The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

[Ben]

Anyone interested in an update...?

I'm sorry, who are you again?

[ashley]

[Magic Beans]

Has been a while hasn't it. Most amount of time I've been silent since joining here

Ok, I shall combine pictures and scribblings tomorrow

"Drop-top Camaro!" Not my latest purchase, unfortunately, but certainly something we heard a lot while we were Stateside

[GeorgeL]

Haha! I look forward to this... But on that note it means I don't Need to stay awake any longer. 430am start so I'm outta here...

[Nickp]

Yeah c'mon Phil I need to know!!

[slipping clutch]

Anyone interested in an update...?

Such a tease

[Magic Beans]

Anyone interested in an update...?

Such a tease

Haha, we've been watching Breaking Bad from the very start since getting back from America (not seen it before), so I've got used to everything being left as a cliffhanger. Seems I'm doing it now too

I'll leave you with this and the promise I'll get an update up on Sunday. We're away until then

[craig]

Magic who?

Looking forward to the update. *on edge of seat*

[Nickp]

Update? May I Sir?

Myself and Phil have formulated a plan to get the best out of this engine without spending a fortune. It's easy to plough £4-5K into making the old Twin Cam really fly. Not an option!!

Phils US trip was well timed and saw a nice set of shiny HC pistons 'smuggled' back in his suitcase. These should bring the CR up from the std 9:1 to nearer 11:1 which should really help the cams work-





The old damaged head could've been repaired but when I inspected it I was less than impressed with the porting job that'd been done on it so that won't be reused. Instead I've donated the Volumex (bigger inlet valves) head off my Monte (I've acquired a nice shiny Guy Croft one for that ) to the cause. This head made a healthy 150bhp on std cams and CR, up 30bhp from std.








The cams in the old engine are going to be reused and are a pretty aggresive Piper Rally/Race profile of 290deg with 11.2mm of lift which have to be timed in very carefully to avoid the valves and pistons clashing Powerband's quoted at 3000-7500rpm.





This isn't a straightforward build with its 'mish mash' of parts but I'm hoping if it all goes well then we should see 170-180bhp (any more will be a bonus ) and a much much livelier Westfield

[ashley]

Nice one- good to see some progress, that head looks good

[Nickp]

Nice one- good to see some progress, that head looks good

It is good, but not as good as my 'new' one







This one should be good for 200bhp I reckon, but is gonna want to rev upto about 8K with the cams that I got with it!!

[ashley]

Sweeeeeeet!!

[matt-mr2]

Great to see some progress on this

[craig]

Nice work Nick! Head looks great.

Be good to see the Westy back up to full health! Nice donation by the way

[Magic Beans]

Check that out for service. I don't even need to type updates, thanks Nick

I do have a few of my own photos to throw into the mix, as you'd expect..



Cams marked up





The new head, which has been so kindly donated from the Monte



The pistons, which were smuggled in, aong with gaskets sets (x2), tensioner bearing, big end shells. Not in the same place people smuggle drugs though..





Bits of Westy scattered about



Pistons dry fit, ready for the next steps..





The road trip in America was awesome! This time we did Houston - Lafayette - New Orleans - Baton Rouge - Vicksburg - Natchez - Tunica - Memphis - Nashville and we're currently planning New York - Philadelphia - Washington - Smoky Mountains - Nashville, with maybe a few other stops along the way. West coast the year after, unless we end up moving over there before then...

It has to be a Vette next time though as fuel's so damn cheap. We only used £130 ish in the Camaro, covering 1250 miles! In contrast, we used £350-400 worth of fuel in the 2L Mule during the Le Mans trip! Although the Camaro was only a measly V6, not the monsterous V8 we were hoping for Still sounded pretty good and pulled well (325bhp for the 3.6 V6) but in a world of MASSIVE V8 trucks etc a V6 just doesn't cut it. Fully sold on the whole drop-top thing though and it was a great cruising machine, which is what you tend to do in the deep south. There's no small overcrowded island issues there, unlike here..

[Nickp]

Check that out for service. I don't even need to type updates, thanks Nick

No probs mate, just thought I might be better placed for a technical insight

[Magic Beans]

Yeah, that engine's still somewhat of an enigma to me. Especially as you've had it longer than I have

[Nickp]

Yeah, that engine's still somewhat of an enigma to me. Especially as you've had it longer than I have

Not long now, good things come to those who wait

[Magic Beans]

Yep. It's all part of the game when tweaking cars

[synXero]

It has to be a Vette next time though as fuel's so damn cheap. We only used £130 ish in the Camaro, covering 1250 miles! In contrast, we used £350-400 worth of fuel in the 2L Mule during the Le Mans trip! Although the Camaro was only a measly V6, not the monsterous V8 we were hoping for Still sounded pretty good and pulled well (325bhp for the 3.6 V6) but in a world of MASSIVE V8 trucks etc a V6 just doesn't cut it. Fully sold on the whole drop-top thing though and it was a great cruising machine, which is what you tend to do in the deep south. There's no small overcrowded island issues there, unlike here..

A man after my own heart. I am sold on a vette now. They are just bat xxxx insane to be in... And so wide feeling. Try make the pesky mr2 feel like a die cast!