BJORN OLOFSSON'S
"Sleeping Beauty"
Sweden
Engine: Chevy V8
Trans: B/W
T-5
Rear End:
Stock Healey 4.10
Bjorn Olofsson & Charles Matthews in Sweden
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AUSTIN HEALEY 3000 Mk1 V8 1960
The ultimate sleeper.
Eats Porshe 911 turbos for breakfast.
Same torque as 911
has now but 2/3 the weight..
Engine Specifications
Block: Chevrolet V8, 4 bolt from 1970
Capacity: 5.9 l (365 Cu.In.+ 0.60" overbore )
Crank: Forged GM
Heads: GM. cast irons 1.94" valves
Pistons: Cast 10.5:1
Cam: GM "350 hp cam"
Induction: Edelbrock Performer
Carb: Edelbrock (Carter type)
Distributor: GM, HEI modified by Summit Racing
Headers: Modified Blockhuggers
Exhaust: Twin 2 inch pipes run below outriggers
Max torque: 410 ftlbs @ 3.900 rpm at crank
Max hp: 352 hp @ 4.900 rpm at crank
Other Modifications
Clutch: Standard GM 10", bellhousing from Chevrolet Nova with Tilton Hydraulic bearing
Gearbox: 5 speed Borg Warner T-5 with 0,67:1 overdrive in fifth.
Rearend: Standard Salisbury 4.10:1with a Quaife locker.
Frontbrakes: Standard discs, calipers from a BJ8
Rearbrakes: Discs from Denis Welch (GB), calipers from Jaguar E-type.
Gastank: Foamfilled Aluminum , 40 liters (10.5 Gals American)
Wheels: 72 spoke 15 x 5.5 Inch
Rubber: 185/15/ 70 BF Goodrich
Drivers seat: Tailormade 60´s racing authentic from Autostorica(GB).
Polurethane bushings up front.
Negative camber up front due to excenter bushings from Denis Welch
Front antirollbar 7/8".
Rear antirollbar Installed
Traction bars Installed
Recored original radiator with 2 electric fans , one 14" Pusher and one 16" Puller.
Paint is Original Pacific Green over Ivory.
0-100km/h (0-60mph): Approx 4 seconds with good traction.
Top speed: Not Documented
The Legend of Sleeping Beauty
I bought my 1960, Mk 1, BT7, in California, USA, in 1987. It was my first
and, so far, only trip to the USA. Originally,
I was determined
to come home with a Jaguar E-type, Series-1, 3.8 Roadster. Here’s what actually
happened.
Before
the trip started, I had gotten the address of an American car dealer who had
a couple of Jaguars from
a professional car importer in Sweden. When I got there, I noticed a shabby,
but almost rust free, V8 Modified
Austin Healey sitting in a corner of the used Jaguar dealer’s big warehouse
in Santa Monica, CA. I was not
interested in Austin
Healeys, I wanted Jaguars….
I purchased
one E-type Roadster and one E-type Coupe and made arrangements to have them
shipped home
to Sweden. When I got home some weeks later, I confirmed the deals by fax,
but suprisingly, found out that the
coupe had been sold to some one else and was already gone.
I faxed
them back and bought the Austin Healey instead. When the cars got to Sweden,
the V8 Healey was
impossible start. Luckily, I had a trailer. Gothemburg is 500km (310 miles)
from home. The Jaguar was in a
better condition and driven to my home at the same time by a friend.
Still
wanting to drive a Jaguar, I started to work on it. After a total rebuild,
the E-type was in a better than new
condition.
I found that the E-type was not very practical for my use. I sold it in 1996.
When
the Healey was transported to Gothemburg by container-ship, it was in a sad
state. Someone had jumped
on and smashed the old hardtop and it was was lying in the cockpit. The smashed
pieces immediately went into a
nearby garbage container. I now regret throwing it away.
The
Healey was badly painted in a deep red and equipped with a, shoehorned in,
1956 Corvette, 265 CI engine.
Probably done by the first owner. There were aluminium sheets, cut with a
cutting torch and pop riveted in place,
to cover the holes in the footboxes.
He made
room for the Powerglide, 2-speed automatic transmission, between the boxed
frame rails by using a
cutting torch and just blowing away the inner halves of the frame wherever
the gearbox needed a little more room.
With a lot of ether and a fresh battery, I finally managed to start the car
What
a drive THAT was! The engine smoked black and blue, the automatic transmission
slipped all the time, and
the top gear was almost not there. The original 48 spoke wheels with the original
cross-ply tires shook and wobbled
all over the place. It was hard to drive very fast as the driver seat was
not bolted to the floor.
First,
I got a new transmission, a Munchie 4 peed, manual shift. Then I got a new
set of 72 spoke rims and new radial
tires.
Next,
I started to work on the the rest of the car. Some new ignition parts and
brake pads made a considerable
improvement in it’s ability to Go and Stop !
I bolted the seat down and then, finally, it was drivable.
The
old 265 Corvette engine rattled and smoked, but delivered enough tourqe to
be able to think of it as a REAL
sportscar. The original gearing in the rear end was so low that it made RPMs
go way too high at hiway speeds.
This was not a car for touring.
On a
vacation trip to England, I picked up a new black interior and some ”British
fit” chrome things, such as
bumbers and new grille and so on.
The
time came to get this car inspected by the Swedish authoroties. For that purpose,
the old 265 Corvette
engine was perfect. With only 140HP, documented by looking up the engine number
in an old Chevy history book.
With that engine, the Healey was almost as weak as it was with the original
six cylinder engine. It passed.
Then
I got some ideas about changing things. I started trying to locate a used
350 engine. At first, I was thinking
of getting a Tuned Port Injection, but these where a little to expensive at
that time.
One
day met an old ”Hot Rod” friend at the local gas station. He knew of a basket-case
engine that he had run
in his Caprice Estate wagon for some years. The engine had originally come
from a surplus NATO guncarrier
from West Germany and had the four bolt block and big heads and so on. It
was brought into the country by a
Swedish drag racer during the seventies. As he remembered, it ran very well,
reving freely to about 6.500rpm.
The
engine was an original 1970, high performance Chevy 350 (bored twice to 0,60
over). It had iron 1.94 heads,
a speadbore
intake manifold and a Rochester 4-barrel carb.
The guy who sold it to me was a mecanic, so he put it all together and made the switch in the Healey.
What a difference ! Now, with something like 350 HP, this car was like a motorcycle with 4 wheels and no brakes !
The
4speed was hopeless. It was trucklike and had no overdrive. I removed it and
replaced it with a B/W T-5
with a 0,67 overdrive in fifth. Now it shifted like a true sportscar.
Although
the Rochester 4-barrel seemed to make the engine run better, both with easy
driving and at full throttle,
and seemed
to have more power from idle to the read line, because the Rochester flooded
occasionaly, I switched
it for a Holley 650
Pretty
soon, it was time for the new paint. If you scraped a little here and there
and cleaned the chassis you
could see that the car had been Pacific Green when it was new. No one has
that color here in Sweden, and to
make things a little more uncommon. I chose to paint the sides Ivory, as it
was when it was new.
Then
I switched from the spreadbore intake manifold to a new Edelbrock intake.
Later I switched from the
Holley carbburetor to a new Edelbrock (Carter-type) carb also.
The
distributor was replaced with a HEI unit from Summit Racing and the rams horn
cast headers were changed
to blockhugger tubular headers. These headers were altered at the bottom ends
to get over the chassis rails.
After
about 50 miles, the engine started to oil foul one of the spark plugs. As
the plugs are not easy to take out
and clean, the whole engine came out and was taken to a well reputated engine
shop.
As it
turned out, the first mecanic had done lousy job of putting the engine together.
I ended up with another
total rebuild.
After
the rebuild and before it went back into the car, it was put on a Dyno machine
for Horsepower and Torque
performance testing. It did deliver the 350HP claimed and put out a good 410
foot pounds of torque.
With the ignition timing and carb jets set up as it should, I suddenly got a common Modified Healey problem.
Over heating !
The old Holley probably sprayed twice as much gas into the engine which kept the temperature down.
A newly
recored radiator did not cure the heating problem, nor did twin electric fans.
This winter, louvres will be
cut in the bonnet and some ”works”-type wing (fender) vents are being fitted.
We’ll see if it helps.
It’s
clear that the old mecanical 6-blade fan and a good shroud moves a lot more
air that a 16” electric! But that
everyone knew but me before!
I have bought and sold a LOT of cars, but the Healey is not for sale, ever.
This
Healey is indeed a rarity here in Sweden, as far as I know, it is one of three
V-8 Healeys in the whole country
and one of those is in still in pieces.
Email: bjorn.olofsson@crossnet.se