Fitting an R17 Rootes Competion camshaft

Rootes set up a small self funding competitions department to support the new Hillman Imp after it was released in May 1964,this may have been as early as 1965,the department made money by doing mods and developments,then selling them on to the public,or in the case of a new car,fit a 998cc engine block prior to the cars delivery.

The early Sport cylinder head,which is quite a rare 107 series as can be noted on the last three numbers on the side of the head. AM stands for Aluminium Mouldings.This head came off an early (1966) Singer Chamois Sport,car number 610  of production,these 107 series heads are thought to be part of a batch the the Rootes Competitions Department had made,which later found their way on to the first Sport cars made?

A camshaft carrier fitted,note the cut outs to take the camshaft lobes,a Sport 310 carrier still needs opening up more to accept the Rootes 360 camshafts.The assembly has been bead blasted and cleaned to an as new surface condition.

Note the special oil control seal we can now fit,the guide (bronze) needs machining to accept these seals.

Rootes Competitions department developed a series of camshafts,they all started with a letter R, I assume this means Race or Rally? the base for the camshafts was the Sport version with its 310 thou,lift,taking that to a 360 thou,lift gave more chance for a longer valve opening time and resulted in a larger engine output.The series went from R15 ,R17, R20,R21,R22 and  R23,when fitted on a modified camshaft carrier to accept the higher lift,they worked well with the Sport version cylinder head,the first of which was the 107 series,then later the 108 series.

A Rootes Competitions Dept,R17 camshaft fitted to the carrier,the next stage is to adjust the tappets to give the correct valve clearance.

We can supply Imp cylinder heads to most stages of tune,with porting and larger valves to suit your needs,Sport 310 lift camshafts,valves and bearings are normally ex stock.A new R20 camshaft and tappet follower set are on order to a full race engine which will be our next build.

roy@comlumber.com

A Hillman Imp,thanks to The Imp Club for the use of the picture.

We have a late series model car for sale,its as a rolling shell or rebuilt to order.

To be continued.