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Greg_M Member
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Greeting all, here is the story. 1974 1/2 Jensen Healey 5 speed. Bought used in 1976 and raced it for 7 years. Retired the car and fielded a Lola T360 with a Lotus 907/906 engine for another 5 years. The Jensen sat in the garage until this summer and now is in the process of being put back on the street. Here is what I am working with; Lotus 906 engine, with custom strong block, factory dry sump, custom TRW racing pistons 10.75 compresion, factory 906 compitition head, valves, springs, cam followers, compition cams, factory 906 steel billett cross drilled nitrited crank. Custom exaust. Currently Weber 48DCOE carbs. Converting to fuel injection for the street. Redline 10,500 rpm. Lightened flywheel with 7" clutch pressure plate and 3 button bronze competition disc. Custom competitiion 2 piece drive shaft to support the high rpm. Huffacre springs and sway bars. SPAX competition shocks. 4 speed locker rear end, changing to 5 speed for the street. 4 wheel disc brakes, Front Formula 2 vented/cross drilled rotors with Volvo 4 puck calipers. Rear Volvo rotors with Lotus Elan calipers. SCCA Competion Roll bar and 5 point harness. Have to go to stock roll bar as the soft/hard top won't clear. Body has flaired fenders, 12 quart dry sump oil tank in the pasenger fender well behind the front tire. As raced: weight 1547 lbs, top speed 156 mph. Now a little about me. I had the Jensen dealership in this area until I closed my shop in 1986, all my Jensen parts went into storage. Now I have brought them out and those that I won't need for my cars I wil be selling. Oh, I also have a 1968 Jensen Interceptor FF. If you have a specific need email me at greg_moore@msn.com. |
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Brett Gibson JH5 20497 Member
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Well lets see a picture of this thing |
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Greg_M Member
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Here is a picture of us winning at Portland International Raceway 1981 Attachment: PIR 1981 (Small).jpg (Downloaded 586 times) |
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chrisl Member 
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Good luck with the project - keep us posted on progress! |
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Lotusracer Member
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Hi Greg, We are just starting the exact opposite project, preparing our 73 Mk 1 Jensen for vintage racing, have you sold your performance parts yet ? |
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Greg_M Member
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I've gotten rid of the fiberglass trunk lid and air dam, racing windscreen, tho I still have the patern for it. Still have the SCCA approved roll bar for sale. Everything else is staying on the car. I'm not sure what I am doing with the fiberglass hood. The engine is a one of a kind, probably can't be duplicated today. All factory LOTUS 906 racing parts. I have masters for the camshafts, but I am unsure what you can run in vintage racing. They would not work well if you had to keep the stock carbs. They realy come alive between 4500 and 9000 rpm. Wont't idle less that 1800rpm. I also have the molds for the front fender flairs. Good luck, when set up properly nothing can beat it. |
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Lotusracer Member
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We were hoping the dry sump kit might still be available, the vintage rules for most everything else are strict but they are OK with reliability upgrades such as Dry sump or accusumps. We are building this vintage racer for the minister of war and finance, as she is sick of hanging around in the paddock while I have all the fun in my Lotus 7. Your engine sounds radical, therefore totally understand that you would want to keep it dry sumped. I have run my seven dry sumped since day 1 and it really does pay dividends with engine reliability. We may be interested in the roll bar though, I am guessing it is bolt in ?, do you happen to know tube diameter and wall thickness, I will need to check the regs to see if it complies. Regards Mark |
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Jensenman Member
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I'd be interested in a fiberglass hood, er, bonnet. |
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Greg_M Member
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Update.... I have finally decided on the direction I want to go on the fuel injection. I will be using a MegaSquirt II for the ECU. I will keep the Porsche 914 2.0L Bosch fuel injectors, fuel pump, pressure regulator, throttle position sensor, air temp sensor and modified Bosch distributor. The Bosch distributor has been modified for mechanical advance only and provides data to the MegaSquirt II for ignition and fuel injection. Eventually the MegaSquirt will feed twin ignition coils and the distributor will be replaced with a crank position sensor in the same location. The throttle bodies are nearly finished, they are 2 - two barrel bodies machined from a block of aluminium and use Weber 48DCOE throttle shafts and plates. I will be adding a water temp sensor to the rear of the cylinder head for the fuel injection and keep the sender for the Smiths mechanical water temp guage in the stock location. I hope the have the car running by the British Car Meet this summer. |
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subwoofer Member
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It is quite possible (some say easy) to add a 36-1 wheel and a VR pickup to the front pulley on the crankshaft. Since you will be running an MS2 you can load the MS2/Extra firmware and have sequential fuel (for better pickup off idle) and wasted spark or COP ignition and get a lot better timing than with the mechanical advance. 3D ignition mapping wouldn't hurt either. http://www.trigger-wheels.com have all the necessary hardware, I doubt it will be more expensive than converting the distributor. We would love pictures! -- Joachim |
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Greg_M Member
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Unfortunately a sensor on the front pulley is not practical. The front pulley is a alloy twin grove with a very deep recess for the bolt. I went to this setup so that one belt drives the water pump and the other drives the alternator. That way I can tighten the belt for the alternator as tight as I want without putting to much pressure on the water pump bearing. Also for short races I would drop the belt for the alternator to get a little more power. |
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subwoofer Member
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It has been done on a triple groove pulley, and it looks good. Unfortunately, the pictures were missing today: http://www.thelotusforums.com/forums/index.php?/topic/26186-msd-ignition-system/ (User PER). What he did was to machine a larger hole in the trigger wheel, and mount it on the inside of the pulley grooves. Just a little bit of material had to be removed from the pulley to mate with the trigger wheel, which is held in place with two small screws. It fits kinda like a ring gear on a flywheel. -- Joachim |
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Greg_M Member
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I don't think that would be possible on my engine. The alloy pulley is just too thin walled to do this to it. I can see that on a steel version of this pulley I have that it would be possible, but I don't want to change it. The web site you referenced makes a 2" wheel that I think I can fit inside a Lucas distrubitor housing. I would remove the cam and counter weights, mount the wheel to the shaft and mount the sensor to the plate the points mount on. I would just need a cover to enclose the whole setup. A used distrubitor cap would work until I could find something better. This would give me a little project to do until the weather improves. Cheers |
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907heaven Member
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Greg, I use a 36-1 wheel set up on race engines I build and it will fit on the back of a 2 belt pulley. I am not sure if you can post a picture on this forum, if not send me your email address and I'll mail you a photo. GARRY |
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907 heaven Member
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Greg, here is the photo of the missing tooth wheel on the back of the alloy pulley. GARRY Attachment: MVC-010S.JPG (Downloaded 316 times) |
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subwoofer Member
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Nice one, Garry! Do you provide these pulleys and trigger wheels to others? I don't have a lathe, so I can't make my own for the time being. |
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907 heaven Member
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I can supply the trigger wheels; the alloy pullies are just the OEM Lotus pulley modified to accept the trigger wheel - you need to cut a small rebate on the rear of the pulley, I make the trigger wheel and pulley a slight interference fit. Then there are 3 small holes to drill and tap into the pulley - the trigger wheel is fixed with countersunk M4 screws - I also like to bond it to the pulley to be 100% sure it isn't going anywhere. It is simple stuff for an engineer. I can sell you a trigger wheel for £25 plus postage. I have two versions - one as shown and one with angled teeth, to allow for a sensor set at an angle like the photo below. Attachment: MVC-008S.JPG (Downloaded 79 times) |
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subwoofer Member
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Garry: It's sort of hard to tell from the photo, and I haven't seen the three groove pulleys in the flesh, but is the outer part of that pulley the same diameter as the single groove pulley on the JH? There is not much room behind the groove on the single groove pulley, do you think it would be possible to fit the angled trigger wheel to it without interfering with the belt tensioner? The VR pickup looks like the standard Ford part, very cheap and very easy to find. -- Joachim Edit for spelling Last edited on 04-07-2010 05:34 am by subwoofer |
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907 heaven Member
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The early Healeys had a steel pulley - I can't say if it will fit on one of those, but I think the Mk2's got the Lotus alloy pulley - which were all the same at the back - they just had 1, 2 or 3 grooves for extra belts; so you can fit the crank trigger wheel on any of the alloy pullies - you are right it is a tight fit - but it will go in. |
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Greg_M Member
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Gary, The Jensen Healeys all had Steel single groove pulleys until the JH5 and GT's, they got a 2 groove steel pulley. The second groove was for the smog air pump. The only problem I see for my setup is that I have a front housing that surrounds the timing belt. I'm not sure if there is the room for the timing gear. I guess I could always machine of a 1/4" or so. Question; how is the missing tooth 36-1 indixed in relation to Top Dead Center? Cheers, Greg |
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907 heaven Member
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Hi Greg, there are I think 3 different front covers; the later ones don't have the cowl around them - they are very plentiful over here - so easy enough to swap over. The wheel can be spun and fixed in any position you need - different management systems use use different sensor offsets; I think that depends on who's kit you are using. Regards GARRY |
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Greg_M Member
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Garry, I will be using the new MegaSquirt 3. What system are you using? What are you using for throttle bodys? Cheers, Greg |
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907heaven Member
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I used an English system by a company called DTA - the throttle bodies are from Jenvey Dynamics; they supply about 90% of the throttle bodies for the UK market. As it happens the owner Richard Jenvey used to run a Group 5 Esprit in the late 70's / Early 80's fitted with a fuel injected 906. He still has it I believe. Garry |
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Greg_M Member
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If anybody is interested, I have just removed the Huffacre Competion Springs and SPAX Competion shocks from the race car and they are now for sale. Put a new set of street SPAX shocks and Rally springs on the car. THe springs lower the car about one inch and are about 15 percent stiffer. |
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Greg_M Member
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Well, I've finally settled on a set of tires for the car. I will be using the 14"X7" rims I used for the race tires and mount a set of NITTO NT 555R 205/55R14. This tire is a street/race tire and should be perfect for the car. |
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Greg_M Member
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Here are pictures of the rims and tires. The Rims are American Racing 15 spoke aluminium mags 14"x7" with zero offset. Attachment: American Racing Wheel.jpg (Downloaded 86 times) |
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Greg_M Member
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And the tire. NITTO NT 555R 205/55R14. Attachment: Nitto Tire.jpg (Downloaded 66 times) |
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Greg_M Member
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Well it's time to bring everyone up to date on the project. The Fuel Injection is almost complete. It ended up costing me alot more that I had anticipated, but I think it will be worth every penny.. Here is a picture of the M/S unit mounted under the dash, behind the glove box. More to follow. Cheer, Attachment: JH Mega Squirt a.jpg (Downloaded 56 times) |
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Greg_M Member
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Here is a pic of the crank sensor and timing wheel mounted to the front pulley. Attachment: JH Crank Sensor 2a.jpg (Downloaded 67 times) |
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Greg_M Member
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Here is a picture of the Distributor blanking plate that must be installed when the Distributor is removed. Attachment: JH Distributor Blanking Plate a.jpg (Downloaded 57 times) |
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Greg_M Member
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Here is a picture of the Distributor blanking plate installed. Note the Drysump unit installed between the oil pump and the Aux. housing. This is a Lotus 906 unit. I originally had two of them, but one went with a engine I install in a Lola T360 Formula 2 car. Attachment: JH Dry Sump with Dist Blanking Platea.jpg (Downloaded 63 times) |
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Greg_M Member
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I ran into problems last week that were unanticipated. I was fitting up a new front spoiler and discovered that the lower front valance was badly dammaged. After a little thought, I remembered a couple off track excurisions that were made i the cars race days. OK I thought, no problem, I have a new one in stock. More bad news, when trying to fit the new valance I found that the Radiator Core Support was also damaged and out of sorts. So after spending several hours of trying to straighten it, I came to the realization that it was hopless. OK, no problem, I have a new Radiator Core Support in stock. Four hours later I have the old support out of the car. Here is a picture of the car ready for the new support. Note the Kent Cams HTD Pulleys. Just had to have them. More about that later. Attachment: JH Radiator Core Support Removed a.jpg (Downloaded 153 times) |
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subwoofer Member
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Greg_M wrote:Here is a pic of the crank sensor and timing wheel mounted to the front pulley. Looking good! Did you get the trigger wheel from Garry Kemp, or did you get it from elsewhere? -- Joachim |
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Greg_M Member
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subwoofer wrote: Looking good! Did you get the trigger wheel from Garry Kemp, or did you get it from elsewhere? I got the trigger wheel from trigger-wheels.com in England. I did my own machining. I first tried to get one from Gary Kemp, but he never answered my emails. Cheers, Greg |
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Greg_M Member
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OK, some more pictures. Here is the Radiator Core Support set in place, initial alignment. Attachment: JH Radiator Core Support Setup a.jpg (Downloaded 60 times) |
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Greg_M Member
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Here with the Lower Valance installed prior to welding. Attachment: JH Radiator Core Support and Front Valance 2a.jpg (Downloaded 53 times) |
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Greg_M Member
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Here is a better picture of the Throttle bodies I machined. This is still in the mockup stage, throttle shafts and throttle plates have not been installed. Note the Fuel Injectors installed in the factory manifold. You can see the fuel pressure regulator on the left inner fender (blue unit). The airbox is from a Lotus Esprit. Sitting on the airbox is a Cold Idle Valve. On the back firewall on the right is the Ignition Coils (wasted spark) and in the middle is a Ford Ignition Control unit that matches the Ford Timing sensor. This unit is controled by the Mega Squirt Fuel Injection Controler. Attachment: JH Fuel Injection 1.jpg (Downloaded 61 times) |
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Greg_M Member
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Here is a picture of a Wide Band O2 Sensor installed for the fuel injection. The exaust pipe is 2.5" at this point. Attachment: JH O2 Sensor 1.jpg (Downloaded 52 times) |
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Greg_M Member
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You know this whole project is alot harder than I anticipated. It only took a couple of months to build the race car. Now after over 30 years I have to remember where everything goes, Remember where I put all of the parts I took off of the car. So far I have not come across any missing items, except the Luggage Rack for the trunk and a pair if SPAX Front shocks. Funny, I found all of the Luggage Rack mounting hardware, just no luggage rack. Still hope to make the All British Car Meet this August. |
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