MatraSport Forum

[url]https://youtu.be/4XXnejsD_k8[url]
Came across this one today. A few factual errors but a good review nonetheless.

My car!

Nice car.
Who did your engine work?

Me, David.  It is the first one completed with our new Piper made brand new cams.  Colin let me have a brief drive recently around some country lanes and it goes and sounds fabulous, I'm pleased to say.  I am building a second at home and have already built Ian's but that car is having a lot of other restoration work so won't be on the road for a little while yet.

Roy

Yes the combination of Roy's expertise, and perseverance with Piper to get the cam shafts made, has made for a a big improvement, the engine was borderline scrap when I bought the car, people tell me that it now goes even better than an "S"... All I had to do was keep emptying my bank account into it!

Thanks Colin (and Roy)
I guessed that it might have been Roy's work due to the mention of a Piper cam.
It is about time that I got started on the murena rebuild. The engine had been rebuilt by Sportscast Unlimited to their Prep 142 spec but I have never heard it run. Various reports on how good their work was but at least it has a new head. I also have the single Weber advised by Roy as a better alternative to the Dellorto set up.
Hope to be down a the NEC Classic Cars show on the Sunday for a bit of inspiration.

If you haven't ever run the engine since it was rebuilt and that was some time ago, then the very first thing you must do is to re-torque the head bolts.  The head will have settled from the original build and I would suspect it will now be less than the original torque.  The last thing you want to do is fire it up and start a head gasket failure.

When you do up the bolts, please email me and let me know how much they rotated to get back to the torque setting.  When you run-in an engine straight after the rebuild, then when you re-torque the head after say 800 kms or a few weeks, they will usually rotate about another half a turn to get the torque back to the correct level.  Since your engine has not run but has had a lot of time to settle, I will be interested to know how that compares.  Thanks.


If you have a Holbay cam profile or a similar fast road profile, then yes the single down-draught carburettor will still produce the power with better economy.


Have a good visit.

Roy

Nice car - I know he's your mate, but the 'presenter' leaves a bit to be desired.  :D