Still interested in the history of the BL injected 16-valve slant 4 engine.

[GrahamFountain]

I'm still interested in finding any history on the electronic fuel injection system BL was developing for the Sprint engine with, I think, Bosch in the period upto 1975 when SD2 was canned. As I understand it, both the SD2 and injection system were cancelled because of the nearly £3 billion rescue plan in the Ryder Report that followed BLMC going bankrupt in 1974.

This is a thumbnail of it fitted to the SD2 in the BMM at Gaydon. I paid for them to take this for me for another reason, but they'll sell a high res (4592x2584) version if anyone else is that interested.



For comparison, this is a picture of the different system fitted to the US TR7 8-valve version of the slant 4.



Any memories of seeing this 16-valve injection system on a Dolomite Sprint or 16-valve TR7 would be of real interest.

Graham

[Pen]

I’m in the process of building up a sprint and once it’s all back on the road the next step for me is injection , I’ve got a Saab b204 inlet plenum with throttle body and sensors already on , plan is to cut and shut in onto a sprint inlet and mod lower down the sprint inlet for the injectors , but that’s a long way off ...

[dursley92]

Gordon Birtwistle the Triumph factory test driver told me a couple of years ago his favourite car to take home was a TR7 with a fuel injected Sprint engine.
They must have had a decent working injection system for him to say that.

[tamtrucks]

just the 1 working injection car.......lol

[GrahamFountain]

I’m in the process of building up a sprint and once it’s all back on the road the next step for me is injection , I’ve got a Saab b204 inlet plenum with throttle body and sensors already on , plan is to cut and shut in onto a sprint inlet and mod lower down the sprint inlet for the injectors , but that’s a long way off ...

I think it's a shame that BL's plans to inject the Sprint were cancelled. I seem to remember reading somewhere that is was supposed to give something like 170-175 bhp for the production car. But I don't know if that was a real measurement from the 16-valve TR7 or SD2 they fitted it to in 74-5 or a guess. I'm not sure what hp the smog pump the head in that SD2 is fitted for would have taken off that for the US version.

Be interesting to find out what your SAAB system gives.

Graham

[GrahamFountain]

Gordon Birtwistle the Triumph factory test driver told me a couple of years ago his favourite car to take home was a TR7 with a fuel injected Sprint engine.
They must have had a decent working injection system for him to say that.

David Knowles has a bit about that car in his book Triumph TR7: The Untold Story. Says somebody disappeared it in the late 70s after it had been engine development's hack car (two meanings to what "hack" might mean in that context though). Bill Piggott says something about what he'd heard about the injection system too, and suggests it was going to be really good.

Graham

[GrahamFountain]

Gordon Birtwistle the Triumph factory test driver told me a couple of years ago his favourite car to take home was a TR7 with a fuel injected Sprint engine.
They must have had a decent working injection system for him to say that.

Would Gordon Birtwistle be the test driver who used to have the brooklands green (carb'ed) TR7 Sprint SJW549S that Dereck Harvey now has? I know he got it from one of the BL drivers way back when.

Graham

[dursley92]

Gordon Birtwistle the Triumph factory test driver told me a couple of years ago his favourite car to take home was a TR7 with a fuel injected Sprint engine.
They must have had a decent working injection system for him to say that.

Would Gordon Birtwistle be the test driver who used to have the brooklands green (carb'ed) TR7 Sprint SJW549S that Dereck Harvey now has? I know he got it from one of the BL drivers way back when.

Graham

I know Gordon worked on the development of all the Triumph cars back in the day.
He famously had a bit of trouble here at Mira when a bus pulled out in front of him when testing a TR5 at high speed.

[bandtacott@gmail.com]

Gordon Birtwistle the Triumph factory test driver told me a couple of years ago his favourite car to take home was a TR7 with a fuel injected Sprint engine.
They must have had a decent working injection system for him to say that.

Hi, was it silver by any chance? WAC48X
New logbook issued 6/1/23

[dursley92]

Bruce Trundle in Australia runs an injected Sprint engine in his TR7, I think he developed it himself using stuff that is available.
He is known as Stag76 on the TR7 Forum.

[MIG Wielder]

Gordon Birtwistle the Triumph factory test driver told me a couple of years ago his favourite car to take home was a TR7 with a fuel injected Sprint engine.
They must have had a decent working injection system for him to say that.

Hi Russ, This posting has caught my attention as you probably know my Dolomite is SWK an 1850 , the original test-bed car for the B.L. CVT. Apparantly the car did 100,000s of miles around the test track at Gaydon before being registered for the road. Where it did even more mileage. Is Gordon Birtwhistle contactable do you know please ? I would be interested in any furthur history on SWK that he has.

Thanks very much,
Cheers for now,
Tony.

[dursley92]

Gordon Birtwistle the Triumph factory test driver told me a couple of years ago his favourite car to take home was a TR7 with a fuel injected Sprint engine.
They must have had a decent working injection system for him to say that.

Hi Russ, This posting has caught my attention as you probably know my Dolomite is SWK an 1850 , the original test-bed car for the B.L. CVT. Apparantly the car did 100,000s of miles around the test track at Gaydon before being registered for the road. Where it did even more mileage. Is Gordon Birtwhistle contactable do you know please ? I would be interested in any furthur history on SWK that he has.

Thanks very much,
Cheers for now,
Tony.

Sorry Tony only just spotted your question about Gordon Birtwhistle. Last time I saw him was in 2016 at a TR7 event organised by the TRDC and John Clancy who interviewed him there. Maybe John has a way to contact him?

[matt of the vivas]

I have a friend who has a complete kit of the Bosch injection system that was fitted to the late California TR7s. If it's of any relevance, I can ask him to dig it out, and photo it all. From memory there's a fairly complex loom and ECU, manifold, injectors, air flow meter, and a special electronic distributor.

[Carledo]

Bruce Trundle in Australia runs an injected Sprint engine in his TR7, I think he developed it himself using stuff that is available.
He is known as Stag76 on the TR7 Forum.

That's a really neat install, but I cant help thinking, if i'd done it, the plenum runners would have been 4 or 5 times as long and the throttle body would be on the front instead of at 90 degrees to the plenum.

Steve

[matt of the vivas]

That's a really neat install, but I cant help thinking, if i'd done it, the plenum runners would have been 4 or 5 times as long and the throttle body would be on the front instead of at 90 degrees to the plenum.

Steve

Plus you'd fit a Vectra engine to the other end of it...