Robert -
What you have is a very odd bird. The Series II Rapier is the only
model I know of that used a 1494 dual carb engine with a cast iron head. The
compression is lower than the Alpine engine, but whether that is from head
volume or not, I don't know.
What that means, is that you can use an alloy head from an early
Alpine, but you'll have to change both manifolds, cam, and lifters, as well
as the head. The valve order is different.
The biggest question is this - the engine as you have it now, is
rated at 68hp. The Series I Alpine motor is rated at 78hp. Is 10hp worth all
the work necessary to change these parts?
I did a similar procedure on the cast-iron head 1725 in my camper,
which now has an Alpine head, specially ground cam, and twin downdraft
Zeniths. The engine was only good for 65hp with a single carb, and needed a
rebuild anyway, so it was worth the expense. If I were you, I'd start
collecting the parts you'd need to do the swap, and just enjoy the engine as
it is until it needs a rebuild. When that time comes, you could probably
recoup some of your costs by selling the old parts to someone restoring a
Rapier or a Minx.
Jon Arzt Rootes(at)aol.com OR jon(at)cordelmotor.com
57 Hillman Minx
61 Humber Super Snipe
66 Sunbeam Alpine
66 Humber Super Snipe estate
67 Sunbeam Highwayman
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Sep 05 2000 - 08:45:21 CDT