Alpine V8 project start

New guy here…

I’m guessing this is the best place to post. After 24 years I am back in the Sunbeam world and I am glad to be back! Many moons ago I rescued a SV Alpine from a field in Watsonville, CA that had just started a ‘slumber in the grass’. I towed it home and got it going but couldn’t seem to find the smoke system switch. After a few months of killing the mosquitos in my neighborhood, I finally pulled the engine apart for a rebuild. I really was amazed with how well the Alpine handled and with the new engine I enjoyed numerous auto crosses and local mountain roads. I had dreams of fitting a V8 but just couldn’t bring myself to cutting into a fairly straight car. After college a job relocation forced me to sell the car rather than drag it to MS where it would have probably rusted as quickly as my bread boxer bus did. I lost track of the ‘green bomb’ but hope it wound up with a friendly owner.

Fast forward 24 years and that ‘perfect car’ just piped up on search tempest. With too many projects, no time and marginal funds, my bride offered the simple notion “just get and so I don’t have to hear you whine about the damn sunbeam any more”. Wham-bam and I have another Alpine. This one is a 30-year garage queen with the ‘mostly complete - some assembly required’ theme. It’s pretty straight and is worthy of a V8 fitment.

I hope not to put myself in the heathen-bastard category by fumigating my creativity upon my new hooptie. I wish I could like the V6 conversions, but the thumping deep rumble of a V8 has been my passion for too many years to count. I don’t like the “Alger” idea just because it desecrates the beauty of a true Tiger. I don’t think it’s right to hang a Tiger badge on any Rootes body that didn’t originally roll out of the Jensen door - but that’s just my opinion. On the other hand, there are many areas that the original Tiger could be improved upon with advances in technology. So that being said why blow all the dough on a Tiger that I would wind up modifying the hell out of anyway?

Enter my project idea — the “Alpine V8”. My idea is to update the idea of the Tiger and perhaps borrow some chrome pinstripes and fancy non-peaked headlight rings. I won’t put on a single thing that says “Tiger” or park in the Tiger area at the car show. I just hope the Alpine folks will still let me park with them without tossing rotten turnips.

The short list of my ideas for this project are:

1) Some kind of SBF V8 - right now I am looking seriously at the Ford Racing 306 crate motor.

2) 5-speed - Some type of T5 or Tremec product.

3) Shortened Ford 8.8” rear axle from an exploder with disk brakes.

4) Modified or replacement front suspension - either one of the bolt in options or a home-brew MGB rack based option.

5) 5-lug Wilwood disk brakes up front with some flavor of dual chamber master cylinder.

Thats the plan for now anyway. Inevitably plans will change and better plans will present themselves. I know I will have to manufacture things like motor mounts and fender bracing mounts as well as the firewall. But I hope to do so in such a way that looks right and functions properly. I’m hoping for a stock-ish look that isn’t gaudy.

Sorry for the pontification. But more than anything just want to say hi!

-Kevin Jakey

Hollister, CA

67 SV B395010578

Kevin--welcome to the site and sounds like you have a good plan in place. Definitely keep us posted on the progress and don't be afraid to ask questions --we have a lot of opinions here.....

Nice

Like the 74 Mars Orange Honda CT 90, I had one for many years and now have two CT110's. Is that the hanger you rescued it from? I would love to get into the airports to search for old Honda's etc.

Several guys in Tiger mod land are moving up to a Dale front suspension. There is a guy who auto crosses with us that said he used a Volvo 122S front suspension and he handles as if he is on rails.

The only thing I would add is try to get a Tiger rear end as it seems you can stay in modified Tiger specs till you go to Ford narrowed rear ends. I am sure more opinions will be rendered on this.

Welcome aboard

ALPINE V8 PROJECT

SINCE THERE IS A LOT OF WORK INVOLVED AND YOU INTENT NO SACRALIDGE TO A TIGER, I WOULD THINK GOING OFF THE DEEP END AND GO WITH A GM LS3 AND DRIVETRAIN LIKE THE "FLYING MIATA" VS THE MONSTER "MIATA"

Thank you for the swift responses!
You have a great eye Warren. Thats my '73 CT90 which I pinched from a hangar in San Jose. It is sporting the 'big bore' piston that brings it up to 105cc I think. The Alpine is now nesting in the back of a hangar on a grass strip between Gilroy and Hollister in NorCal. I got it from a garage in Redding where it has been since 1990. Before that it had been sitting for 5 years in Weaverville. Its been in a fairly dry environment most of it's life - a little rust mostly surface and no flintstone type problems with floor panels.
There are a few reasons for planning on the 8.8 rear end. Cost, availability, traction control, disk brakes, and 5-lug capability right off the bat. I'm also trying to avoid modifying any true tiger parts unless there is no other choice. Probably the harder way to go with the 8.8, but I'm glutting for punishment I guess. I'm also trying to do some pioneering of various parts so that as real tiger parts become scarce perhaps I will have payed it forward on what hopefully works!

Cheers, -Kevin

How did you see the pics--on my computer this thread says the pics were moved or deleted by photobucket......

Chirodoc,
Thats not a bad idea. I helped a buddy put an LS3 in his suburban and I was impressed how easy it was to adapt the electronics for it. I was first thinking about a coyote in the sunbeam but I came to the realization that I need it to handle too. Big motors like the LS or coyote will require more modifications that I am willing to tackle. A SBF should meet my goals and then some.
Cheers! -Kevin

cobrakidz said:

How did you see the pics--on my computer this thread says the pics were moved or deleted by photobucket......

Click to expand...

Crap...

I think I must have moved them when I was moving the TR4 pix around on my photo bucket account.

Here they are again!
-Kevin

I have a freind putting a LS motor and twin turbos and a power guide and a ford 9"
Wants to kick my butt, more power to him

I could see doing that if you had a husk of a body that you were looking to essentially sit on a racing frame. Otherwise sticking a heavy motor that requires substantial cutting of the inner front fender wells and royally screwing up the suspension seems to be an overly daunting task. But hey, - whatever inflates your bloomers!
-Kevin

Twin Turbo Tiger said:

I have a freind putting a LS motor and twin turbos and a power guide and a ford 9"
Wants to kick my butt, more power to him

Click to expand...

Forrest39 said:

had been sitting for 5 years in Weaverville.

Click to expand...

LOL I personally did the same thing . . . almost.
I was born in Weaverville and lived in Hayfork for 5 years.

I have to add a Welcome as well.

Nice looking--love the color. I purchased a Tiger today minus the body. Got the eng/trans, front cross member complete with steering column, rad, driveline, rear springs, interior and hardtop. Came with lots of spare small parts too....gas tanks, overflow, pedals, vent pulls, etc. Now I just need a body to put them on..haha

cobrakidz said:

Nice looking--love the color. I purchased a Tiger today minus the body. Got the eng/trans, front cross member complete with steering column, rad, driveline, rear springs, interior and hardtop. Came with lots of spare small parts too....gas tanks, overflow, pedals, vent pulls, etc. Now I just need a body to put them on..haha

Click to expand...

If you got a stack of parts already out of the car, any chance you could send me some detailed pix of the engine hangars? Thats on my list of hard parts to engineer.
Thanks! -Kevin

PM sent......

You basically just described my build to a "T" minus the 306. I'm going with an 87 ford 302 roller, with aluminum heads, forged crank, pistons, rods, and all the bells and whistles. My Alpine was purchased with a V8 swapped into it and a T5 (from a 4cyl mustang, won't work at all) mounted, so luckily all I have to do is find a shop here to re spline the axles in my 8.8 when it get shortened, and find a new T5 (I posted in your other thread about that) and I'm good to go. I'll keep watching your project to see if I can learn a new trick or something? Lol. Should be fun!

-Kyle

Hi Kyle,

A few questions...

What are you doing for engine hangers?
Are you using a tiger front suspension and steering column?
How much modification did you do to the fender strut mount brackets?

Good to see there's at least one more out there that's glutting for punishment too!!!
Cheers, -Kevin

Well, currently my mock up 302 is still in the car and the previous owner used a couple of 1/4" thick steel plates slightly bent, that seem to be pretty strong? But, I will be looking at ways to reinforce them a bit just to make sure there's no problems later on once I get it on the road with high HP. I'm currently looking for a steering column for a Tiger as well. The column that's in it now is out of a Triumph TR4, as is the current steering wheel (some original Alpine steering linkage and wheel were in the trunk though) and I'm waiting to meet with a local guy to see if he can help me out? I've seen and bid on Tiger motor hangers on eBay, and they went for over $300 also, a full Tiger steering setup (column, rack, and extension rod from column to rack) was on eBay a couple months ago and again I was outbid on all of it (individual listings) and combined was almost $1,000. This might be a tough setup to acquire. I have no idea what rack is in my car currently. It's got a custom girdle that mounts from the engine hangers, and goes under the oil pan and mounts towards the rear of the engine. It's very hoaky and will be swapped with an MG rack as I was told it would be nicer than the Tiger rack? As far as the crossmember goes, I haven't dropped it yet to do my reinforcements, but I am hoping to very soon. It does seem as if it may have already been reinforced a bit though? I got the car last year and only tinkered on it for a few weeks before having to store it for winter, and I haven't messed with it much at the moment and was focusing on the motor and obtaining a tranny. I've learned a lot more since I put it up, so I will be able to see what all has really been done once I roll it out of my very tiny one car garage to be able to move freely around it (hopefully will have a shop by next summer lol). There's a couple articles on here, I believe, that shows what to do. I got a lot of info from here, the SAOCA forum, and British V8 forum, and I mix up where I've gotten it all from lol. The "grassroots" Alpine article has some good pics I've saved for reference. This is my first Sunbeam, so it's all very new to me.

Good to see there's at least one more out there that's glutting for punishment too!!![/QUOTE said:

that's funny, I thought the same thing

Sorry I'm not much help at the moment, but I'm doing my best to learn what I can from this. I'm not gonna give up though! Lol.

-Kyle

Click to expand...

Pic from last year of engine hanger

And my current steering rack setup (note it is welded to the engine hanger). I believe the PO was just testing to see what would work, as this is only held onto that girldle deal by hose clamps. Without a doubt, this will be changed. He did include a nice rack, but I wasn't told what it came from, so I will just find a nice MG one so I know what I've got. I hope nobody falls out of their chairs when they see these pics... Lol.

So if you were to build your 'dream Tiger'...

Ok Tiger guys... looking for some creative suggestion here. As I forge the laundry list of 'tasteful modifications' to my Alpine V8 project, I had a curious thought. What modifications or upgrades had you thought about making to your Tiger that you didn't do because it was just too much of a modification that would degrade the spirit of having a true Tiger? IE, one of the reasons I went for an Alpine to modify in stead of a real Tiger was that I wanted extra license to be creative with what a Tiger might have evolved into had it kept going. Obviously engine, transmission, and front suspension updates are on that list. But what things would be on your wish-list if strict originality was't key? Only constraints is that it has to be affordable (reasonably so anyway...), functional, and be tasteful (look quasi-original).
Cheers, -Kevin

I am not the norm but I would love to add....flares, creative hood design with scoops, etc..., I would gut the interior and add sheet metal with dimple die holes, add racing seats and a cage.....more of a rat rod road race theme. Of course a nice motor with a radical cam and loud exhaust, better brakes too. That's what I would do........