Just got back from the 2000 Register National where myself, Anne and the three girls and the estate have spent the weekend.
I travelled down friday morning in the estate with Anne following later when the girls finished school.
It was an interesting trip down, I have never run the estate in such hot weather and with an outside temperature of 25 degrees it became apparent on the motorway that sustained 80mph driving wasn't possible as the oil presssure gently fell in the heat, not wanting to ruin the engine I slowed down ,crusing at 65 soon restored it. I think there are two reasons for this, firstly the reduced sump capacity - as the sump has been reduced in size to fit the front diff, it holds 1/2 a litre less oil than a standard Stag engine, secondly with the diff in front of the sump there cannot be much airflow over the sump to cool it. I need to look at fitting a water / oil intercooler as there's already a gearbox oil cooler in front of the radiator
On the trip home, with a temp of 30 degrees or more I was suffering from overheating water, as the temp gauge would soon head towards too hot in traffic jams or at 70 mph, there seemed to be a sweet spot at about 55mph, where it would sit at normal, but faster or slower than this had the gauge going to the red, even with the heater and blower on full in the cockpit - not much fun for 2 and a half hours on the M5, but preferable to head gasket failure or warped heads on the TV8
I currently have a "pusher" electric fan on the radiator, as there isn't much room for the preferred "sucker" type on the engine side.
I do need to fix this - probably a good job the car isn't going on the 10CR in its current state.
So, I am going to try and find either a thin sucker type fan that will fit, or perhaps two smaller ones that I can fit to the back of the radiator out of the way of the crank pulley.
The other issue may be the heat radiated from the tubular exhaust manifolds - its time to look at ceramic coatings or exhaust wrap I think, as when I got home everything under the bonnet (even the water filled washer bottle) was hot to the touch.
Who would have a prototype ??
Anyway it was a great weekend with some 90 or so big saloons turning up, often driven by CT regulars! Plenty of scrumpy drunk too! :)
Sunday, 14 July 2013
Tuesday, 2 July 2013
Its been a year
How time files, it was time for the second MOT on the estate, which it passed yesterday with No Advisories, and 4064 miles on the clock.
My friendly MOT tester likes it, and since he has to test the brakes with a Tapley Meter, ends up road testing it, "That pulls well" he says.
Its not stayed locked away since the RBRR - which accounted for about 2500 of those miles, we have done a few shows, Star90, local club days etc on a regular basis keeping it running and on the road at least once or twice a month.
On reflection its been quite trouble free since the start of the RBRR, which I now note with shock after the trails and tribulations of the first 500 - 600 miles.
Its got a few little rattles in the cockpit now, which I need to chase down, more niggles than anything else, but the rest of it has settled down well. There's a small oil drip from the Stag Oil pump - usual place from the relief valve O ring - thats going to drip - not worth the aggro of fixing. More annoying the expensive rebuilt BW35 is dripping some ATF - its probably the sump gasket, again it'll probably get left for now.
The front diff breather still vents a little oil. One day I'll get brave enough to remove it and try it in its original unvented design, now I know that I have been over filling it. It requires a pint of EP90, but to the threads on the filler plug it takes a litre or 2 and a bit pints, so no wonder it tries to chuck some of the excess out, but somehow the front diff oil filling ritual on the RBRR still lives with me, its a part of the car and me now.
I'd like to fix the slight contact with the transmission tunnel from the transfer box when you go round right hand bends and big bumps, so I might now remove the extra packing shims I fitted, since all the rubber mounts have now settled and see if that fixes things.
It'll be good to drive it to the 2000 Register National in 2 weeks time - it had to be trailered there last year.
The estate has had a lot of pictures taken of it in the past year or so, some of Theo's were fantastic from the RBRR, but my current recent favourite was taken by Colin Radford at Star90, and here it is, very retro, very 70s, very similar to a Triumph Publicity Shot from the period - thanks Colin
My friendly MOT tester likes it, and since he has to test the brakes with a Tapley Meter, ends up road testing it, "That pulls well" he says.
Its not stayed locked away since the RBRR - which accounted for about 2500 of those miles, we have done a few shows, Star90, local club days etc on a regular basis keeping it running and on the road at least once or twice a month.
On reflection its been quite trouble free since the start of the RBRR, which I now note with shock after the trails and tribulations of the first 500 - 600 miles.
Its got a few little rattles in the cockpit now, which I need to chase down, more niggles than anything else, but the rest of it has settled down well. There's a small oil drip from the Stag Oil pump - usual place from the relief valve O ring - thats going to drip - not worth the aggro of fixing. More annoying the expensive rebuilt BW35 is dripping some ATF - its probably the sump gasket, again it'll probably get left for now.
The front diff breather still vents a little oil. One day I'll get brave enough to remove it and try it in its original unvented design, now I know that I have been over filling it. It requires a pint of EP90, but to the threads on the filler plug it takes a litre or 2 and a bit pints, so no wonder it tries to chuck some of the excess out, but somehow the front diff oil filling ritual on the RBRR still lives with me, its a part of the car and me now.
I'd like to fix the slight contact with the transmission tunnel from the transfer box when you go round right hand bends and big bumps, so I might now remove the extra packing shims I fitted, since all the rubber mounts have now settled and see if that fixes things.
It'll be good to drive it to the 2000 Register National in 2 weeks time - it had to be trailered there last year.
The estate has had a lot of pictures taken of it in the past year or so, some of Theo's were fantastic from the RBRR, but my current recent favourite was taken by Colin Radford at Star90, and here it is, very retro, very 70s, very similar to a Triumph Publicity Shot from the period - thanks Colin
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