Do I have a Ruddspeed?

[asneddon]

When I had Charlie from Classic Volvo have a once over on my car, he pointed out a couple of machine rivets on my head that I hadnt thought twice about. He said the only time he had seen them before was on Ruddspeeds.

Anyway, what do you guys think? Looking at the plate vs my rivets, they arent in quite the same place. They look like the same type of rivets though.

If people think I do have a ruddspeed, I will probably look at geting a plate made up.

I assume you can't get hold of Ruddspeed themselves to find out if you do have a real one? I seem to remember reading they got taken over by someone like MPH, BHP, RPM or something like that, but I cant find the link again.

Thanks to jcashmore for the photo from his Rudspeed (His Serial Number wiped out)

[Derek UK]

By golly Holmes, I do believe you're right!

It could well be a Ruddspeed head, it was sold as a tuning part, ususally on exchange. Stage I, II and "how much money have you got". Lots more heads than "converted from new" cars.

[jakobandhismakarov]

By golly Holmes, I do believe you're right!

It could well be a Ruddspeed head, it was sold as a tuning part, ususally on exchange. Stage I, II and "how much money have you got". Lots more heads than "converted from new" cars.

Yeah, there was a kippered red 122S on eBay that I think Lance from Romance Of Rust bought a while back that had a Ruddspeed head.

[Steve121]

question is, does your car go better then a standard one?

Incidently, got my head polished and ported by 'Ruddspeed' when the name was owned by MPH in the Cotswolds, run by Peter Holdsworth. Tried to get the engine plates I was promised when they made them again.. nothing, not a word.. don't know if they are still there, they tended to specialise in Austin Healeys, I suppose hence the Ruddspeed link.

[asneddon]

question is, does your car go better then a standard one?

No.


Well, I doubt it. Its slower than an MGB that I run into every now and again.

My only other experience with Volvos are:
244 with the 2.1L auto that I drove from about age 15 to 20. This went massively better than my P1800

164 with the 3.0L EFI which was my brothers car. This obviosly had a lot of tourque.

740 Intercooler with the turbo 2.3 which I 'think' a previous owner had wound the boost up on. This would wheelspin when it changed from 3rd to 2nd on the auto box!

My P1800 has trouble getting over 70MPH and sounds a bit sickly once you get over whatever the revs are at 50MPH in 4th gear with OD off.

When I bought the car I took it to Tony Barrett to get him to check it out. It was a bit tappety so I wanted that fixed. His solution was to replace the C cam with a D cam! I also had the front and rear seals modified to take the new style over the old felt ones. He replaced the clutch at the same time (which involved fitting a new flywheel for some unknown reason).

I had the original single downpipe manifold replaced for a twin pipe one, but as I couldn't get that to seal correctly I then had a full Simons system fitted including tubular headers.

Its got new plugs, leads, points, condensor, air-filters, carb jets, fuel filters etc. It has been tuned up by Tony (who set it far to rich), Charlie at Classic Volvo (Didnt have a timing gun, but got it very close anyway), and myself (by driving it, tweeking, driving tweeking etc).

Currently all 4 plugs colour up a nice dark grey colour after a spin around the Oxford ring road. The Timing is set by advancing it till it pinks, then taking it back a fraction.

All and all I think it is as well tuned as I'm likely to get. It drives quite nicely if you dont want power. Its still tappety though which is annoying.

Where it lets itself down is lack of mid-range tourque and acceleration. It does leak oil out from the head gasket, which it started doing about 200 miles after the cam was replaced. It fumes a bit after an hour or so at 70MPH on the motorway, but doesn't otherwise. There is no oil in the water, or water in the oil.

Well, that went off tangent, but I'm at work waiting for someone from IT to get my server working again... Just as well Internet still works eh? ;)

[222s]

Yeah, there was a kippered red 122S on eBay that I think Lance from Romance Of Rust bought a while back that had a Ruddspeed head.

IIRC it turned out to be a pretty hot Ruddspeed unit in that car. Not sure of the exact spec though - Lance knew it was a Ruddspeed, but only found out more from the guy he sold it to, when it was taken apart.


asneddon, that doesn't sound good at all. With a Simons, twin downpipe & D cam etc, it should be pretty quick. Not modern fast car quick, but certainly quicker than a standard MGB (as well as many much younger cars), and comfortably hold its own on the road, even in the outside lane of the motorway.

Is yours a B18 or a B20 though? Far from certain, but I've always under the impression that the Ruddspeed goodies were for B18s. if it's a B18 head on a B20, I wonder if that might explain things?

[asneddon]

B18 unit. Speedo is only showing 58,000 miles, and it doesn't blow smoke. Its the full tubular header now, not the twin downpipe.

Around town, on the flat its actually very nice to drive. Its only when you want to get up to speed, or go up a hill that it sucks.