MrSpeedy

I've fitted lower 440lb springs on the front of my Vitesse, along with adjustable Gaz shocks. It's also lowered about 3" at the front and fitted with a 7/8" Spitfire front ARB. This was also fitted with spherical joint drop links instead of the original type rubber ones.

The rear has a 1" lowering block along with a new (well, it was new 4 years ago) standard rear spring and adjustable Spax shocks.

Fitted with wide (7" & 8") wheels it corners pretty well imo with little understeer and certainly no excessive body roll

I have a brand new pair of Xantia discs if anyone wants them. Your's for postage plus a drink  ;)

john, the Ford one is marginally bigger in heuight and width than the standard Vitesse rad, and as said I had to cut the bottom out of the friont valance to allow the bottom tank to sit through about 3/4" - 1". The hose connections are the same size and roughly in the same place, tho again, the bottom one is slightly too low and if you had a steel valance you'd be cutting it for clearance (The 'glass one just bends a little out the way ;) )

When I had the Civic rad in, I extended the top hose inlet pipe to roughly the same position as the original Trimph one





Comparison of Civic Rad (right) and RS2000 rad (left)

By side covers do you mean the engine valances?

My standard radiator couldn't cope either, too much scale I guess, which is why I started looking for alternatives. The ali ones are easily half the weight ;)

@ carlton - all being well (mot tomorrow) I'll be heading down Sunday morning with a few others. When you going down?

@ cliftyhanger - don't know about Stafford, I'll need to look at that

@ martin m - I used an aluminium one. Just simply couldn't dissipate the heat that the huge mass of cast iron generated/stored.

Just thought some of you may like to know about the latest conversion I've done on my Vitesse.

I previously had a Honda Civic radiator in place, but this proved inefficient during the recent hot spell.

I have now succesfully modified and fitted an Ali radiator that is for a Ford RS2000.

The hose connections are near as damn it correct for our application, but it is marginally taller, so I had to cut a slot in the front valance to allow the radiator bottom tank to sit through by about an inch to give under bonnet clearance.

I also had to modify the mountings on the Rad itself, but a fairly straight forwards conversion.

I'm not aware of anything on 'our' pcd in 12", but if you're really keen, then hub re-drillng or pcd adaptors will probably be your only solution

I ran NS2's in 215/45R17 flavour on my old W201 Benz.
Good value for money 'budget' tyre. Not amazing, but not rubbish either

IIRC it should be +ve to coil (from ign sw) then -ve from coil, through points and to earth (It's been a while tho)

Either way, you certainly shouldn't have +ve feed at both terminals

Just to mix it up a bit, I had 195/45 R15 on my old Sprintfire and it sat a treat imo. Never really had any huge problems with the swing arm rear end either

Check your thermostat first.
It's a £10 fix if it's stuck, and not uncommon either

For head gasket failure, you need to be seeing 'mayonaise', heavy condensation or excessive pressure in the water system to suggest it.

If it still runs, how does it run compared to before the 'hot spell'?

Any excessive smoke either from the engine breather or exhaust?

I thought you'd got it covered and didn't want to 'tread on toes'
Sorry mate  ;)

I believe that 6.5" with 175 tyres is as wide as you'll get under standard arches.
The normal is to band the front to increase 'dish' but I'm done some reverse banded wheels before to increase tyre size whilst staying inside the original arches for a Rover P6

I personally have 8" on the rear of my Vitesse, but had to 'lose' the rear arches completely!

If you're interetsed, I've done many sets now, and can supply photos of previous jobs. I'm also a fair bit cheaper than ^^that lot^^ up there  ;)

(I am actually an engineer by trade with full workshop/machining facilities)

I'd echo what's been said.

I paid £50 for a 'core unit' for rebuilding, and then I've sold a running engine (but not demonstrated) for £120. I've also sold a fully rebuilt A+ series engine for £500!!
I'd suggest (and so would recent ebay activity) that a used engine and 4speed 'box would be around the £150-180 mark.
If it was an iover-drive box that would add another £50ish imho

Hold on, I may be thinking about the half shaft bolts.
Now I think of it more (without the kids screaming at me!), i think the propshaft to diff input flange bolts are 5/16"
I can check in the morning

Yup, mine are definately 3/8" UNF. Not 100% on the length, but around the 3/4" mark

PCD adaptors or redrilling would be the only way to make them fit

^^^ This

I don't see the point in trying to make the wrong box fit when there are so many on the market, made for the job.

A sports 2" system will easily flow enough for a standard 2500 and you'll still have a choice of 'comfortable', 'fruity' or 'down right offensive' (Like mine!)

That is unless where you live there is very limited availabilty.

I paid a total of £95 IIRC for my stainless system from the Triumph spares day some years ago. Bargains are to be had if you seek them out ;)

*edit*

I've just had a look at the shape of a TR6 silencer. You've got no chance of getting that under a Vitesse boot floor. The spare wheel well sits exactly where that silencer would need to be. If you hung it underneath you'd see the whole damn thing. That's assuming it stayed on long enough to be seen and didn't get ripped off in 5 minutes due to it hanging to close to the floor!

Simply heat the ring gear and it will fall off!

Banded original steels.

Very popular with the kids don't ya know  ;)

Mine under construction;



And the finished result;

I removed the breather valve on my MK2 Vitesse 5 years ago and fitted a simple breather filter. Made for more stable running/idling and had no adverse effect on oil leaks/consumption

That's exactly what I did!

On my old 'Sprintfire' I ran 15" x 7j wheels with 195/45 tyres.
Its was lowered all round and never really had any clearance issues

I used the same one as John, but welded an extension on for the top hose

I hope tha's not an actual picture, cos if it is the hose connections are very much in the wrong place!

It's a decent price if the one they send is correct tho. Most Ali rads I've seen have been around the £400 mark

Are you looking for  Vitesse or Herald?
A Honda Civic one can be had for much cheapness and modified to fit fairly easily in a Herald but a little more tricky in a Vitesse due to less room to play under the bonnet