The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Why are you measuring manifold depression at the distributor vacuum take-off stub?
To utilise an existing fitting (if that's the reason) then why not fit a T-piece at the servo take-off point or abandon compromise; fit the stub for the gauge in the middle of the manifold itself, making sure not to leave swarf in the manifold of course.

Pure, pure, pure laziness!

No not really. I've got a twin HS2 manifold and carbs on their way, so it was just a temp way of checking the vacuum. I like a vac gauge while driving anyway, so will indeed be tapping and fitting a barb to the new manifold.

Another thing that's been confusing me a bit, why would you want a water heated manifold? Does it aid vaporisation of fuel? Would it not mean having to back the timing off to stop det?

It would be for emissions reasons - it would enable you to get off the choke quicker. I shouldn't have thought that the heated manifold actually gets the manifold any hotter than it would get on a properly warmed through engine, it just gets it there faster.

Aha! Now that makes sense. Thanks Dave.

Another day, another question. Last couple of days, I've noticed a little rattle on startup. Just a faint little short rattle. I presume it's the start of something that's going to get progressively worse. Is this likely the bottom end rattle I've read about?

Electronic ignition arriving today. Courtesy of a chinese chap, who was happy to send a 'sample'!

The rattle is poor oil feed to the top end, when starting a 1300 from cold, do not pull the choke out, turn the key briefly two or three times, thsi will get oil to the top end then pull the choke and start car, you can also fit a oil bypass feed kit, its a pipe that costs about £15 and goes from the oild sender gauge to the top rear corner of the head thsiw ill give teh top end a better oil feed, the downside of these are if the vavles are slightly worn then a little oil can go down the vavles into the chambers.

Riiiiggghhhht! Brilliant, I'd been looking at those things anyway. Where do we get them for £15? Best I could find was rimmer bros @ 25 + delivery.

Electronic ignition 'sample' has just arrived. It's come as a complete distributor! Don't think I'll be trusting that advance curve tho, and the electric ignition parts will be transferred across. Dizzy cap arrived broken, so I guess I now have a valid excuse for not having 500 off them. Seem good for 25 USD though, considering that that's for the entire dizzy assembly.

Checking the bay of e, it looks like it's this one: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Triumph-POWERSPAR ... 1c15738142

Worth fitting or not worth fitting?

Worth having, but expensive for what is neither more nor less than a stock distributor fitted with a Britpart ignition module and one-piece rotor arm.
Unless your distributor is particularly worn, I'd recommend fitting the module to that since the "modification" is simply the snapping off of the post that allows the sliding contact to shuffle back and forth on 43 and 45D distributors with self-cleaning contacts. On the ones with the other type of contacts, the Britpart kit fits straight in without any trouble.

Buy one HERE for a shade under £13, which is quite a saving over having someone fit it to an unknown quantity distributor that might not even come with the right weights and vac. unit for your car.

The chip inside the distributor is the same one that S***n B*C uses, this I know as I once tested a bunch of different systems for members of another forum I use.

For the oil feed kit look fro one to fit a MK4 spitfire, rarebits4classics, canley classic, quillers, spitbitz, david manners are all places to look.

Transferred the electronic gubbins over last night. Worked a treat. Feels crisper? Maybe a bit stronger low down, but could be change in timing. Could of course all be completely imaginary. At least I won't have to gap/replace the points again and it cost nowt.

First tank, 337 miles and took 42 litres to fill back up = 36.3 mpg. VERY happy with that! A lot of short trips to work. Still obv not as cheap as hooning around in a veg oil turbo deisel, but cool factor overrides expense.

I think I'll treat her to an oil feed whatsit.

Checked the timing with a light tonight, far too advanced. No pinking, but maybe a bit flat low down. Timed to 9 btdc as per haynes and although seems to pull better low down, she runs out of puff at around 70. Not that we'll be tear arsing around, but this seems indicative of retarded timing. What's the normal sort of range to get away with on the 1300s?

Also changed the black sludge residing in the diff housing for some fresh gear oil. It's whining a fair bit above 40mph and under load. Is this the pinion bearing? Can this be tightened as per a few threads I've seen? When I dropped the drive shaft, there was a cover with no obvious means of removal, plus I didn't want to release the fresh gear oil all over the floor.

Twin HS2s on manifold arrived this morning. They're off a 1300 spit I believe.

I only had a quick look this morning, but I take it I'll need to drill and tap for the servo vac feed? What about the cam cover breather? Not sure if it had a take off for that either.

Don't forget to tell your insurer about the carbs - you will invalidate your insurance if you don't .