Got the front of my Jensen apart, going to do a little cleanup and upgrades, I'm dropping the front end around 1 1/2", getting the brakes and suspension up to snuff and cleaning things up in general....

Icky front end initial pic....

Just starting the cleanup....

I want the front end lower because my car came with taller springs to attain a North American legal front bumper height. I want a level car though.....

Thanks for sharing these!

Chris

I'll have more pics soon! lol

I just bought a set of Delta S&S Interceptor headers and a whole bunch of other parts, and tomorrow I get a not-so-correct intake manifold I'm hoping.... swapping out tires and suspension pieces too...

I wonder how many Jensens have these....?

lol

Yeah, call me stupid.....

The CH28 intake is easy to find, but I hunted down a set of ceramic coated S&S / Delta Motorsport Jensen Interceptor headers...

Still collecting parts, but more to come!

Edited September 30, 200817 yr by CMG

Sorry about the crappy pic.... but I went with the widest tire possible while remaining the correct height.

Factory Interceptor tires were the equivelant to a 205/70/15. The best matchup I could do while getting the widest tread possible was 235/60/15 tires.....

And for those not familiar with English cars.... LOL

This is actually the upper wishbones. "A arms" to you and me....

I had to glassbead them, paint them, and I'll install new bushings as the existing ones were trashed!

I'm loving this car.... those headers, with their

Siamesed inner pipes, look awfully pedestrian.

(like the ones on my '68 Camaro's ZZ350)

More, MORE, MORE!

I really like this car, and your mods.

I'm sure the Jensen purist/elitist won't like the mods, but I want more performance. I'll keep the mods more or less to the powertrain, I've got more pics coming. The front end was disgusting, I've been media blasting and cleaning for days, and it's just to get the car on the road. It will come back apart completely when I redo the body, I might end up powdercoating the stuff I paint for now, depends how my wallet looks...

I'm going to try for a fairly mild 500hp-ish drivetrain for now, and I'll see what brakes!

Good stuff.

Keep those pics coming!

My parts chasing is coming to a close, I'm still tracking down upper and lower ball joints, but my carbs came in.

Two Edelbrock 500s, they are polished, I'm going to polish the intake too.....

Nice!

I'm going to modify a factory oval air cleaner I have to make it fit.....

Still waiting on my weirdo balljoints, but most of the front end is media blasted and painted.

Nice.

Any shots of the disassembled car?

Nice.

Any shots of the disassembled car?

Just the front end is off for now, front suspension and brakes. I'm hoping to get a pic of the front as it sits tomorrow... if the monsoon lets up!

It's amazing what you consider to be "mini"

It's amazing what you consider to be "mini"

If I had the funds it would be a MAJOR redo.

lol

I'm just gonna do what I can afford right now, I've got ten too many projects on my plate!

I figured I would polish my own intake. YUCK! Filthy and tedious!

I'm about 50-60% finished sanding and shaping, forget the polishing! LOL

The polishing will be the EASY part I hope!

Holidays and a couple feet of snow caused a bit of a break for me as far as car stuff goes, but I'm picking away still.....

I've got the manifold past the shaping stage, and have it about halfway polished I figure.... hopefully another 4-8 hours more and I won't have to be black and stick anymore!

Back at it!

This is as nice as the wheelwell areas are going to get for now, it's gonna be my driver until my Coupe is running, I can rip it apart later and do it nice....

I cut the front springs down myself to lower the front of the car (HOPEFULLY) 2" in ride height.

If I didn't get it bang on, I got spares! LOL

Impressive as always CMG

Thanks Dodgefan.

It's Almoooost there....

Still have to do the rear though!

LOL

Everything looks great!

The front suspension and brakes are redone, just needs an alignment. Now on to the rear! I have to redo the brakes, cleanup the suspension and hopefully drop the rear about 1/2".... then it's on the road.

I want a ride.

I want a ride.

Haha! If ya lived close.... :AH-HA_wink:

Hopefully I can get somebody in the passenger seat taking a video when it's up and running and on the road. I wanna see if I can wrap the speedo... it's a 140+ mph car stock so it will take a bit of engine work, but I'm hoping!

More pics to come, it might not be a showroom flawless looker but it should be a performer, if all goes as planned....

Looking forward to it.

Slowly but slowly.... LOL

Well, I've had to rip out more than I thought, wiring here and there, battery cables buried deep and half melted, all sorts of funny stuff.

I can actually close my hood on the intake setup, air cleaner and all, which saves me from reskinning a hood...

Here's what I mocked up, the intake fits, the waterpump housing will work and everything should attach, now I have to pull off everything, polish the waterpump housing and start final assembly....

I have polished valve covers and some other shiny parts, but the mockup shows what it will look like basically........

Edited May 18, 200916 yr by CMG

It's looking great!

I'd really like to see this car in person some day.

Well......

I tore the stinking engine entirely apart, and I'm glad I did. It was a mess to say the least. A NEW mess, but a mess... lol

I upped my compression, it is now 446 cubic inch, 9.35 to 1 compression (measured) with a 270H Comp Cam. I ported the heads and deshrouded the valve bowls, redid a few things done poorly/wrong, and hopefully will have a stout engine now. The camshaft in the engine that started the whole teardown was measured at .250" lift, which was .375" lift at the valve. Pretty pathetic!

I'm tossing it back together, this is what I started with at 12:00 noon today...

This is where I quit, in the middle of making my leads. LOL

Back at it tommorow!

Well....... I wasn't slacking off.... I bought a puppy who is in very bad health and I've had not much time at all.... but I finally got the Jensen back up and running.

It isn't tuned, it has the stock exhaust crammed into an H pipe I bought with my headers, but it starts, runs, and idles pretty good for an untuned dual quad car so far...

Idle.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qbvxIVJqBE

I'm still loving this project!

Great work, I hope to see it in person some day.

Long time since the last update... LOL

I've got the car running well enough to be looking for solutions to serious traction problems! It will not grab from 10-20mph even at 3/4 throttle, it starts to go violent quickly. I have a feeling the rear springs might be weak and wrapping up or? It's only got 235/60/15 tires on the rear which doesn't help, but something tells me it's a case of finding out what isn't working properly as much as it is overwhelming the tires....

I changed the exhaust, it now has 4 mufflers and Delta Motorsports headers, we made a custom mandrel bent 2 1/2" system all the way through to the rear, which was actually harder than I thought. Not much room under an Interceptor! The factory exhaust was 1 3/4"!

The compression is 9.5 to 1, it's 446ci, the heads are ported, two 500 Edelbrocks and an FBO ignition system. It pulls pretty hard but it's hard to stay in the throttle with the car doing it's own thing as far as traction goes....

The brakes actually work now. LOL It even runs around 185 while getting a beating.

I'm working on the wiring, I had ignition and not much else, I have lights, turn signals, all sorts of things everybody usually takes for granted.... but I've got a ways to go.

Pics/videos to come, it's gettin closer!

Edited March 18, 201016 yr by CMG

Hope to hear the traction solution soon.

Wellllll......

Insured the Interceptor today!

NOW I am a happy camper! haha

I've done home renos for the last couple of years, got a car ready for my kid and insured it today.... so I figured I better insure the Jensen so I don't feel left out... LOL

Drives pretty danged good so far, corners flat, lots of power, I have a few bugs to work out I'm sure, and the body/paint needs to be done still, but it's a driver!

Hopefully have some video soon, my main gripe so far is there is a fair amount of drone at idle and certain cruising speeds, it's fairly loud considering it has four mufflers, but I can work on the exhaust and see what I can do with it....

Excellent!

So glad to hear news on this car, congrats on making it legal.

Updates on this project really make my day.

I have no idea what a stock Interceptor should wear tire-size-wise.

What is correct & what fits aside... a 235/60-15 is a tiny tire- measures only 26.1" tall. Seems to me a 446-powered coupe needs more meat under the quarters.

There is what's considered a 'base' tire height (WRT traction/gearing for performance cars), but I cannot say for certain what that height is. I believe it's 27.5" tall for the era's porky, V-8, RWD performance cars.

When choosing/considering axle gear ratio, to be as 'scientifically correct' as possible WRT you car's 'formula', the gear ratio chosen is based on that 'base' tire height (OR needs to incorporate that height).... because anything markedly different changes the effective rear ratio.

In other words, your rear gears + those 26" tall tires may be giving you an effective numerically-higher axle ratio, which just burns the tires off. Could be a factor.

-- -- -- -- --

Hey- you've got forged A-arms- just like my '59 Buick! :cool:

Great job CMG.

I wish I had a project car.

CMG can I recruit you for help? You do such nice work!

Haha! Thanks guys!

And Dodgefan... you obviously do some pretty danged good work yourself!

Valve spring keepers make me so angry!

I have no idea what a stock Interceptor should wear tire-size-wise.

What is correct & what fits aside... a 235/60-15 is a tiny tire- measures only 26.1" tall. Seems to me a 446-powered coupe needs more meat under the quarters.

There is what's considered a 'base' tire height (WRT traction/gearing for performance cars), but I cannot say for certain what that height is. I believe it's 27.5" tall for the era's porky, V-8, RWD performance cars.

When choosing/considering axle gear ratio, to be as 'scientifically correct' as possible WRT you car's 'formula', the gear ratio chosen is based on that 'base' tire height (OR needs to incorporate that height).... because anything markedly different changes the effective rear ratio.

In other words, your rear gears + those 26" tall tires may be giving you an effective numerically-higher axle ratio, which just burns the tires off. Could be a factor.

-- -- -- -- --

Hey- you've got forged A-arms- just like my '59 Buick! :cool:

Stock tire size for a Jensen Interceptor is 205/70/15. That's 26.29" tall.

Which is why I chose the 235/60/15. It's not only the widest tire that will fit in the rear wheelwell, it also fits up front without rubbing, and 235/60/15s are 26.1" tall, which is as close to 26.29" tall as feasibly possible...?

I can change rear gears later, at any time. I am pretty sure the rear is Dana 44 interchangeable, so any Jeep gears on Ebay will do me fine, and for next to nothing really. I want to TRY to keep an "all around gear", as this will be my driver, and I want a decent highway speed ability and good highway cruising BEFORE hard acceleration. It's my driver. I hope. haha

I have to hook up the kickdown linkage still, so blipping the throttle is OK, but to accelerate I have to get my linkage fabricated...

It's noisier than in this video though, and it has four mufflers...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NStpPLbRPL4

Yeah- 26.1" < > 26.3" is an inconsequential difference, so it's not that.

So what ARE the gears in yer Jensen ?

So what ARE the gears in yer Jensen ?

3.08

That's the "performance gear" for an Interceptor, believe it or not, the alternative to the 2.88 rear.

Good all-around ratio, IMO. That's what was in my '64 GP- and that car used to overpower the open rear and do side-2-side burnouts on the bias plys at WOT (389).

You still might consider a wider, stickier tire for the rear (taller if it'll fit) if you are blowing them off.

That, or pull a spark plug wire or 2.

I'm not sure I can fit any wider of a tire. These cars were NOT made to fit very big tires, it's unbelievable.

I do have one spare rim, I'm looking for another.... and then a set of slicks for the track *might* be something I could live with.....

Great job CMG.

I wish I had a project car.

I know where quite a few corvettes are resting...what are you looking for...

Valve spring keepers make me so angry!

They are no fun...

Haha! Thanks guys!

And Dodgefan... you obviously do some pretty danged good work yourself!

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