My first car was a Hillman Imp, back in 1968. Fun car ans nippy but the usual issues with head, vacuum throttle and - finally, mechanic error I think - a complete wheel and bub coming adrift on the Sidcup bypass. I lost brakes as the drum linking had noting to work against, but amazingly, the whole rea nearside wheel stayed in the wheel arch whilst I slewed to a halt. I'm afraid I sold the car the next day
Thanks, very useful, if I ever finish sorting my garage I will start on my Clan, any more detail would be great. That looked a very clean tidy job, well done.
As an "Imp nut" in the late sixties, the moment you mentioned "Clan", I almost wet my knickers! I had an unfulfilled love affair with the Crusader! Are you intending to make videos of what you are going to do? Although the Imp engine was so 'tuneable', getting any worthwhile increase in capacity was prohibitively expensive back then. A BMW swap like this one would make your clan into something very special! I hope it goes (went) well.
Very informative, thank you. A couple of points that I would like to make. 1) the inlet elbow into the head looks very restrictive, is there a way to either down draught or semi-down draft the inlet? It would probably mean creating a housing in the rear luggage area. 2) I note that the front rad discharges under the car, which will exacerbate the lift at the front end that is already light. Classically, the rad air exits through the bonnet, which provides downforce at speed. Where does the spare wheel sit? 3) I note that the fuel lines run through the car in rubber - this is very risky. Apart from any mechanical damage to the rubber pipes there is the serious issue of ethanol in fuel that can rot the rubber. If you are going to run E10 then at the very least R9 hose should be used (R6 is has limited resistance to even E5 and won't handle E10). With what you have the fire risk is real! Normally the fuel is run in the transmission tunnel, where there is plenty of space and it is protected by the undertray as well. Such fuel line ought to be hard lines in stainless steel or Kunifer. The only time fuel lines could be run internally is when stainless steel braided hose is used as in competition cars, although all my competition cars for rallying had the the hard fuel lines in the tunnel. In an accident the last thing you want is fuel spraying out of the lines, potentially onto the electrics. What suspension/brakes is the car running?
I’ve heard of these BMW K100 swaps in Hillman Imps and K75s in Fiat 500s and 126s, but are there any other cars using this swap? I think the coming trend in hot rodding is Mercedes, BMW and Jaguar engines. At least here in Britain.
Sort of! Tricky question to answer. You can swap the interchange bmw bell housings from the 1100 to the 1200. The adapter kit will fit either but it won’t be a perfect seal.
Nice I do have 1 question, you mention you don't like to runt he coolant pipes through the cabin but you have run fuel pipe - rubber not solid - through the cabin why, surely this has safety implications?
Excellent video. How do you check the oil level? Is there a dipstick or do you have to get down on the floor and look at the little level eyesight window which looks to be a bit of a PITA?
My only reaction is about the long and twisty inlet route. Especially from the throttle body to the head. I suppose you have no option about this and I have no opinion about any reduction of power. It couldn't be made to point straight up?
@@Doms.BMW.IMP.Conversions : In the 1960's I was using my Imp for club events, including gravel hillclimbs, and grass-track racing. Clogged air filter was an ongoing problem, so I mounted a filter inside the car, on the parcel tray below the rear window. It sounded great, but it was sooo loud it was pretty much unusable as a road car. If I "booted" it, it sounded like a WWII machine gun post! I ended up having two mounts for the filter, one inside, and one in the engine compartment, and a blanking plate for the hole in the body. It was about a five minute job to swap it over at the event. Happy memories... thanks for your excellent video!
An absolutely great idea how to improve a Hillman lmp put a motorcycle engine in it any motorcycle engine that fits because the original Hillman Imp engine is absolute rubbish unreliable and a pile of junk but l have seen a lot of these Hillman Imps converted to motorcycle engines most of them are the BMW K series engines which are reliable thats something BMW aren't known and l have seen one with a Honda Gold Wing engine swap extra reliable we all know about Hondas great reputation for reliability turning an absolutely crappy car into a great little car with a motorcycle engine good stuff
