The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

The Number One Club for owners of Triumph's range of small saloons from the 1960s and 1970s.
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 14, 2014 3:53 pm 
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Joined: Mon Dec 13, 2010 8:17 pm
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Location: Gapinge (NL)
A bit late actually, as I already own the Dolomite for four years now.
Here's the list I already went through, in chronological order:
- Sprint wheels
- straight pipe exhaust with a rear silencer from Rimmer Bros
- replaced standard air filter with ram pipes and socks from Pipercross
- Superflex suspension bushes front and rear
- added a second hand OD
- 123 electronic ignition from Hebels (they built the 123 unit in the existing AC Delco D302 distributor)
- added Trackerjack vented brake set
- added oil pressure gauge (Smiths, same design as the other gauges)
- AVO ride/height adjustable shocks PF207 and PF208
- AVO 8" springs 400 lbs/inch front and 200 lbs/inch rear
- reconditioned 3-rail gearbox from Quiller Triumph
- replaced the OD with a reconditioned one from OD Spares
- reconditioned differential assembly from Rimmer Bros

Image
Above a picture of last summer, driving during what seemed to be the hottest day of the year. Just waiting for some friends to arrive, nothing wrong with the car here (surprisingly the Dolomite only left me standing twice since I bought it).

Image
During that same trip, while I normally really enjoy the sound during driving (removed the radio...) I found a constant 4500 rpm a bit deafening.


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PostPosted: Tue Oct 14, 2014 3:55 pm 
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Location: Gapinge (NL)
At this moment the car is undergoing some work on bodypanels.
A colleague pushed the car while parking, and the front wings and front doors suffered from rust bubbles.
Collected two front doors from Jeroen last saturday.


Last edited by Henk on Tue Oct 14, 2014 3:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 14, 2014 3:55 pm 
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Location: Gapinge (NL)
Next up will be a engine upgrade. The original engine stays, but I want to tweak it a bit.
I acquired a HR270 camshaft a while ago, but since I can't find more details about this cam I don't know whether I should use it. A small improvement could be just swapping the camshaft.
A bit more would mean replacing inlet manifold and carbs by a TR7 manifold combined with 2x SU HS6.
Then there's a more extensive upgrade, but I'm sorting this out component-wise and cost-wise:
- HS4 to HS6
- swapping inlet manifold to TR7
- camshaft reprofile to 284° spec by Kent
- lift head to match oil and water channels (also at oil pump connection)
- skim head to increase compression ratio

Car is my daily driver during spring, summer, fall (10000 km's a year) so tuning will be mildy, not more than fastroad-ish.


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PostPosted: Tue Oct 14, 2014 7:08 pm 
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Location: Middlesex
damn shame you got the box from Quiller.

I hope they did it right. It will be near a first if they did.

Still - looks a nice car there. Isn't it a tad stiff at 400 lb? You must have good road surfaces over there.
It would do my back in in the UK. I swapped back to std from 180's as it was too hard for me..

Jonners

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Note from Admin: sadly Jon passed away in February 2018 but his humour and wealth of knowledge will be fondly remembered by all. RIP Jonners.


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PostPosted: Tue Oct 14, 2014 9:30 pm 
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Location: Gapinge (NL)
No problem with the box so far, but my guess it did only 15000 km till now. I know about weakness of the box, so I'm gently with it. Speed and precision wise it isn't near the gearbox of my brothers' MGB.

The spring rate suits the purpose I had when purchasing. Roads are generally good over here, but on worse surfaces its harsh. Again compared to the MGB it's still comfortable (but compared to my '05 Megane it isn't). I don't regret these stiff springs, I'm driving my Dolomite about 90% of the time alone and I like it to be firm.


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PostPosted: Tue Oct 14, 2014 9:32 pm 
Ha, more Dutchies around here! Maybe we should meet up!


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 15, 2014 6:52 am 
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Location: Gapinge (NL)
Where are you living? I'm in Gapinge, a small village near Middelburg in the South West of the country. Around here only one other Dolomite I know of (for now, it will be for sale).


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 15, 2014 9:01 am 
I'm in Harpel, a tiny village at the German border, North East of the country. No other Dolomites I know of. We've done a complete rebuilt of my car ('73 Dolomite Sprint, 00-AU-23) for three years ago. I'm taking out the engine this winter, you can find a topic about that under restoration projects also. Just bought myself an uprated cylinder head with a Lotus camshaft and 45 Webers with matching manifold. Cool to see there are people working on performance of their Dolly. Are you member of any Dutch clubs?


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PostPosted: Thu Oct 16, 2014 12:14 pm 
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Location: Gapinge (NL)
I am a member of Club Triumph Holland, but for now it's just reading their magazine. Not participating in meetings.


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PostPosted: Sat Dec 13, 2014 8:13 am 
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Got the car back after bodywork (accident) and respraying. Now building it up again (door windows, chrome trim, etc). Unfortunately there's color difference. The company will make me an offer to sort it out...

In the mean time I collected two SU HS6 from Ronald / TahitiSPRINT (thanks!).
I wanted to time in a HR270 camshaft temporarily, then sent the original camshaft for a 284 regrind to Kent. But the valve clearances were huge, so I'm in need for some thick shims. Then yesterday I won an auction for a original camshaft, this will get shipped to Kent directly and afterwards to me. So I'll stick with the current cam for now and wait for the 284 cam to arrive.


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PostPosted: Sat Dec 13, 2014 10:46 am 
great info Henk, good to read about making an 1850 work a bit harder. Love the earmuffs, looks very funny. Nice looking car and thanks for taking the time to post up the pics and notes.

stu


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PostPosted: Mon Dec 15, 2014 9:59 am 
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Joined: Tue Oct 03, 2006 9:45 pm
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Is your car Flamenco or Pimento?

I have one very similar which is sadly now a mix of these colours. It was Pimento originally.

Flamenco replaced pimento IIRC in late 76.

Jonners

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Note from Admin: sadly Jon passed away in February 2018 but his humour and wealth of knowledge will be fondly remembered by all. RIP Jonners.


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PostPosted: Thu Jan 01, 2015 7:05 pm 
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Location: Gapinge (NL)
In that case my car has to be Pimento, since it's a 1974 car.
Next thursday I'll hope to get more info about respraying in the matching colour.

Last days I'm thinking about the chain tensioner, read a lot on this forum about the Rolon and Rimmer's. Am I right in understanding that this is the best alternative yet? And does it fit a 1850, or only duplex-chain engines?
http://www.rob-beere-racing.co.uk/newproducts.html
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 21, 2015 8:46 pm 
How are you and your car getting along Henk?

Kind Regards

Russell.


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PostPosted: Sun Dec 27, 2015 9:49 am 
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Location: Gapinge (NL)
Russell, my apologies for not replying earlier. Somehow I forgot I started this thread.

A lot changed since january 2015. Went for a trip across Europe which ended about 1 mile from my house after a link at the rear axle snapped off. Drove the car in the shed and we went for the trip with a MGB and TVR 350.

Then afterwards repaired it and went for the engine last summer. Here's what I did:
- max skimmed (but straight) cylinder head
- Kent DM1 camshaft
- self made 4 points chain sprocket to suit 108 ATDC timing
- lightened flywheel (cutouts)
- Saab clutch cover
- Mocal oil cooler with thermostat
- Revotec electric fan with adjustable thermostat
- moved the battery to the boot

Then went in September for Goodwood Revival, the car drives really well.
Only three points left at the moment:
- shuddering due to unbalanced prop shaft
- shuddering during braking due to bad alignment
- oil leak (probably due to failing crankshaft seal)


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