Since my last update, I got the Triumph registered and on the road. After the first test drive I knew I had some more work to do. While the car would idle like a champ, when the engine was subjected to even a mild load, it would ping (detonation or pre-ignition) like crazy. I tried enriching the fuel mixture and retarding the timing, but I wasn’t getting anywhere. I realized my timing reading of 20\u00b0-28\u00b0 BTDC was probably correct. I retarded the timing as far as I could, but the engine would stall out, even with the timing set nearer to 20\u00b0. I decided to try replacing my Pertronix electronic ignition with the old points and condenser. To my surprise, this actually made a small but noticeable difference. The engine started much easier and the pinging was slightly better. Not good enough to be usable, but better. I replaced the old points and condenser with new parts for good measure, but that didn’t magically solve my problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was looking like I’d have to dive into the valve timing. Several years ago, I replaced the original camshaft with an aftermarket performance cam that came with the car. I didn’t fully understand the procedure for synchronizing the cam and crankshaft in the workshop manual, so I made my own timing marks on the sprockets and lined it up as best I could. This turned out to be a mistake. With a newfound comprehension of the “on the rock” method of setting up cam\/crank timing, I discovered I set up the camshaft about 20\u00b0 ahead of where it should have been. I’d been dreading this, even though from the start I knew it was almost inevitable. Adjusting cam timing on this car is a big job, and I was really hoping to avoid it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I decided to get started in the evening, and I was able to get everything apart, set the correct timing and then start with the reassembly before dark. I finished up by about noon the next day. This test drive was much, much better. I was still getting some pinging, but it was vastly improved. The timing light showed a much more sane 8\u00b0-10\u00b0 BTDC, which is an oft-recommended setting on the forums. However, I couldn’t really get the car to idle, plus there was still the pining I mentioned. The valve cover gasket was wrecked, so I decided to put the car away and do some research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a little reading, today I decided to remove the bypass valves and temperature compensators from the carbs and cap their holes to see if they were at fault. I think it may have made a small improvement, but the car still wouldn’t idle nicely. I was able to get the idle down for long enough to hear a loud sucking noise though. I discovered the manifold (the intake and exhaust manifolds share a gasket on this car) gasket was leaking. I never noticed the sucking noise before, and previous attempts at spraying the area with carb cleaner and starting fluid revealed nothing either. Luckily, I have an extra gasket that’s been hanging around for a while. I’m going to try to get it installed tomorrow, and I think I’ll double up my gaskets. Some people on the forums recommend that. I figure it can’t hurt. I’m hoping fixing this gasket issue should finally get the car into a driveable state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Since my last update, I got the Triumph registered and on the road. After the first test drive I knew I had some more work to do. While the car would idle like a champ, when the engine was subjected to even a mild load, it would ping (detonation or pre-ignition) like crazy. I tried … Continue reading “More on the Triumph”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[46,68,88,114,171,172],"class_list":["post-382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cars","tag-car","tag-drive","tag-gasket","tag-leak","tag-tr6","tag-triumph"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.raucousatthecaucus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.raucousatthecaucus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.raucousatthecaucus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.raucousatthecaucus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.raucousatthecaucus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.raucousatthecaucus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.raucousatthecaucus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.raucousatthecaucus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.raucousatthecaucus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}