Fitting The Vauxhall 2L 16V

I had this engine kicking around in my garage for a few months before I decided to buy the Robin Hood 2B. My first attempt at kit car building was a Ron Champion Locost.

I had intended to fit the engine into my Locost until I actually built the chassis and realised it was absolutely tiny and I had no chance of fitting it in with out spending mega bucks on it.

I had been up to Mansfield, to Robin Hood Sports Cars to purchase the nose cone and scuttle from RHSC, it was when I was at their showroom to collect these parts that I seen my first Hood in the flesh. At first I had the idea to build the Hood along side the Locost and build it in a few months, and then sell it on for much needed funds for the Locost build. This is the chassis I had built (from scratch).

Well, as with all things kit car, nothing goes to plan and I decided to sell my Locost and just build the Hood and keep that. It wasn’t difficult to decide on the model I wanted and after a few minutes deliberation I filled out an order form for a Robin Hood 2B, with the addition of the front wishbone option.

After a few months wait for the next collection day, I was on my way up there with my mate Ian.

Once back home I immediately started the build, eager to get my engine in. After a few months of drilling and screwing panels on it was time to fit the engine into the bay. I had already checked the Hoods engine bay dimensions and was confident I could fit it in with very few modifications. To my amazement the engine looked quite small in the engine bay, but it still was fairly bare, as you can see in the picture, there is nothing on the engine at all.

First of all I realised that the standard sump was far too deep and gave about an inch of ground clearance. A Manta sump was an option but to keep the whole unit as small as possible a shortened sump was ordered from S B Developments. This was much better. I can now have the sump above the line of the bottom cross tube and still have an inch clearance between the rocker cover and the bonnet. Also bought from SBD were a Vauxhall to Ford bell housing and a Kevlar clutch plate, along with a manifold for the carbs. So much for not spending much!

With the engine and gearbox in place measurements were made for the mounts. These were just 2 plates of 5mm steel connected with a length of 50mm box section. The mounts were from a fiesta, sourced from the local motor factors and were ideal for this application.

Some nice shiny Webber carbs were ordered from rallynuts.com and as soon as they went on I saw my first big hurdle, absolutely no room for the brake servo and master cylinder. Not one to be defeated by such technicalities it was straight round to my Dads workshop to make something to solve the problem. And solve it we did. With help from my mate Westy we made a floor mounted brake pedal that kept all the original Ford dimensions so that the leverage forces on the servo were exactly as they would be if fitted the “proper” way. This involved cutting the bent section from the middle of the pedal and replacing it with a length of 1inch box section. The best part about this was that I could keep the original pivot and nylon bushes and also keep the pressed part of the pedal were the servo push rod connects to it. The servo and master cylinder now sit neatly below the carbs and hopefully should work just as they would standard.

This picture isn’t very clear but you can see the pedal bracket (in grey) on the floor in the foot well.

I have now fitted all the panels into the car and plumbed in the copper brake lines. I’m very pleased with the pedal as it only took a few hours to design and build.

The next problem I’m facing is the exhaust. So far I haven’t made it yet as I'm undecided as to whether to go out the conventional route or to take the 4 pipes from the manifold out through the bonnet side to a collector near the side panel.

This shows the manifold as it is now while I decide what to do.

The ignition will be from an 8V Vauxhall engine until I have the car on the road then I’ll hopefully upgrade to a Lumenition Optronic Ignition set-up.

Since a visit from Jim Stott on Saturday 24^th April I have decided that the engine was a bit low in the chassis as I had approximately 5 mm of clearance between the carbs and the chassis and 5 mm between the sump and the bottom cross member.

This was solved by making 2 spacer plates from 50mm square by 13mm steel bar with a 10mm hole punched in the centre. These sit between the chassis and the engine mounts and raise the engine by the vital 13mm.

This is still ‘work in progress’ and I will keep updating this page as I do more to the engine. Until then I would be grateful for any advice from builders with this engine or if you are a potential builder and would like to ask me a question you can do so through email or add me to MSN. Contact page is here.