Avenga's 1975 Avenger

[avenga]

This is my 1975 Hillman Avenger Super.









I brought this car early 2010 as my daily driver. Since I brought it I have been slowly customising the car to my tastes.

Before I brought this car I had been eye it up at a few car shows but the timing was never right. I saw it for sale at Galaxy of cars and at the MoPar nationals and since I had just become self employed I was looking for a new daily driver.

Discuss here. http://www.avenger.co.nz/forum/index.php?topic=14.0

Here are some pictures from the night I went to pick it up. The photos after this are in chronological order so you can see all the work I have done on it in order.













When I brought it it had a stock 1500 with a down draught weber and Alpine exhaust manifold on it. It went okay for stock but it was pretty gutless so I knew that had to go. But more about that later.

[avenga]

My first project was a bit of an interior dress up. I am still not finished this as I have an Alpine dash to go in but that is on my to do list.

First thing I did was get rid of the steering wheel and gearknob.





After that I pulled up the ugly checkerboard they had on the floor. Once I pulled up the checkerboard I could see why they put it there in the first place. The carpets were completely rotted away. there was a few leaks which would have caused the carpets to get wet and rott. I guess the last owner just wanted to cover up the problem so I stripped out all the carpets and fixed all the leaks. I got a new set of carpets made for me by Autodec in Manakau and spent the weekend pulling out the old stuff and installing the new carpets.

When I first saw the state of the carpets I was really worried thinking I would have heaps of rust on the floor to deal with but as you can see it was sweet once I got the carpets out.

Drivers side front before



And after



Passengers side before



After



Passengers rear before



and after



Drivers rear before



After



Back section fully stripped



This is the only solid bit of carpet I got out of the whole car. anything touching the floor was just sludge.



Mostly clean, ready for the new carpets. I did some more scrubbing after these photos just to get it spotless before installing the carpets.





Installed some underlay to help with the road noise.





Then came the new carpets. I had to modify them a bit to fit but all the joins are hidden by the center consoles so it looks mint when everything else is in.

[avenga]

At the same I expermented with different Avenger seats I had and after a bit of driving around I decided to go for the high back buckets because the low backs are pretty uncomfortable with the lack of shoulder support. At the same time I replaced the seatbelts and started my audio upgrade. I replaced the door cards which the old owner had cut up to put some crappy 4" speakers in. I went for some Pioneer TSD-1720 6.5" components with the woofer in the door and the tweeter in the dashboard. it has some old Pioneer 6x9" in the back which I will be replacing with some new Pioneer TSD-6902 speakers soon. I have just finished the second stage of my audio upgrade but I will post the photos of them later so it says in chronological order.

[avenga]

After sorting out the interior a bit I turned my focus to getting more power. I found the intake manifold new on Trademe for around $100 from aussie then the Dellorto DHLA40's were 2nd hand on Trademe for abour $500. also found a new fuel pump on Trademe.

Next thing was to search for a good block to built the engine on. I was looking for a 1600 Avenger Alpine engine because they have a dual timing chain, double vavle springs and a better head to start with.

I put a wanted ad in trademe looking for an Avenger engine. I got a few replies. the first was a standard 1600 from Hamilton for $200 which I passed on because the engine was pretty rough. Next offer was a pair of 1600 Alpine engines up north for $100 but they had been sitting outside for years so I passed on those.

Finally I got the offer I wanted. It turned out to be only a 1500 but I bored it out so it is the same bore as a 1600 but just a slightly shorter stroke which can be a good thing. The engine was out of a 1973 Avenger Alpine, the only year Alpines had a 1500. It was the guys fathers car and the engine had been rebuilt in 2000 then put in a garage in 2004. I got the engine for $100 for the block and head only.

I also brought some new headers and got them HPC coated. it was about $250 for the headers and about that again for the HPC coating but they look really great so they are worth it.

When I pulled the engine apart it was mint inside, you could still see the hone marks on the bore from the last rebuild and all the bearings were mint. Because I was building this as a performance engine I decided to replace all the internals even though they were pretty good already.



Carbs and intake manifold





New fuel pump. see it's demise in later posts



Shiney headers. they look soo cool. it is a real shame they are hidden by the carbs when they are in the car because they look awesome







The new 1500 Alpine in it's old home in Wellington before it was pulled out and sent up to Auckland





The new engine stripped and ready to start the rebuild

[avenga]

Okay now on to the fun stuff, the new engine.

It is a 1973 1500cc Avenger Alpine engine. It has all new lightened and balanced internals, polished crank etc. Heaps of work done on the head. custom ported and flowed with new valve guides and inserts. Custom cam made for the flow of the head. New GT double valve springs.

Carbs are dual DHLA40's on a modified manifold which has been port matched to the head and a set of modified headers.

It is pretty quick for a 1500, it loves the revs. pulls 7,000RPM with ease.

Any questions feel free to ask at http://www.avenger.co.nz/forum/index.php?topic=14.0

Custom Kelford cams spec sheet



Engine in the shop all ready to be swapped over






















Engine fitted in the car ready for its running in. I couldn't get the K&N's in time for the running in so I did my first 300km with no filters. sounded awesome













After the running in with the K&N filters on. I have since removed that ugly cable going across the carbs and done some more engine bay clean up.

[avenga]

Avengers are known for breaking a few things after you increase the power of the engine. I learnt this on my race car but I thought I would be okay because I didn't think it was producing enough power to break stuff.

The funny thing is I was talking to one of my mates about how the standard fans flex and hit the radiator at high RPM and how we both had to switch to electric fans on our race cars, I told him I thought my road car would be fine without an electric fan then the next day on the way back from another mates place I heard this huge bang. Luckly I was literally at the corner of the road I live on so I coasted home and popped the bonnet water was pissing out of the radiator and I could see a missing blade. I walked back up the road and found the blade sitting in the middle of the road.

Also just before that happened I had the other weak link in the Avenger fail. The fuel pump. The shots below are it cracked after my 300KM running in. I replaced it with an electric fuel pump. I had the same thing happen on my race car but again I didn't think the little 1500 had enough power to do that to the fuel pump, it was brand new when I put it in, you can see pictures of it new further up the thread.

okay now for some pictures

Broken fuel pump





Damaged radiator



Broken fan







Spare radiator



Electric fan



Thermostat control box



Fan "on" light and manual override switch



My speedo has never been very acurite and with replacing the dashboard soon I didn't want to fix it so I decided to get a fancy GPS speedo. It is really acurite and it has a programmable overspeed warning which is cool.



Next I got the bonnet repainted, It got some paint stripper or brake fuild dropped on it by my mechanic which ate through some of the paint so he resprayed the whole bonnet for me for free!! it is sort of a satin black, not quite a matt black but not a gloss black.



After that I was taking it down to a car show so I thought I would give it a good clean, when I was finished it looked soo good I figured I should go take some nice pictures of it.















Here is a quick sneak peek at my next project, an Alpine dash and instrument cluster.











Next I went on to stage 2 of my audio upgrade. A kicker amp and sub with a new Pioneer head deck. I have also brought my rear speakers but they will go in over Xmas. I got really good deals all my audio gear from JB HiFi. for example I got the rear 6x9 Pioneer TSD-6902 speakers for $101.









Discuss here http://www.avenger.co.nz/forum/index.php?topic=14.0

[avenga]

Some video of my 1975 Hillman Avenger that I previously posted under the Avenger you tube section.

A short video of the Avenger starting up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVjC4ZS1ltg

A longer one of the engine running, giving it a bit more revs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bax64htIGnQ

Going for a little drive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EojldShQkQ

[avenga]

Okay so I have started stockpiling parts for my upcoming projects.

I have decided to "borrow" some of the good parts off my race car and put them in to my '75. Namely the Volvo brakes and late model booster/master cylinder, Electronic dizzy and maybe some of the other suspension components.

I will also be doing my Sierra 5 speed gearbox conversion and installing an MSD 6AL.

Here are some pictures of my latest purchases.

MSD 6AL and MSD Blaster 2 coil.



Sierra 5 speed gearbox with homemade quickshift.







Discuss here

[avenga]

Got my MSD and coil fitted. Still running on points at the moment because my electronic dizzy was no good.

[avenga]

Okay guys, a quick update on my Avenger.

After much playing around trying to get the electronic dizzy going I have decided to give up on it and have gone back to running points which triggers the MSD 6AL and MSD Blaster 2 coil as pictures above. We did a lot of playing around on the electronic dizzy with the springs and weights and finally got it to looking right with a static timing of 8 degrees and a total of 32 degrees but there was a noticable drop in power so we gave up on it and went back to points.

I finally got the jets and chokes I have been waiting for so I could do my final tune. The engine is running so much better now. Tons more low end power with the smaller chokes installed. Pulls well from down low now. Before it would bog down at low RPM due to the chokes being too large and not enough airflow. Now they are perfect.

Here are the dyno figures after the final tune. You will see 2 lines. The top line is with the points dizzy and the bottom line is with the electronic dizzy. It got 78.1HP at the wheels which is would be a touch over 100HP at the flywheel. This is awesome because 100HP at the flywheel was my goal when I started this engine build and I am bloody stoked we got there. The Avenger Tiger was around 100HP at the flywheel so I am pretty much making the same sort of power as an Avenger Tiger.

 

Discuss here

[avenga]

Actually I just read that the Avenger Tiger made less power than I thought. It was 107HP gross at the flywheel but only 92.5HP net at the flywheel. And with my car being about 100BHP at the flywheel I am beating the Tiger by about 7HP at the flywheel!!!

Gross horsepower was measured at the crank with none of the accessories like alternator, water pump and air cleaners etc hooked up so they look much higher then the real horsepower. Net is still measured at the crank but with all the factory equipment installed. Then finally you have the rear wheel horsepower which is lower again because of transmission and tyre losses. They used to advertise the gross horsepower on cars to make them look more powerful but in real world numbers the Avenger Tiger would be about 71HP at the wheels. The bottom line in my HP graph was 70.1HP so that would be about what an Avenger Tiger would be compared to my final results which are the top line.

[avenga]

5 Speed gearbox in installed.

For more info read Avenga's 5 speed conversion project

Here is a couple of photos of the gearbox. Heaps more pictures on the 5 speed conversion thread.

[avenga]

Here are some photos of my front seats repaired.

[avenga]

I took my Avenger down to the panelbeaters yesterday to get it's respray done.

I have been really slack and keeping this thread up to date so I will repost all the bits and pieces from other threads in to this one.

First up was the brake upgrade & suspension upgrade. These are Volvo 4 pot calipers and BMW E30 rotors. I also swapped my race car suspension over to this car so I have adjustable Koni's all round and adjustable ride height and camber plates at the front.

This is the caliper all rebuilt and restored. All new pistons and seals etc.





Here they are bolted up to the E30 rotors. You can see some of the plumbing is done and you can see my custom struts along with the camber plate in the background.

[avenga]

Next up was the wheels and tyre upgrade.

Got some custom Diamond Racing Wheels made for me. Took me 6 months to get them here after they took like 4 months to make them. They had trouble with the 4x108 stud pattern because it is not very common over there and because they are a pressed wheel they had to wait till they could get a press to do the centres.

They are 15x8 with a 4" backspace on the rear with 225/50/R15 Toyo Proxies T1R tyres, and 15x7 with a 4" backspace on the front with 205/50/R15 Toyo Proxies T1R tyres.