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Bob Gilpatrick's Daytona Build |
March 3, 2009. There's always room for improvement. Since my last progress report I have made a number of significant changes to the Brooklands Daytona. The suspension and body have not changed as I found these areas to be rather straightforward in the construction and finishing phases. However, my attempt to use the original carburettor (a Solex 26-35) was a miserable failure. It was very nice having only one accelerator, choke cable and fuel line but the carburettor would not provide enough fuel during low speed operations to run the engine smoothly. Phil said it should provide adequate but not best performance. He was right. Since my engine had been modified to give 40 hp I suppose any lack of performance by using the Solex was only amplified. So, I remade the intake manifolds to fit the Mukuni VM 34 carburettors that were originally fitted to the engine. I had to to re-size the throttle cables and provide a two into one throttle cable and split the fuel line and route the two fuel lines to the carburettors.
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| Making the intake manifolds was tricky because the Mikuni carburettor floats do not operate properly unless the carburettor mounting angle is less than 20 degrees from horizontal. There is very little room to mount the carbutettors in front of and above the front brake drums. The Mikuni carburettors are now mounted and the engine is really running much better. Another improvement has been the fitting of new leather bonnet tie-down straps. They really look great. |
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An earlier problem I discovered was when I tried to fill up the fuel tank at the gas pump. I had not provided a fuel tank vent and, at the pump, where fuel flow can be great, I had more fuel on the ground and all over the rear of the car than in the tank. The solution was to tap into the top of the tank with a 3/8" aluminum tube which I fastened to the rear bulkhead between the spare tire and the bulkhead. The vent line extends upward to the level of the fuel filler neck. Problem solved. |
| I now have fitted the tonneau cover I bought from Mike Meakin. |
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