Big Engine News !

Valentines day 2012 provided more than just hugs and kisses from my sweet wife! Ted from TSI called and my "new" rebuilt '74 engine was sitting in his Pandora Ohio, shop... waiting for me to pick it up. A quick check of the schedule, and Friday February 17 was selected as "Pandora road trip day" !

The building that houses Ted' shop has been in his family since the early 1900's. Ted is slowly restoring the building to look like it did when he was growing up....a combination Pure gas station / Dodge & Plymouth dealership that was run by his dad. Very cool !

This GT6 door is hanging on the wall in the shop. Everyone should have their name on a race car door...even if it is a little "bent" !  :-)

Ted (the teacher), is in the foreground, explaining to me (the student) how to use a cordless drill to bring up oil pressure before firing up the engine. Ted provided me a VERY detailed sheet on how to prepare the engine for the initial run.

All tied down and ready for the trip back to Toledo. As we were heading back north on I-75, wife Rhoda was laughing because of all the guys who, when passing us, slowed down to eyeball my nice shiny engine !

Safely back home and in the man cave waiting for the chassis to come back from the body shop. For those who are wondering, here is a list of some of the "improvements"' done to this engine.
1. increased the compression ratio to 9.5:1
2. reground the cam to "S2" specs.
3. installed 20 thousandths oversized pistons
4. installed roller rockers
5. multi-angle valve grind
Of course, all the normal engine rebuild things like balancing, replacing rod & main bearings, replacing the oil pump, valves, seals, timing chain, etc., were also included in the rebuild. The machine shop Ted uses has been doing his work for 40 years, so they really know how to build a TR6 engine !

The one thing the machine shop couldn't do was rebuild the damper / pulley that attaches to the front of the crankshaft. So, the first thing I did when getting the engine home was pull the harmonic damper off the engine, pack it up, and send it off to "Damper Dudes" in California for rebuilding.

A Peek Into The Body Shop....Part III

Ya know those TV shows where a beat up car is "transformed" into a beauty in a week's time.....that only happens in TV land, because the real world is a whole 'nother critter!

Remember those nasty "B" pillars....yah, the ones full of rust holes. Well, take a look !

.

Slowly but surely, things are coming together.

It really makes me feel good seeing new metal where there used to be gaping holes !

The rings that hold the headlight buckets in place are part of the fenders, and you can no longer buy just the rings. Here is one of the things I love about this hobby... John told me, "Don't worry, I know a guy who can make new ones from scratch."

Here is a pix with the rings removed.

Sure enough... take a look below.  Using my old rusted rings as a template, this gentleman John knows fabricated new pieces from plain flat metal... same thickness as the original.  AMAZING !!

 Exactly the same in every dimension ! All John needs to do is weld the rings in place and drill the headlight bucket mounting holes.

John tells me the left side of the car just seems to come together without a lot of grief, but the right side is the problem child !

Here are some pixs of the little darling !  

 No, that's not rust you're seeing on the right rear quarter panel, but instead, a special hard primer that allows for a lot of block sanding without fear of going through to bare metal.

 Once John is satisfied with all the fitting, gaps, etc., this will all be taken apart (again) for paint.

I really appreciate that John is taking the time to "get it right", because 20 years from now the  money spent for first class body work will long be forgotten, but the car will still be a testament to his craftsmanship!

Engine Update

I knew I was in trouble when Ted from TSI called and asked me if I was standing up and wanted to take the news like a man !  Now I was already  prepared for the worst, so I told him to let me have it ! ;-)

As a review, the two half- moon- shaped things laying in the oil pan (below) are called thrust washers.  Their job is to control the fore/aft movement of the crankshaft.....they should not be laying in the oil pan!

They should be nestled in on both sides of the crankshaft's rear main bearing journal.  Because of wear, they dropped out of place and allowed the crankshaft to bang into the rear main bearing cap, causing all those metal pieces and shavings you see in the oil pan.

The short story is my crankshaft is scrap metal.  But what about the block and the cylinder head?

Well, it seems someone had already been into Tillie's engine.  The block bores are already 30+ thousandth over,so I would need to go to 40 thousandths over...pushing the limit, and the head had already been milled down 55 thousandths, again pushing the limits.  Rather than rebuild an engine of questionable strength, I asked Ted if he had a different stock engine we could use for the rebuilding. He checked and came up with an engine out of another 1974 TR6 that was in running condition when it when it was salvaged. 

The new '74 engine was sent off to the machine shop to be cleaned, pressure tested, and measured. The report back was that we now have a solid engine to rebuild.....stay tuned !

A Peek Into the Body Shop.....Part II

My last body shop blog left us with Tillie cut in half and with me hoping that John and all the kings horses could put her back together again !
Well, I had nothing to fear ! A few days time produced amazing results....let's take a look!

Yes! We have floors bolted to the frame and tack welded in place for the initial fitting.

A new battery tray is welded in place.

Both new wheel arches are welded into place.

Hey, this is starting to look like a car again ! The hood required quite a few hours of massaging under John's skillful hands to eliminate all the waves/bows/dents, etc.

Cracks had devoloped in the hood on both sides where the hinges bolt up, so these were repaired.

Tillie was getting lonely in the body shop, so John arranged for some high class British companionship !  ;-)

The rings that hold the head light buckets were full of rust holes, so John carefully drilled out the welds, removed them, and is arranging to have new rings created.

The "B" pillars on both sides were in pretty bad shape.....

New metal and great welding skills make an amazing difference.

As always, fit, adjust, fit, adjust....gotta get those gaps right !

More body shop excitement to come !

It's Finally Engine Time !

Those of you who have been following this blog may recall my March 2010 post where I discovered the thrust washer condition in Tillie's engine. The  thrust washer's job is to control the longitudinal movement of  the crankshaft, and since they are made out of a bronze alloy, they take the wear and tear saving the crank and block.  Once the TWs had dropped out of their places, the crankshaft and rear main bearing cap started beating each other up !

Rear main bearing caps should not have grooves on the side !

The rear of the crankshaft (behind the orange seal) also has grooves where it shouldn't !

 That discovery was the straw that pushed me into doing a frame off restoration. At that time, I pushed the engine off into the corner of my mind, and my shop, and focused on other things.  Well it's time to deal with engine, so I called Ted at TSI and setup an appointment to meet him at the machine shop that has done all his work for the last 40 years !

What would I have done without the engine hoist !

 All tied down and ready to go !

My engine will get disassembled, cleaned, magnafluxed to check for cracks, pressure tested for leaks, then measured to see how much wear & tear the various parts have endured.  I'll get a report back, and we'll decide how to proceed !  More to come.

A Peek Into The Body Shop

Tillie's  tub and body panels went straight from the media blaster to the body shop.  John, my body / paint guy, didn't waste any time getting epoxy primer sprayed on the bare metal.  The next order of business was looking at the new floors and rockers and coming up with a plan of attack.  That plan started with cutting the car in half.  Others have used this method, and Roger Williams also mentions doing this in his book ,How to restore Triumph TR5/250 & TR6, so I wasn't surprised at John's decision.  Here are some pixs I snapped.

The inner and outer rockers need to be welded together.

 End caps have to be welded in place...

A lot of fitting and adjusting

 John's speciality is restoring Chevrolet Camaros, so he hasn't had much experience with Triumphs, but he was very pleased with the quality / fit of the British Heritage replacement panels.

This is not the job for a impatient person.....a bunch of putting together, taking apart and adjusting, then putting it back together! 

The front half of the car has some serious issues, so the decision was made to order replacement wheel arches for both sides.

 Passenger side

 Driver side

Once the rear half of the car had the floors rough fitted, the process was repeated for the front half.

I have to laugh....at one time I thought I could replace the floors and rockers ! HA !  A good body man is a combination craftsman and artist, and as I watch this process, my admiration for John's skill keeps growing !

Blast Off....The Paint

Roy, my media blaster, called November 1st and advised that the body tub and all the various body panels were done, so I grabbed my camera, rented a dozen packing blankets from U-Haul, and headed out to Roy's place. Here are some pixs of the body panels:

Both rear wings (fenders) looked pretty good....no major problems.

The front fenders have some small holes, but my body man assured me they are repairable.

I was a little disappointed to find evidence of crash damage repair on the bonnet (hood)...hopefully nothing that can't be fixed, but it had looked so nice with the paint still in place.  :-(

The front part of the bonnet has a lot of these little dents that I'm told are signs of repair.

 Not to mention this bent lip along the front edge.

Both doors are nice and solid with just a few minor dings to be fixed.

The boot (trunk) lid was almost perfect, just 4 holes to be filled from a luggage rack sometime in Tillie's past.

John, my body guy, has a trailer and offered to meet me at Roy's and haul the body tub to his shop. Here's what we saw when looking at the tub.

Closer examination shows the ugly part !

I wasn't real surprised at the holes, after all, this is a 40 year old car that spent it's life in the midwest. I'll be buying some new metal parts, but John assures me Tillie is fixable, and he's seen much worse brought back to life !