Newsletter 11:6:12

Lawrence All British Car Club Lawrence, Kansas Nov. 6th, 2012

To join email us at [email protected] Autumn Autos It’s never too cold (yet) to drive fun.

Dan Hines trusts his navigator?

• 2nd Annual Sunflower Rallye • Cracked block repair • Check us out on Facebook • Holzmeister’s Halloween party • Eric’s new MGB motor • Club Member – Guess Who? • Buick/Rover V-8 history • Susan’s many minutes

Page 1 Lawrence All British Car Club Lawrence, Kansas Nov. 6th, 2012

2nd Annual Sunflower Rallye 10/21/12: Photos by Rich Hutte & Terry Melton

I had a great time mapping and testing the final Rallye route. Second best was watching the club members and guests actually running the course. Third best (Probably only for me) was the task of learning the software and producing the Road Book. I am pleased to say the every comment I heard was positive. Finally, I believe that the real Rallye winners were the LABCC participants – whatever their chosen roles. – Ken Bishop A wonderful time was had by all, and the BB-Q dinner was great!

Rallye Master Ken drove a Toyota minivan for Sweep. Dan Hines convinces Eric His A-H 3000 was grounded for repair. MG never made one of these!

Club President Eric Frana times-oﬀ a contestant.

Page 2 Lawrence All British Car Club Lawrence, Kansas Nov. 6th, 2012

2nd Annual Sunflower Rallye 10/21/12: Photos by Rich Hutte & Terry Melton

“Hey, you’re President. Don’t ask me when it starts!” Says Ken.

James Mac claimed “John Brown would have loved British cars.”

Ken was last seen with scratch-off Rallye results sold to him by a “youthful” lady at a Casey’s convenience store.

Page 3 Lawrence All British Car Club Lawrence, Kansas Nov. 6th, 2012

Pres. Eric Frana’s 3.5 Rover V-8/MGB conversion, Part 1.

Our club President has finally received the 3.5 Rover implant for his stock rubber bumper MGB. This is one “Too-cool” tested motor from a builder in Michigan. Custom built, balanced and only putting out 235 H.P. at the flywheel. Sheesh! It’s so clean I’d leave it on my kitchen countertop and dust it twice a week. The flywheel alone is cleaner than double-washes of fine China! Yet it weighs only 325 lbs.

The next page gives the history of the 215 Buick motor....

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Buick/Rover Aluminum V-8. From Wikipedia. The Rover V8 began life as the Buick 215, an all-aluminium engine introduced in 1960 for the 1961 US model year. The compact engine was lightweight, at just 144 kg (318 lb), and capable of high power outputs: the most powerful Buick version of this engine rated 149 kW (200 hp), and the very similar Oldsmobile "Jetfire" turbocharged version made 215 hp (both numbers SAE gross). Based on sales volume and press reports, the engine was a success. Buick produced 376,799 cars with this engine in just three years. A comparable number of Oldsmobile 215 engines were produced. In addition, some Pontiac models were fitted with the Buick 215, leading to the nickname "BOP 215" for the engine (BOP standing for Buick/Oldsmobile/Pontiac). The aluminium engine was relatively expensive to produce, however, and it suffered problems with oil and coolant sealing, as well as with radiator clogging from use of antifreeze incompatible with aluminium. As a result, GM ceased production of the all-aluminium engine after 1963, although Buick retained a similar iron engine[1964-1980], as well as a V6 derivative[1962-2008] which proved to have a very long and successful life.[clarification needed] In January 1964 Rover gave American operations head J. Bruce McWilliams permission to investigate the possible purchase of an American V8 engine for Rover cars. It is usually said that McWilliams first saw the Buick V8 at the works of Mercury Marine, where he was discussing the sale of Rover gas turbines and diesel engines to the company (Mercury did indeed use the Land Rover 2.25 litre diesel engine in marinised form). However, it is likely that McWilliams was aware of the Buick engine before this. In any case, McWilliams realised that the lightweight Buick V8 would be ideal for smaller British cars (indeed, it weighed less than many straight-4 engines it would replace.) McWilliams and William Martin-Hurst began an aggressive campaign to convince GM to sell the tooling, which they finally agreed to do in January 1965. Retiring Buick engineer Joe Turlay moved to the UK to act as a consultant. The Rover V8 has long been a relatively common engine for kit car and hot rod use in Britain, much as the Chevrolet small-block V8 is for American builders (though many British hot rods have traditionally used four cylinder engines, like the Ford Pinto and Crossflow units). Even in the US there is a strong contingent of builders who select the Buick or Rover aluminium V8 engine for use in small sporty cars like the MG MGB and the Chevy Vega. Note also that the 1964 Buick iron-block 4,920 cc (300 cu in) engine had aluminium cylinder heads and a longer stroke crankshaft which with minor modifications can be used with the Buick 215 or Rover engine blocks to produce a high output, very light weight V8 with displacement of up to about 300 cubic inches. The 300 crank in the 215 block yields 4,260 cc (260 cu in). The British made engines were run on two SU carburettors (14 years), then two Stromberg carburettors (2–3 years), Bosch L-Jetronic (7–8 years, a.k.a. Lucas 4CU Flapper), then Hitachi Hotwire (5 years, a.k.a. Lucas 14CUX), then the GEMS system (years) and finally Bosch Motronics for 2 years. The engine is still cast now (2011), in an improved version, by Coscast in Birmingham, UK. As well as appearing in Rover cars, the engine was widely sold by Rover to small car builders, and has appeared in a wide variety of vehicles. Rover V8s feature in some models from Morgan, TVR, Triumph, Land Rover and MG, among many others. The demise of the MG Rover Group in 2005 led to a halt in production of the famed "name" Rover V8 after 40 years. The last Rover to have a real Rover V8 was the Rover SD1 Vitesse which was replaced by the Rover 827 Vitesse with a 2.7 litre Honda V6 unit, The Rover V8 remained with Land Rover until being sold to Ford by BMW. However, Land Rover desired for production of the engine to continue, and they arranged for production to restart in Weston-super-Mare under MCT, an engineering and manufacturing company. Although Land Rover has switched to the Jaguar AJ-V8 engine for new applications, MCT will continue limited production of the engine for the indeterminate future, supplying engines for aftermarket and replacement use.

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Cracked block repair. Submitted by James McKenzie I had a crack in the block of my Land Rover, near the freeze plugs, seeping coolant. After doing some research, it seems the best way to fix it is by stitching with special screws. The threads of the screws are formed so that they lock the two sides together. The supplier provides sealant that you use on the screws, but my understanding is that the sealant is insurance, and that the screws themselves will seal the crack. Attached are some pictures of the process. Drill first, tap, countersink, run the screw in till it breaks off. I need to grind it down a bit, then peen it over with a hammer. After that it can be made as invisible as you want to spend the time making it so. I carefully examined each hole I drilled, and could see the crack on both sides of the hole as I progressed. Once the crack was not visible in the hole, I drilled one more hole at the end of the run. While I have no done a pressure test yet, I feel pretty confident that this is a good repair. The web site of Locknstitch even shows this technique used across valve seats, etc.

Mark (friend of James McKenzie)

Page 6 Lawrence All British Car Club Lawrence, Kansas Nov. 6th, 2012 Dave & Debbie’s Annual Halloween Party. 10/27/12

What a great time we had between 5 and 8:30 P.M. Dave cooked his meat to perfection, and members met comfortably to meet and eat.

It was good to finally include Molly & Gary Emery of their previous Oklahoma persuasion. Hey, Oklahoman’s use the same vowels we do!

Sad to hear Brian Kelly is across the Pond AGAIN, and missed free grub, but the lovely Bobby-Frances carried half the pair.

And Woah! We had Yogi Bear’s Ranger Smith show-up in legal Park regalia, searching for Boo-Boo, and the missing Pic-a-nic Basket!

Page 7 Lawrence All British Car Club Lawrence, Kansas Nov. 6th, 2012 Dave & Debbie’s Annual Halloween Party! 10/27/12

Gary Emery knows his Sprite is faster with less beer aboard.

Ranger Smith is just too tall to even see bears. Go Yogi!

Page 8 Lawrence All British Car Club Lawrence, Kansas Nov. 6th, 2012

Club Member of the Month: Frank Kroeker.

What happens when you sell a lovely ’62 all- original powder blue A-H Sprite? Well, if you’re possessed, you consort with your other LABCC club member James Ortiz, buy a ’64 VW bug and also have fun-ish. Last month I featured James’ VW convertible Rat Rod. This month Frank’s VW supposedly hides in “Camo”. Not disguised enough for us All-Brits, but I’m sure the two realms share similar problems.

Chalk artist Kyle Miller @ work.

Page 9 Lawrence All British Car Club Nov. 6th, 2012 LABCC Club Minutes: Meeting Notes of October 2, 2012 @ Bambino’s Restaurant

New members from Bonner Springs, Dave and Dianna Tadlock, were in attendance – welcome!

Eric began the meeting noting that the Rallye is just around the corner, on October 21st. Eric stated his appreciation for everyone working on the event and for those who will attend on Rallye day.

James indicated that the Rallye registration is in the Newsletter. He has received some registrations for the Rallye and several more for just the dinner. A pre-Rallye party will be held at the McKenzie’s the day prior, on Saturday at 4:00 pm.

The Rallye itself will not be a competition with awards as it was last year, but a good and fun ride of about 130-140 miles. Ken Bishop has been working on the route for some time and is putting together a tulip diagram navigational Rallye Booklet. Ken indicated that one section of the route would make a great TSD test and he hopes to incorporate that into the fun of the day. The Rallye begins at Centennial Park in Lawrence at 11:00 am and ends there with the dinner to follow. Continue to talk the Rallye up amongst your friends and we’ll plan to have a fun day.

James reminded everyone of the free antique car show on October 7th at the Douglas County Fairgrounds. This is an annual event hosted by the local Antique Car Club.

Comments were heard of the good Newsletter that Bill put together this month. Thanks Bill!

James had LABCC displays at the local People’s Banks for the month of September. With permission (and much excitement from the bank employees) Gordon attempted to drive the MINI into the bank lobby as part of the display. Unfortunately, although it got into the doors, it could not maneuver around their center counter and had to back out.

Dave and Debbie and Susan and James attended the British car show at the Highland Games in McPherson and were invited to a picnic hosted by the Wichita club following at a very interesting property and shop south of McPherson.

Dave and Debbie announced that they would host their annual Halloween party at their home on October 27th at 5:00 pm.

Eric updated all on the progress of his MGB engine V8 upgrade. The engine was ordered on May 27th and although he is still waiting, it should arrive in 2-3 weeks. He already has the transmission. Eric may be up for tech sessions in his garage for several weeks as he puts everything together.

Mike Pearson had mentioned hosting a birthday party. His son Josh is seriously ill, however, and Mike may not be up to or able to host a party. The club wants Mike to know that the members are thinking of their family at this difficult time. Ken will look after this.

Respectfully submitted, Susan McKenzie

Page 10 Lawrence All British Car Club Nov. 6th, 2012

LABCC Officers: President - Eric Frana Vice President - Alan Miller Secretary/Membership - Susan McKenzie Treasurer - Chuck Fisher Newsletter Editor - Bill Fisher Events Team - Dave & Debbie Holzmeister

Calendar of Events 2012

Nov. 6th LABCC @ at Bambinoʼs Nov. 24th Topeka Christmas 6:30 parade Nov. 10th British Faire Lenexa, KS Dec. 4th LABCC @ at Bambinoʼs Nov. 10th Veterans Day Parade 6:30 Ottawa, KS

One Last Photo... from Ken Bishop.

A special thanks to those who contributed to this newsletter. Follow us on Facebook.com Other members are needed in the future. Lawrence All British Car Club – Bill Fisher, Newsletter Editor. bﬁ[email protected]

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