Nick Jones

Cohline 2240 is good stuff. Available from Merlin MS amongst others. AVOID the eBay SAE J30 R9 stuff from Advanced Fluid Solutions in Kent and various others. It may look the part but it cracks up within 9 months. Nick

I always do it. Usually after not that many miles as I think it's the heat cycling that leads to whatever settlement occurs. Say couple of hundred miles 3/4 heat cycles. After the first couple of hundred miles you can start giving it a bit of stick. Not prolonged and severe, but plenty of throttle followed by some over-run, which helps bed the rings and progressively bring the revs up. Not sure th ph1 does much over 5k anyway. Pleased to hear it's working well. Have you re-mapped at all? Nick

I think use of low profile tyres ( and I'm calling anything under 70 section low) has a very dis-improving effect on ride. I have 300lb on my Vitesse with Konis on their lowest setting. Konis are significantly better than others in my experience. Works for me. Tyres 175/70 R13. Ride comfort for all small chassis Triumphs is ultimately limited by short-travel inherent in the suspension design. Nick

Well done Mike. Think that, as you say, the problem may have been due to the different cam making the rocker gear work outside the range of movement it had become accustomed to. I was half- expecting trouble when I reused my old rockers on new engine with very different cam, but I was luckier than you it seems. Nick

I've had a plenum manifold on my Vitesse (2L) for about 13 years now The "how to" is here (it's very old and out of date!) http://www.shadetreegarage.co.uk/Megasquirt1.htm I actually did mine the other way around with the original MS1 ECU being triggered by points for the first year. However, I'd consider fitting distributorless ignition as a first step and using an MS ECU to control it to be a good move. You might want to think about using a full-blown MS2 (or even MS3) ECU though. I say this as the Microsquirt ECU only has 2 dedicated spark outputs which is not enough to run a wasted spark ignition on a 6. I note that they now say that 2 other outputs can be re-purposed for ignition (provided the right firmware version is used) but this means additional components in the wiring loom. The MS2 also requires some modification from standard spec to get three direct spark outputs, but it does all remain packaged inside the ECU. You could also use the Ford EDIS-6 box with either which only needs one spark output but does add to the hardware and wiring. As far as manifolds go, plenum or ITB depends very much on what cam you are planning to run. Until a couple of years ago my engine was near standard internally with the Mk2 cam and it ran really well with the plenum manifold. Now, with a rather more ambitious cam (300º inlet 280º exhaust), it has a slightly ragged idle and some hitching and twitching below 2000 rpm on a sniff of throttle (ie trickling along in traffic territory). It clears immediately more throttle is applied and actually pulls cleanly from <1000rpm but does get wearing when stuck in traffic. It also runs out of puff at 5,500 rpm due to the 54mm TB being too small, though that alone would be easy to fix. The next development (eventually - too many projects, not enough time) is ITBs based on BMW K1100 bike parts

AFAIK only pistons were size graded at the factory. Nick

Never heard of an OHV Triumph doing this. As mentioned earlier, only the domed piston 2L versions have any possibility of interference. The OHC ones (1850 & Sprint Dolly, TR7 & Stag - that's a different matter, though they are very reliable compared to certain recent BMW and VAG offerings! Vorsprung durch technik........ or not. Nick

Valves can't hit pistons - unless it's a domed piston engine - in which case they can....... but there shouldn't be a domed piston engine in a Vitesse. Watch out for chain (and tensioner) quality if taking the plunge as the combination of a nasty, sharp edged chain and tensioner made from old bean cans will make you wish you'd left well alone. If the engine is running well without chain noise, pinking of running-on, probably best left alone. Nick

No reason I can think of you can't use your head on the "new" bottom end. There's nothing unusual/special about the 2.5S bottom end compared to the other 2.5s. The 219016 head that comes with it is a bit special though, having a different shape to the inlet port/valve throat to any other Triumph 6 head. Chris Witor will probably give you a good trade-in value on it if you don't want it. 2.5S engine was "optimised" for torque and efficiency and works pretty well at that. They are not big on revs but don't really need to be. Are you rebuilding the bottom end with the parts from your previous engine or leaving as-is for now? Nick

A 50% refresh will probably be adequate provided it still smells more or less like petrol. Wouldn't recommend putting the old fuel in your modern - but your Honda or B & S lawnmower will drink almost anything. My old sidevalve Honda even ran on E85 (though was a sod to start from cold), but draws the line at heating oil....... Nick

Amen to that - just stripped the two front hubs from my project GT6, which had about half a tub each in them. All blackened and nasty around the bearings but untouched everywhere else. Plus, if you do use the car hard heat from the brakes will melt the grease until it runs out - and then no more brakes Nick

The recess is not a 2.0 /vs 2.5 thing but an age thing. Recesses adopted across the range sometime in 1972 I think. Likewise there are subtle changes in the blocks over the years, but no specific differences between 2L and 2.5 that I'm aware of. I've always considered them interchangeable. The only practical difference between recessed and non-recessed is the head gasket. While the recesses and thicker gasket fire-rings were supposedly added to reduce HGF between cylinders I've never had or seen a non-recessed one fail between cylinders on a Mk2 engine. Mk1 engine yes, they have pathetic head studs and inadequate clamping force and also on the 4 cylinder engines where the cylinders are closer together. Nick

Bearing pre-loads are not right and letting the contact pattern shift according to load. Probably worth getting it dealt with before it does itself a mischief. Just about to try and teach myself how to do it - have a couple of diffs in bits on the bench...... The one in my Vitesse is now similar - noise starts at about 45 and can now be heard at 70mph with the top down...... Kipping built 3.63 - but it has done about 50k hard miles. Nick

Mk2 2L block is the same, no need to limit to 2.5....... Take it the cam-way rescue has not gone well? Nick

MoT booked....... I drive the car alot and often fairly hard. Family members go in it. I'm happy to pay for a sanity check on my work......... Exemption is just daft IMO. Nick

https://www.check-mot.service.gov.uk/ Mine says " this vehicles MoT expires soon" - which is true. Otherwise the page looks the same as normal. I've also just re-taxed it - which was just the same as usual. Nick

It works for me! With the current engine I even have had the block decked so there is 0.005" piston "pop-up". Nick

As I mentioned above I have a 219016 head on my Vitesse engine. It's been on since 2008, fitted to two different bottom ends, having been used on both the original Mk2 Vitesse block and now on a late block originally from a 2.5 saloon, without any problems. Not convinced that slot or holes makes any difference. Cleaning the water jacket out at the back of the block around #6 cylinder is probably more important. My head has had a massive skim and is very thin under the spark plugs, but this is partly because I was unwise enough to remove some material from the combustion chambers and partly because I wanted higher than standard CR. I forget what the current thickness is, but could possibly measure it. I The chambers are the same shape on all the heads so simply reducing the thickness to 3.300 inches should get you close. Only sure way is to burette the chambers as valve heights have a significant effect. The 219016 is supposed to give the best inlet flow in unmodified form. https://www.chriswitor.com/cw_technical/inlet_port_2.pdf Nick

Yep, usually seem to crack on 1 or 6. Guess they must run a bit hotter. Something to be aware of is that both the 219015 and 219016 heads have smaller exhaust valves as standard. This doesn't make much practical difference if intending to have unleaded seats fitted as they can easily be opened out to take the larger valves in that process (or you can keep them smaller if wanted) - it does mean they are less likely to be cracked - which I presume is the reason why these later heads had the smaller valves. Nick

You could use any of those but all will need a huge skim. Usually they will take this without "finding water", but not always. I have a 219016 on my Vitesse engine. It has a different port profile behind the inlet valve and gives the best flows as standard, but is also the thickest so needing the biggest skim. The thinner heads are getting harder to find now. Nick

Could be me...... I change my diff oil before every 10CR (bi-annually or 8 - 10k) and use Redline shockproof HD 140. It's done maybe 50k and is now whining quite alot on load. Can hear it with the hood down 40 - 65 mph. It has had a thrashing. I reckon what really kills them is long periods at high speed (length of Germany on autobahns at 80+) purely because even when up to the mark, the oil volume is too small and they cook. I've seen a couple run low on oil and a couple of big saloon ones. Basically, if you tip one up and get a cup or so (or less) of black stinking gunge out, there's no point in even taking it apart unless you need the rear casing for the next one! Potential issue with GL5 (though I suspect not a real one these days) is it eating the yellow metal planet thrust washers. Nick

Thanks for bringing the story right through to the end! First time I've seen the cam completely left out. I can see how it could happen though - when you get a recon exchange box the cam is sometimes not fitted and you are expected to swap it from you old box yourself...... if you notice! Nick

I reckon he has something here. This might also explain your rattling/knocking. I had an incident in France a few years back where I filled my Vitesse up with petrol at a very rural station (often a mistake as rural French mostly drive diesels, so the petrol can be ancient) and then drove up the Col De Bonnett (highest paved road in the Alps). Car had been absolutely fine (we'd just caned it all the way from the UK overnight) but now rattled horribly at 3000rpm, sounding just like a couple of big-ends had given up. Checked the oil, which was fine, so limped it up to the top using light throttle and less than 2500rpm, which rather spoiled a fine road - fearing Europe's highest breakdown was imminent. Going down the other side was fine as little load, but it still felt a bit flat and hitchy and chewing it over we wondered whether it was watery or just very off fuel that was the issue. As soon as we were down to half we filled up with 98 octane (it's not normally allowed the good stuff) and it cheered up straight away. Later the same day we gave it a proper thrashing up the Col De Turini and it was fine - so it must have been the fuel. Nick

Filled up with diesel? Diaphragm gone on the "flying saucer" PCV valve and pulling oil through? Do you have a brake servo? Diaphragm gone on that? Any brake fluid gone missing? Nick

I'd just like to to add a caveat to this........ http://sideways-technologies.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/7865-holed-piston/&tab=comments#comment-103533 ** Excludes late 2L engines with domed pistons, which can even apparently interfere while running ** Nick