
MTR

NotoriousREV

Never seen a Vauxhall or Lotus 16v head so don't know. I've seen head gaskets costing about £80 for the Lotus engine, complete Lotus engines don't go for much more on eBay. I do know that the crank etc. fit the Lotus block, so I have thought about making a 2300 Lotus engine (all aluminium). Of course the oriinal plan called for a small block Chevy motor but I can't make my mind up

jeff66

Go for the smallblock! You know, some were built with smallblocks as standard in Oz!

Even better, do as Al Golding has done with his.... 7.3L of pure Mopar power.

Scoob99

iTrader: (1)

I too had a Viva 1800......christ I'm old