DTR - Project Recommission 1972 'Dolomite' Manual

[James467]

Come on now Mart, you know me better than that!

The instructions say connect the red wire to switched live to prevent the fan from turning on when the ignition is off.

[Mad Mart]

I know you knew that and I know that you know that I know you knew that.

[Carledo]

How much are the Revotec fan kits James, and where do you get you hose mounted senders from? I will be needing both soon for the Dolomega! The Saab fan JUST fitted the Saab rad in the Carledo, (and personal inertia means it's still only manual controlled) but for transmission position reasons, the Dolomega's engine is an inch further forward - so I need something slimmer! I am currently having mucho grief trying to make an old, clumsy Kenlowe fit a customers Sprint and don't want all that trouble on my own car! Might be able to get a somewhat bigger DIAMETER fan in the Dolomega though, as that also has the Saab 9-3 rad!

Steve

[new to this]

How much are the Revotec fan kits James, and where do you get you hose mounted senders from? I will be needing both soon for the Dolomega! The Saab fan JUST fitted the Saab rad in the Carledo, (and personal inertia means it's still only manual controlled) but for transmission position reasons, the Dolomega's engine is an inch further forward - so I need something slimmer! I am currently having mucho grief trying to make an old, clumsy Kenlowe fit a customers Sprint and don't want all that trouble on my own car! Might be able to get a somewhat bigger DIAMETER fan in the Dolomega though, as that also has the Saab 9-3 rad!

Steve

Steve

I have a Saab fan if thats any good to you,i don't have the room to fit it myself,I also have a fan from a Peugeot that fits in front of the rad,again i don't have the room,as for the stat in the holes try Car Builder

Dave

[dollyman]

How much are the Revotec fan kits James, and where do you get you hose mounted senders from? I will be needing both soon for the Dolomega! The Saab fan JUST fitted the Saab rad in the Carledo, (and personal inertia means it's still only manual controlled) but for transmission position reasons, the Dolomega's engine is an inch further forward - so I need something slimmer! I am currently having mucho grief trying to make an old, clumsy Kenlowe fit a customers Sprint and don't want all that trouble on my own car! Might be able to get a somewhat bigger DIAMETER fan in the Dolomega though, as that also has the Saab 9-3 rad!

Steve

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Stoney-Racin ... mogqZGJEeg

Hose mounted sensor for you Steve

Tony.

[James467]

Steve, hose mounted sensor and short belt were from Robsport (£63.60 inc VAT for the sensor), they are the same price give or take a few pence as Burton but I like giving them the business.

Fan (£75 plus VAT) and fan switch (£29 plus VAT) were from Burton Power, always seem to be the best value.

The stainless pins that mount the fan to the rad were from Demon Tweeks for £15.

Fan plus switch - £126.22
Belt and controller - £74.28
Mounting pins - £15.52

Total - £216.02

[AlanH]

James, if you are going to put the car on a dyno I would be interested to see any results.

The exhaust system on the 1850, particularly the manifold, seems to be a weak point to me. If I were to try to improve performance I think that I would look at the exhaust first but there doesn't seem anywhere to go with the 1850 setup.

Looking at your fan circuit, I think that I would feed the relay directly from the battery and the sensor from a switched live.

Having said all that, my latest 1850 is teaching me that I understand Dolomites about as much as I understand women.

[James467]

Yep, I'll publish the results of any dyno runs.

Was thinking about the exhaust, I can probably fab one from Jetex parts from Burton. Actually, I'll just get a sports system.

Jeroen, what's your opinion on the manifold?

Looking at your fan circuit, I think that I would feed the relay directly from the battery and the sensor from a switched live.

Exactly what I was thinking!

I found some Weller wheels, I wanted to go Lotus Cortina Style to keep a kind of understated look but I don't think they do the right PCD. I like these though...

https://www.wellerwheels.com/product/re ... t6-herald/

Would look good with some plain toledo style centres.

[soe8m]

20 years ago I did buy the last two bell sport systems. It was quite an amount when you are 20 but these paid of. Luckily on one of my later barn finds had one also in the boot. These Bells are for a sprint and do fit without any modification and use the original hangers. That was my motivation at that time.

But tested on a dyno they cause a 7 hp on the wheels extra on a sprint. Same car just switched the exhaust.

I never had any problems with 1850 manifolds. My lpg fuel injected 1850 had about 110 genuine hp at the rear wheels, the same power and a bit more as a std sprint.

That car had such an bell exhaust fitted with a std 1850 manifold and downpipe but did not try without but i'm sure it helped. Taking off the solid fan also raises the hp's with a few. Such a fan can "eat" 3-5 hp at 3000 revs.

Extreme raise in compression ratio does the trick on the 8 valves. I used to skim the heads under an angle. You very soon skim into the valve seat but having the head skimmed under an angle you can take more from the combustion chamber side than the valve side making the skimming more effective. Using an 123 ignition with the right curve and the 1850 engine wakes up.

Skimming this way can cause the head does not fit anymore and you have to enlarge the studholes a bit. Just slide over without headgasket and when it reaches the deck you are ok.

A non finished engine yet because of an allegro project inbetween I rebored to 2 liter and having an 1850 head on it to have even more compression raise. The extra benefit of the larger bore/smaller head is that there is a nice squish area created around the piston crown.

I would smoothen the ports, have the valves and seat three angled and try as much compression as you can get or dare. I have to say that my cars run on LPG what does have an octane of 108 so i'm not familiar with any kind of pinking. The wall thickness between the inlet ports and waterway's are not so much on the 8 valve heads I discovered once....

All my engines have the deck skimmed making the pistons sticking out 0,5mm. This to use the non used headgasket thickness area also to raise compression.

Jeroen

[Carledo]

Yep, I'll publish the results of any dyno runs.

Was thinking about the exhaust, I can probably fab one from Jetex parts from Burton. Actually, I'll just get a sports system.

Jeroen, what's your opinion on the manifold?

Looking at your fan circuit, I think that I would feed the relay directly from the battery and the sensor from a switched live.

Exactly what I was thinking!

I found some Weller wheels, I wanted to go Lotus Cortina Style to keep a kind of understated look but I don't think they do the right PCD. I like these though...

https://www.wellerwheels.com/product/re ... t6-herald/

Would look good with some plain toledo style centres.

I don't know about manifolding, space is definitely an issue - but you must have seen that cupwinning Mallard 1850 and it's amazing stainless banana bunch, a real work of art! And if one has been made, another can be!

I can see the sense in the fan wiring displayed, but I don't like switched earthing and i too would go for the perm live relay and switched live to sensor, it's just EASIER!

On wheels, those Wellers look JUST like MGF Steel spare wheels (save that the F wheels are 14") but much more expensive!

Have you considered the 5.5 x 13 so called GT6 competition wheels (they are actually nothing of the sort, they were made by Dunlop for Formula Ford racers in the 60s which used Triumph front suspension) They have that distinctively Triumph multiple oval holes pattern and readily accept a Spitfire (black or silver plastic) or GT6II (Chromed monkey metal) wheel centre. They are just like Spit 1500/DollySE rims - but wider! I ran them on my GT6 convertible back in the 80s, they were exceptionaly well made and given correctly fitted tyres, NEVER needed balancing. Not cheap anymore and you might have a bit of grief with the offset, but worth a look, also the much cheaper and easier to source very late 1500 Spit 5js. The ultimate choice, of couse, is some period Wolfies or similar slotmags! Thanks for the fan pricing structure, i'll have to give that some thought!

Steve

[new to this]

you could try Phoenix exhaust,they make a manifold for the stag,so should do one for the Dolomite 1850
[
Dave/color]

[sprint95m]

On a tuned engine SU's offer a greater scope, parts supply and needle range are much better.

I have read exactly from Chris Witor that as reasoning to stick with Strombergs!
He was tuning T2000s obviously but 1850s use the same carbs.....

The SU Carb Company own the rights to Zenith Stromberg so all parts are available.




Ian.

[Karlos]

Has anyone considered having their exhaust manifold ceramic coated?
Here is a diy option http://www.rust.co.uk/0008-tech-line-hi ... ng/p512526#

I'm sure there are some other basic things that can be done, such as aligning/mating the ports and maybe polishing inside the manifold too?

[James467]

Temps are running a bit high for my liking. I want to sort this now before tuning as that will make it worse.

Just been to Tunbridge Wells and back via the M25. Roughly a 150 mile round trip. When I left it was not hot, probably about 15 degrees, quite pleasant.

On normal driving the needle is about here, the electric fan kicks in and out happily. I'll add quickly that I did not take the photos



On the Motorway it is up here at an indicated 75-80, if I turn the fan off it will get hotter.



On the motorway I had to have the heater on full hot and the fan going to get the temp down to a reasonable level.

The car happily sits at motorway speeds, it climbed Reigate hill on the M25 with relative ease. It did get hot again, but cooled down the other side.

The radiator is new and a Sprint one at that. Cooling system is all in good health with no leaks now and a new water pump. Voltage regulator is new and the temp sender is Robsport.

Is there a way that I can test the gauge? Tony, you'd probably know this! I'm wondering if I do have a heat problem at all and the sensor and voltage regulator are just fooling me and making the gauge read high.

The other thing I may do is fit an Aluminum Rad, one of those Alicool ones with the fan mounts.

[James467]

Oh and Steve, I've found the wheels that I'm going to get!!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-5-x-13-JBW ... Sw0GNbCBuI