First drive with a new heart and a look back

For the first time in ages I've seen another Triumph in Reading and it was a Vitesse complete with hardtop like mine :-) I didn't have much time to get the phone and take a picture as I drove by with traffic behind me I couldn't really stop. I was at this point in the Toyota.

The test drive however was far more fun, it was only a short test run, just to make sure everything was working. It was really good to get out in the Vitesse again, I could only run up and down my local private road due to the fact that the MOT expired whilst the car was in pieces although I was able to tax it (free of course) before the original MOT expired.

So what have I done over the past 5 months? It's probably easier to say that the the engine block, cylinder head casting and gearbox casing have been retained but everything else renewed :-)

• The blocks been stripped cleaned and honed, the bores were not excellent but acceptable



• New County +.60 pistons, new rings, gapped and carefully installed



• Cross drilled late 2.5 PI crank, reground new bearings, new thrusts



• New duplex timing gear and chain



• New oil pump, toleranced - oil pressure is as good as before, maybe even better



• All rotating components fully balanced



• Light (for a PI) flywheel with new ring gear - it's just a Vitesse flywheel really



• Kent TH2 "Sports R" profile cam as original, I really like this cam, a good symetrical design



• New followers and the correct 2.5 pushrods



• Selected Mk2 rockers on new shaft with Mk2 pedestals and adjusters that work



• New valves with proper caps, head inserted for unleaded



• All new hardware, nuts, bolts, washers, tabs and gaskets etc



• Gearbox reworked, still a J type overdrive with a mix of Dolly/TR7 internals, refreshed with new bearings, synchros reworked, selector forks renewed and hubs re-sprung

The cars currently back on points and I'll put the Aldon Ignitor system back on. The Magnecor leads and Iridium spark plugs (thanks Bill) should help.

I'm running it in on Penrite running in oil, that'll do for 500 miles then I'll change that and put some cheapo dinosaur juice and a new filter in for maybe a 1000 miles or more. Then I fancy going fully synthetic.

As for gearbox oil, I've thrown in some cheapo EP90 just to get mobile but my mate in the States is sending me over some Red Line MT90 (thanks Jerry). Its a fully synthetic oil and said to be very good, basically I took a few bits of advice and was compelled by this article on the Austin Healey transmission

The injection seems to be OK, just need to synchronise the butterflies as they aren't all closed at idle (you should be able to stall the engine by putting your thumb over the air bleed, my engine won't do that now). My fuel tank modifications are a little supect as the boot smells of petrol and I suspect a leaky tank so I may do what I always wanted to and get a bespoke or TR6 tank. There's lots of chat about fitting swirl pots and helper pumps but I'd like to stay with a single pump. I would also like to get the plumbing tidy so I can use the boot properly - the car does occassionally have to carry some luggage.

I'd really like to do some more reading on how to make the most of the PI system and improve my knowledge. I've amassed quite a lot of technical stuff now. Seems that two PRVs and an engine drive pump are high on the list of modifications.

The next thing to break will be the diff, it's not the quietest of diffs and leaks a bit so I'm thinking in the summer I'll swap it out for my rebuilt spare - one I bought from Kipping about 20 years ago, it's never seen the road! Must check the ratio.

In the meantime it's refit the gearbox tunnel, carpet and passenger seat - an hours work tops. Then get that MOT and drive - running it could be a trip up to Canleys on the A roads one day.

The car still wears one of it's RBRR stickers and whilst it's somewhat inappropriate as it didn't actually start the run, I'm going to leave it on.

I was so impressed that I washed the old Monster, it was looking a bit sad covered in garage dust and oily fingerprints. Whilst it was outside I also painted the garage floor as I was fed up with the dust from the concrete - I need to finish this job properly.