car mods /upgrades that actually worked?

[Sheefag]

Righto, thanks.

[xtriple]

I 'must' have loads of these the amount of dopey stuff I have done to cars over the years but am really struggling to think of any that really worked! Sticking a V8 in a Dutton 7 alike was a bit of a major success but clearance for legs and such became a problem, so swings and roundabouts on that one.

 

Stuck an extremely tuned 1340 'A' series into my wife's Mini (it was what she wanted for her birthday) and while it went like a scalded cat and was 'most amusing' not exactly practical seeing as the fuel consumption was more in line with a series 3 Jaguar than a baby car... oh and reliability went a bit 'Pete Tong' as well!

 

In fact, all my forays into tuning cars has always turned into a double edged sword: you end up with something loads faster and great fun, but reliability and/or practicality turn to rat-shit! Probably the most successful one was the 351 V8 into a Capri 3 litre, but I didn't do that, just enjoyed the rewards of someone else's hard work.

 

Had quite a bit of success putting Webers and Nikki (anyone remember those?) carbs onto cars with Ford or Solex downdraught carbs and I always found the old ;Sparkrite' points assist electronic ignition really good but as both carbs and points are about as relevant to modern motoring as I am to married life, not really worth much today!

 

Had a  lot more success with bikes though: all modern bikes respond well to carb/injection mods - re-jetting or ecu re-tuning/Power commanders etc. But then bikes are all arsed about with by the manufacturers to pass various noise/emissions (specially about 4.5 thousand RPM) you are really only putting them back to the way the manufacturer intended before some government arsehole got in on the act, so not really relevant.

[Sheefag]

  On 05/09/2016 at 22:00, xtriple said:

Had quite a bit of success putting Webers and Nikki (anyone remember those?) carbs onto cars ........

 

I remember twin choke Nikki carbs on mid 70s Datsun 180Bs, not a bad carb at all.

[Stroller133]

  On 04/09/2016 at 17:11, Tamworthbay said:

Stage one kit on a mini.

I honestly can't think of a better sounding 4cyl car than a Mini A-series with an RC40 or similar exhaust!

I'm off to look at Minis for sale now, will soon be disgusted with prices!

[M'coli]

Piss-poor Hillman Imp heater fan? take a bean can or similar, some wood mastic (because that's what was in the shed), a piece of 3mm or 6mm ply, and a fresh-air blower from a Fiat 126 and magic them together so that it fits on the Imp heater duct ("the sausage") and watch the screen demist in no time at all.  Seriously much better by about 3-4 times more air.  My first attempt at this got mashed in a prang but the second one got sold (with the car it was in) to a thin ginger Imper    of some notoriety in 1998.

[cros]

Putting an alternator on a dynamo equipped car is a nice idea if you use it regularly. On ebay you can buy an adapter for earlier 'A' series engines so that you don't have to spend time making something up. I bought one of these in a moment of weakness for about 5 quid off ebay and fitted it. This left the alternator perched at a jaunty angle and left me wondering if the seller was trying to shift lots of fanbelts. I emailed this picture which attempts to show how much this exquisitely crafted offering is wrong and he/she returned my money immediately.

I then did what I was originally too lazy to do and made myself a bracket by altering the old one.

 

I should mention that dynamos are just fine, the problem usually seems to be in the regulator department- modern ones can be poor. I've also had several new alternators fail, so if it ain't broke...

 

 

 

[seth]

Its been nearly six and a half years (gulp!) since I put a Japanese engine in our Herald and I've barely touched it since - not even the SU carbs I fitted it with.  In the 4 years leading up to that I'd got through three 1500 Triumph engines. 

[DaveDorson]

  On 06/09/2016 at 10:06, seth said:

Its been nearly six and a half years (gulp!) since I put a Japanese engine in our Herald and I've barely touched it since - not even the SU carbs I fitted it with.  In the 4 years leading up to that I'd got through three 1500 Triumph engines. 

You've got an MX5 engine in yours don't you?

 

Any build up threads for that?, it's a very interesting conversion.

[steveo3002]

new fancy pants cob led panels 99p from ebay , massive increase in light , can actualy see in the boot now