JohnD

Drills (unlike die grinders) are not designed with bearings to take side loads, and this will risk breaking the drill, which is likewise intended for straight up and down use. And the lands aren't sharpened or hardened! Drill it out, and use a small round file to complete the slotting. John, the pedantic workshop user.

Colin, "Bedding in" brake pads is a one-time procedure. It's nothing to do with infrequent use. And it takes a few minutes, given the right bit of road to do it in, never "ages". See: http://www.club.triumph.org.uk/cgi-bin/forum10/Blah.pl?m-1312984233/ from which I copy the Official Mintex Advice: Bedding Procedure for M1144 / M1155 / M1166 1) Clean discs with brake cleaner 2) Following initial brake test start with 3 or 4 light applications from 30mph down to 0mph. After these, follow the steps below according to Material. M1144: 6 / 7 medium pressure applications 70mph down to 30mph M1155: 8 / 9 medium pressure applications 90mph down to 30mph M1166: 9 / 10 medium applications 90mph down to 30mph When carrying out the bedding process, do not allow the brakes to drag, do not left foot brake. To do so may result in damage to, or failure of the brake system. Leave the brakes to completely cool. For Further information please contact Richard Barton on 01274-854030 The purpose and procedure of brake bedding is nothing to do with conforming them to the wear pattern on your discs. If your discs are that worn, then you need new discs! Instead it is to heat them to the highest temperature they are likely to see in use, to drive off any residual volatiles from manufacture and to condition the materials. Mind you, I completely agree about any EBC product. John

Check shock absorber settings, both sides. Set softer. John

Confession time. I did this to SofS, halfway back from Le Mans and very, very early in the morning (that's my excuse) Nine litres of diesel in a 40 litre tank, top up with petrol and soldier on. Binman riding shotgun in the support barge said that I was putting out seven shades of blue. It went on running, then and for a long, long time thereafter. But even after two more fill ups with high octane petrol, it was still missing, so I had to stop and clean out the plugs. No soot, just oily diesel between the insulators and the body of the plug. It was roadside, so no facility to wash them out with a solvent and blow them dry, which would be best, but just wiping inside with tissues did the job. John

"Rotating Timing Mark Syndrome"! A condition long suspected, and seen by the likes of Kastner, but AFAIK not documented in recent times. That 40+ year old rubber lets go cannot be a surprise, but no one seems to be able either to repair the old dampers, or to build new ones. It will be strange if Triumph engines die for the lack of a minor component, as the alternative that is available, the "Rattler" style of damper, is very expensive. Meanwhile, Kastner had a trick that is worth using, once you have established that your damper is accurate for TDC. Drill a hole in the V of the pulley, right through the rubber into the hub. Note the depth and check the depth of the hole from time to time. If the probe won't go full depth, the damper has shifted. John

The Oracle Speaks! Thank you, Marcus! And Mike. Don't know about you, but for me, 'mangling' my sump is preferable to mangling the block! John

The question of 'winter layup' or storage is an old one, and has the same answers, all of which are in mishmosh's post, but there are more. Search for that here and elsewhere. John

If "if I run the engine every day it’s not too bad and starts after a couple of attempts car runs fine when I’ve actually managed to start - but would benefit from a mild tune up if I start when it’s warm it goes on the button" then the problem is fuelling. Either fuel is draining back towards the tank on standing, or the fuel in the float chambers is evaporating. Get an electric pump, wire it to it's own switch, via the ignition switch. Turn it on for a few seconds before you try to start. Voila! John

A definite worthwhile read! And a marcus-style widened oilway is less likely to be blocked, but the big advantage is that it will have no lurking residues to come loose and block it. But IMHO a thorough - and I mean thorough - clean with rifle bore brushes, detergent and HOT water can do the same. The Kastner octopus is another way of overcoming poor oil supply. KK found that at speed the front main bearing was starved. He didn't know why - I suspect it was a crank resonance effect - but made up the octopus to supply oil directly to the mains, not through the gallery. My approach is to avoid the complex octopus and just put an external line from the back of the main gallery to the front main, providing a different pathway that will resonate at a different frequency. John

If you regrind the seats, you will remove all trace of a 'lead memory'. But you should regrind the seats. Bite the bullet - steel inserts to the exhausts! John PS Lead memory is in the valve seats and nowhere else.

Glad to help, Mike. When I asked for more detail, I wondered if you were hoping to race this engine, because only V.high revving engines need this sort of thing. If not, the standard ones will do fine. A ball-headed hammer has a ... ball-shaped head, on one side, the other usually has a flat face. AKA "engineers hammer" See: https://www.cromwell.co.uk/SEN5252150K A carpenter's hammer is the cruder claw hammer. Remember, it's carpenter's who knock packing cases together. The woodworkers who construct furniture are cabinet makers, and their hammers are light, delicate tools! John

Where does it say in http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/for-Triumph-TR250-TR6-late-Performance-Con-Rod-Conrod-ARP-2000-Bolt-SALE-RPF-/141012672292 that these will clear a 2 litre sump? Chris says it "may" clear - has he done this? You have given us so little information, Mike - I presume this is a 2.5 in a small chassis car? So you can't fit the 2.5 sump which will foul the front cross chassis member, and leave no room for the steering rack. So you must fit a 2L sump, but that won't clear (but only JUST won't clear) the front two big ends. Generations of Triumpheros have taken a hammer with a ball peen head to the 2L sump, often using the 'frog' in a brick as an anvil/mould. The resulting two small bulges in the floor of the sump look 'meant' and certainly not 'mangled'. Those sets of fancy conrods look very nice, but no one will ever see them any more than they will see the bottom of your sump. At the same price for a set of 6 as they used to cost EACH, I have to ask were do the come from, and what is their quality? I use Triumph con rods. I remove the flashing and all the other skin imperfections, lighten the ends, balance and polish, and then shot-peen them. I can do all this work with an angle grinder, die grinder and air sander, except the last and that costs about £60, £10 each. But it's your money and time. JOhn PS Mike. The above in blue is how to post a link. It's really useful and saves a lot of time searching in Google

What makes you think these won't foul the sump? Give us a link so we can see them? And anyway, no "mangling" is required! A few well placed, scientific hammer blows, two areas beneath bores 1 and 2, gives all the clearance requred. John

Who knows? These damper pulleys are all nearly 40 years old or more, and in the day they gave people like Kastner problems when the rubber gave way. 2.5's have a bigger pulley/damper, os I thin k we should assume there was a reason. The reason for the damper at all was to damp (!) out resonance in the long crankshaft. It would not surprise me, although I can't calculate it, that a long shaft with greater stroke would need more damping. The only way to find out is on a test bed engine, and measure the resonance - and I'm working on that. JOhn

Mike, You should explain further what you mean. Standard Triumph conrods ARE H-beam in section. AND Different conrods might clear a 2litre sump if it was fitted to a 2.5 cranked block, but it's the extra throw on the crank, that gives the extra stroke, that causes the problem. Do you mean these? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Triumph-T120-TR6-T110-Connecting-Rods-Conrods-Steel-4340-Forged-H-Beam-/251500169215 If not, give us a link to the items you speak of. John

43 12 See: http://www.renaultforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=132497 John

Lots of materials are 'nasty' if burnt, and others just as 'nasty' in normal use! NOT Viton rubber, which is harmless in normal use. The last paragraph of the webpage you linked to says: "It makes sense to wear suitable gloves to stop getting you hands dirty when dealing with burnt-out vehicles, so even if there was the tiniest chance of HF being present, you would be protected." With the deletions, that should be standard practice! Amateurs like us usually forget, but in industry and the motor trade, any sensible mechanic wears vinyl or full mechanic's gloves, or at least barrier cream. Apart from anything else, they make hand cleaning afterwards so much easier. John

The correct type of rubber to use with modern fuels is "Viton". Not cheap - £6/meter? Model shops sell it in that 'small' quantity. John

Sodium bicarbonate?!? That won't remove the skin from a rice pudding! It might blow the pudding up into puffed rice,but will do nothing for engine deposits. No such compound as "sodium hydrochloride" Na "hypochlorite" is bleach. Na chloride is common salt. John

I'm concerned that you left washing soda in the cooling system for a WEEK! Soda is Sodium hydroxide, and a strong solution will destroy aluminium parts. Not many in an OE Triumph engine, except I think for the thermostat housing - unless of course you have gone for an aluminium radiator??? I presume not, but check that housing! |It might be very thin walled now, John

A "weak" acid, one tht is les likely to attack metals vigorously would be better than "strong" acids like sulphuric or hydrochloric. Most organic acids, like phosphoric, are 'weak' acids, but there is another weak. organic acid that is cheaper than most - acetic acid, vinegar! Shop vinegar is between 5 and 10% acetic acid, has a pH of 2.4, so don't leave it in there for days! And don't leave it in there with the radiator cap on - remember in school? Acid + chalk(calcium carbonate, kettle scale) = calcium acetate + water + CARBON DIOXIDE! Champagne time! John

Spitfire crank pulley has an ENORMOUS nut on it, 1 13/16" or 42mm I believe. NOW is the time to invest in a spanner or socket that size, so that you can easily turn the crank! Both the oil pump and the dizzie are driven off a spur gear on the crankshaft that meshes with another in the block. Above and below there are 'dogs' like the blade of a screwdriver that engage in slots in the top of the pump drive shaft and the bottom of the dizzie shaft. If the rotor arm isn't then the fault is along this line. As said above, check that the valves are going up and down - that excludes any camshaft fault, which would be most unusual. Then remove the dizzy, and try to turn the gear you see down the shaft with a large screwdriver, CLOCKWISE. I expect you won't be able to, but if you can, then the gears have failed. Now look at the base of the dizzy. Is the 'blade' on the end of the shaft chewed up, or broken - that's the answer. When assembling the dizzie to the block there is a procedure to ensure that there is a very small clearance in the dog. If that is set too high, or if the dizzie is allowed to rise up on its shaft, the the drive will fail. Please refer to your workshop manual! John

If you plan to go by Chunnel, perhaps you need these: ADMIN - Embedded link deleted following complaints - ADMIN JOhn

Useful list of Triumph engine numbers here: http://www.triumphspitfire.com/enginenumbers.html The number you list just isn't in the usual format of two letters and then numbers, and "UU" isn't one of the two letters, so a rebuilder's number more like. But if the number is in the usual place, then they must have overstamped it. Can you see any trace of what it was before? Could that first letter be a 'G' from the Herald series? JOhn

Ooops, TWO litre! John