Making a bit of room

Just as threatened, the Nuffield tractor was brought into action this weekend and the engine, complete with gearbox, was removed from the GT6. This was to enable me to make a couple more modifications to the bulkhead. There is now sufficient room beside the engine for the metering unit, its pipes and the distributor to all fit in.

On the other side of the bulkhead a little more space was made to fit the rear trottle body in. I was keen to get the engine out, make the modifications and the engine back in over the weekend, so as not to have the engine in the way, just in case somebody else needed to use the barn. Because of this, there is a bit of tidying-up to do around the bulkhead including painting, but hopefully I should be able to find time to do this during the week.


Although all the throttle bodies fit on the engine in the car, the linkages between them are still not clearing some of the bodywork. I have two options here, make more space in the bulkhead and risk getting too close to the steering column or have a major re-design of the linkages. I shall probably go for the latter, as there is so much slack in the linkages, I can see that in the end most if it would be replaced anyway.

Comings and goings.

Well it’s been a busy afternoon; I had a visit from Gareth Thomas, who has supplied me with a refurbished metering unit to fit the GT6 along with a set of injectors. My next job will be to get the injection system installed and working. You may be able to tell that I have decided to keep with the Lucas PI system (for now at least) as I have all the major parts required for it.

This weekend’s job will be to make space for the throttle bodies and the metering unit. First thing will be to move any wiring inside the car and then take a cut at the bulkhead to make space for the metering unit, before the engine is removed. With the engine removed I can start welding panels back in to cover the hole again.

Leaving with GT was the MkII cylinder head for some work to be carried out on it. I don’t expect to see that for a few months now though, better the time is taken and done properly.

More thoughts

I have spent a bit of time today pondering my situation with regard to fitting in the metering unit.
To fit the metering unit in another cut will need to be made into the bulkhead, close to the battery box. To make space for this, the starter solenoid, horn relay and hazard flasher unit will also have to be moved, the most sensible place for this would be in the car and whilst moving all the associated wiring the fuse box may as well come in also.
All of this cutting and moving of electrics could be avoided by not using the metering unit and by instead installing a EFI (electronic fuel injection) system that meters the fuel by measuring the position of the engine through a pick-up sensor on the crank, the throttle position and the air/fuel ratio to decide how much and when to let fuel through to the injectors.
The EFI system has its advantages with greater flexibility of settings, by use of a computer, but then there is a bloody-minded part of me that wants to see the Lucas PI system work before I dismiss it.

I trial fitted the complete throttle bodies on my spare cylinder head tonight, there is no end of lost movement in the throttle movement, I can see myself re-making the majority of the linkage with modern carb parts, hey well that’s another thing to keep me amused of a cold evening.

When I bought the GT6 it was my intention to improve it over a number of stages, so I could fully appreciate the work I had done, but so far I have moved the engine back 6 inches, changing the handling characteristics, converted to CV joints and changed the fuel induction system, but still I have not had a chance to drive the car, that’s really got to change before the year is out.

The image below should give you a rough idea of what I am up against, with the metering unit top left needing to sink down four inches next to the battery box.

PI thoughts

Had a trip up to the Black Country today to see a man about a full petrol injection (PI) kit for me to fit onto the GT6, whilst I was there I was taken for a ride in his 2.5 PI spitfire.

Great thrill even in the passenger seat, the only trouble is when your eyes start watering due to the flow of cold air. to see mopre about his car have a look here http://www.supersix.50megs.com/

With the PI kit back in overcast Wales, work started on removing the twin Stromberg carbs and inlet manifold, so a trial fit of the throttle bodies could be made. Not unsurprisingly more modifications to the bulkhead are going to be required to fit in the rear most pair of throttle bodies, oh well a bit more measuring up and it will be time to start the Nuffield and haul the engine out again.

On the other side of the engine, a metering and fuel control unit have to be fitted, these drive off the camshaft at the same point as the distributor. Beacuse of the space required by the metering unit, bulkhead modifications are going to be required on this side also, probably along with the starter solenoid and fuse box being moved inside the car to give more space for the metering unit and its associated pipes.

Weight distribution & forward thinking

Well last week a I did a rough calculation as to the front-back weight distribution of the GT6 with the engine in its new positon. I have woked it out to be about 50-50, which should lead to a heck of a lot better handling then before with the engine in the original position. Plenty more to do yet, but its a good moral boost.

Thoughts have been lent to the next to the next stage of works to be carried out on the GT6 once I get it out on the road. My original intention was to fit tripple carbs, but to do this more of the bulkhead around the top of the drivers footwell hould have to be modified. This would include moving the wiper motor to the other side of the car and taking the clutch and brake master cylinders from the top of the bulkhead and insted use a pedal box with remote reservoirs.
The alternative, as pointed out to me on the Club Triumph forum, is to go for petrol injection (PI) A PI system was designed for the 2.5litre Triumphs and are avilable.
I believe that I should be able to fit a PI system onto the GT6 with the engine pushed back 6 inches, it having already been done before on Dave Picton's Spitfire, a car I could really do with getting a good look around.
The problem is that all of the Triumph PI systems were originally designed for use on 2.5 engines and I want to keep the 2 litre, it having a shorter stroke makes for a more lively engine. To do this the metering unit (the bit which decides how much petrol is fed out) needs to be adjusted to suit the 2 litre engine. This line of thought needs a bit more investigating, but it should make for a good setup, hope to learn a bit more in the next few weeks.

Busy weekend

Forgot to mention last time that on Saturday I picked-up the next engine for my GT6. The engine is a Mk2 Triumph Vitesse unit, same as the GT6 one but with a different serial number prefix. The engine had come out of a Bond and is still on its original pistons, so hopefully it should make for a good staring point of my fast road engine. For now it will go into storage untill the GT6 is a lot closer to being ready for the road.

A fair bit of time on Sunday was spent on fuel preparation for the house, eg cutting and fetching the fire wood. I started by going out to start the Roadless Fordson Major, unfortuntely it would not turn over so back I go to find another battery, again it does not turn over, but this time I went through all the major wiring connections and discovered a loose wire. So with the connection made good, off I went to pick-up the trailer and then down to one of the further fields to cut some wood and collect the blocks I had already cut a previous time. An hour later I had enough wood cut in the trailer and headed back to the wood shed to off load it ready to go in the house. The central heating in the house has not worked for some years now, instead heating and hot water is provided by a wood burner, hence the constant need for wood.

Had another delivery today with my latest eBay purchase, a header tank for the cooling system, from cater7man. The smaller of the two fittings on the bottom is the feed from the expansion line from the radiator, the larger one is the return from the header tank back into the system, entering just before the water pump and the top feed on the tank is the air purge from the swirl pot. Next job will be to mock-up the system and work outwhat hoses will be required, time for more blue hoses from Merlin Motorsport http://www.merlinmotorsport.co.uk I guess.

Its alive!

It's been eight months since I purchased the GT6, but at long last I have had the engine running. The engine that was in the car was never run under my ownership, I had tried to run it but had given up after a lot of fiddling, it turned out that the wiring loom had been hacked about by the previous owner.

Before I could get the engine started I had to finish installing the electric fuel pump, there was not enough space aound the bulkhead to fit the old mechanical fuel pump. In addition to this, I had to arrange some sort of cooling system.
I decided that the 205 radiator was going in and for this I made-up some small brackets, which have been welded onto the chassis and locate with the two lugs on the bottom of the radiator, as means to support it, I made up a couple of bracing struts, which go from the top of the radiator forward onto the chassis.

I do have a swirl pot to be fitted into the cooling system, unfortunately I will need a couple more hoses first, as the blue one I have at the moment will not bend enogh without kinking and restricting the system. At the moment the top hose is the original GT6 bottom hose, should do for now.

The engine bay is a bit of a mess at the moment as things like the fuel regulator needs to be mounted and the new header tank sourced and fitted. Really need to get the gear change remote cut down, then I might have some chance of driving it, at the moment the end of the handbrake sits underneath the gear stick.

What another weekend off the GT6?

I had (another) weekend away from the farm and working on the GT6. This time I went over to Cambridge to catch-up with some of my relatives and then off to The Cambridge Museum of Technology to give a hand running one of the engines and see how things were there. Before leaving East Anglia to go to university and then work in South Wales, I used to be a regular volunteer at the museum and was a board member for a period of time. Unfortunately the museum has not been in full steam for the past couple of years due to boiler problems and this weekend just gone was the first full steam weekend since completion of the boiler works.

On my journey back to Wales I had a couple of interesting problems, first of all the lights went out on me, this was at about 7pm properly dark then, fortunately I was able to pull on the full beam lights whilst feathering the brakes to give some rear lights and drive into a pub car park. In the car park I lifted the bonnet, it was bit reluctant release, I soon found out why, one of the bonnet poles which act as part of the hinge had failed, damn! Anyway, with the bonnet up I had a look at the fuses and turned them in their holders to see if I could see if the fuse wire had gone. The act of turning the lowest fuse caused the light to come back on, with 20-20 hindsight I know I should have investigated the problem further, but instead I went on down the road.Another twenty yards down the road and on the dual carriageway the lights went again, this time I knew it was a reasonable distance to the next pull in, so I had to go on the verge with hazard lights on. I repeated the process of turning the fuse to try and get some lights, for a while I could only get front lights, but after a bit more fiddling I had a full set. Half way through this second bit of fiddling the hazard lights failed, just what you don't want on a pitch-black dual carriageway. After fighting my way off the verge and back onto the road I headed to the nearest garage to sort it out properly. It seems there was not enough tension between the fuses and their contacts, so a box of matches were bought from the garage and wedged between the fuse contact and the holder to increase the tension. Well it appeared to have worked and got me back home with no further problems or at least until I noticed I had lost a wheel nut somewhere along the journey, which was promptly replaced the next day and the rest of the wheel nuts checked to torque.

I had planned to post this blog a few days ago, but since Tuesday afternoon I have had no broadband access. Seems BT has got some problems as I have not been able to connect from 52 hours now, just as well I managed to find a dial-up account though - seems so sloooow now.