Conor L

Note video was with engine on fast idle around 1300 rpm

New Mikalor exhaust clamps arrived yesterday so seeing as the weather was actually dry today I thought I'd tackle the exhaust, back section off, down pipe piece off and I also slackened off the manifold too on the head, managed to bring the 1 pipe down a bit so at least there is now clearance between it and the gearbox, new clamps fitted, exhaust roughly fitted to aligned and tightened everything up... Grrr noise still there! Exhaust isn't hitting anywhere and I can fit a flat blade screwdriver between the exhaust and gearbox think it's safe to say now that the exhaust can be ruled out. There is no obvious note change at the tail pipe end either. Interestingly though it's definitely louder underneath the car around the engine area as this video shows. I don't have the funds at the moment to pull the engine out, strip it down and have it inspected due to being made redundant again thanks to this blooming virus just before Christmas but I think it's looking more likely that this will happen. 20210121_155354.mp4

The rear wheel arch covers are something I forgot to capture the progress of. Yes they were a pain to get the finish I have achieved. I purchased them with the kit I bought from Owen, I believe he makes his slightly larger to aid fitting which I guess did help to an extent. I initially mock fitted them using some magnets, made some marks and smoothed it over as if I was gluing it down. I placed them on the radiator for a while to allow some stretch, applied glue to the lower half of the arch and cover, lined up my marks on the flatter side and smoothed over, I then stretched the cover the rounded section while smoothing, bit of a fiddle but managed it. For the top section I pretty much did the same applied glue and then I stretched the cover up into the top corner and smoothed and managed a crease free finish well on the bits you can see haha but the creases I did get were in the excess which I just trimmed off. That's what I did hope this help @Peter Truman @NonMember @Colin Lindsay I do agree that the speakers would be more efficient if they were the other way up however I think the exhaust note will overpower them especially with the roof down. @Casper yes I did think the columns are hight adjustable I'll have a fiddle later steering wheel isn't staying anyway apart from being a nice ornament on my garage wall.

Progress on the interior continues starting with the rear cockpit boards in particular the rear board. When I purchased the car it came fitted with a rather nice late 70s Sharp cassette player as covered in the previous update however along with that were a lovely pair of matching speakers and because they were in the car when I purchased it I wanted to retain them as part of its history. I'd really like to know more about this cars history as we've only really been able to piece some bits together I know it's a long shot but if anybody remembers the reg HWB 5N I'd be interested to know. Enough of Who do you think you are Triumph special back onto the speakers. 1st off I located them roughly where they were and and drilled 4 small holes for the self tappers and 1 for the wiring, I then inserted wiring through said hole (stop it) Gave the old screws a fresh coat of paint And here's the finished item, Looks rather nice I think. Now I know that when the roof is down they'll be covered and I won't be able to hear them but I'm trying to keep as many original features as I can which has been pretty tough on a car that's now mostly new. I should also note that I used some velcro tape to secure the rear panel and a couple of self tapping screws to secure the quarter panels. Following this I repainted and fitted the rear wing trim along with a new rear number plate, Only 1 thing left to complete the interior, fit my freshly retrimmed seats but 1st I needed to make some holes in the carpet using my weapon on choice which was very effective, Seats in (headrests aren't fully finished just yet hence some wrinkles) I can confirm that the seats are pretty comfortable and feel so much better than before however I do think I need a smaller steering wheel, And just to finish off with some random pictures and walkaround video, Just need the rest of the panels back now. Conor

Brill thanks Colin!

Surely the Mk4 seats are superior in comfort over the Mk3 seats with more cushioning and maybe a tad more support?

Next job was to install the carpet set I purchased from Rimmers. Overall its a great quality set and most of the pieces fit quite well. Seems to be a trent with this thread where I just get stuck in and forget to take picture, this post is no exception but I started by gluing the inner sill pieces followed by the A posts then the glue set I trimmed down the carpet flush with the sill. Then I moved on the the front heel board piece leaving the radius arm bracket mounts glue free to allow the tracking to be set at a later date unfortunately the top heel board piece isn't the bests on fit which I have seen on various forums. To finish the main piece was fitted (no glue incase I ever need to get water out) then the footwell pieces were placed in leaving me with this, Rear boards are just placed in for now, 1 question I would like to ask is whether the drain tube from the battery box sits in front or behind the footwell carpet? At this point I decided to drive the car around my close and established the gearbox, clutch and speedo were in working order so I promptly fitted the new plastic transmission cover, Pretty good fit as it turns out just needed to trim the lip down even managed to use the standard type seal with no gaps which I'm pleased with. Soon after I fitted the carpet, new gear knob and radio frame (what a pain) , Radio was in the car when I purchased it, it's a nice Sharp radio cassette player dating back to the late 70s unfortunately its not working so just a nice ornament for now until I get some time to fiddle with it.

Unfortunately not Rob I'll see if I can get a picture from the underside if that'll help?

After the success of retrimming the armrest and tunel cover I swallowed the brave pill and tackled the seats. I started with passenger seat just to see how I got on ready for the drivers seat and speaking if the drivers seat here it is in all its ruined beige glory, Hmm not what I'd call ideal. I set about stripping the seat down by removing the tilt handle (that put up a fight), removing the base and removing the back seat cover which revealed this Nasty! Crumbled 70s foam everywhere. Nevertheless this was soon disposed of and the frame got a rub down and a nice coat of satin black. New straps were also fitted at this stage, Then the back foam was glued on using the EvoStick Impact Adhesive as mentioned in the previous update (its strong stuff). While I was waiting for the glue to dry I prepped the leather cover by inserting the little wooden pieces into their pockets and cutting a hole for the clip, After this I placed the cover on the radiator for a couple of hours to aid stretching the cover in order the clip it in, a piece of cling film on top of the foam also helps with sliding the cover over. The cover was fitted and clipped into place in all the various places, The seat base was in just as bad condition as the back, So glad I purchased a complete seat kit from Owen! Unfortunately I'm lacking pictures here but the basket was cleaned up and painted, new foam glued together along with the cover followed by stretching the cover over and held in place with cable ties to leave us with this, I trimmed the cable ties and clipped it back into the frame leaving us with this, I did finish off the lower corners after the picture was taken (apologies its not the best). And that's it just the headrests to sort (which i have now done). Considering I'm a complete novice at trimming I'm pleased with what I've achieved and get way more satisfaction knowing I've tackled this myself over taking them to a trimmer, I can also highly recommend the Park Lane Classics kit fantastic quality and easy to follow instructions, worth every penny. Just need to get them in the car but carpet needs to be fitted 1st. Conor

Thanks Karl! I'm hoping it'll look good when finished. What I can say is that Owens covers are made to a very good standard just down to me not to muck it up haha.

It's been a little while since my last update on the old crock and plenty of progress has been made. Just to address my last post on here I did manage to fix the overfueling issue by swapping the ball valves to a normal needle valve type now she's running sweet after a slight tune however I do think it'll need some richer needles as I had to wind the jet down quite a bit but we'll see what happens on its 1st run up the road. Around the beginning of December 2 very large parcels arrived 1 from Park Lane Classics containing everything to reupholster the seats and all new door cards and rear boards. The other contained a brand new Newton commercials carpet set (sourced from Rimmer Bros because it was cheaper than Newtons website). So now I had 2 very large boxes to empty I thought I best layer up and get out into garage. Because I've never retrimmed anything before I thought it would be best to start with something a bit easier than the seats just so I can get the hang of things so after rummaging around I dug out the old armrest and tunel cover. overall not in too bad condition and certainly not the worst I've seen however I thought it'll best to recover them in leather to match the rest of the interior instead of just dying them black. 1st step was to remove all the old vinyl and foam to be left with the metal frames which were promptly stripped, primed and painted satin black. Then it was up into my bedroom (Mum wouldn't let me use the kitchen table haha) to start recovering. The new foam was glued on 1st using EvoStick Impact Adhesive as recommended by Owen, once this had set I trimmed back the foam leaving my with this, And after leaving the new leather covers on the radiator for an hour I fitted the covers, key is to get them as taught as possible to get a wrinkle free finish and speaking of finish, Considering this was a 1st attempt I'm pretty pleased with the results. The leather looks great and smells amazing and will hopefully leave a much better finish over the original beige vinyl. Next up are the seats but I'll cover them in the next update as this 1 is already pretty long. Conor

I'll order up some Mikalor clamps and hopefully manage to come up with something to space the exhaust from the gearbox. Hopefully these clamps will finally sort the blow as no matter how much paste I use it still won't seal. Haven't really looked into it much today have been fitting the interior instead but I will update as soon as the clamps have arrived. I managed to miss @Iain T comment yesterday (apologies) when I removed the valve cover there was no obvious sign that the rockers had been hitting the cover. @Anglefire the twin box is a nice set up and sounds really good. My manifold and centre pipes were new however my rear box was 2nd hand which also needed modification to allow it to fit straight.

Thanks for the pointers chaps! I've had it running for about an hour and a half this afternoon and have driven it around my close a couple of times, engine pulls really well and plenty of low down torque which I like so I feel the engine is healthy which is good my mind can rest a bit now. In terms of the exhaust I have this manifold supplied by paddocks. This is the type of downpipe joint I mean rather than the standard flange with 3 studs which like you say can be a pain. I'm not sure whether it can be dropped at all as it fitted tightly on the head studs. I did purchase a fitting kit which came with the bracket for the diff and 1 which I assume could be for the gearbox using a standard set up so I'm going to investigate whether that can be used on the tubular manifold. Another thing to note is that with my head under the car the noise is much clearer than on top you can really hear the rattly sounds around where the blow is which is just behind where the manifold is touching the bellhousing so fingers crossed I can use the spare bracket on the tubular manifold to slightly push it away, stop it blowing and hopefully no more annoying rattle!

Blocking off the breather pipes seems such an obvious thing to do with the cover off... D'oh! In my defence it was late at night aha. Been outside this morning fighting with the exhaust took the whole system off apart from the manifold (down pipe joint was blowing anyway) as can be seen in this picture the exhaust is clearing resting on the bellhousing no matter how much I bent it I couldn't get it any further away (manifold was sourced from Paddocks) so I put it all back together loosely, aligned it the exhaust as best i could, tightened all the joints and started it up noise still there even when I lever the manifold away from the bellhousing and that downpipe joint is still blowing (always seemed to have issues sealing that up) it is entirely possible that the manifold is just badly made/formed which wouldn't surprise me being an aftermarket part. Are there any flaps in them at all that could've come loose? 1 think that I did take note was the noise was quieter from cold and after about 3 minutes would suddenly get louder, much thinking to be done.

I've been thinking about what @NonMember said about resonance because when I had the engine running in the chassis the exhaust was only roughly fitted and the rear box was held up by a jack and this noise has only really occured since fully bolting it to the car. I bring up the exhaust because I remember the down pipe being very close to the gearbox bellhousing/rear engine place (stainless tubular manifold fitted) so I'm wondering if the down pipe is hitting that and the noise is going through the manifold because I does seem louder on that side of the engine around where the manifold runs 🤔

1 thing i forgot to mention was that I sprayed some water around all the manifold/carb joints with no change with the running. Video of noise as of half an hour ago. 20210114_215721.mp4

I've just spent the past couple of hours in the garage and checked some of your suggestions so I've rechecked the valve clearances rocker 1 was a bit loose but the other 7 were fine. Started the engine and ran it up to temperature (noise still there) switched it off, took the rocker cover off and tried to restart it... nothing. gave it slight throttle and it started but didn't seem to happy about it and promptly died and wouldn't restart so I put the cover back on and it fired straight up which is a bit odd. I feel the noise is slightly louder now. Not sure why I did this but before I came in I removed the spark plugs and turned the engine by hand. I'm pretty sure this isn't normal but I can't see going back through pictures what I've done wrong as everything was done by the book, the engine was an unknown but had been rebuild at some point in its life with a crank grind and rebore to +20 and in all honesty it wasn't that worn. 20210114_220903.mp4

Thanks for the replies so far guys much appreciated! @Colin Lindsay the manifold gasket is new along with the studs and nuts, am I right in thinking that of air is escaping then it would also be sucking it in also so would spraying water or oil around the gasket show if that was an issue? @Iain T I did change the cover gasket incase the rockers were fouling the cover however I will run without to see if this highlights anything 👍 @gbostock funny you should mention that as the 2nd time I had the engine running the valve clearances had become way out, after resetting all was fine and the engine ran pretty quietly until this new noise, I'll recheck before I run it without the cover. I have been reading about the pancake filters not being a good choice I do still have the original air box however it's not in the bests of condition with some real deep pitting. Is there some sort of inbetween filter out there as I do prefer the look of the shiny filters over standard probably because I'm young. Bit of a story behind that manifold I sent the original away to the club shop for a stainless water pipe to be fitted however when it came back it was damaged, after a few conversations the club kindly agreed to send out their display manifold in exchange for my damaged original. After fitting it all back together with the new gasket I went to put the plug in and turns out the threads in the manifold were no good hence why it's sat at a funny angle this is something that needs sorting which will be done when the car goes back for the rest of the body panels.

I just find it strange that it's only in a certain point in the rev range. 20210114_154935.mp4

In need of some advice here folks, If you've been reading my built thread over in the projects section you may be aware that when I had my rebuilt 1500 engine running there was a strange noise that randomly went away however a noise has developed again. The noise occurs when holding the revs at 1500 rpm goes and goes away when you hold them at 3000 rpm but if you blip the throttle there's a noise at the rpm drops past the 1500 mark. I had a little listen around with a long screwdriver which highlighted a tap coming from just underneath the engine number, so I removed the rocker shaft (which stripped 1 of its studs, thankfully nut end), removed the push rods and using a magnet checked the cam followers using a magnet which highlighted the rear 3 followers were sticking. So I sprayed some engine oil down there and worked the followers with the magnet until sliding nicely, reassembled with new stud, set valve clearances and replaced the cover gasket. Fired it up this afternoon and the noise is still there however listening around with the screwdriver has confirmed that the noise under the engine number has gone. Timing chain area is quiet and the bottom end seems normal too. I just can't pin point this noise and I'm very tempted just to pull the engine out and rip it apart again. I'll leave some videos showing what I'm talking about any advice as to what I've done wrong is most welcome. 20210104_155436.mp4

Bit of an update in the over fueling issue. Today I got the car out and had another look im not ruling out the fuel pump producing too much pressure however I think it could be related to the tank because its only been doing this since I plumbed in the new tank and pipework. So I took the float caps off and noticed a bit of dirt sitting at the bottom of the chambers cleaned it all out cleaned out the pipe whilst I was there and also fitted a filter between the pump and the carbs. Started it up and ran for about 5/10 minutes before it started popping in the exhaust and a small leak appeared again on the front carb. Took the cap off again float chamber is clean however the fuel has a slight sparkle to it like someone has poured glitter in. I'm thinking this could be the cause as like I say wasn't doing it before I plumbed the tank in but I could be wrong.

If the fuel pump output pressure was too high wouldn't that cause the other carb to do the same? If the quote Colin has stated is true then maybe it might be best to go back to a needle valve I'm pretty new to carbs cant plug a laptop into these cars haha so all the advice is appreciated

@johny unsure on the actual oil pressure reading at the moment going to see of i can borrow a pressure gauge to check. Plumbed in all the fuel system put around 12 litres of super unleaded in the tank and fired 1st turn of the key engine still sounds health with no odd noises which is good and set the ignition timing wasn't too far out at 14° btdc just retarded slightly to the book figure of 10° also checked the vacuum advance and it is working idles a lot better now still need to set the carbs. Speaking of those just after I set the timing I noticed the front carb was leaking fuel from the top of the float chamber, switched the engine off and had a look, Seems to be over fueling. My carbs don't have a regular needle valve instead they have a little ball in a cage never come across it before was like it when I purchased them. Question is are a regular needle valve better and should I switch it back or just stick with the ball type? Conor

Result indeed does beg the question why after some thinking today I can only agree on the lines of Pete and Rob could've been a bit of oil starvation in 1 of the bearing journals and as the engine came up to temp the oil thinned out a bit making it easier to circulate but as Karl says the worry is in the back of my mind as to whether it comes back only time will tell definitely something I will monitor but for now its time to layer up and crack on 🥶

Well this is bizarre. Yesterday my mate came over to have a little listen to the noise, started it up take it up to 2k with the choke on as before and could only just hear the noise, warmed the engine up a bit pushed the choke in took the revs back up to 2k and the noise was gone! Initially I thought it was a knock but we determined it was more of a rattle anyway fired it up again today and there is no noise at all with and without choke. Can't quite get my head around it however I'm not complaining think I'll just monitor it and have a good listen every now and again and carry on as before especially as my order from Owen @ Park Lane Classics arrived today. Conor