S & S Preparations

I have just emailed them for much needed assistance. If they weren't so far away, I'd let them keep hold of it, but as I can barely get the 2 miles to work without it getting to exploding temperature, I do not think that would be a good idea.

Wiring, Thermostat, Needles and Clonking

Best part of another 2 days spent in the garage this weekend. The needles went in. I presumed that the carbs wouldn't need fiddling with again as the seats, mixture and idle screws would not have moved. I now have high revs. Although still with the choke pulled out. It's all still very wrong at low revs though. So it's the timing then? Or is it simply time to set fire to it?

The new thermostat is now in. I took Lionel home which is probably about 0.2 miles away. The temp shot up to just below 3/4 again. Even with the fans on. And with plenty of water in it. So that didn't work either.

Lionel's main mission this weekend was to get the tacho working. After many hours of stripping the trunking, exposing wires which didn't go anywhere and trying to wire up the old dashboard, it was found that: the wire from the tacho to the coil wasn't wired up; that it is never going to work unless an electronic distributor is fitted; and the SD1 ballast resistor is needed because the TR7 tacho runs off 6v not 12v; and that a brown and white wire that was going nowhere is for the oil pressure warning light.

Paul reckons that the teeth sensitive metallic clonking noise is because the rear diff has got no oil in it. We shoved it over his pit and found the diff bolt plug. It was rounded off and stuck. Something fcuked on this car, what a surprise!

T R D C

Monday last, the boys at the club suggested two things that may be the cause of the spluttering: timing and needles. The needles thing was because big K&Ns suck in lots of air and thus the needles need to be tapered to compensate and thus flush through more fuel. Another £20 "investment" required ...

Overheating (Saturday ii)

With the radiator full of water, and the fans secured and working, I drove to Blakedown (about a mile up the road) with the fans turned on ... all was well, in fact it only just got to a quarter. On the return journey, I turned the fans off and it started drifting up to a half. At home I left it to idle where it quickly approached three-quarters+. When the fans were turned back on, it very slowly dropped back down. I then took it round the block, and it dropped back down to about a half again. I still need to fit the thermostat, but all would appear well. Why's that then?!

Although, I still can't get over 3-4000 revs, so we are back to where we were 2 years ago!

£4111.82

I have finally done the sums for the nail. I have added up all of the receipts that I inherited, and added them to the money I have also invested/thrown away.  He spent £2668.84 including head gaskets, welding and resprays. I've spent £778.33 on an MOT, fuel pump, carpet and lots of other bits.  This doesn't include the cost of the car, tax, insurance or tools.  And it still isn't very good!

Overheating (Sunday)

Time for the thermostat to come out. Why is the water in the block still green? Now I know why! When the water in the block gets too hot, the thermostat lets the water out and through the radiator.

The thermostat was tested in some hot water and found to be buggered. So, without that in, the water should all mix up together nicely and the engine should be cooler? Alas no. It was still at 3/4 although, it took a while longer to get there.

What next?

Overheating (Saturday)

It was a long day and unfortunatly not the most productive...

We visited a scrapyard to get another fan. This was removed from it's plastic surround, the blasdes cut to size and then placed in the TR's fan holder cage thing.

We then drained the radiator of all of it's rustyness, reconnected and refilled with tap water only.

And then started the car again. I went up and down the road a bit. It got to 3/4 again.

Lionel tested the temperature guage by doing something electric to the original clock console. The temperature guage was exactly the same - stuck on 3/4.

The fans were not connected, but that shouldn't make any difference as I hadn't even been anywhere.

What next ?