Triumph tales from the West of Oz

Feature Car of the Month - Triumph 2500 TBI Mk2

2008-01-22T07:51:00.001+09:00

Thought I'd do a quick feature on each of my cars with a brief history, specification and current state of play.

Starting this series is my everyday hack a 1973 ex-2000 now 2500 TBI

Affectionately known as "Mabel" by my wife it used to be her everyday driver but it now serves as my everyday hack whilst the Stag engine is rebuilt.

It was bought to reshell a rusting 2500S for the princely sum of $1500 after being rescued from a scrapyard. The paint is mostly original and structurally it is wonderful. No nasty rot on this one.

The engine is basically a Mk1 PI motor bored to 0.040" running Duralite pistons. It is currently auto with a BW 65 box but will be converted to manual J-Type very soon. It has a Wade cam with 275 deg duration and 0.280" lift with Harland sharp 1.5:1 roller rockers

The most non-standard mod has been the fitment of Throttle body injection using a GM ECM and custom injector adaptor and distributor from Rick Patton in Maine, US. http://www.pattonmachine.com/

The SU carb have prototype injector bodies and TPS developed by Rick last year and recently I have also installed his Lucas distributor conversion which allow fully programmable advance curves via the ECM. This has solved many issues that the original hybrid Jeep/Lucas dizzy had inherent from day one.

Twin injectors pretending to be HS6 carbs. Clutch master cylinder already installed and waiting for a gearbox!!

The dizzy conversion is extremely neat and uses a fabricated reluctor that sits on the old pegs that the advance springs used to use. The magnetic pickup is adjustable like points and is mounted on a fabricated stainless bracket that mounted like a baseplate .

Ignition module is just to the left. Must get round to binning that fuel pump

This car is currently used on a daily basis and does about 250 congested rush-hour miles a week. It returns about 23-24mpg with this use so hopefully a manual conversion will improve this to 27-28mpg

The interior has been improved with some lovely old Jag XJS seats... they are a bit tricky to fit as they are not offset like Triumph ones so when mounted they sit a little too close to the door... this has yet to be fully resolved but they are soooo... comfortable compared to Triumph's finest back breakers

Interesting website... and more product reviews

2007-12-26T09:17:00.000+09:00

http://www.crazyspitfire.blogspot.com/

Just in case anyone doesn't have the link.

Keep up the good work Dave.

Whilst we're on the topic of reviewing products, the small end bushes for the Stag made by County are no bloody good. There is not enough whitemetal on the steel backing to allow honing to the correct tolerance.

If you are thinking of fitting these bushes do yourself a favour and use Healey 3000 small end bushes with a slight overbore of the small end. Much better :-) This will effect Stags and Dolomite 1850, Sprints and Tr7's. Not sure if a better OE spec bush exists anymore.

All I want for Christmas is.... 3 more gears

2007-12-20T20:50:00.000+09:00

Bit the bullet this afternoon and spent a few hours at Markich Motors scavenging enough old scrap to convert my daily 2500 to manual overdrive.. gives me something to box on with when the Christmas spirit runs low.

Rebuilt the slave and master cylinders (they were stainless sleeved) and redrilled an early Mk1 2000 flywheel to suit my Mk1 PI crank.

Just need to build an overdrive loom and do a little fettling...

Should keep me busy for a day

Update

2007-12-17T21:43:00.000+09:00

Pretty slack update here as no photo's but I'll rectify that in a day or so..

Anyway the fleet is currently as follows:

2500 EFi ... Daily driver 300 miles a week returning about 23-24mpg in moderately heavy rush hour traffic and thrashed as much as you can a 2500 auto with a 60mph limit :-/
Needs a bit of recalibration but the original builder of the system has gone AWOL so I'm working out editing GM binary files.. pretty easy in fact. Apart from that no issues, just change the oil and filter every 10 weeks and give it the odd polish.

2.5PI (white car) ... hasn't turned a wheel for a couple of weeks (since the last run at the drag strip), needs new tyres. Looking at 205/50 x 15 DO3 Dunlops in an intermediate / hard compound.. will lower the gearing a touch which will help the bottom end with the new CR gearset. I am looking at getting a gripper 4.11:1 LSD built to replace the 3.7:1 Quaife which will be retired onto the newly rebuilt Stag.
No further progress with brakes but the twin cylinder bias pedal box is built and will be fitted soon once brake pipes are made and checked. The Alfin style 240Z rear drums also need machining and some (soft) rear linings sourced.

Stag.. still undergoing heart surgery. All the major parts are machined and assembly will commence in early new year. It will be +0.040 overbored with ported/ flowed heads and extractors. Just picked up the bottom end bits from the balancers... not too bad, the pistons are now lighter than original standard bore ones and we got 3.0kg off the flywheel... crank only needed a polish :-) , it is +0.020 on the big ends and 0.030 on the mains... still trying to source some VP mains but don't think I'll have any joy.
Heads needed a fair bit of surgery with bored out follower housings and a wee bit of welding... may have to skim the inlet manifold to get it sitting nicely.

2500Pi Estate. Body surgery is drawing to a close. tailgate has been sourced and delivered from the UK and the engine bay need minor metalwork before painting and refitting of the engine. The motor assembly has been reshelled and a lightened flywheel and new sach clutch fitted to address some minor issues. Respray to wedgewood will commence early in 2008 . 15 x 7 superlites have been ordered for trial fitting (rear arches may need slight relieving before painting commences)

Herald. Still in the Uk awaiting final documentation

Stuff

2007-11-29T09:28:00.000+09:00

Well I have some results of testing with the new CR gearset...

Not suprisingly around my local circuit it is fantastic with 2nd gear now good for 75mph and 3rd about 95 so the previously ratio gap between 2nd and 3rd is gone and many corners which were "lugging" in 3rd are now 4500+ in 2nd which gives excellent driveability/steerability on the throttle.

At a VSCC regularity (ie pretend racing but lots of similar speed traffic) last weekend I managed a 71.9sec lap which involved a lot of overtaking and poor lines for ultimate lap times... nonetheless that is only 0.2 secs above my personnel best which was done on a clear track... bodes well for sprint type events where the track is clear and lines are fast.

Also under test were some Willwood Polymatrix B Pads ... these are Yank pads and designed for 900 -1650deg F work and have a 0.63 Coe of friction. Well all I can say is throw those green/yellow/red stuff EBC shite in the bin because straight out of the box these pads are bloody amazing in comparison. Very powerful from cold and no fade... I was braking 25-30 metres too early based on my previous braking points with a totally predictable pedal rather than mushy with random bite that EBC provide. The Willwood pads feel very similar to the Ferodo DS3000 pads my mate has just fitted to his Volvo calipers.

Back to gear ratios... did the 1/4 mile at Whoop Ass Wednesday last night ... well what can I say ... A first gear good for over 50mph is no bloody good for standing start sprints ... at least not with my 2.5 Laycock cover and metallic paddle plate set up... more clamping force required to stop hideous clutch spin with a 6000rpm dump.... first run was a hideous 16.2sec (previous best was 14.8) although terminal speed of 92.5 mph was similar to my 14.8 run !!

With a tickle off the line at 1000 revs and no clutch dump or slip I managed 15.3 secs but by now a miss had set in at about 5500rpm (rotor arm fried methinks) so terminal speed was actually worse and I headed home for a beer . My mate Nissan 350Z managed 15.2sec (bit poor I thought) and the father in law of Andy Miller (TR6) brought his AMG SL55 Merc and did a 12.6sec run with traction control on... goaded to do a proper unaided run resulted in $2500 worth of spinning rear Michelins + smoke and a 13.1sec run.... spectators and commentators were much happier though....

What else? Stag is in the middle of open heart surgery, the Estate finally has a rust free tailgate so final prep is happening before its respray and I have a green Herald in Hertfordshire awaiting shipping to sunny Perth and fitting of a TH7 Cam ;-) cheers Dave............

Close-ratio tales

2007-07-23T19:53:00.000+08:00

Dunno if I'd posted it here but it's been my intention for a while to try and sort out my white PI's gearbox ratios. The plan was to fit a set that had sprung up in the form of a STR53 Dolomite Sprint homologation kit found in a scrapped 1975 Aus delivered Sprint...

The issue was the input shaft wasn't any good so after a bit of head scratching on whether to get the shaft shortened and new splines cut or something else... well something else presented itself at a church hall in Hampshire having tea and cakes with James Shackford during a breather on the last leg of the 2006 RBRR.. he reckoned that they still made the input shaft for that gearset but with a TR6 / saloon length but a TR7 fine spline....

Perfect... finally got myself into gear ;-) and bought one a few months back from Simon@TrEnterprises.com ... very useful chaps.

The gearset has been fitted with some minor mods... most important was using the 2000 1st gear instead of the sprint one ... even so 1st is pretty high... like 50mph+ :-o

The nice bit of the story is a couple of weeks ago I received a email closely followed (like 5 minutes) by an enthusiastic phone call from Ken Wood in Insch Airstrip (read near Aberdeen) who had been hunting down a CR input shaft for his historic Rally Sprint without success and TR Enterprises had given him my details....

Needless to say the shaft is now in sunny Scotland awaiting abuse in a rapid looking Sprint ... see end of video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSBXr7z8-Ec

Cool tale eh??

Details of lap time differences with CR gearset to follow..........................

Charger Club Sprint

2007-05-07T12:02:00.000+08:00

Humphs PI was spewing oil , mine was running beautifully... not sure of times yet... will update

Ford GT nationals

2007-04-26T13:20:00.000+08:00

Had some fun here a few weeks ago... results just published heh heh......

http://www.gtnationals.asn.au/results_2.html

Poor old Fords (and some new ones...) no substitue for cubic inches... hmmmm.....

Humph engine swap..

2007-04-12T20:15:00.000+08:00

Been busy fitting a fresh bottom end to Humph's PI over the last few evenings... he's gone 2.7 litre and a new cam plus Mk1 PI crank etc... copying me basically

All together last night just need a crane to winch it in now. About 12 hours work so far plus a couple of bottle of plonk

Tried this idea on my PI after advice from Gareth Thomas... worth about 0.5sec a lap on my local circuit :-) Induction roar is MAD!!!!

Happy New Year fellow triumph heads :-)

2006-12-31T17:37:00.000+09:00

Comfort at last in Del's 2500 with some rather nice XJS tweed and leather seats installed... ( Thanks Tom) .. a million times better than the crap Triumph seat that Oz provided us. They are fitted to 1. Ease our aching backs... and 2. To allow the baby capsule to be fitted... number 2 is imminent!!!

Fitted this afternoon in 38 deg heat..... sweet..... (or is that sweat?)

Also did the oil and filter (Mobil 1 5W /50) now all the oil leaks are cured

Also a nice mod fitted last month 1.5:1 roller rockers coutesy of Harland Sharp USA . $370 (US)

Have a good one and keep those wheels rolling :-)

Post RBRR blues

2006-11-08T16:31:00.000+08:00

Not much to report on the motorsport front...

plenty of routine maintainence though...

Del's 2500 has had a new track rod end (Stanpart), couple of bottom ball joints (Stanpart again), a new propshaft and a service.

Played around with the static timing and have improved the mpg from 21 to 22.5 (mapped ignition was too advanced).

Stag needed a new alternator so chucked an old 17ACR one that was a known entity rather than risk a recon one. Bit of a bugger to change compared to 2500!! Remove PAS pump and anti roll bar... fitted a new belt as well as it was on it's last legs.

Stag is currently the airport car so I may need to get a car cover to protect what left of the yeloow pigment in the Mimosa!

Went for a spin in the white beasty on Sunday for some fresh fuel and a general de-cobwebbing.. spins up to 6000 in top very easily on our back roads... about 110mph and pulling hard :-)

Things to do:

1.Fit plumbing to Dels 2500 for EFI ... fit injectors and be done with it.. need to remote locate the washer bottle.
2. Fabricate pedal box for twin master cylinders on white car.
3. Fit uprated hubs to Dels 2500 ( insurance policy)
4. Build close ratio (Dolomite ST) gearbox for white PI... need to get new spline cut on input shaft.
5. maybe fit 4.1 diff to white car (to suit CR box)

EFI or rather mapped ignition lives

2006-09-09T19:28:00.000+08:00

Got myself back into gear with the EFI conversion and fitted up the dizzy (Jeep / Triumph ) hybrid. Set it up at 14 BTDC (limp home mode) and then fired up the ECU for the first time and hey presto I have 3D ignition... runs fine... not sure if there is any obvious improvement but it is an auto (hard to spot subtle torque differences) and it has not been optimised... certainly doesn't run any worse!!!

First obvious issue is the ECU is not yet talking correctly to my Laptop but hopefully a USB to serial adpdtor will sort that out (currently using a parallel port to serial adaptor)

http://www.customefis.com/triumph.html

John at CustomEFIS has a new page devoted to the Triumph kit... see above

Collie Sprint TSOA

2006-08-21T18:30:00.000+08:00

Funny how Triumphs always meet at petrol stations

See what I mean?

Andy Millers TR6... recently lightweighted... lazy sod hasn't even cleaned the paintwork... (original) and probably the best having not seen much sun Queuing up for practice

Shiney red TR5 and not so shiney red TR6

"Windy" Miller and his trusty steed

PI with a dropped cam wheel DAMN!!!!!

Six or seven TR7 V8's and TR8's..... very nice

The two cars that went quicker than me ... TR7 V8 Work rep and Rover SD1 (4.8 litre running Motec injection)

What every good workshop needs....

2006-07-31T09:50:00.000+08:00

Got this from a mate on Saturday... a mighty work bench FREE....

You can never have enough decent benches :-)

Note my recent purchase ...a late model TR with optional metallic type paint and sporty 5 spoke alloys....

Future brake upgrades

2006-07-25T18:48:00.000+08:00

Got the above shots from a very kind guy in NZ who is building a mean 2.5 PI.

http://www.triumphowners.com/931

They show exactly what I have been planning to do to improve pedal feel and consistency with my Willwood calipers which my Stag M/C currently fails to provide!!!

Wanneroo Sprint

2006-07-24T17:42:00.000+08:00

Cool start... this was my Stag covered in ice at 7am !!!!
Just been playing at Wanneroo circuit courtesy of the WASCC (West Australian Sporting Car Club) Good day out apart from a rather cold start when I thought my fingers might fall off with frostbite... (no heater in the white thing!)
Humphs 2.5PI (ex 2000) cactus and black.... nice tyres but they're too soft!!
The team ready for the off ... below are a couple of TR's hat also turned up ... Andy Millers just pipped the blue one and easily saw off the red one.

Andy Millers lovely TR6 ... original paint!!! plus a few subtle mods End the day best times were as follows

White Mk1 71.8secs

Cactus Mk1 75.3secs

Red TR6 (Andy Miller) 75.8secs

Blue TR6 75.9secs

Shiney Red TR6 83secs

Full results here (my entry listed as name only number 72)

For myself it was a bit disappointing... my brakes are no better (ie crap) and I didn't better my time from last year (71.7secs).

The average speed and times keep improving so what would have once been a good time now barely gets you in the bottom 1/3 of the placings!!!

Near disaster with a dodgy dizzy

2006-07-11T18:47:00.000+08:00

Picture the scene... I've been working all wednesday rebuilding my wifes main car... after a little fettling of carb linkages , choke settings and a good clean I pronounce the car fit and healthy.

I have driven the car about 300 miles on Thurday without a hiccup to get some initial miles on a tight engine and it hasn't missed a beat.

It's Sunday lunchtime and we're heading down to the coast for a big Birthday lunch with Humph Hale (fellow PI racer etc)..........

About 10 miles from home (it's about 30 to the coast) Del hears a nasty screech from the engine which combines with the rev-counter going nuts. Bugger I think it's either the dizzy or (worse case scenario) the drive gear picking up on the new cam .... YIKES...

Anyway it still drives perfectly at this point so I decide to continue to lunch amid general abuse aimed at old cars in general... the noise gets worse and the rev counter gets more random... but we make it there no worries...

Over a beer and lunch me and Humph decide it must be the dizzy bushes running dry and picking up... a check of the shaft confirms plenty of play... we limp home... literally as the wear gets terminal and the points and hence timing goes very random up the big hill out of Perth ... much abuse, etc...... :-)

Get home at 3.30pm and quickly bung in a brand new 43D dizzy with Pertronix (bought from Witor cheap I had recalibrated it and was saving it for the white car .. well that was my best excuse why it wasn't on Del's car) and all is well....

Just another near disaster ( I was flying to work Monday so Del could have been stranded) in the life of old cars as everyday ones.....

Back on Track

2006-07-09T09:06:00.000+08:00

Well the engines back together so it's back to installing the EFI.

I have worked out with the help of Rick Patton how to reprogram and datalog the ECM (the brain of the ECU) . He has a mad supercharged TR6 well worth checking out

http://topshamautoparts.com/tr6/index.htm

Takes all of 1 minute with the flash burner and downloaded software.

I am now waiting on some injectors from custom efi as John has decided my engine has the potential to be producing too much power for the original injectors he included in the kit.

First job will be to set up the loom and get the engine running with the 3D ignition and check that the sensors are doing their stuff using the Win ALDL logging software http://www.customefis.com/winaldl.html

This will be with the engine still running on carbs but with a 3D ignition map and O2 and MAP sensor in operation. It will be interesting to see how well the car is running with the present SU carb set up

Camshaft fitting and start up booked for Wednesday :-)

2006-07-03T19:53:00.000+08:00

Del has finally dropped the cam of at Markich and this will be fitted Tuesday then it's my job to bolt the head and ancilaries back on Wednesday. Should be back on family duties by evening...

Stag has been performing admirably as everyday family car..about 400-500 miles a week. Just wish the heater was a bit better on frosty mornings.

Glad I fitted the kiddy seat mounts... Josie seems completely unfazed about being loaded from the back under the soft-top frame... just a big pram for her :-) .

Finally fixed a fuel smell on the Stag which has bugged me for a while... turned out to be a wasp nest up the fuel breather... whipped the tank out and was glad to find no rot or bad news... just dusty mimosa paint.
More stories and pictures soon.....

Almost done

2006-06-23T19:54:00.000+08:00

Friday afternoon having a beer a Markich Motors... USA GT6+, Spit Mk3, Spitty 2.5PI, TR4 TR8 2500TC and the white thing in attendance

Engine almost ready to go... nice new pistons waiting for the cam

Waiting for the cam

2006-06-15T18:14:00.000+08:00

Spoke to Wade Cams today, the cam I sent needs two lobes repairing with hard facing then the regrind followed by tuftriding if required..

Not going to see it for at least 10 days... the Stag will have to continue on baby duties

On the mend

2006-06-14T17:57:00.000+08:00

Well the bottom end is almost fixed, just waiting on the cam. The original 308778 PI cam was scarily stuffed.. guess it's all getting old now :-(

Turned out it was well worthwhile changing the pistons as No3. had a broken oil ring (hence plug fouling and burnt exhaust valve) and No's 5 and 6 had a broken top compression ring despite seemingly good compression.

Quick honing to allow the new pistons/rings to bed in and have reshelled the bigends to be on the safe side too.

The head is done with its full set of Nissan valves.

Will be fitting quite a nice mild Wade cam 275deg duration and 0.262" lift. Early PI is 270deg and 0.230" lift, TR5 is 280deg but only 0.250" lift. I think so should get about 145bhp with the current head work and witor extractors.

It's starting to feel like fun again

Bugger!! update....Good news 1 - Bad news 2

2006-06-12T19:11:00.000+08:00

Well I've just spent the day stripping down Del's engine..

Initially it was good news... just a badly burnt no. 3 exhaust valve... until that is I checked the rest and they were all "in trouble to a greater or lesser extent. I think the spec of the exhaust valves available over here (they were new 18 months and 18k miles ago) leaves a little to be desired. The unleaded seats were spotless.

I am now going to Datsun 1600 exhaust valves which are 33mm as standard and stellite faced. They will need turning down to 31.25mm but should be indestructible according to my head guru. The guides need a quick hone to suit... same as my inlets which use 38mm datsun valves.

OK... that will be sorted quickly.. in fact already done.. now the bad news. Piston 3 is definitely passing too much oil.. the bore looks fine but something is amiss.... so I will be fitting 6 new +0.040" pistons. Not so bad as I would hate to need to do it in another 12 months anyway.

Any the really bad news... checked a couple of cam followers and they are stuff.... wierd really as I used a good S/H early PI cam and carefully refaced Stanpart followers... oh well nothing for it.. I will fit a mild Wade 113 cam. 275 duration 30-65 66-30 and 0.262" lift so somewhere between a PI cam and a TR5... meant to give very good torque.

Found a slightly stuffed late PI 3 ring cam and that is now in express post to Melbourvne for a re-grind

Oz... land of old british motors

2006-06-05T09:03:00.000+08:00

I would say there are more Triumphs 2000’s (and derivatives) on the road in Oz than anywhere else in the world…

I would put this down to several factors

- Until about 15 years ago they were actually quite advanced compared to standard ozzy cars
-NO cheap imports allowed into the country
- Expensive when new and lowish depreciation + owners tended to hang on to them for more than 2-3 years (which is typical in UK) hence well maintained and higher survival rate
- No banger racers buying them up cheap and driving them into destruction (students substitute here :-) )
- Strong tendency for ex-pats to own them… and they like the fact that they don’t rust
- No salt on the roads hence terminal rust is rare
- No Roadworthy inspections in some states
- cheaper fuel

EFI is getting there

2006-06-04T08:29:00.000+08:00

Been busy on all fronts so EFI is taking a "lower" priority but still getting there.

To date I have fitted the MAP sensor, Oxygen sensor and temp sensor

Next the wiring loom..... ECU may have live under the passenger seat... better make sure it has a good diaphragm