More body work

Just acquired a spare car with original manual box and triumph motor

Well as it always seems to happens get one car to restore and others seem to migrate to the site of the rebuild found a great parts car so am going to take the stag back to the original motor and box and make the best out of the two cars ( but could repair the parts car ummm might be the next project ) the triumph motor is a low mileage 34'000 miles so it's going to get pulled apart and blue printed and  adust combustion chamber volumes, fit long life timeing chains, port and polish and harden crank shaft  if needed make sure all water jacket holes line up with the head  and block and a enhanced cooling system probably not the original radiator .

I did quite a bit of research on the triumph motor and was convinced they were a dodgy motor but after looking at the motor in detail I really think that it's a good motor.

The timing chains can be a problem but fitted with long life German OME chains and making sure the cam can spin freely in the head ie no binding after it's been surfaced and bolted to the block the simplex chains are used on quite a few over head cam motors without any problems apart from normal wear and tear.

They had  a recommended 10' 000klm service time which is just to long flushing out of the casting sand and lack of anti corrosion inhibitor didn't help Its reputation as well as poor assembly from a imploding British Leyland I  don't let my motors get past 6'000 klms for a oil change the bottom end has coped a bit of flak but as far as I can see its surface aria  in total for its cubic capacity of the of the bearings is very simler to a lot of othe reliable engines I have worked on so if the Hardening is done after a re grind and fitted with good bearings it's should be just as good as any engine .

The water pump is located at the front top of the motor and driven of a jack shaft it's a good idear actually as ther are no belts to drive and more modern motors are incorporating less belts and the gen 2 Pontiac motors incorporate a integral water pump, going this way helps to improve fule economy as there is less friction as the belt bends

The cooling system also gets air locks but actually not as bad as a mgf newer type and the BMW were all so  a problem to bleed out all the air you had to park them on a hill or jack up the front if you didn't could  garentee they would boil down the road.

I do think the radiator is to small and really should be up rated it's marginal for this motor and I like to have a over capacity in the cooling system so it's getting it's original a Holden  HT v 8 radiator which worked really well on the rover motor that was in there so back in  just to be Sure and has the advantage of the top tank is about 1" higher  than the original radiator  and with a over flow mounted up high in the engine bay it's less likely to cavatate the pump with a drop in coolant level as well as twin thermo fans after all it's Australia  and we get hot down here and finally after hearing the motor run the lovely burble that only this type of motor can make

convinced me to put this motor in my car and  that's in its standard exhaust the  system I'm going to improve that as well.

Triumph stag engine removal

Removed motor to strip out engine bay and weld up extra  holes that have been drilled in to the engine bay 

No rust to be found only surface rust from brake fluid leaking from junction block around manifold cutout in chassis all solid in rails looks like no major prangs have happened to this car nice surprise is the heater box vent is allso clean and rust free.

Smoothed out most of the small dents in front end that were filled with some bog all rust removed new metal sections fitted in to replace rusty sections not that there was much in this car so far.

Removing all engine bay components to weld up holes and posibly replace section that was cut to fit larger radiator back to more like the original and keep battery in engine bay it was in the trunk I don't like fuel tanks and battery's in the same place or the idear of it stored in the convertibul  section as well