Colin Lindsay

I combined the two - weather and exercise - and had a walk behind the lawnmower earlier, since the good weather isn't to last much longer. The ground is still quite soggy, though.

Open the garage doors first... I started the GT6 the other day and all of the smoke alarms in the garage went off. Blooming things wouldn't stop for ages either.

It won't do any harm by being drained, but will obviously dry out - this means hoses, the filler cap seal etc may become brittle and crack, depending on their composition, and you may also get flakes of rust drying out and scabbing off the inside of the system. When you come to refill flush it out well, and keep an eye on the hoses for the first while until you're sure they haven't suffered.

Me too, a litre of Cuprinol Garden Furniture Stain which my local hardware shop didn't have (nor bathroom paint neither). Had to shout the entire length of the car park and then strain to hear a reply. Must learn semaphore. Ordered some Heraldy bits from Paddocks. (online, so didn't have to shout.) I've got garage-fever so am avoiding it for a day or two, which seems to mean grass cutting now that my lawnmower has just been dropped off, may as well as can't get a plumber, can't get a tiler, can't get my uPVC front door fixed... did they have this much bother back in the time of the Black Death?

It was certainly used on the 1200 Herald and 1147 Spitfires, but the later 1360s have it blanked off, so must have found a more suitable hose arrangement. Anyone got a good photo? Any I could find were poor in detail and for some reason all of the wrong side of the engine... (and in some strange colours too...) but they all have the same small square plug.

Mine is, like me, more for function than looks. I also strung the wiring loom from P-clips long the top, it keeps it off the chassis and away from dirt and damp.

Well they do say two heads are better than one...

Must do it shortly. Wheeled the GT6 out of the garage for some nice sunny-day shots, it always helps with the value!

That take-off from the head is on all of my 1200 Heralds, but blanked off on the only 13/60 reference photos I've been able to find - I think that revamped cooling of the head made it redundant in the later cars. It's possible that a PO has added the take-off pipe from an earlier car to fit his requirements. Any of the cars I've looked at this morning have a square plug, which looks the same as a gearbox or diff plug, in the hole - it's a tapered seal. I'd be happy to blank it off in the same fashion UNLESS something else on the engine has been altered and made it necessary, but I doubt it. Blank it off, connect the hoses in the normal way, and see how the temperature or engine behave.

I bought mine back about 2001, the Club aluminium versions, and they've performed faultlessly ever since; in fact I've just replaced them after more engine oil-seal work and there's no damage through cracks or other passage of time. The original cardboard versions were long gone. I had to 'modify' them slightly, once to make room for an alternator, which hangs lower than the dynamo, and again for oil-cooler pipes; you can still see the 'arch' I had to cut for the pipes, just below and left of the alternator. Definitely good value items!

You can still get those; I too hadn't thought about one in years until your post made me remember them. I searched online for 'Triumph Oil Cooler sandwich plate' and while any second-hand ones were all TR series I found a number of 'universal' versions that presumably if you know what diameter you require should fit. That's the theory! My oil cooler was slung between the front chassis rails as Nigel says, but I removed it after a few months; no idea if it made any difference to normal road driving but the pipes got in the way...

Keep going, you'll get there. That's why I asked about the gasket; I was hoping it wasn't a case of someone using sealant instead, maybe to repair a damaged gasket rather than replace.

... but as they're screwed into the block, the only way to exert any force on them to remove them is to unscrew them. This means some form of stud extraction, and a twisting / turning motion is the one most likely to break the seal - after all, it's the only direction of force you can apply. Mine broke the 12mm stud extractor from my kit before finally agreeing to move.

Interesting! I have the engine driven fan with the alloy shroud and side valences sold through the Club shop, but never felt the need to enclose the fan any further. My Mk1 runs perfectly well as is. Your version will enhance fan-driven air, but surely air would be forced through the outer edges of the radiator core in an unshrouded radiator by the simple motion of driving along? I'm wondering if you're sacrificing surface area for greater airflow and not really getting any extra gain from it? Just thinking out loud, as usual...

Well done and thanks for adding the little icons - they make it a lot simpler! Now: Herald 1200 and GT6 Mk1, and you'll have my undying gratitude.

GT6 Mk3? Silly question but is there definitely a head gasket fitted? Suspect the studs are rusted into the head, so you'll have to continue doing what you've been doing, but with a lot more force. Last one that played me about like this was only a lowly Herald, but I had to remove the head studs one by one with a serious amount of effort until I finally got the head to lift. You may find, as I did, that some unscrew quite easily, which allows you to concentrate on the areas where the head is being gripped.

Have a look at Karl's thread, he's just reveneered one.

Sadly, I think it's just not right to expect people to stay at home then for me to go out gallivanting around the empty roads... if I do it then others may and we're back to square one. Not fair, but then that's life. I wish someone would tell the cyclists, tho... over 100 of them in the village at present, clustered round the Tea Rooms for takeaway coffee.

Every time I tell myself that I don't need one, I see one and want one. Tell me I don't need one.

I think most of that other half of Ireland is up in our half!! When the schools closed, before ours did, they all came up here as if on holiday... and bought up all our toilet rolls. They won't be invited back if that's the way they get on.

I don't have tinted windows, but have to talk about something, so ICE seemed logical. 'Er indoors has factory-tinted rear windows in her Freelander, I think heavily tinted glass all round is illegal but all it does is leave the rear of the vehicle very dark and if you look in the rear view mirror you think it's night time... not my thing but she likes them.

Black can look good. Wait till I dig out an old photo from years back... TSSC International 93 / 94 or so there was a red GT6 Mk3 with satin black bumpers and it really suited them - the red one dead centre of this lineup. Not the best photo, I have better plus video of this one somewhere about so will try to find a closer shot. It does look well; I don't know what type of black it was, it didn't look as shiny as gloss so may have been a satin black, but it made the car stand out.

The hoist makes things so much easier. Where did you get the alloy rad from?

The village is currently full of motorcyclists - Sunday morning as usual - plus pedal cyclists on the tow paths even though walkers and ramblers have been asked to stay away and not congregate, so it'll take a bit of time before everyone starts to see sense in keeping a distance - and then, what? I'm wondering if taking the GT6 out on the road over the coming weeks, on my own, not stopping and not talking to a soul would still be socially acceptable?