HEMI Tech - Daimler Hemis

Google 'Stripteaser Mini' both web and images and you'll see more. It's a very well known and loved car here in the UK. Car progressed from what you see here to a much more streamlined glass shell. Jag powered.

 

Limey Steve let me borrow some books on the Daimler awhile back. I didn't have a high quality scanner so I tried to take some pictures of the materials for you guys. The pictures were missing in action for a little bit. But I ran across them the other day. Finally had a chance to upload them to Photobucket. Hope these help someone... Or at least give an idea where these engines came from.

 

Magazine features. I tried to take an overall picture of the pages and then close ups of each column.

Sorry if these are a little out of order...

 

Love this alternate engine stuff. What I'd love more is a list of possible donor cars, preferably non-computer models, if you please. Were these motors all aluminum? Gary

 

This is the engine I have of which I posted photos earlier in this thread. To amplify on the story, as I understand it, the engineers at Jaguar decided to do a 'skunkworks' project by hot rodding a 4.5 litre Daimler engine, boring it out to 5 litres (305ci) fitting it with high compression pistons and a hot cam and dropping it into a Mk X sedan to 'see what she'll do'. Apparently the car was devastatingly quick - far quicker than Jaguars own triple carbed twin cam 4.2 XK engine which already put out a healthy 265 bhp. Management found out what the engineers had been up to and ordered the hot rod Jag destroyed. Fast forward a few years to the 1970s and an ex Jaguar engineer by the name of Ron Beatty founded a specialist company called Forward Engineering, tuning, restoring and race prepping Jaguars. One of the gems which was tucked away in a corner at his premises was a very hot big Daimler hemi. The engine was subsequently sold to a buyer in Germany who spent a fortune in having the engine rebuilt and was going to drop it into a Daimler 250 V8 sedan. However the project foundered and I was able to acquire the engine several years ago, which I had shipped to the US and it now resides in my garage.

 

Just to give you an idea of how small these Daimler hemis are, here are some photos I just took of a stock 2.5 L induction system top - the linkage is just a tad complex to say the least - and a Daimler 2.5 manifold next to an Edelbrock performer for a SBC. The Daimler 2.5 Litre from the back of the block to the tip of the water pump is only 3/8" longer than a stock Willys L 134 4 banger, which is considerably shorter than a Ford Model A engine. This means no firewall mods. The 4.5 Litre version is slightly smaller than the Dodge 315/325 hemi....

 

Nice one Scooter , thanks for posting.

Weasel , I like the story , whilst on the intake subject.Here is my new manifold , I'm going to polish the manifold & chrome the adapters, the linkage works a treat, the connector will be beefed up for appearance but it works great as is, 2 97's should run great, I like the stock set up but dislike SU's

 

Nice adaptation Limey Steve - got me thinking now as I have a couple of N.O.S. Reece Fish carbs with the 1 3/4" bore. These are the ones that can swivel the fuel bowl to run either as a down draft or a side draft, hmmm....

 

Great stuff Weasel Scooter and Steve.

Here is my 2.5 Daimler in my replica Kurtis midget.

The intake set up is a custom made job utilising two banks of Mikuni BS34 Carbs.

 

Btt... I think my post got burried in a pound of photos. Any help? Gary

 

These engines are cast iron blocks with aluminium heads.

As to donor cars the above article shows two of them . The most common vehicle is the Daimler 2.5 V8 or the later version called the Daimler V8 250.

Both are basically a rebadged Mk II Jaguar. See the pics in the link below.
http://www.google.com.au/images?hl=...niv&sa=X&ei=Wi94Ta3CGMyecdLY1YwO&ved=0CEAQsAQ

 

Thanx mate... I'll certainly keep this mill on my donor list but it might be hard to find one in the States. Later, Gary

 

There are plenty of 2.5's in the US in the V8 Daimler Sedans , early 60's , the 4.5's are almost impossible to find, that is why when Jake said I could buy his I jumped on it.

I love the Midget engine, there is a customer of ours with a blown 2.5 in an early MG, were repairing the fenders etc from the car. He has a Hilborn set up for a 2.5 I'm hoping to buy that off him when he decides to let loose , injected 155 inch Hemi !!!!OMG

 

Steve,
Interesting to hear about the Hilborn injection setup. That is something I would like to do with my midget as the Mikunis sit quite high and will mean a considerable hole in the bonnet in order to fit it. If I am correct about the Hilborn injection manifold , that would be a short stack early style, would it not?

If you can obtain some pictures of the Hilborn set up that would be great.I would love to see them. I am sure they are not plentiful so have resigned myself to fabricating something to replicate it.

 

Thanx!! Found a bunch of pics and a good link for UK drag racing: http://www.ukdrn.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=893&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=0

 

No problem , if it comes to fruition I'll post pix & info on here.

 

check this out,interesting read on injection,hope it has'nt been posted before
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/...=0&i=120&nmt=Daimler+250+V8+engine+mods&mid=0

 

and this too,from carpenter racing who i think know a bit about these engines ;-)
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=17&t=898916&hw=daimler&nmt=Daimler V8 Modern Ignition and Injection Conversion

 

Good stuff chopper york. I am posting the photo from your link here....

 

and my nearly finished headers,f**king nightmare to get em right but just about done.never again;-)

 

Just getting back to the carburetor/fuel injection issue, SU throttle bodies are available from Borla/TWM.

www.twminduction.com

 

I don't mean to hijack the Tech thread, but a buddy of mine is selling him mom's '59 Daimler SP 250 race car and I believe it comes with two hemis (and many other extras); this car was raced throughout the '60s & '70s. Check out Craigslist, south Jersey.

I was hoping to post up the link in the classifieds, but that is a no no. So, I just wanted to mention it, as I hope it finds a good home...lots of fond memories as kids sitting in it in the barn and talking about getting it on the road one day...

 

About time for a bump for this great thread. I am now getting ready to use my hot 305ci Daimler hemi in my next build - here's a previously posted photo again. I will pull it out and post more photos in due course. I will start off with running the opposed SU set up as it just looks so weird but kinda period cool. Now I need to figure out bracketry and whether to run a GenerNator or an alternator, a power steering pump and shock, horror... a Sanden A/C compressor! It will be installed in a relatively heavy 1930s car and since I belong to the Jurassic period I want my creature comforts. Has anyone got any photos or has anyone fabricated such bracketry? Any info would be much appreciated....

 

Okay, here's a wild one - Daimler hemi powered motorbike....

 

Weasel, I think you should just jump into it and starting planning on dropping a 3-71 or 4-71 on top of that thing.

 

here is my 4.5l i'll see if I can find better photos of the alternator mount (I welded a tab to the water pump manifold, the Toyota mini alternator bolts to this)

`cheers

Dave

 

Thanks Dave any pointers would be much appreciated.

Stude_trucks I am not going to run any kind of blower - this is for a touring deco rod - I want to drive this thing everywhere, so horsepower is not the ultimate goal, driveability is. The wheels will be 6" wide with narrow treads so there is no rubber to speak of.

Here's a photo of the recipient as it stands now. It will not look much different when finished except a different color and a couple of inches lower. Wheels will be widened stock artilleries with caps n' rings n whitewalls as you see it....

 

That's cool, sounds like a good plan. But if that is the case, what is wrong with the motor that is in it now?