1968 Hillman Minx Estate - 08/10/21 - Road Trip!

vroom vroom etc ;D

nice one lahvly innit

Certainly sounding sweet . Hopefully once all bedded in, you should have more go in the mix .

That's fantastic!
Top find on the Rootes engine enamel

Thanks for comments. 20ish miles down and happy with it so far. Temperature gauge is sitting in the middle though obviously its not been working hard. Oil pressure seems good and I think a bit up on what it was before the re-build. Exhaust is blowing from the forward joint but I knew that was going to happen as the pipes where a bit loose. Just need to add a temporatry sleeve really though longer term I'd like to remake the section up to the silencer in stainless. Not venturing out today though in this horrible 'summer' weather.

Something missing from all the above photos etc is the air filter. I do have the right one for the twin carb set up but going back a while to this



I wasn't sure whether I'd be using it (so haven't bothered to make it clean and shiny) since I wanted to see where the strut brace was going to end up with relation to the carbs and oil filler which is now at the back of the rocker cover.



My car doesn't exactly need the strut brace for performance reasons but it was nice to have for when the suspension would bottom out. I imagine the car it was made for probably had twin webers. Amazingly it managed to miss the rear carb dashpot and the oil filler tube. But with the filter on its going to need some changes.



Should be easy enough to add to the tubes end plates to move it up and forwards a bit so everything is clear.



The alternative would have been making some sort of airbox arrangement but as it will be easier to use the stock filter housing and modifiy the brace that's what I'll do.

Ohhh racey

Next you'll be saying I'm only fitting A888's because with the limited suspension movement it needs grippy tyres

Followed by might as well go up t'hill as I'm here in August ;D

Some miles have been covered in the last couple of weeks, aided by out of town visits to relatives and to the Nostalgia Drags. Its been interesting using the 'old' roads to keep the engine speeds variable and down. So yesterday I re-torqued the head bolts and re-set the rocker clearances and changed the oil and filter.



It certainly feels pokier than it used to and if I let the revs creep up a bit now it feels like there is more power coming whereas in the past it was always quite breathless. Fuel economy has been perfectly acceptable though its obviously not been driven hard. Here's hoping it hangs together for a while.

Nice, my hunter's engine is a very similar colour, I repainted it using hammerite smooth and its already been over 2 years now and still ok.
However originally it was a darker shade cause mine had been painted once in the past and when I stripped some of the old paint found the original factory blue, however the brighter shade is nicer in my eyes.
Unfortunately I've decided on selling mine, its not getting much if any use!!

Your engine work is great, it should shift a bit better now with the mods. Would have liked to do something similar to mine and if it doesn't sell I might be tempted!!

so Seth, what was the final contruction recipe?? your block ?? one of the heads I suppled??? certainly recognise that rocker cover good to see shes running sweet though!

Saw this today in the carpark at Goodward. The old man was puzzled why I was looking at a hillman and not all the supercars!
Looks super cool in the flesh, and your using it as a family wagon.