hi Rob
As far as I know the block itself is identical. The main component
incompatibility would be the camshaft. The series 2 rapier was standard with
a cast iron head. They went to an alloy just afterwards. All alpines were
alloy head I think, though I'm not an alpine expert so someone may need to
confirm this.
Anyway the alloy head has a different port arrangement, and thus needs its
specific cam to suit. Other than that it should just bolt on, but you will
also need the alloy head inlet and exhaust manifolds. The combustion chamber
is a different size (smaller) on the alloy heads too so this will affect
your compression ratio (increase it) unless you change the pistons to suit.
Your block could be quite rare, I don't know if there were special mods to
the head on it anyway as this was really the only performance cast iron head
motors rootes ever did. I do have some specs around here somewhere on what
the series 2 rapier cam timing and compression etc was if you want me to dig
them out.
The cam shaft changed around 1965 as well to have a different no of drive
teeth on for the oil pump. so beware of this too, as the oil pump drive cog
is different too.
As I said, I'm not an alpine expert, just into rootes cars in general, and
making them go faster, hence the choice of later alpine spec motors. So
there may be more mods required to change it to period alpine spec. It
depends what you are trying to do, build a replica alpine motor, or just a
good runner.
What is the shell you are using. Is it a series 2 rapier? The early ones
without fins are lovely and extremely rare worldwide now as far as I know.
Greg
As I say I'm not an alpine expert, and there may be other mods necessary to
----- Original Message -----
From: Robert Wiseman <rob(at)wisemaninsurance.com>
To: Greg Locke <glocke(at)ihug.co.nz>
Sent: Saturday, 11 December 1999 18:34
Subject: Re: What Engine
> Thanks for the info. Do you have any idea of the specs on this engine. I
may
> want to try and find an aluminum head sometime. Need to know how similar
the
> block is with the Alpine.
> Rob
>
> Greg Locke wrote:
>
> > H is for hard top which does make more sense.
> > I wondered if it could have been a V too, for rapier van. Imagine that!
But
> > you never know what wierd badge engineering rootes got up to.
> >
> > There was a commer cob (also called hillman husky) here in NZ that used
to
> > race hillclimbs very successfully (alpine floorpan, lighter shell, and
> > better weight distribution). It was painted bright yellow and called the
> > corn cob.
> >
> > greg
> >
> > from Rob..
> > > Greg, thanks for the help, actually, like I said, the Stamp is very
weak.
> > The U
> > > in LUX could be LHX.
>
>
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