The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Anyone know where to source these now???

Just put a shim under the spring>

Ken.

Yeah I've already done that, but it's not the same. All it does is reduce the travel of the relief valve, thus increasing the maximum working pressure, but when the oil is cold it can go WAAAY high...

My race cars use the standard spring.

If I gave you an uprated spring would you use it?

I would try it & then decide. In 20 years of racing dolomites I have only ever used a standard spring. I have over 50 lbs/psi of pressure over 3000 revs/min & do not see the need to have any more. It is volume you need more than pressure. If you icrease the pressure too much it will rob you of power.

Ken.

Fair call... I don't know what it is about these motors... I've had three now (1st was an 8 valve in a TR7, last 2 were sprints) and they all fill the oil with glitter. Through circumstance I've never had a motor longer than about 20K miles, but I wouldn't have much confidence in then going for much longer. Any thoughts? I figured more pressure = more flow & hopefully more life...

Pay decent money & get an engine built by someone who knows what they are doing. With respect. I do not know who is building them but my race engines do 1,000 to 1,500 race miles & the bottom end is usually perfect & I rev them to 8,500 revs/min. If you are buying engines from certain suppliers I am suprised they are doing 20,000 miles. I would have thought 2,000 was too much for them.

Quality engine rebuild, quality engine oil(20/50) & a good filter changing oil & filter every 3,000 miles.

Regards,

Ken.

It's good to know that it is possible to get a good engine... Mine had come from various sources, so I couldn't trace the problems back to one builder. Plus they were all fast road engines. 7,000rpm max! I've seen the pictures of the guy from the Netherlands building his motors on here. Wow! He takes a lot of care indeed....

I use a standard oil pump............why not?

After using my car for thousands of track miles it finally after ten years abuse had a piston problem which showed as scuffing on the piston which broke the rings, I belive caused by overfueling from the sidedraft carbs.
All internal bearings were fine and good oil pressure.
I built the engine myself.

It seems consensus suggests that the standard pump is up to the job, although I reckon most would use the uprated spring if it was available...

I'm converted on the standard pumps, but couldn't let this comment go:-

'I use a standard oil pump............why not?'

Do you use standard springs and shocks? Do you use standard brakes? Do you use standard cams? There's plenty of 'why nots'... It just seems that the standard oil pump copes with track use. There's plenty of other parts on the car that do not...

Generally: use the standard stuff, until that breaks, and then try to find something better.

DavePoth wrote:Generally: use the standard stuff, until that breaks, and then try to find something better.

I like it!

Generally: use the standard stuff, until that breaks, and then try to find something better.

I know what you mean, but based on my experience I think that I need to replace a "Dolomite" with something better, as I have broken everything that can be broken including, motors, clutches, gearboxes, diffs, suspensions, and cracked body shells.

These items are already uprated and I still manage to break them.

Mark

Just like the Snap-On sticker:-

Race it!
Brake it!
Fix it!
Repeat!