The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

well thought id start a build thread for my 75 toledo ,i only had it a week and today wasthe first day i have had to see what i got and the verdict is i have one totally solid shell for my project, the history i have managed to find so far is the car was last on the road in1992 so is not one of the 250 ish registered on the dvla site, and at some point in the last 4/5 years somebody started a restoration on it and then the car got sold when it got to the prep and paint stage where some moron thought they would rat look it with possibly the worst attempt at a paint job ever resulting in the bonnet and tops of the wings being painted in black smoothrite and the rest of the car painted in pound shop satin black, still at least its solid,

my plans are to fit a sprint back axle and either an omega 2.2 engine and box or a saab turbo lump and omega box with uprated brakes and suspension with the car resprayed in its original shade of yellow(not sure what its called yet) with either lotus eclat alloys or scimitat gte composite wheels and a sprint chin spoiler any way im a long way off so i will stop blathering

heres some pics from todays empty and sort session there will be a few standard parts for sale in the very near future

Looks proper badass !!. A few friends of mine are raving about the rover 820 vitesse turbo engine and how its good for 200 bhp plus, just a thought!!

Good luck

James

Or you could consider the Vauxhall quad cam 3.0 V6 (as I have) which also gives 200+ bhp without needing a turbo and has a tailormade RWD gearbox available!
Oh and the original colour looks to me to be Honeysuckle. It'll be a proper sleeper in that colour!

Steve

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'73 2 door Toledo with Vauxhall Carlton 2.0 8v engine (The Carledo)
'78 Sprint Auto with Vauxhall Omega 2.2 16v engine (The Dolomega)
'72 Triumph 1500FWD in Slate Grey, Now with RWD and Carledo powertrain!

Maverick Triumph, Servicing, Repairs, Electrical, Recomissioning, MOT prep, Trackerjack brake fitting service.
Apprentice served Triumph Specialist for 50 years. PM for more info or quotes.

I am trying the Omega 2.2 conversion into my Sprint and have an Omega donor car and TBH the more I look, the more problems I find!
The biggest of these is the loom, on the 8V engine I put in the Carledo, the loom was a discrete unit which needed only 5 wires connecting to the car to make it run, the Omega has no such thing, its all tied up with the main loom and having ripped out half the dash, I still haven't even found the ECUs for engine and autobox or any obvious ends. Plus it has a fly-by-wire throttle and a sump with HUGE wings which I think will be too wide for the subframe! Its turning into a nightmare! I'm seriously considering going back to another 2.0 8v Carlton engine and autobox or possibly an early V6 Omega unit, something from the mid 90s rather than the 2001 lump I have now.

I'm not saying it can't be done, I just am beginning to question whether the extra 200cc and 13 bhp is worth the effort!

Steve

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'73 2 door Toledo with Vauxhall Carlton 2.0 8v engine (The Carledo)
'78 Sprint Auto with Vauxhall Omega 2.2 16v engine (The Dolomega)
'72 Triumph 1500FWD in Slate Grey, Now with RWD and Carledo powertrain!

Maverick Triumph, Servicing, Repairs, Electrical, Recomissioning, MOT prep, Trackerjack brake fitting service.
Apprentice served Triumph Specialist for 50 years. PM for more info or quotes.

Honeysuckle it is indeed. A nice colour and as said already, it is a really good colour for a sleeper.

Nowt wrong with a satin black Toledo though :-"

well a day spent emptying the car and i am pleased to confirm one very solid tolly the drivers side rear door bottom has been replaced at some point and needs some tlc to tidy it up and i still havent found the keys that were in "there somwhere", i have discovered the paint colour to be 39 which is honesuckle i beleive so the car will be resprayed back to original as i quite like it and should help with the sleeper look i am going for, i do have a couple of questions do all sprint rear axels have lsd, and are there any better front brakes that are a bolt on swap thanks , i am also leaning towards the saab b204 engine after reading on a kit car forum that the ecu is able to be reprogrammed with some clever reverese engineering software, now im not up on this sort of thing but will look into it more and keep you posted if possible would definately save using a stand alone ecu

I do love a Toledo...!!!

When it's all done and finished in that glorious shade of Honeysuckle, it'll look wonderful with those subtle sporting mod's you want to add to it...

With regards to the engine I think, from what I've heard, the Omega engine will be far more trouble than it is worth... The Rover Vitesse engine could be a good bet

The Sprint LSD (that sounds like an creatively/outlandishly painted special edition doesn't it?!) was an optional extra so not all Sprint axles will possess them...

Good luck with the project, please do keep us posted every step of the way...

Sprint LSDs at sensible money are hard to come by.
Search the trackerjack conversion for a decent brake swap.

well i think i have all the details needed to upgrade the front brakes now and i have now removed the engine from the passenger front footwell, and removed the gearbox, so after a little inspection of the bulk head there are a couple of suspicious areas im gonna look at, one between the bottom 2 bolt holes for the servo and the other on the opposite side where the heater fan goes,

the car is gonna be resprayed in the original colour, honeysuckle but as i dont have a garage to work in just my very small drive, i plan to spray the enginebay door shuts etc as i go and when the body is ready and all fab work finished , the shell we be going to a friend for a proper paint job in his booth,

no sign of the keys yet so looks like a new lock set will have to be sourced, roll on the weekend so i can get stuck in

looking like a great project shiffty, good to see you asking lots of questions and delving into the knowledge bank with engine swaps in our cars. I like the black, but whatever you do, will be cool.

keep those photos coming. Everyone likes to see an engine on the passenger floor !

stu

well due to the weather down ere in cornwall i have not touched the tolly for about a week but there has been an unexpected development today in the shape of an old 3l essex v6 engine for the grand sum of £50, i was considering saab turbo power for this but after chatting with my dad who put v6 cossie in his old a40 (you may have seen it in ppc a couple of years ago) and the nightmare he had to strip all the required wiring out im now seriously considering dropping the ford lump in on a 5speed box or scimitar box with overdrive, this would make the build a lot easier and with a baby on the way im thinking just to keep it simple and it will still be fun and sound nice aswell

The V6 may be an easier conversion, though that engine really weighs!

You might find this thread interesting:

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=14124&p=139041#p139041

The engine sits well in the bay, but the gearbox remote would need looking at.

Good luck with your project.

cheers for the link i had seen that on the net before im pretty sure that uses the sprint box i was thinking possibly a transit box due to the remote linkage being on the top of the box just not sure if the ratios would be any good though need to track down a suitable bellhousing aswell at a resonable price