Peaks

Absolutely I have, and I'm just off to check the torque on mine! Like others, ive just nipped them up in the past.

Probably the best route Paul, to clean mine cost £40, and no doubt it still isn't as good as new.

Another obvious question; is the motor wired up correctly? If the positive and negative are swapped round then although the motor is running backwards it will still push out air, just at a greatly reduced volume. As others have said, it's well worth getting the matrix cleaned internally. Back flushing mine didn't make much difference so I paid a trusted radiator specialist to open the matrix up and rod through the tubes. I've got photos somewhere and I'll post them if I remember. I say trust radiator specialist as I have used one place (Arrow Radiators, I think they might be a franchise) and they were an expensive waste of time. The place I finally used has been in business for years and do heat exchangers for everything from diggers to air conditioning plants. They are called Ken Allen Radiators, and are located in Plymouth if you are in that area. As you've discovered, the heater valves also clag up and the only way I could cure that 100% was by fitting new valve; stripping and cleaning wasnt enough due to internal corrosion. The result of all that though is a heater which is at least sufficient for a saloon or a convertible with the hood up.

There has been a bit of talk on various Triumph Facebook pages about the latest Payen head gaskets, and how the quality has dropped since Payen were bought by Federal Mogul. No experience of gasket failure with Payen myself, and I normally avoid blindly quoting what I have read elsewhere on the internet without evidence to back it up, but several people have reported HG failures so maybe worth a quick google before you buy.

I agree with the comments above; with my Vitesse running on occurs either because the timing is too advanced or the mixture is too lean. With a compression ratio of 9.75:1 (very slightly higher than standard) I've never found the need to run on super unleaded nor to use any additives. I'd start with checking for air leaks on he inlet side (wear in throttle spindles and emission valve are prime suspects), get your mixture right, then experiment with different timing settings on the road.

😄👍

If you really want to be sure you can do what I did and pin the thrusts to stop them falling out. Here's a couple of pictures of them fitted (the right way round)

All pretty manky, and the sealing face which the diaphragm mates too has corroded, so this one is beyond repair. I suspect what was happening was that all the crud was keeping the diaphragm in the closed position no matter where the operating lever was. Anyway, I got the heater matrix opened up and cleaned out internally a while back, and with the new valve actually allowing water into it, it turns out that the heater in the Vitesse is actually very effective. Who knew?? All those years putting up with poor performance, assuming that they were all like that, and it was just an old car idiosyncrasy 🙄

Well new valve fitted, but I did take the old one apart as Pete said just out of curiosity. Here's what's inside them....

Great thread 👍 I know I'm going to sound like a pedantic knob, but.... as far as Triumph were concerned there was a Vitesse 6, a Vitesse 2 litre and a Vitesse MkII but never a model designated as a MkI. Right, my inner anorack has spoken and will now shut up. As you were! 😉

While I haven't had a hissy fit when thinking about synthetic oils in my Triumph, as I only do 2 - 3k miles a year it makes financial sense to use mineral oils. If the use of synthetic means that oil changes could be moved out to bi- annual though, that would obviously change the outcome of the investment appraisal! Using mineral oils though, I do make sure that I use a good quality filter (there is so much rubbish out there, but that's a whole new thread.....) and the oil has sufficient ZDDP levels. Not very scientific, but over 60k miles or so I haven't experienced a build up of sludge so I reckon sludge build up is more to to with regular oil changes rather than mineral/synthetic use.

Thanks Pete, I'll probably buy a new one as the valve is leaking coolant t around the claws.as you describe them. I'll certainly take the old one apart though, just to have a look to see how it all works. The operating cable is fairly smooth as I removed it and freed it up a while back. I guess it's just a characteristic of the valve. If all the valves do come from the same factory, as I suspect, then we in the Triumph world are lucky as the valves from our suppliers are around £22. A valve from other marque specialists that look exactly the same are anything up to £52.

The heater valve on Vitesse is looking a bit sorry for itself and only opens occasionally when I try to operate it. Are all the heater valves available from the various suppliers and ebay of the same quality? I ask as I assume that by now Smiths no longer make them and they are a pattern part. Also, while I'm on he subject.... I've never been able to really operate the valve easily from the dash, with quite a lot of pressure required from the palm of my hand to close the valve. It's always been like that, and I've always accepted it, but is that normal? It's a MkII Vitesse by the way, not that I'd imagine the model makes much difference in this case. Thanks.

I always like to think so Gary! I had to fit a replacement dash top to my Vitesse a few years ago and could only find a 13/60 one at the time. I went to a lot of trouble to enlarge the hole for the ash tray so the Vitesse one would fit. All that for somethimg 99.9% of people would not notice, and I don't smoke either, but I had to keep the Vitesse standard up! 😃

I doubt many people will find this of any use as they are not a wearing part, but the ashtray set into the MkII Vitesse dash top is the same as those found on a Reliant Scimitar SE5a. I've seem plenty of Scimitar ones on ebay for less than a fiver, but not many listed under the Vitesse.

Sounds like weak or failed synchromesh on 2nd to me Paul, although I've never driven a Triumph box which isn't prone to a bit of crunching when rushing a change from 3rd to 2nd.

I absolutely agree with Clive. Over the years I've had several 'overhauled' gearboxes and the average life for them.has been around 40 - 45k miles (this is in a Vitesse). I like to think I'm not a hooligan and just drive the car as it was intended. Each of my failures have been down to poor modern bearings. The latest box has been built using good used or NOS components and good quality (expensive) bearings. Only time will tell if my investment will pay off, but what I do know is that anyone selling an overhauled small chassis Triumph box for 2 or 300 quid has definitely cut corners and/or used cheap parts. I have he same view on the overhaul kits you can buy for around £125, I highly doubt those components will last.

😂 Fair enough! So many GTs get converted, soon there won't be any left. And they are lovely things with all the posh bits that come with the GT spec. I think I read somewhere that they even had more sound proofing than your common or garden Alpie. Dunno if that's true though. You seem to have a knack for finding unicorn poo: a Holbay engine, a rust free hard top, a totally solid Alpine shell for that matter 👏

OK, I'll ask.... why are you removing the Holbay engine? You should get good money for it! And do you have the GT hard top, or are you going to convert to a convertible, if that makes sense!

Hi Colin. Luckily, due to the fact these vehicles were still being manufactured in South America until relatively recently you can still buy brand new cylinder heads for them. If memory serves, the new one was £200 so it wasn't worth trying to repair the old one. Definitely a weak spot for these engines though.

That's good to hear, as you say Ian these things can rust! Like Gary I also have a Tiger, and it's had to have an awful lot of new metal put into it to get it into a sound condition. The photo below is of it in it's current state. As for the Hillman Husky/Commer Cob association, it's pretty loose, and there are very few common panels. A bit like saying the Triumph straight six is basically a Standard Eight engine. Anyway, sounds like a great buy, and I look forward to reading updates on your progress 👍

Thanks Nick. They are an acquired taste, and even then only if you avoid motorways. I don't think there can be many more relaxing vehicles to drive at 40 or 45 mph along a B road. And I don't think there can be many more stressful vehicles to drive on a busy motorway.

As my Vitesse has Girling 16P calipers, does that mean that pads will fit from any car that uses the same caliper? Those calipers seem to be used on a lot of other vehicles, and if the pads are the same then it'll make sourcing performance pads easier (and in some cases cheaper).

I should have said that proceedings were held up by a problem obtaining parts, in particular cam bearings. Suppliers told me this was due to both Brexit and Covid, but all I know is that it delayed the engine build by a couple of months. So I spent the time stripping the engine bay, rear of the underside of the van and the rear wheel tubs of underseal, mud, oil and rust. Oh, and there was a little bit of paint to take off as well 🙄 I thought stripping the front inner arches was a nasty job, but this was much worse. As you can see, a filthy job ☹ To do this properly I had to remove the gearbox. While the box was on the floor I drained out what looked like original VW oil circa 1972 - very satisfying to pour clean new stuff in! Painting everything, getting into all the nooks and crannies was one of those jobs that makes you wonder why you mess around with old vehicles when you could be playing golf, or snooker, or fishing, or anything really.