Rootes Group Cars

Howdy from Colorado, my wife & I bought our Husky a few years ago from a guy in Detroit who runs/ran a GTO restoration shop.
With that being said we thought we'd be getting a decently put together (compared to my hillbilly skillset) car, oh well maybe next time.
We're not bitter, we love the car which we bought for easily loading up & hauling our dogs down to the lake & basically just putting about in.

Original motor was toasty & so was the tranny. We bought the driveline from the guy who was doing the S2000 driveline into a Hillman Super Minx up in Oregon and as promised by others it literally 'bolted right in'. Also added a 'rebuilt' tranny from a series -3 or 4 Alpine to gain 4 synchro's. Nice thing about the Minx swap (besides the 1725cc's) was gaining front the disc's & bigger drums in back as well as a better hiway geared rearend.

Well, two years (& about 500 miles) later & I've been told the Minx motor's going down the same hole the original was, so I panicked for a month or three.

A few years ago we'd managed to sell a Lotus 23 Sports racer for my best bud's estate during the economy bust after his passing away. We were gifted by the estate (& we certianly didn't ask for anything for helping his family!) his dyno-break in time only Lotus twincam drysumped 'all the bells & whistles' back up race motor built out of a 1600 block vs. the regular 1500ish cc's..

So that's what we're going to be dropping into the Hillman. I'll add some photos as soon as I figure out how to shrink them down to 600kb. Tranny will for now be the close ratio four speed out of another stalled project of mine that's sadly basically yard art at this point, will also be using the dry sump tank from this car as well. I've alway sloved the sound of a twink at full chat breathing thru webers so this should be an aural pleasure for sure.

So I haven't looked up actual stat's but I think we'll be at least upping our HP by a factor of 3 to about 180-195. This engine will require 112 octane but I love the smell of that stuff so we're good with that as there's a shop in town that sells it by the gallon, no long trips in this thing.....

Cheers & we look forward to hanging out here. I've been admiring the Husky with the quad cam swap & have already pm'ed the owner to ask him silly questions. Our car won't ever get to be that purdy, our body's too far shot with butt ton's of patina so we pinstriped over the top of 'all that' and called it good as we live on a dirt road knowing the toll that takes on paint jobs.


Cris (& Jenn)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/24/2015 02:36PM by CrisInColorado.

Beware the steering arms! They consume a large amount of valuable and rare real estate when going from lock to lock.

Bill

Howdy Bill, I was going to reach out to you regarding doing the Alpine upper & lower uprights to lose the kingpins gain ball joints etc. And for sure the rearsteer on these is amazing, kind of why I'm sticking with the four-banger, in theory (knocking on wood) it should drop in without too much massaging. Already did the tranny tunnel swap when we went with the Alpine tranny swap a few years ago.

Any thoughts on what one can expect to pay for the bits involved.?

Absolutely no idea. Alpines and Huskies are so rare, there is no identifiable market. About the best I can recommend is to frequent the SAOCA site to get feel for what is available. There is a recent thread there about the front end conversion. I don't know much about the subject, my car is a Series V and I've just replaced worn parts. New parts are expensive, but we should be glad they are availalbe. Pretty incredible, still able to buy ball joints for a 50 year old car that was not what you'd call a huge seller.

For the most part, "easy engine swap" when applied to the Alpine family of cars, is a lie. Seems like you are always fighting to get another quarter inch of room. But you are starting with a small block engine, very smart move.

Bill

Cris, I absolutely love the patina look! I'd have left my car like that in a second if it hadn't been so rusty. There was so much to fix there was no way to preserve any of the original look.

You're already fortunate in having opened up a dialogue with Bill, he knows a lot about Alpines and swapping in general. He is who I "stole" the idea from for my front brakes. GM rotors and metric calipers. It works great and I recommend it.

I can tell you that the Alpine upper and lower a-arms bolted right on my Husky crossmember. I could have bolted the Alpine crossmember to the Hillman, but I already had motor mounts welded on the Husky crossmember. Where to find the parts? Good question, but like Bill I'd definitely be posting a "wanted" ad on the SAOCA website. And maybe a "wanted" ad on the craigslist in your area. I can offer that the rebuild parts for Alpine suspension are obscenely expensive. Bushing, ball joints, etc. I think I put over $500 in parts in rebuilding mine.

The Lotus engine sounds really cool, I just worry that it will have terrible driveability as far as torque and rpm. Only one way to find out!

I have a 58 Minx convertible, but would love to have a decent Husky. There is one in Denver right now, but too far from eastern Kansas.

I also love the Quad 4 Husky, as I have a pretty rusty Chevy Cavalier with the 2.4, and think it would be nice in the Minx. I do see a problem with the heater assy though.

I will be following your thread. Good luck.

Motor has been stabbed into place. I used the Cortina close ratio four speed box out of my Briitish 60's 'yard-art' tube frame ex-hill climb race car.

Only clearance issue is with one of the weber trumpets, we'll get that fiddled with soon. I'll post some pics when I find the damn cable for between the camera & the computer. No problems at all with the rear steer steering arm against the firewall.

Hope to get it out of hock from the fab' shop in the next week or two. Was able to mount it pretty low thanks to the dry sump pan
and as far back as we could also. Plenty of room for an electric fan (puller) in front. Front of the block is just about square/even with the rear of the Hillman front crossmember.

Bought some generic 'you build them with our pieces' engine & tranny mounts from across the big pond, worked out great too.

So, that's my update for now.

Cheers,
Cris

Cris, the steering arms against the firewall are usually of minor concern. The real culprits are the lower arms. They like to interfere with motor mounts, oil filters and starters when the wheels are taken to full lock.

Bill

Sorry I haven't posted for a few months, but we ran into some motor prep drama on the twincam from when it was built up years ago, had been a fresh build, zero time.

Here's a couple shots with the motor & tranny now permanently in place.
Head on notice fender 'rib' on carb side is now gone (used to match with the rib below the wiper motor):

Sideview, custom header just barely in the picture:




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/21/2015 06:10PM by CrisInColorado.

Update, car is up & running now. Made the wrong muffler choice (14 inch 'race' glass-pack). Thing's wicked loud, but is really fun to drive. Decided to rewire stem to stern while I was in hip/neck deep.
Found a local source for 110 leaded too, so that's a plus. Will need to 'wrap' the exhaust that runs under the drivers side footbox. Already running sound-heat mat, thought that'd be enough.

Now that I can go into corners faster I've got a tire rub on both rears, will need to unlip the inner fenders. I'd beat them in when I first bought tires as every once in a while it'd make a slight squeel, rub noise. More prominent now
but it's not causing tire damage.

I'm sure updating front brakes and putting new shocks (rear shock knee action conversion to tube shocks) & adjustable Spax in front is giving me more confidence to go deeper/harder into corners.

Runs nice & cool, 165* oil & 185 water with 70#'s of oil pressure on start up.

I've lost two hubcaps in two weeks, will need to replace those & safety wire them on somehow.....

Cheers,
Cris