The 'E' Type Forum

For those with V12s, what is the current availability/iteration of the REOPUS.

Hi Andrew,

As far as I remember, the last available iteration of ReOpus was version 4. However, when the owner, designer (I think his name is Dave Curry) reached 70 or so, he stopped selling it, although he did say he would continue to support those who, like myself, had bought units in the past.

I just looked and it appears the site is no longer online, sad really because it was one of the best V12 sites. I always meant to save the pages, but I don’t think I did.

Regards,

Simon

Bugger.

So what's the best substitute? The XJS race car has died an electrical death. Do I go for the rebuilt units from the usuals?

I should get advice from the distributor doctor in Somerset England. www.distributordoctor.com
e mail to martin@distributordoctor.com

Hi Andrew,

The SNG unit is the obvious answer. It is based on the later design and apparently more reliable. I have no experience of it, but anecdotal evidence suggests it is pretty good. It’s what I would have chosen otherwise. I do have experience of the Crane optical system but I don’t like it. It seemed unreliable in the application I was trying to work with; a Series 2 XJ12. The sensor mount seemed very flimsy and susceptible to unwanted movements and it took ages to diagnose what eventually turned out to be an intermittent problem with the sensor, but at least spare parts are available. Just a personal opinion of course.

Regards,

Simon.

Andrew, i thought u flipped the race car for the white lady? Unless i'ts a warranty thing?
XJS was never Opus.
I have a perfectly good XJS ignition system (Lucas CEI) or alternatively an EFIHW modified distributor, available if yr interested ( https://www.efihardware.com/products/20 ... uar-HE-V12 )

Swapped the XJS with a friend. He did 9 laps of the Bend (about 45km) and it died. Prior to that he was pulling around 220kph down the front straight.

I'm assuming it's the ignition.

I'll PM you. I don't know much about these units.

IMHO, the pertronix 9lu-1122a is the most cost effective ignition solution for the V12 now.

pertronix 9lu-1122a.

Thanks for that.

The plot thickens as we try to determine what's actually under the bonnet.

So far we have found a Crane XR 3000 controller with a Crane LR91 coil pack.

The assumption is that there is a Crane optical trigger inside the distributor. Hmmm. Can anyone find the distributor in this picture?

Andrew : is not the distributor between the two centre filters in the photograph, with the master HT lead running to its centre ? Or are you pulling our legs about the maze of wires involved ?

I suspect Andrew's post was coded language for "I don't want to disassemble the throttle linkage to get to the distributor because it'll be hell having to resynchronise six carburettors to each other....."

kind regards
Marek

I assumed it was a pxxx take!

malcolm wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 06, 2021 9:13 am

I assumed it was a pxxx take!

Harsh but fair.

The outcome:

It seems that the distributor wasn't properly locked down with the 3 Allen headed screws (they were finger tight) and the distributor rotated about 15 degrees counter clockwise.

Why this happened isn't clear. Perhaps the centrifugal force of the spinning weights is enough to do this or perhaps the rotor button hit the inside of the cap. We can't tell.

This ended up with the spark at around 15 degrees ATDC as measured with a timing light while cranking with the plugs out.

What is actually fitted to this car is a Crane XR3000 unit with an optical trigger and a home made 12 slot chopper. It seems to all be working. Glenn got the distributor out and it seems to be undamaged.

Removing the distributor (see above picture) required removing several carbies and all the linkages so at this stage we haven't fired the car up yet.

The plan is to rebuild all the carbs while they're off, reassemble it and see what we get. My hope is that it will be fine.

Thanks all, and particularly Colin, for your input.

I fitted the Crane kit and coil years ago very carefully and can only praise it. The OPUS just died very slowly in about 1995 leaving me stranded once warm.

With the car reassembled and correctly timed it now starts and runs perfectly.

Thanks all for your input.