Will Orum

That post you linked is really useful. I had a little look on their website and called them up. Bloke I spoke to was really helpful and gave me an even deeper insight. As for my car, I started it up, making sure to put the choke in asap and all was good, car drove like a dream! It seems that the issue was more knowledge and skill based than mechanical. I can't rule out that the reseat of the manifolds didn't help, but I think I had the same issue as you, Alan. That video you linked is also really helpful. Simple stuff but not necessarily something you'd think about. I'll definitely watch it again before I next start the car! Can't say it's a definite fix yet as I don't really want to be driving on the gritty roads but thank you everbody for your input. It's been tremendously helpful, and even if it wasn't the issue, I now know more what to look for in these head scratcher situations! Will

Hi All, So I spent most of the day working on the car (apologies for such a late response, I've only just got on my computer). I Reassembled everything, making sure to clean the mating surfaces, fixed an exhaust leak that came from the joint between the downpipe and the headers. All of this culminated in the car starting nearly instantly and initially showing no issues at all. I read some responses before starting, and followed Alans advice to push the choke in as soon as possible. The car sputtered a bit but nowhere near as badly as before. I've attached some videos of it running, bare in mind I only got the camera out when it was playing up, which didn't last much longer than each video. The car then warmed up and smoothed out, as expected. I went for a little drive and struggled to get out of the driveway. I got about 50m down the street before it started misfiring like crazy so I turned around, stalled a couple times, and eventually got back home. As the driveway is on a slope, I used it to test the car again, and it was better. I deemed it drivable and figured the plugs may be fouled up so I gave it an italian tune up. Car felt absolutely perfect, no issues whatsoever after coming back out the drive. I wonder if maybe I'm having the same issue Alan had, I'm yet to start the engine again but it seems that cleaning the spark plugs the italian way has helped. I think I also ought to point out that I'm 21 and I despite this being my first car, I have never dealt with classics before. Could it be that I'm just expecting too much from the car? Is it normal for the idle to waver on occasion, especially when it 1 celcius outside? My dad built himself a Dutton Phaeton S2 when he was 17, he seems to think I baby my car which might be part of my problem. I will have to try to start the car after work tomorrow. Hopefully it stays fixed but thats unlikely. I probably won't be able to do much until the weekend but I will check out everything mentioned here. I have had the jet return issue, I usually combat it by pushing the choke in fairly fast. Removing material from the jet sleeve seems like a pretty good permanant solution for that, though. I currently don't have any spare dizzy internals so I will take a look at dizzy doctor. I have had a pretty thorough look at the carbs, and despite a bit of surface rust on the linkages, all looks fine. The steam coming off the engine is a WD-40, spilled coolant, and solvent cleaner mix. It stopped after a couple minutes! VID20240114165524.mp4 VID20240114165657.mp4 VID20240114170144.mp4

Ditching the waxstat jets was one of the first things I did after buying the car! Definitely don't need the problems they can cause. I haven't had any overflowing of the float chambers so I think I got away with that one. I did initially think the issue could be fuel related as I ran out of fuel not long before everything went wrong (Embarrassing, I know). I thought maybe a load of sediment had been sucked up, and this was supported by the engine working ok after running for a bit. I have somewhat ruled out fuel quality though, as the fuel filter is pretty clean, and the float chambers had minimal sediment in them (I hadn't cleaned them in nearly 3K miles), and the car was back to spluttering when I next tried to start it. Im using the NGK N12Y plugs from James Paddock (gapped to 0.63mm), I'm fairly sure they're genuine but a point I didn't mention before was that I when I encountered the first issue, the supposed vacuum leak, I changed the plugs to a brand new set, which fixed the problem for maybe a dozen miles. Out of curiosity, whats the issue with the 'R' suffix plugs? The cold start issue came about after reinstalling the air filters (Generic 1500 HS4 filters found on Paddock) I've mostly ignored that as being a factor, but I could well have installed one of the gaskets upside down. What kind of symptoms would blocking the carb vents give, could that explain the difference in piston surface, or am I chasing a red herring with fact that piston 4 looks different to the others?

Hi all, I'm at a loss for what to do to fix my car. I've had a series of issues with my electronic ignition, resulting in me going back to points, once back on points, the car ran great.. For a bit. Ever since then (Just over a month ago) I've had issues. The first issue presented itself as a sudden loss of power when accelerating, after checking over the ignition, swapping the coil, and checking the carb balance and tune, I realised it was a vacuum leak. I sprayed WD40 around the manifold while the engine was running (Bit silly, I know, but I didn't burst into flames!), the engine didn't seem to change after spraying, at least not at idle. When I started driving, it was obvious it had fixed it temporarily. I then tightened the manifold nuts. All was good, so I thought. This leads me on to the second issue, which is really just an evolution of the first. The car ran fine for about 10 miles after tightening the manifold. Then, one morning I went to start it, and got the video attached. Some further investigation revealed that the car ran absolutely fine after it warmed up, but warming it up when its running that badly and stalling as much as it does isn't easy. This lead me to basically conduct all the tests I'd done before. Attached pictures show some of the findings. (I used a boroscope to take photos of the top of the pistons. The plugs look rich but these photos weren't taken after a plug chop so they're sootier than they should be). I tried swapping to a new coil, testing spark plugs outside the engine, re-checking the mixture, all to no avail. The spark did look a bit orange and danced around the electrode a bit, but I was looking in broad daylight, and a brand new plug was firing similarly, though less orange and less dancing. My final deduction was that it was another vacuum leak, maybe I hadn't tightened the bottom nuts up enough as they're a pig to get to. I have taken the inlet and exhaust manifolds off, expecting to find an obvious sign of a leak but I found nothing. I don't have pictures at the moment but the gasket looks fine, at least on the inlet ports. After putting a rule across the inlet manifold and the head, I noticed a slight gap in the middle of the head and basically no gaps on the manifold. Without the pictures it's hard to diagnose, but the gasket and sealing faces showed no signs of leaking. That leads me to where I am now. Scratching my head. Anyone able to shed some light on this situation? Will VID20231210152404.mp4

So I never really solved this issue. There were no witness marks anywhere, I was really scratching my head over it. That was until yesterday when I got caught by a nasty speed bump and knocked the exhaust. Problem is completely gone. Had a look under the car, all looks good apart from the slight scratch on the exhaust. I guess sometimes bad things aren't so bad...

That sounds like a pretty good theory. I'll have a look. Thanks

Hi All, Another 1500 spit issue! Every time I hit 3K rpm, the engine makes this horrible metalic popping sound. It sounds just like pinking, i'm pretty sure it's not though as it goes away 100 rpm later. Engine doesn't pink when under heavy load either. It's done it while pulling away, while on the motor way, while going up hills. The only logical explanation I can think of is some kind of resonance at that specific rpm - it doesnt do it out of gear though. Any help would be appreciated! VID_20230529184051.mp4 VID_20230529183909.mp4

Not sure how I didn't see your comment before. Would've saved me a bit of a headache! I'll let you have the kudos for this one

It seems I accidentally fixed it yesterday. Drove the car in to work in the morning, the issue was there, juddering me along. Showed one of the guys at lunch to see if he had any ideas, I ended up taking a spade off the coil and placing it back on (to demonstrate that the insulation had broken down right next to the connector) Didn't think too much about it until I drove home without a hitch, I even went to the shops too. I've since repaired and re-spaded the wire and cleaned up the contacts on the coil. I'll let you know if it actually fixed it when I drive it tomorrow!

Thanks everyone for your advice. I'll be able to put the car in the garage in a day or so, I'll have a look at everything mentioned!

Hi all, I've just got my spitfire on the road, drives pretty good. Definitely a brilliant first car! I've started getting an issue where the engine loses all power for a split second. Initially I thought it was me being too heavy on the clutch but it doesn't present itself the same. The best way I can describe it is the engine just loses spark for a couple rotations and jolts the car a bit when the spark comes back. It did it more severely yesterday, thankfully I was waiting at the lights, but I did notice that the tachometer went straight to 0 like the power had been switched off. Has anyone experienced anything like this? Is there an easy diagnosis or am I going to have to root around my ignition system and loom? Cheers, Will

I think with how the buckles are at the moment, any position is more comfortable than their rigid one

Update - I got home and I was able to have a better look. It turns out my belts are correct, just incorrectly installed. Luckily, whoever installed them kept the box so I was able to use the two small standoffs under the reels and now they work perfectly. Only thing I can fault with it now is the rigid stalk. Shouldn’t be too hard to buy a flexible one though. thank you everyone for your help and advice

I think maybe the previous owner just bought the wrong belts. My belts have just under double the slack of those. I don't have the box with me but I'll have a gander and compare numbers when I can

To clarify, the belts were new when I got the car. The spools are as full as they can be, and with good tension (once you pull up the slack). It's just a case of taking up the slack or replacing them for "correct" ones

As I've had to take the interior out of my spit to mend the gearbox, I've gained easy access to my seatbelts. For whatever reason, they are about half a metre too long and just kinda flop down behind the seat. Does anyone know of some properly sized belts or if it would be safe to get say a sailmaker to reduce the length?

According to the red 1500 workshop manual, or possibly the Haynes manual (Really can't remember and I don't have them to hand right now), all EU/UK spec 1500s and late 1300s should've been fitted with dual springs from factory. I'm wondering if, as Pete said, my engine has been fitted with some cheaper aftermarket springs. I had a look through the purchase logs for the car and it didn't show any springs being purchased though...

While servicing the head, I noticed that there is only one spring per valve. All manufacturer literature I've read states it should be dual spring. I can't see any reason it would be like this unless the head is a US import? A few details about the head and engine: Engine # - FMHE Stamped head # - 515973 Other head # - 8 12 70, 307871

After getting the head off and assessing the damage, I was struck with something that confused me a fair bit.. *See attached images* I initially thought the gasket had blown straight from the coolant channel but on further inspection, I saw that said channel wasn't a channel at all, rather a bore about 10mm deep. I pondered it for a while, looked at the head to see if it had any answers, no kind of hole or channel inline with it though. I was just wondering if anyone actually knows what this hole is for? My best guess is just a bore to aide with the machining process. I figured the coolant leaked around the gasket ring and into the bore, then blew out the gasket when it got hot enough. Its a bit of a shame about the rusty piston and cylinder, though I don't think it would be too much trouble to fix as most of the engine is coming apart in the near future anyway!

Hi everyone, As a new member, and a new triumph owner, I thought it wise to introduce myself! So here-goes - My name is Will, I'm a nineteen year old engineering apprentice from Devon, I first became interested in old British cars a few years ago when I stumbled across a MK3 GT6 on CarAndClassic. I think it's safe to say it was love at first sight, I have been saving ever since but I could never quite catch up with the cars crazy inflation! Though a bummer, there were still plenty of beautiful cars to choose from, and that is what has landed me here... My first car, a 1977 Triumph Spitfire 1500 in the brightest yellow known to man! The car is in pretty good nick, body panels mostly rust free, interior brilliant, hood in great condition, and so on. Only inconvenience is it's blown head gasket! From what I've seen and heard, working on old cars, is somewhat straightforward (In Theory), though, what doesn't seem all too straightforward is knowing which manuals are best to have around, I can't seem to find a straight answer. I've plenty to learn here but that's just the fun of it! Looking forward to many roadside headaches!