Good use for a concrete mixer motor

[Supertwin Don]

Attended a local bike club show at the weekend - couple of interesting bikes.
The "little" one is powered by a concrete mixer 1 cylinder diesel motor, apparently good for about 40mph.
The "bigger" one is is powered by TWO 1000cc Hillman Imp motors grafted onto a single crankshaft - built by an ex-Rolls-Royce engineer a few years ago.

[Chooky]

The V8 looks like its got a CBX fuel tank on it......?

[YellowDog]

Impressive 40Mph and probably 140Mpg.

Not so sure about the Hillman Imp engines. Had a Hillman Imp years ago. Not a good example.

[pete376403]

The fairing on the V8 is ... unusual.

But nothing wrong with Imp (nee Coventry Climax fire pump) engines. The early ones had head gasket problems, but that was possibly due to the design of the engine bay and having to remove the cam carrier to get at the head bolts properly. Bit of an act so I guess often the head retorquing would have been skipped during the first service- That, and the block corrosion from not using inhibitor in the cooling water because mechanics were not used to engines made of anything but cast iron, would lead to head gasket and head warping problems.
The last of the Imps with the MkIII block were solid wee engines, and after the Imp they were enlarged to 907 (you can still buy new 907s - last used in the Chrysler(?) Talbot.

[Motu]

It must be a very narrow angle V on the Imp engine,90deg is normal...that looks even too narrow to be 45deg.

[Supertwin Don]

Bit of an update -check out www.therevcounter.com - there's a forum thread on the Bettson V8 - apparently it's two separate motors, geared together v'd at about 8 degrees.

[cowpoos]

It must be a very narrow angle V on the Imp engine,90deg is normal...that looks even too narrow to be 45deg.

I thought it was a square eight...

[Motu]

Well,8 deg is a pretty close angle for a V....a bit too close to be called a V8 I think.

The Imp gave a few problems...mainly because it was a bit complicated and delicate compare to what was around at the time.Inhibitor was unheard of...water soluable oil was about it.My boss was an ex Rootes mechanic,and we did a lot of Imps because he was considered a bit of an expert on them....and we never used inhibitor.We had an engine cradle to fit on the jack - we could get the engine out to do the itty bitty clutch pretty quick.Coolant bleeding was the big issue,we spent a bit of time on that...half the reason they blew head gaskets.In those days of no inhibitor a high zinc thermostat housing was used as a sacrificial anode to limit corrosion of the block and head......that's why every garage stocked a Hunter thermostst housing.The first common on the road car to use shims under buckets,so got to learn that one in my apprenticeship.

[Paul in NZ]

The V8 is an excellent illustration of the difference between engineers and designers.... and why they are not commonly found in the same person - one wonders if the gentleman went on to design the new bonnevilles?