Nick Moore
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Everything posted by Nick Moore
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Do you mean part number 620656? They're available from Rimmers: http://www.rimmerbros.co.uk/Item--i-GRID008139 No idea how well they fit - can anyone chime in? I've no idea how much freight to the States would be, but it would certainly be cheaper to buy the Rimmers seals than get them custom made.
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Do you mean part number 620656? They're available from Rimmers: http://www.rimmerbros.co.uk/Item--i-GRID008139 No idea how well they fit - can anyone chime in? I've no idea how much freight to the States would be, but it would certainly be cheaper to buy the Rimmers seals than get them custom made.
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Went back to the exhaust shop. They're making progress. To get the legally required clearance between the chassis and secondaries, the 1 & 6 primaries have been modified. Number 1 is now an inch or so longer - I know, it's no longer equal length, but I don't think it'll have much effect on performance. For a racing car you'd chase the last percent, but not for a road car. Hopefully it'll be ready in the next day or so.
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If the certifier gets properly obstinate then yes, I might have to construct a new boot floor above the tank so that no fuel can enter the cabin in the event of a leak. However, that would be a major structural modification. Hopefully not - the requirements change depending on the age of the car, too. And yes, in theory I could get the car certified on carburettors, but GT's headers don't fit the standard inlet manifold - they were never designed to. Triple Webers mayhaps. However, you're not supposed to change the car after it gets its blue chassis plate. The inspection only happens once, but that's why I've put off returning the car to the road until it's in its fully evolved form. I could have had it running as a 2L with standard running gear about two years ago. That said, I'm sure it will continue to be developed in the future, but more detailed work than major spec changes.
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Unfortunately, since I modified my tank, I've found out that the ADR rules specify that fuel lines can't run in the cabin. Actually they also say that the fuel tank can't be in the cabin, but I'm hoping that as it's the original tank in the original location, I'll get away with that. The legislation gets complicated because state and federal rules can be different and even contradictory, and what is allowed in one state can be illegal in the next. Sometimes you have to read the regulations from several states and work out the commonalities. Also, experts tell you different things, especially if you're paying them to modify something. Don't get me started on catalytic converters... It looks like unless I can re-route the outlet pipes from the in-tank pump out the bottom of the tank, I'll have to move all the plumbing underneath the car. I'm not sure about the fuel return pipe, that may have to enter the bottom of the tank too. Regardless, I'll talk to some engineers before changing anything. Grrrr.
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I'll measure the headers when they come home. The pipes for 2, 3, 4 & 5 stick out about as far as the steering column, if that helps. There really isn't much room for long inlet runners, or anything else for that matter! As Nick J says, the fuel pump should only run for a few seconds to prime the fuel system, and won't run again unless th engin is turning over. That said, I will install a switch for the pump. I may have to relocate the pump from inside the tank to under the boot floor, due to ADR rules. Not happy about that 🙁
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I dropped into the exhaust shop this morning to see how they were progressing. I'd had a gut feeling - the guy doing the work wasn't there when I dropped the car off and his assistant had seemed a little vague. Fortunately the main man was there this morning and had only started on the car today. And it was just as well, as his assistant hadn't shown him my notes and photographs. To recap - I ended up with only a set of primary pipes rather than a finished header. GT shipped a jig to make the secondaries, but as it's in Melbourne, I decided to go it alone and finish the headers to suit my car. GT's never divulged the exact length of the secondaries - they seem to have shortened over the years - but I figure that as long as they're all the same length, they'll be fine. So I'd left a photo of GT's blue headers in the boot, with notes on pipe diameters and the O2 sensor bung location. The exhaust guy had made a good start, heating and bending the pipes for cylinders 2, 3, 4 and 5 so that they clear the chassis and steering column. Apparently the law here requires 10mm clearance, which would be a bloody miracle on a GT6! But sure enough, the pipes now have the required clearance from the column and chassis. He hadn't started on the 1 and 6 pipes. Interestingly, even on GT's primaries, the 1 and 6 pipes are slightly different lengths. Not enough to make a difference, probably, but it goes to show just how hard true equal length 6-3-1 extractors are to make. Still, compared to Craig's Phoenix headers, GT's are lovely! Because he hadn't seen the blue header photo, the guy's next step was going to be to add a 3-1 collector in front of the starter motor, with no proper secondaries at all. He's going to do it as per the photo now! Once the car comes home, I'll repaint the suspension turret and steering column to remove any incriminating marks before the engineering inspection.
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Alloy rocker covers are a good idea, as Mr Buckit says. I've had two. The first was a chunky black Triumphtune cover, which needed some filing inside and to the mounting stud holes before it would fit over the rocker shaft. I always thought it was ugly, with poor paint, and so eventually replaced it with a polished alloy cover from Canley Classics. The new cover was about a kilogram lighter and fitted perfectly right out of the box. Both alloy covers sealed better than the factory pressed steel cover. As for bling, even Triumph weren't averse to a bit of shininess under the bonnet. Remember the TR5's chromed rocker cover?
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Aaaand a confession. I spent hours in the weekend trying to bleed the brakes. I stripped the master cylinder about three times, changing seals and springs. I opened and checked the PDWA valve body. I bled and re-bled the VH44 servo. And still, the master cylinder struggled to hold pressure in the front circuit unless the pedal was pumped vigorously. Yesterday when the car was up on the tow truck's deck, I was gazing through a front wheel at the red Canley / AP Racing 4 pot calipers, which were now at eye level, when I realised that there are two bleed nipples on each caliper. The outer nipples aren't visible from above when the wheels are on, and I'd only been bleeding the inner one as you would for a Girling type 16. My guess is that the outer halves are still mostly full of air, which had to be compressed by repeatedly pumping the pedal before the system contained enough pressure to feel through the pedal. The photo below is from Canley Classics' website, and you can see the outer bleed nipple easily. The red matches my face. Guess what I'll be doing as soon as the car comes back from the exhaust shop?
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Gone! The GT6 is away getting its headers finished and Rimmers 'sports' exhaust system installed. With it gone, the Herald has sneaked into the garage. I hope it's not getting too comfortable in there, as the GT6 should be back in a week or so. I used a flatbed tow truck to transport the GT6. Two trucks in fact. Despite me carefully explaining what the car was when I booked the truck, the first guy turned up with a forklift already on his truck, to pick up my 'motorbike' - he'd never heard of Triumph cars. He suggested towing the GT6 behind his truck, assuring me that he did that sort of thing all the time, never had a problem and was fully insured. I declined his kind offer, preferring an intact car to a wrangle with an insurance company for replacing a car so rare in Australia that there's no established market value. A few minutes later another truck turned up, the GT6 was rolled out of the garage for the first time in about three years, and we were on our way. At the exhaust shop, I explained to the fabricator what I wanted and gave him my Gareth Thomas primaries and photos of how Gareth's headers look when finished. I'll stick my head in on Monday and see how they're getting on. Leaving the GT6 on the side of the road outside the exhaust shop felt like leaving a child at daycare for the first time. I swear its bottom lip was trembling as I walked away
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The recent discussion on another thread about the need for a safety cutout switch for fuel pumps reminded me that I hadn't fitted one to the GT6 yet. I ordered one from eBay, and attached it to the bulkhead behind the battery where it is easy to access and reset. Bumping it showed that it will trip if knocked hard either front to back or side to side, but that up and down knocks don't trigger it. If the impact cutout switch trips, it will also activate a warning lamp in the dashboard. The lamp was originally connected to the cold running circuit when the car was wired for Microsquirt, to remind me not to give it the beans until the engine was up to temperature. MS3-Pro doesn't have a cold-running indicator output, so the lamp was redundant. Now, if we ever go over a big bump, the engine cuts out and and the red lamp comes on, I will know what the problem is.
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Hi Tony, yes, the primary pipes have been brazed to the manifold flange. I don't know whether the joins were MIG welded first, with braze simply sealing up any pinholes. All the other joins and welds have been done with a MIG or TIG. Google research is divided on whether brazing manifolds is a good idea. The car is going away to an exhaust specialist on Thursday to get the secondary pipes made, so I'll discuss the brazing with them. The brakes are on and working, sort of. Those tandem cylinders are tricky to get working, and it took two days, two rebuilds of the master cylinder and one strip down of the PDWA before I could get the rear brakes working. Now they work very well, but the front circuit requires pumping. It could be because the servo is only plumbed into the front circuit, I'm not sure. I'll give it a few days to dislodge any remaining trapped air, and it might also help to turn the car around in the garage so that the rear is uphill instead of the nose. If all that fails, I'll take it to a brake specialist. Learnings for the weekend - I can now get the master cylinder out of the car in under five minutes, including siphoning the fluid out first. Brake fluid makes your fingertips wrinklier than water. And it doesn't matter how careful you are, it always gets onto the paint.
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The front section was already 3/4", so the seals for the front piston will be the same. BHSS, the machin shop, supplied the 3/4" inch rear seal to go with their new brass piston. If the cylinder ever needs new seals, I'll either have to go back to BHSS, or find another one somewhere. That said, 0.75" seals must be pretty common. I'm not worried. I've just realised that the 'exploded' master cylinder view is wrong. After taking the photo I took another look at the 'tipping valve' - the small spring-loaded assembly that lets brake fluid into the front cylinder from the reservoir. The spring should sit above the flat metal disc, not below. Unfortunately I forgot to take another photo, and it's not coming out for one now!
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Thanks for the gauge tip, Tim. I have another one in my Herald, and so far it's been OK, but I'll keep an eye on this one. The brake master cylinder has been resleeved in stainless. Apparently the minor rust I could see in the front section was the tip of the iceberg, and the rear section was worse. The rear section was originally slightly narrower, but the entire assembly is now 3/4" diameter. The reconditioner made a new larger rear piston to match the new bore. It's reassembled and back in the car. I'll bleed it tomorrow, and then hopefully she'll have brakes for the first time in who knows how long.
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Now the Herald and I have returned from holiday, tinkering on the GT6 has resumed. Because the next long drive will be in the GT6, the mile-eater. Firstly, the NOS-but-rusty tandem master cylinder is away getting resleeved in stainless steel. It turns out to have a stepped bore, with the rear piston being 1mm smaller than the front. The reconditioner says that they usually resleeve these as a single diameter, and make a new larger diameter piston for the rear circuit. That's OK by me - given that the rears are un-boosted, the rear brakes need all the help they can get. I'm also getting two cunifer lines made up. One was made by me and the flares don't seal properly. Whether it was my fists of ham or my cheap (ish) flaring tool, I figure that the professionals can do a better job. The other line runs under the engine and was accidentally crushed when I was reshaping the right hand suspension turret to accommodate the headers. Ooops. And now a question. I bought and fitted a GT6-style stainless steel heater return pipe, back when I was planning to run the car on carbs. It's not right for an injected motor as it angles out from the engine, and is only supported at the water pump. So, I can fit a PI pipe or a TR6 pipe. The PI pump appears to be supported by a tab bolting to the rear exhaust manifold / head stud, while the TR6 pipe's bracket appears to bolt to the engine to bellhousing bolts. I have a TR6 rear plate, so the TR6 pipe should bolt right up. Does that sound right? Oh, and if anyone wants a GT6 stainless heater pipe, let me know. Free plus postage.
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If the car was parked on a slope, oil may have slowly leaked past a seal, either on the gearbox input shaft or the overdrive's output shaft. The short term solution is to park it level!
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My 13/60‘s cooling system has evolved as it's moved to a warmer climate, and tuned to produce slightly more power. I removed the metal engine-driven fan to reduce noise, although a plastic one might have done just as well. It now has a high-density core, and two 12 inch sucker fans mounted on a shroud. The shroud became necessary when I moved to Australia and it had to cope with temperatures in the high thirties. As Jonny says, they make a big difference, as a fan without the shroud will only suck air through the portion of the radiator it covers. A good check of your cooling system's basic effectiveness is whether it will stay cool without a fan while moving. Mine usually does, but the fans come on when the airflow is blocked by a vehicle in front. As for the current draw of a fan, is it naive to assume that more current draw equals more air moved? In which case, the highest current drawing fan will move the most air?
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Generally the car will give you a gentle tap on the nose with the steering wheel if you change from third overdrive to second. After a surprisingly short time (in my case less than twenty years) you learn not to do it.
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Which unfortunately means that when the next guy wants to find the best quality parts he can find, all the retailers have is cheap nasty tat.
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It could be perished rubber in the fuel cap, but my bet would be on perished fuel hoses or overflowing carburettor float chambers. I'd recommend replacing all the fuel hoses with ethanol-resistant hose (I think the spec is R9), check all the hose clamps are tight, make sure the fuel pump isn't leaking and see whether there's fuel on the carburettor's overflow vent pipes, if it has them.
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An old joke: a lad rings his Pa to ask what to do. He's hit a pig and it's stuck under his pickup truck, squealing and kicking. "Shoot it, and you'll be able to drag it out safely", the father advises. Bang. "OK, says Junior, "but his motorike's still jammed under me truck".
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Einar, have you looked at Canley Classics' four pot caliper conversion? Their kit includes larger 254mm vented disc and new caliper mounting brackets. The advantage of the larger disc is that the pads sit further from the hub and provide greater leverage. The disadvantage is that standard 13" steel rims no longer fit. I'm not sure what the piston diameter is, sorry. I've fitted the CC calipers to my GT6, along with 15" rims. The calipers are unbranded AP (the pads are for an AP caliper so you can do the maths) and the kits bolted on with no tweaking required. My only concern is that some of the paint on the calipers has flaked off - we'll see how they stand up to road conditions. Oh, and they're not cheap but - how to put this - I don't want cheap brakes!
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A new Roy-Toy?
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Hey Booley, Yes, it's our busy season at work. We'll stop work over summer when the rains start. Until then, I get home about every three months. It's not all bad though, as I have the Herald at work with me. I drove it this morning! Lurk away! I've followed a lot of threads by restorers far better than I am, in the hope that some of their talent will be assimilated. Some days I think it's working, others not so much. For example, after I took the header photos on Wednesday, I got my largest adjustable spanner and bent the suspension turret's flange forwards. It'll need a touch-up where the enamel flaked, but that's no biggie. Finding a 1/4" in the GT6 is an achievement. However, when I stood back to admire my genius I realised that the spanner had squashed the right hand brake pipe! Fortunately I have a roll of kunifer pipe and a flaring tool, but still... And yes, I could move the motor back, but the sump's steering rack recess is right above the rack, so I think it's where Triumph intended. Plus, clearances are tight at the gearbox end. The gap between the chassis rail's inner edge and the speedo angle drive is about 1/4", maybe less! In any case, there's no need now the turret's been spannered. LHD? Yeah, that would make fitting the headers much easier, but while avoiding the steering column conundrum but would lead to an oil filter fiasco. To be continued, next time...
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I managed to jag a couple of days at home, both of which have been spent in the garage. Firstly I replaced a 0.75" clutch master cylinder with a 0.70" to reduce the pedal pressure. It's worked - the pedal's not too stiff, and take-up is a couple of inches off the floor. And amazingly, the system self-bled. I just jiggled the pedal for a couple of minutes, and gradually it got firmer as the air worked its way out. The shape of the Toyota slave cylinder may have something to do with it, who knows? The big news, though, is that my Gareth Thomas header primaries are here and have been trial-fitted. There may have been a happy-dance when they arrived, as they took about two years to migrate from Wales to Western Australia to South Australia to me in Queensland. There are also rumours that they spent time in France! The deal with Gareth is that I will get the secondaries made here, but they're much easier to fabricate than the primaries. The twists and turns necessary to fit six equal length primaries in that space are surprisingly complicated. As expected though, they need some tweaks. Firstly, the 2&5 secondary was touching the suspension turret. That was cured by bending the turret's lip forward slightly, giving a few millimetres clearance. Next, the same 2&5 secondary is hard up against the steering column. I may be able to move the steering rack a few mm to the right to compensate, or move the engine slightly to the left. Failing that, a small dent in the pipe may be required. Lastly, the 2&5 points slightly towards the chassis rail's inner flange by about a quarter inch. Again, a BF hammer may be deployed to reshape the flange, and the secondary downpipe may need a small dent. Spitfire 1500s had a notch in their chassis rail to accommodate their downpipes, but I've also read that the notch weakens the chassis rails. If reshaping the lip doesn't work and I have to notch the chassis flange, I'll weld a strengthening rib or two to make up for the lost metal.