Dipped in green glass

[Anthony]

Quoted from GT6 M

ohh ye got the plugg oot yet,!!!

    

Not yet

My brothers got my welder
Hopefully I can pick it up in the morning

[GT6 M]

its not just  sitting Nick, its turning it owa when ye working on it,
you will need to turn it over,
just get a tin and coat every thing,alott, 3 months is a long time for an engine to sit.
I call it peice O mind.
I bet there some 1/2 empty tins ligg,n aboot at your works spot.
that will just get wanged oot . so they could be liberated for a better use.

M

[Nick Jones]

I use Graphogen.  That will stay on until washed off by warming oil.

I tried refacing followers on a sheet of glass with 800 wet 'n dry and some light oil.  I found that most were really quite dished even when they looked good and struggled to make a set out of 30 odd used ones.  Bought some new from Mr Witor in the end.  May live to regret that - only 2,500 miles on that engine so far.

Nick

[Royboy66]

Hey Nick !

Good to see some good progress on the engine stuff, should be a good un!

Was That really 2009 when you came along to Prescott!?  Wow!  A great day !

It's about time you 'popped over' again then 😉

Roy

[drofgum]

Quoted from GT6 M

dont want yer new engine to eat its cam ,like most others seem to doo.

M

Hi,
I am led to understand that the reason for early destruction of the cam is attributable to the new oil formulae lacking ZDDP (a zinc compound). ZDDP was removed as it is detrimental to catalytic converter life in modern cars. Anything that can help the cam live through the running in period is all to the good.
                                                                       Cheers,
                                                                       Paul

[Nick Moore]

While the short block's away it was a good time to look at the gearbox. Instead of rebuilding the original box, driving carefully and crossing my fingers, I bought a kit to mate a Supra W58 gearbox to a TR6 engine from Conversion Components in New Zealand. All it took to mate the kit to a GT6 engine instead was a TR6 backplate and flywheel. A Triumph engine will not break a Supra box!

The kit contained a new gear lever mounting and linkage - in a Supra the gear lever comes out further back than in a Triumph. The gearbox's rear case had to be removed to fit the new linkage, so I took the opportunity to inspect the gears and clean a wee magnet in the bottom of the box. It didn't have much fur on it, so hopefully that means the box is OK.

Once the box was assembled, though, the gear lever pointed too far forward. Very odd. It turned out that the linkage on the selector rod was in the wrong position - possibly it was the linkage from another kit. This was quickly fixed by drilling a new hole in the linkage, so that it sat under the gear lever when in neutral. Now we had all the gears - and the box feels nice and smooth too. I also had a small reinforcing strip welded to the linkage, as it had only been welded along one edge, and it might eventually have weakened and fractured.

So now all I need to do is clean and paint the box and replace the front and rear seals. Then it's ready to meet the engine and have a trial fitting in the car. Fingers crossed that no chassis trimming will be required...

[Bradley1500]

Hi Nick,

Looking good now.

What made you choose the W58 over a Type 9? Just out of interest, as, from what I've heard, sourcing of parts is more difficult than the Type 9.

Also, does anyone know if it's possible to fit a 5 speed Supra box would it be possible to fit the 6 speed V160 verision from the later twin turbo Supra? I'm guessing not seeing as no one seems to have done it.

[Nick Moore]

Hi Brad, I originally chose the Type 9, but then found that I'd bought the wrong box. For six cylinder applications I needed a box with a longer input shaft. They weren't available in New Zealand or Australia, so I would have had to ship one from the UK. The cost was approximately   So I went for the W58. While they don't grow on trees, they do come up on eBay.com.au from time to time. This was probably a better decision anyway as the Type 9 can be marginal behind a briskly spanked 2.5 motor.

I have no idea if anyone's fitted a later Supra gearbox, but I doubt it. They're wider, and the W58 is supposed to be a snug fit as it is. Also, check the ratios. Six speeders generally have a 1:1 in fifth gear and only sixth as an overdrive gear. Six gears might suit a peaky modern engine (that's why modern cars have up to eight gears, their more highly tuned engines have narrower power bands) but Triumph engines have a wider power band.

[Nick Jones]

No way will the R154 go in - they are roughly the same shape as the W58 but 20% bigger in all directions and the W58 is already a tight fit.  The R154 is only a 5 speed.  The 6 speed is even bigger.  They go for £3 - 3.5K on UK ebay...... 😲

Should be possible to get the right gearlever position using OE Toyota parts according to Dellow.  Never been able to find the right part numbers or even the original application though to had to mode the Supra remote - which wasn't too bad a job if you can (or know someone who can) weld ally.

Interested to see how the bell housing and clutch arrangements work out in the CC kit - I've got a spare W58 and a PI with the original tractor 'box.....

Nick

[Bradley1500]

Thanks, it was out of interest mainly. It seems most go down the T9 route rather than the Supra box, in fact of the top of my head it's only yourself and the other Nick I can think that use them.

I thought as much regarding the later Supra box.

[Nick Jones]

At least one other UK Vitesse with a W58 and at least one GT6, though that was looking a bit squashed last I saw of it...... 🙁

Nick

[Bradley1500]

Was that, that Vitesse over on retrorides? or did he fit a T9 too?

Didn't know about the GT6 though.

[Nick Moore]

The GT6 would be Jango, I presume? His car's featured in such videos as "Overtaking Everyone at Le Mans" and "Overtaking Everyone at Cadwell". Didn't know he'd bent it - was he overtaking something, by any chance?

[mikeyb]

ahem yes

[Nick Moore]

Ah... I just had a read of Club Torque (arrived last week) and got up to the Nachtrit section. Once I figured out that Jango = James it all made sense. And then I went and looked at the 'Competitions' section of the Forum and caught up with everyone else. My fault, I don't usually read that bit.

A car-destroying crash is every car enthusiast's worst nightmare, but at least the front end absorbed the impact and they were OK. I should keep a photo of the Damson car on my dashboard in case of red mist.

[GT6]

W58 behind a 2500+ in a rather run down and partially disassembled GT6.

[Nick Moore]

Mr GT6, that gearbox looks interesting. It's not a W58 though - maybe a T50? The W58 is bigger, way bigger!

Yesterday I heaved the Supra box into the GT6 to get an idea of how it sits in the chassis, where the gearlever comes out, and what the rear mounting options are. (The position isn't exact as I don't have an engine block to bolt it up to - that's getting bored, decked and honed this week - but I think I got it pretty close by using the sump to show how long the engine is). Conclusions:

• The gearlever comes out in a similar place to the original, well forward of the handbrake. But it'll need to be bent back a lá GT6, as it's almost hitting the dashboard in 1st / 3rd / 5th. Easy to do with some heat.
  
• The box sits nicely between the chassis main rails, and the widest part of the box matches the scalloped portions of the main rails. When I say nicely, I mean that it's tight but not hitting...
  
• The TR6 mount that came with the kit won't work, as it hangs below the box and would interfere with the exhaust pipe. There's more room between the chassis rails in a TR6! So I'll have to make a custom mount.
  

Nick Jones' installation is the obvious model to copy - a few plagiarised photos are below. He used two rubber bobbins mounted above the main rails. The left one will be easy to copy, but his right hand one is a tight fit around the speedo cable takeoff. Nick - I think you must have used small bobbins! And have small hands!

[junkuser]

There is a large range of industrial, resilient mounts available Nick.
Maybe worth looking around. You may find something that is easier to use than the bobbins in your situation.
I have round, flat bottomed ones at the rear of the Spit 4 gearbox that I feel are better than the bobbins for this particular job.

[junkuser]

Pic.

[Nick Moore]

Hmmm, they're a bit thinner than the bobbins, which could be a big help. Do you know what they're off?

[junkuser]

Have no idea Nick.
Just some machinery mounts I've picked up somewhere years ago.
Googling resilient machinery mounts may find what is available.

Others may know more about such things.

In this application, I made the metal plates and bolted them to the box and affixed the mounts on studs in that plate.
Their is a hollow in the rubber, so the head of the fixing to the box does not foul anything.

Just had a look in Blackwoods catalogue and they list them as "Vibration Dampers"
They have a branch at 625 Boundary Road, Coopers Plains, Brisbane, or at least they did in 1986 when this catalogue was printed.

[GT6]

Thanks Nick, you are right I have a corona box.

[Nick Jones]

Nick,

Pretty sure that the mounts I used are from a Rover SD1.  Definitely came off an LT77 'box I had lying about.  You'll probably find that you do need to bend the inner lip of the chassis down a bit in places.  It all looks really promising without  until you consider the propshaft run and realise that the box has to go lower so that the prop misses the floor under the handbrake.  Your prop-angle will be different due to the longer diff and shorter car but even so......

Hardest part was getting the chassis mounting plates just right.

I sawed the gear lever off near the base and welded a Herald 948 one on top.

Cheers

Nick

[Nick Moore]

I dropped the Subaru diff out of the GT yesterday. A friend had asked for the dimensions of the cast alloy backplate, so the easiest solution seemed to be to send it to him! I was planning to swap the 3.7 diff I'd fitted with a recently acquired 3.54 anyway. We may ultimately be able to send people a program so that they can make their own backplate on a 4 axis milling machine. In the meantime the GT is missing a wheel and has its bum in the air. It does not look happy.

When I delivered my car to the painter, he immediately mounted the body on a rotisserie, and wheeled the chassis outside. He told me it was 'under cover', but this translated as 'several pieces of plastic have been thrown over it'. Unbolting the diff yestday, I found that the high tensile bolts had gone rusty and the hammerited cast iron wishbones have surface rust showing through. Well, everything can be cleaned and repainted, but it got me thinking. Those wishbones are heavy! I could replace them with Canley cast alloy ones, but even better would be to make new tubular steel ones. My car doesn't have rotoflex couplings now, so the wishbone doesn't have to be curved.

Does anyone make tubular wishbones for ex-rotoflex cars, or will this be another 'first'?

[Nick Jones]

Quoted from Nick Moore

Does anyone make tubular wishbones for ex-rotoflex cars, or will this be another 'first'?

It's been done before by various people but none in "production" I'm aware of.

Nick