The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

If I have a cold start misfire, trace of oil in the header tank, but no water in the oil, and all of the head fastenings taking between 2 and 3 flats to tighten to torque...........

Do I need to place a wanted ad for an 1850 head set?

That could be where the smart money is going! The Frankenmite presumably? But if you have retorqued the head, it might pay to give it a few days in the faint hope that it may recover.

Steve

Let's hope so Steve, yep it's Frank

Also, to be fair, I've put nearly 1500 miles on since collecting in mid October!

And knowing you Bruce, I don't think for one minute that those were "easy" miles!

Steve

I might agree with you, but couldn't possibly comment.....

The head re-torque saw the 'head gasket' issue on Clive's 1850 go away again. Fingers crossed for you!

Update, cold start this morning, no misfire, I'll keep an eye on the coolant level and see what happens

Triumph1300 wrote:all of the head fastenings taking between 2 and 3 flats to tighten to torque...........

I take it that you tightened them up to 55 lbf/ft Bruce?
The early cars were torqued down to 45 lbf/ft.

I reckon the head will be solidly stuck to the studs, so increasing the torque won't affect the head there but may have a small effect on the side held with the bolts?


If the head has to come off, I would consider using an 1850HL type cos then you can convert to EFI …….
I have two head sets (Payen and Unipart) which I will sell. Also have a conversion set too.



Ian.

HM, correct Ian, torqued to 55.

Let's see what happens.

I take it Fri your comments, that the head has never been off in your ownership?

Indeed the head has never been removed from the engine Bruce.


I have been thinking about this some more….

The "oil" in the coolant I think is traces of Evans Prep fluid (it does no harm).
You will never see water in the oil because there is no water in the coolant.
It is running Evans Powercool 180, which is the correct type for a Dolomite (the Classic 180 is not suitable).

The spark plugs are NGK iridium. These don't like a rich mixture…..I never had to run with the choke on, once in second gear I always fully depressed the knob.


I didn't have cause to ever do an engine compression test.
Three times I had a misfire problem (all within the first year or so)
No.1 when I got the car it would misfire on climbs only……air leak on inlet manifold
No. 2 brand new condenser that didn't work (which reinforced the decision to go 123 instead)
No. 3 a sudden inability to rev, which I reckoned was failed seals in the Stromberg temperature compensators,
certainly swapping the CD150SEVs out for CD150s cured that.




Ian.

Let's see what happens, I probably won't use it till Wednesday

The cylinder head fastening torque was increased at the same time that the washers were changed to the thicker version.
This is the case for both 1850s and Sprints.

I think you'll need new head studs Bruce because, if the head is stuck to the studs as I suspect, the increasing the torque setting
will have stretched (weakened) the studs in the part protruding above the head.
If it was me, I would buy new studs and the thicker washers. This is what I did for the (non-running) Sprint I had in 1990 following advice from Sprintspares.




Ian.

Bruce, given a lack of an update I guess all is well and over tightening the head has done no harm?


I notice in the other thread a comment about throttle linkages.
You need to be careful here because the throttle won't return very readily from fully open ,
I added an additional return spring and set the throttle pedal lower, the latter giving only about 3/4 fully open maximum.

The throttle pedal bracket has be reinforced (with 19mm square box ) to improve the mounting.
Corrosion on the bulkhead causes the bracket to flex resulting in a loss of maximum throttle opening.



Ian.

So Far, so good Ian