Clive

Pete the MK1PI had teh mk2 engine fitted, hence 2.5. A very late development (test bed??) A friend runs a MK1 PI (cr) engine in his GT6 on SU's. A std engine but well screwed together, plus a spawn of satan 6>2>1 manifold. That produces in excess of 130bhp on the rollers (think flywheel figure) so not shabby.

Please post the prefix letters. But the MK1 PI certainly was supplied with the 35 65 cam that you were told you should fit!

Stage 2 is meaningless. You want to know what has actually been done. First thing to do is find out what you actually have, so use the engine number to start with. Then measure the head depth, the figures are out there for the various type of head. That will tell you if it has been previously modified by skimming. Finding which cam you have is harder, but can be done. Do your research. If it is from a late saloon PI, it may have the 18/58 cam which is very "soft", lots of torque so ideal if in a saloon and towing a caravan. Less ideal in a sports car where you want it to give more performance and don't have to pull all that weight around. Chris Witor is a handy chap, have a look at his website.

I think heater outlet. Try tapping the outlet vertically with a hammer, not hard, to shock the joints. Keep at it and keep repeating. Maybe some acid, even vinegar, around it too to help eat the rust. But as Pete says, a decent socket and ideally an impact wrench. These "hammer" the nut/bolt undone so are much less prone to shearing than just using a long bar and constant pressure. If no impact wrench, a long bar on the socket, apply a fair pressure and get somebody to hit the bar with a heavy (club) hammer pretty hard. That can do the trick on stubborn stuff. the outlet can be replaced with a square headed plug.

Loosen exhaust clamps (car up on ramps ideally) then use yiur weight, levers or whatever to get the exhaust into a better position. Retighten clamps. Have you fitted the strap off the front of the diff? (I assume the issue is the main chassis rails?? usually is)

teh mk2 and early mk3 are the same. 35 65 IIRC, and yes a bit smoother. However, which PI engine do you have? many of the saloon PI engines had that same cam, the TR5 and 150bhp TR6 had the racier cam, but that will work with carbs too. Just a bit lumpier at idle. Newman cams are THE cam people to go to at the moment......

I have heard of a chap removing the straps and bolting the 2 bits together effectively making a solid prop. Apparently that worked, no idea if it would in your case but easy enough to try? And as pete says, prop balance has nothing to do with how it is fitted in relation to other components. If it does have an effect, there are other issues to be dealt with! I would not bother getting the strap prop rebalanced. For all the grief call Dave Mac propshafts and buy new. Really, a very good investment. (unless you can get a known good one secondhand, known being the important bit)

The solid prop was only used on the Herald. Strap drive I think heralds (and some spitfires possibly?) GT6/vitesse/most spits all seem to have he sliding joint, spit 1500 had the CV's. More or less!

http://www.canleyclassics.com/triumph-spitfire-mkiv/1500-propellor-shaft/ shows a strap drive and a CV prop. Most (It seems) heralds had solid props with just a UJ at each end again many Triumphs had a sliding spline joint http://www.rimmerbros.co.uk/Item--i-GRID005726 Having the dsolid props can make life harder than it should be as there is no movement to get theprop in and out of the car, and the engine/box position must be perfect. Plus no allowance for a little flex in the chassis. I believe it makes the UJ's work hard! The strap drive appears to be a cheap fix, but seems rather under-engineered. Sliding joints or CV's rather better.

Strap drive props are notorious for problems. And an out of balance prop again is a dreadful thing. If you can borrow a known good one it is really handy. If not a new one may be a wise investment. It really can transform the car. Either that or hours playing with jubille clips. And that DIY method does work, as long as you are methodical.

Indeed, it is banned and garages are not allowed to fit asbestos brakes anymore. However, that does not apply to individuals. (the HSE document is aimed at industry, in this case garages) And there is no requirement to remove asbestos-containing parts from cars either.

John, my point was that brake linings were exclusively asbestos up until the 1980's, and then gradually phased out. However, you, me, and countless millions of people "exposed" to them have not developed any related ill health. Agreed some may have, but the HSE document was clear that mechanics had a low incidence of aabestos related disease, and they were up close and personal with the stuff every day for many years. If we stop using anything that has been proved to be dangerous, we would not be driving our cars. Or probably any cars. Nor living in our houses (note, asbestos in pre 1990's artex, something people readily scrape and sand above their heads etc and any normal dust mask will do nothing to protect you from the harmful fibres, they are too small and require an electron microscope to see them. The larger fibres which we used to test for and can see with a normal microscope are too big to be harmful) I was trying to put things in perspective. Of course, we need to suggest that everybody changes their clutch plates if they have not been replaced in the last 10 years with a known asbestos free one? Of course not. I am not trivialising the asbestos risks, I understand them very well having spent some time taking and testing sample, including using a pestle and mortar to grind samples up. I am just trying to explain I, and all the other motorists who have ever driven a car with asbestos linings, not responsible for umpteen thousands of deaths. That includes just about all of us. I do not want to cause arguments, but trying to be balanced and take a thought out approach to this issue (and many others too!)

As an aside, I have just nabbed a well priced set of Ferodo DS2500 pads off fleabay. I believe they are more fade resistant than Mintex 1144, so once bedded in will be preserved for trackday use. I think they retail at £100ish a set, and their qualities are not required on a daily basis. Besides, swapping pads is pretty quick to do, and gives the opportunity for a clean up etc at the same time.

Re comfort or performance, the answer is there. If you are going to drive the car hard and fast, performance. If general use, comfort. As to make, superflex has an exceptional reputation, polyflex I have heard nothing bad about either. But beware generic bushes, they may not be up to standard.

The arm I fitted to the toledo was a dolomite one, so I would presume not. It may be possible to find a suitable polybush? Somewhere in cyberspace there are listings giving dimensions of each bush available.

Did you just try cahnging the bush in the arm? I have a toledo and needed to rebush it, however taht was NLA so got a new arm with bush meant for a later car and was a straight swap. Just a thought.

Fitchetts? Mick Dolphin? The dolomite forum may have more people who are in the know......

I apologise if my post offended you. I do hope you read the document, it is quite concise for something produced by the HSE.

Doug, I never said asbestos was not harmful. I did say follow the instructions and all would be well. Have you read the HSE document? Or had any education about asbestos? It appears not, at least not from any credible source. Please, read the document that the government has published, and rely on facts rather here-say. Or worse, the Daily Mail. I spent some time working doing asbestos analysis and testing. Many years ago now, but I do understand the dangers and how to deal with the risks. If the rate of asbestos related diseases is very low amongst mechanics who worked changing brakes/clutches/gaskets etc all day every day, often with scant regard to safety or common sense (like the people who don't wear eye protection when grinding, gloves when coming into contact with oil and so on) then as drivers and occasional fixers of cars, our risk is tiny. Or approaching zero if we follow the instructions. Still, if you wish to bring a private prosecution, go ahead. Not sure on what grounds though? I am not breaking any rules. There are other more worthy targets for you out there at the moment......(diesel car manufacturers for a start)

Doug, please do not suggest such nonsense about asbestos. It only needs a few sensible precautions and they are entirely safe. Just follow the instructions. They come on the box. Remember pre 1999 virtually all brake pads and shoes were asbestos. And asbestos could still be fitted by garages until 2004. So we have all driven and maintained asbestos equipped cars for many many years with very few people contracting asbestosis or other asbestos related diseases. I suspect most who sadly have will be smokers (smoking doesn't just double your chances of lung disease but multiplies it many times) or were sloppy with precautions. Oh, don't forget most fibre type gaskets used to contain asbestos pre 1999. So all the old stock gaskets that people use, or are already in the engines, are death traps too?? (actually I have seen people use wire brushes in drills to clean gasket material, not clever.) Maybe we should all give up doing anything to our cars as used oil is very nasty and cause cancer. How about banning convertibles because of the risk of skin cancer? And how safe is the dust from modern brake pads? No, I have no idea either. Have a look here for more info http://www.hse.gov.uk/mvr/mechanical-repair/asbestos.htm

I am NOT trying that.

Solution=use the car more!

If you check Nicks websidte, you will see his first version used the original triumph bearings but (very importantly) spacers fitted between then. A faff I believe, but without them the bearings had a very short life. Also be aware that if the ali uprights are machined there may not be adequate material left. Hence nobody has used them with the NJ conversion. The only tricky part is getting the uprights machined, but a decent machine shop can do that easily enough. I willl have a set of the diff-volvo CV's available once my subaru diff is in. Plus can supply a set of MGF outer hubs and CV's. Then all you would need is the R100 shafts (which I am keeping as amazingly they also are a near perfect fit for the subaru diff/inner CV's!!)

Eh? The bedding in process is just a few short stops from high speed (Mintex at least) No need to use regularly, and the 1144 are fine from cold. My EBC experience wasn't great, luckily they came in a box with teh car. Would have been gutted to pay good money for them. The std "white box" pads are OK for gentle use, but are not great at stopping you quickly. That has been my experience. I try to use NoS asbestos pads, they have a much greater coefficient of friction than most modern pads, so stop you faster and have better feel. After that I would only be using Mintex 1144 (although if my pockets were deep enough there are even better options) And yes, the actual pad shape for GT6/vitesse is all the same, but the late metric GT6 callipers used the same pad but slightly smaller pins. And they are readily available as they are used on many many fords (good news for us!) Drilling the pads is very easy, almost impossible to go wrong.

Picture needed of the sump. Also the other possibility is that the crank is actually a 2 litre one?? May be worth measuring the throw of the crank, just in case!