NYE 751L - 1972 1850 auto

[sprint95m]

Here you go John,
Chris Witor's Dolomite price list.
He gives discounts to TDC members too .
Superflex bushes fit properly, including the upper wishbone ones.
Wins International, who advertise in Dolly Mixture and I always find very helpful, sell Superflex too.

[Toledo Man]

Only a small update:

I fitted the driver's door mirror today that I've had in the boot since I took it off Snowdrop. I should have done it AGES ago. Having the drill made the job quick and easy and it all went without a single hitch. Just need a passenger side one now.

[Toledo Man]

Did a bit of a tune-up today. The car was running rich. The sooty tailpipe and crap mileage on a full tank were the tell-tale signs. I pulled out No. 2 spark plug and sure enough it was sooty. I checked idle speed and balance (front carb was getting less airflow) and I turned the mixture nuts (5/8" spanner) upwards till the revs started to drop and then turned them back down till the revs just started to rise again. (as per the BL workshop manual. I didn't bother with the initial setting - all the way up and back down 12 flats) I'll be road testing to see if there's any improvement.

As a side project I'll be doing something a little bit radical to further improve my mileage and it it works there will be other benefits. I don't want to say too much at this stage. Just watch this space...

[Jon Tilson]

You would be well advised tio check your jets arent worn. The holes in the end go oval....

Best to use the lifting pin to see how the engine speed changes as you lift the piston.
Slant 4 Dolomites are extremely hard cars to tune like this because of the long inlet manifold and cross pulses.
This is why the manual departs from standard SU tuning practice. I still do it the old way as the workshop manual method is too vague. You just need frequent rev ups between changes to clear things out.

You should be able to get at least 28 mpg from an auto dolly in normal use. Even in London trafiic you'd be hard pressed to get low 20's on a tankfull if its running half sensibly.

Jonners

[Toledo Man]

The carbs that are on Brown are the ones I got off Jod. I just bolted them on without adusting the mixture. I'm sure they were better than the ones they replaced. Anyway, we'll see next time I fill up. I've still got to sort out that blow on the exhaust manifold which probably doesn't help.

[Toledo Man]

I was at the storage unit today when I came across an exhaust mounting bracket that I'd bought in error from Rimmer Bros (my fault, clicked on the wrong part) and lo and behold it was a perfect fit for my missing intermediate section bracket (the one juat in front of the rear axle) so my exhaust is now on all 4 mountings as per spec. Once I've cured the blowing manifold the exhaust will be 100% leak free. I've had to adjust the mixture again because I was losing power and the engine was running-on. It seems to be fine now.

[Toledo Man]

I'm gonna try the cheapskate way of fixing my manifold leak. I'll remove the manifold, throw away the gaskets and reassemble with Halfrauds exhaust putty. The stuff makes for good exhaust assembly paste. If it doesn't work I won't be any worse off and I'll just order new gaskets on Tuesday. If I've got any primer I might even make a start on the resparaying now that the good weather is with us.

[JPB]

Gaskets? What gaskets? When did they start fitting those then?

By removing gaskets that shouldn't be there, then using a touch of fire putty or similar on the joins, you'd be recreating what Triumph intended so that should work well.

[Toledo Man]

I've just been looking through the parts catalogues and the 1850 has never had a gasket for the exhaust manifold to the cylinder head yet Rimmer Bros lists the part. Brown definitely has gaskets and I suspect that somebody has fitted a gasket possibly because the mating surfaces aren't flat. (this is a common problem with the 1500 manifold/downpipe joint) I reckon that using some paste in place of a gasket should compensate for any unevenness with the surfaces and give a gas tight seal. At least that's the idea.

[sprint95m]

The gaskets are an aftermarket product.

[Jon Tilson]

Yes and are essential if the manifold has ever come off the head. It distorts and the chances of getting it back
without threading the alloy head by overtightening are zilch to negative.

The gaskets are crap quaility and last about 2 years. Get used to changing them...it takes half an hour.

I'm trying Tony Harts stag ones next time.

If you have no gaskets it means yout manifold has never been off or you are VERY lucky. Ive done more than 10 slants in my time and never got away with it.

Be absolutley sure the leak is betwen head and manifold before removing as well. I find its most likely the downpipe joint. You can feel for it with your fingers on first startup. Your okay for 2 minutes if your careful before it gets to skin damage...

Jonners

[Toledo Man]

In the light of what Jonners has said I'll be ordering some gaskets. The manifold/downpipe joint was leak free. I've already felt to see where it was blowing. Removing the manifold is do-able but awkward.

[JPB]

I'm at a loss to see how something that was sealed, and removed cold, would fail to seal again with a suitably fine skim of fire putty. Unless I only got away with it because it was a new one going on, but then could an old one not be ground flat and would it not remain so if it came from and was refitted to a cold engine?

There were no problems with corrosion on the old one or on the ports but now I too am tempted to get some gaskets for the next time the manifold comes off. Not that I'm planning to make a habit of it.....

[Toledo Man]

Got 2 more jobs crossed off the list. I did the oil and filter change but it wasn't without incident. Because I hadn't fitted the filter housing on quite straight it was leaking oil. I knew something wasn't right when the oil light didn't go out so I stopped the engine before any damage was done and to my horror there was an oil slick under the car. I refitted the filter housing and it is now leak free. I might do the spin-on conversion to avoid a repeat performance of this. It has taken a couple of bags of cat litter to soak up my slick. Fortunately, Brown is none the worse for it and has completed a journey to Manchester Airport without any problems. I've been doning some tuning up. I checked the ignition timing and it was in TDC so I slackened the dizzy and twiddled it until it was at the position where it was running best. I thought "sod the figures in the manual". I balanced the carbs by ear with the rubber tubing, adjusted the tickover, did the all-the-way-up-and 12-flats-down to synchronize the jets and get an initial setting, checked the tickover, weakened the mixture by a couple of flats and checked the tickover again. This has improved performance. Just my exhaust manifold to sort out but I might get my local independent tyre place to do that. They did the same job on one of my Acclaims a few years ago.

[Toledo Man]

This just gets better.

Brown is now running like a dream. I went to Bingley last night to meet up with a mate and took Brown for a blast on the bypass and it was running perfect & went up to 70mph without any loss of power so I'm quite sure that everything is set up correctly. I'm getting quite good at setting up twin SUs. Who needs Colortunes or carb balancers? I've even cured the last bit of blowing exhaust with some exhaust putty which I applied when it was cold. I can REALLY start to enjoy this car now especially with the nice weather. A run up to the Yorkshire Dales beckons... Don't worry, this isn't the end of Project Brown. There's still some more jobs to do but the list is going down.

To be continued...