Gale wrote,
> Date: Mon, 2 Oct 95 16:49:29 CDT
> From: "Gale A. Wilson ((512) 838-2383)" <gawilson(at)VNET.IBM.COM>
> To: jim.cantrell(at)sdl.USU.edu
> Subject: 2.8L?
> Jim,
>
> I saw your message on the Alpine list (which someone recently pointed
> out to me) and have got to ask how you got the 2.8L in the Alpine?
> Which 2.8L? what did you do about steering? I'm curious because
> I have a Series V with a blown engine, and 150hp would be about right!
>
> Thanks,
> Gale Wilson
>
Gale,
I built my 2.8 L Alpine myself about ten years ago. I obtained the
car as part of a deal where I sold my 63 E-type roadster. The car is
a 1966 model series V and it spent the majority of its life in a
garage in Santa Clara California. The car had a frozen motor and the
paint had turned pink from the sun. The interior was a total lost
cause but the body had not one dent nor any rust. Even better, the
car had last been registered in 1974 and still had the CHP smog
certificate in the windshield. The car had only 46,000 miles on it
before the PO lost interest and parked it. After I acquired the car,
I gave it to my to-be wife for her birthday (yes she was thrilled -
which I consider to be an unusual event since many people can't
readily see a diamond in the rough).
I had it trucked to Utah and my wife and I pulled the motor. The pistons were
stuck so bad that even hammering on them could not dislodge them.
At the time, Alpine engine parts were not easy to find in this part of
the woods so I opted to put something with a little more life under the hood.
Having done several engine swaps, I had some definite ideas about
what should be there - bigger the better to a point. One has to
strike a balance between a huge motor and reliability and drivability
.
We considered a ford V8 but decided against it when we found out
about the enourmous firewall and steering changes required. Instead,
we began to look at various V-6 engine combinations. We restricted
ourselves to the 60 degree V-6 engines since they are much narrower
than the 90 degree motors and would be much more likely to fit in
nicely. We looked at the GM 2.8L V-6 and found out two things: 1 It
is too long with its enourmous water pump and 2) It is a GM product
of the 80's. WE next looked at the Ford/Capri 2.8L V6 and found that
it was exactly the right length, the correct oil pan sump location,
and old Capris were readily available at the time. We bought one
with a good running motor and transmission and proceeded into a year
long engine swap project (this is quite formidable compared to most
engine swaps). We immediately decided to keep the capri 4-speed
transmission and adapt the drive shaft rather than to mess with the
origional transmission. After some trial fits, it became apparent
that several key points to the swap are as follows: 1. The engine
has to be back in the engine compartment in order to maintain proper
hood clearance for the carburetor, 2) The trans tunnel had to be
enlarged to accomodate #1, 3) The motor had to be properly placed up
and down in order for the unique Alpine steering to clear the starter
and rear of the engine and 4) Standard exhaust manifolds would not
work due to steering interference. So, we set about making a new
transmission tunnel (sheet metal mig welded together) and getting the
proper engine mounts made. We simply used the Alpine rubber mounts
and fabricated brackets to attach to the V6. The rear trans mount
was also fabricated to fit but was very simple. For shifter linkage,
we used the Capri shifter head and made our own linkage - real easy
despite the sound of it. The driveshaft was a piece of Cake as it
was simply a modified Alpine shaft with a different set of u-joints
(or mixtures). We had the origional radiator re-cored to a 3-core
and used an aftermarket flex fan. Oh yes, we had to modify the
thermostat housing on the V6 so that it would point at the radiator.
This resulted in a 4 inch long lower radiator hose (yes the
thermostat is on the bottom hose on this motor). The next challenge
was the headers. Since nobody made header kits for this motor, we
bought a set of headers for a Capri, hacked off the tubes at the
flange, and welded mandrel bent tubing on the left over tube stubs.
In order to make the sometimes very tight bends, we would cut the
pre-bent tubing into triangular slivers to make even tighter
radiuses. This worked well. I lost my patience about 2 days into
the headers and began screaming profanities when my wife decided to
take over the header fab. I showed her how to weld and she finished
them off. We used the collectors that came from the origional
headers. The clutch was a very challenging problem. Since the
Sunbeam is a hydraulic system and the Capri uses a cable, one pushes
and the other pulls. We origionally converted the entire system to a
mechanical linkage but found out that even my strong legs had a hard
time dealing with the forces. We ended up with using the origional
master/slave cylinder and building a inkage adaptor that coupled the
slave cylinder to the cable. Works great for the last 9 years.
There were some other hassles like the oil filter which had to be
remotely located to clear the steering and the weak Alpine rear end.
I lucked out though, when I found a spare Tiger differential intact
in a neighbor's field. 300 dollars later, it was in the car. Also,
the mechanical fuel pump had to be removed and a electrical unit used
instead. I modified the tachometer so that it readsd correctly with
6 cylinders and adapted the speedometer to the Capri cable.
All in all, this has been the most rewarding car project that I have
ever done. We consider the car a part of the family. It is
reasonably powerful, has a wonderful exhaust note and actually
handles extremely well. I have autocross raced it and guess what, I
can even beat the Tigers ! The only cars that walloped me were the
newer Corvettes but how can you compete with a 50,000$ piece of meat
? The Alpine is very reliable (never broke down once on me in 30,000
miles), doen't overheat unless it is very hot outside, and has no ill
manners. It does get a bit hot in the passenger compartment though -
my only real complaint. But, it's really not very hard to work on
either and the parts are inexpensive. I have tried to make it look
stock and many people at car shows ask me if it came with the engine
(I took the engine tag off of the Capri and placed it next to the
Coventry tag).
I would reccomend this swap to any Alpine owner who cannot rebuild
his or her motor. It is a very rewarding swap and I think that it only
improves the value of the car if done correctly.
Jim Cantrell
66 Series V 2.8 L
76 Jag XJ12C
Anyone want to buy a 76 Sterling Kit Car ?
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Sep 05 2000 - 09:17:30 CDT