That's oddly specific

 

Is it tho? 🤔

 

IDK i'm probably missing a joke

 

PICS OR IT DIDN'T HAPPEN! Oh wait, was that already last year?
Yeah, its still in my garage! If I can dig it out before my director retires, he wants to buy it

 

The PI version? They were pretty brutal back in the day, whenever you could get the Prince of Darkness to cooperate! I had a drive of one that had just been tuned/fixed or something, was very impressed.

 

Nope, we didn't officially get the PI version (Petrol Injection for those who have escaped brit car brain damage thus far) in the US, maybe not even North America now that I think about it. The Canadians may have got them but we sure did not. The PI version of the 2.5 inline 6 made ~165ft/lb of torque at like 3,500 rpm and around ~160hp so pretty close to the 2.0 MZR in an NC but with more torque and at about the same 2,500lb weight.

Being that it was Lucas 'mechanical' fuel injection it didn't meet even the rudimentary emissions requirements of the early 70s so Triumph defaulted to all the bullshit that other North American manufacturers were doing to meet emissions requirements like air injection pump (SMOG pump), EGR system, significantly more mild cam, dropped compression ratio by full points, vacuum retard distributor with significantly nerfed timing curve, and a pair of a particularly foul version of the Zenith Stromberg 175 CD-2 carburetors. The only thing they didn't throw at it, as far as I'm aware, is a catalytic converter. That dropped things down to about 104hp and 120ft/lb tq, so like a sad NA8. Everything was vacuum operated and because of the way the distributor and cabs worked, if the thermal vacuum switches stopped working properly or it developed any kind of vacuum leak it would run like absolute garbage. It's the kind of car that requires you to own a Bentley Repair Manual or just keep feeding dollars to a weird dude with a cockney accent in an unmarked warehouse on the industrial side of town who calls himself an "English Mechanic" in order to keep it running at all. It always ran rich and it always bogged off the line, but if you somehow managed to get some speed and RPM behind it, it made some glorious noises and could scoot. It's probably one of the reasons I still love inline 6 noises to this day. I'd love to get my hands on a 4.0 Barra...

Unfortunately I fell in love with the dumbass thing when I was like 10 and even though it would sit for decades at a time and I watched my father nearly bankrupt himself trying to keep it going, I (un?)fortunately ended up with it when he moved. I got the 1974 Triumph and my brother got the 1974 Ford Bronco that I'd poured a ridiculous amount of time, effort and dollars into over the preceding 5 years. Not that I'm bitter or anything I've been dragging the Triumph around for 10+ years now and its never run under my ownership. Well, I don't technically own it because my Dad lost the title and can't quite figure out how to get a new one, but that's one of the big reasons I've not done any work on it.

Regardless, I'm not sure at this point if its even worth it to try to get running again but I've been struggling with the idea of selling it. My understanding is that when my Dad had the engine rebuilt in the 90s, they put a PI cam in it and the head was shaved a bit to bring the compression ratio back up, which is probably why it never ran right with the emissions compliant carbs and distributor. It would need a completely new aftermarket distributor to unfuck the timing and a pair of non-emissions actually tunable SU or Weber carbs to really wake it up. Moss still sells this stuff to the delusional, as do a bunch of places like Rimmer Bros in the UK, but for what they are asking for the parts to maybe eek out 150hp you could turbocharge an NA. I recently saw a newer carb kit for these cars that's a pair of Weber 32/36 DGVs that can be had for under $1k, but I have no idea if its an actual improvement. I know the 32/36 DGV is at least tunable and parts are available thanks to my recent dalliances back into the world of ACVWs. Yet another place where people when spend $1800 for ~110hp. It almost doesn't seem worth it.

Stupid emotional attachments.

 

I had a Miata buddy near me that used to race the things. I once asked why he had so many heads. He said they all warped eventually, and he hadn't bother to get any decked, he'd just replace. Guy sold the Miata and all the Triumph parts and moved to Florida.

 

G:

G:


G:



Everyone: "hey what's up G?"

G: BRITISH SMOG THINGS

Good to hear from you amigo

 

The 'yank tanks' that arrived here from that era were outright slugs, so not surprised about the Trumpy.

Also, age. When I rode in that thing I think that my daily was 500cc of thumping, oil leaking, aircooled, wheel bending Fiat goodness (not). The fabric folding sunroof was a gift though, we even drove 1500 klicks to the bottom of deepest darkest Tasmania on our honeymoon. FFS that is over 50 years ago - what happened there?

 

...or a megasquirt

--Ian

 

Yeah, that thought crossed my mind too. I know nothing about those engines, I wouldn't want to suggest that our mate go down that rabbit hole without some idea of when/how/where he was going to emerge. As with so many things, I like the idea, but actually acting on it would be 110% crazyness.

 

I have a set of 6 brand new, matched, 200cc oldschood Bosch EV1 injectors, a set of Triumph PI manifolds sourced from the UK to drill for injector bungs, a complete Ford 6 cylinder EDIS ignition system including tone ring and pickup...

 

 

I'd rather buy a Holley Sniper EFI and build a manifold around an Autolite 2100/Holley 2300 2 barrel flange for that 2.5 inline 6 than buy another Megasquirt based product.

https://www.holley.com/products/fuel.../parts/550-849

Pair that with almost any other off the shelf vacuum advance distributor for the Triumph and send it.

 

Well you have been letting your curiousity take you for a ride!

In that light, let me add that what was in mind was the sort of issue rleete alluded to, ie basic engine weaknesses/quirks. The Triumph people here have a fairly strong representation in racing TRs of various ages, if you can connect to someone there racing them you might get some good intel on the suitability of the basic engine for an investment of time and money..

 

inb4 @Scaxx bumpsme

 

That was a lot of email notifications

 

Why couldn't you wait for another few months, then we all could have had an anniversary party!

 

Man, remember when I was gonna do stuff back in <checks watch> 2021?

• Still haven't swapped the diff
• Still running a BP4W intake manifold
• ...with a stock throttle body
• Still running the Mazdacomp diff bushings
• Still running the Mazdacomp motor mounts
• DIYAT MS3PNP Pro is still in a box
• Still running the purple "FM1" Flyin' Miata probably Protegé clutch

There's just no way around it, the diff needs to be swapped. The 3.6 + 6 speed while naturally asperated just kinda sucks for trackdays and until I get that swapped out my motivation to sign up for anything in this car is borderline non-existent. I'll probably never install the flat top or a Junk2 throttle body on this engine simply due to cost and/or poor quality evident in the Skunk2 products. The stock BP4W ecu handles the VICS just fine, and I'm still not over the years of Megasquirt induced trauma. Programmable ECU is just PTSD for me at this point. I should sell those and recoup some cost.

Someday we'll fix those V8R motor mounts, but I'm in no rush. The motor isn't falling out of the car at the moment so clearly the ones that are in there are working. We've all had other more important priorities.

I will credit myself for at least getting the ES poly + SadFab bushings installed, so at least I didn't give up on everything in that list

 

Hm. 3.6 + 6-speed is basically the same as the 4.3 + 5-speed that my car came with, plus an extra top end gear. It's not fast, but then no naturally aspirated BP Miata is, so...

--Ian