TR5 and Sprint EFI

I had a nice package in the post today from Jenvey, but before we get to that, I have resolved to finish the 5, so I spent the weekend working on it.

Windscreen, wiper arms / blades and interior mirror now fitted

Door mechanisms, window winders and glass now fitted and all working

Interior Dynamat fitted, and a start made to the inner rear wheel arch foams and trim

Steering completed

Wing and door trims and front sidelamps fitted

I'm on a roll with this, and intend to keep going .....

But back to the Sprint, inside the box from Jenvey was this

throttle cable, fuel rail, and linkages

idle air bleed kit - this replaces the idle bleed screws so you can control idle with a control valve driven from the microsquirt - the valve didn't come from Jenvey - its a vauxhall one

and finally a pair of twin throttle bodies

45mm chokes, so sexy in fact that I couldn't resist seeing what they looked like on the manifold

 
I know they are not in the correct placement - the linkages should be on the inside but who cares ? I need bell mouths but I want to see what room I have left between the bodies and the inner wing before ordering these.

Looks like I am going to be very busy with the 5 and the Sprint for a month or two

EFI Crank Position Sensor

The original fan carrier mounting holes in the timing cover are "blind" so I needed to make up a template, to mark and drill the holes in the sensor mounting bracket

The position of the holes was then transferred from the template to the mounting bracket that I had purchased

I then made lateral slots in the bracket, so the position of the sensor can be changed in relation to the teeth on the trigger wheel, so that the edis can be set to fire (in limp mode) at 10 Deg BTDC. I also cut the front of the bracket downm as it projected beyond the front of the crank pulley

The remaining issue is the timing mark, so I made a small bracket on which I will mark TDC, and 10 BTDC for set up, but I cannot finalise this until I find TDC on the actual engine (I need a timing wheel, and a piston stop which I will fabricate from a spark plug and a bolt.

I had hoped to get this fitted to the car today, but time was against me, so thats for next weekend

Trigger Wheel and EDIS

More progress on the EFI. I had only been able to source EDIS connectors with wiring tails fitted, this means that to make connections you need to join cables with solder and heat sleeve. i don't like this because of reliability and neatness issues, so I stripped the edis connector

and removed the pins, so I could strip them back and recrimp them

Here's it all done - the bare wires are the trigger sensor and edis pip and saw shield wires, that go round the signal cables - these will be hidden when the loom is wrapped, just like Fords and other manufacturers do

I also had time to make up the coil pack ends of the HT cables - the plastic "hats" on the cable ends retain the cables in the coil in addition to the normal press fit connectors - these will NOT fall off or come loose.

I got the trigger wheel mounted to the crank pulley too

The "teeth" are spaced nicely from the V belt pulley

So time to check it all fits on the timing cover

Just got to mount the sensor now, I will mark the bolt holes out, but then cut slots so I can adjust the timing, I also need to notch the bracket where it is a little close to the middle timing cover bolt

Ready for the HCR and more EFI work

Well the Dolomite passed its MOT this week, so its all ready for the HCR :) save for an oil leak from the oil pump which will get some attention this coming weekend - it needs the pump to block oil seal O ring replacing. Why does this car have so many oil leaks ?

In the meantime I have been mocking up the crank sensor to tooth wheel arrangement on a spare timing cover with a spare crank pulley that I have.

Using a standard sensor bracket from triggerwheels.com, there's an easy mounting method, which puts the sensor in the correct position behind the crank pulley - I want to mount the trigger wheel to the inner flange, and not the rubber mounted part, so the trigger wheel sits behind the pulley.

The pick up bracket can then mount to the redundant fan bearing mountings (as I have an electric fan mounted on the radiator)

This mock up was done with a 6.5"  wheel which is a little large as it obscures the timing mark bracket holes, and also partially shrouds the timing cover fixing bolts

however the height is just right, and there is clearance behind the trigger wheel and the cover.

Upon measurement of the inner pulley flange I found that I could use a 5.75" trigger wheel, as the pulley wheel diameter of 5.25" still leaves the teeth protruding by 0.25" and spaced away from the V belt outer pulley

I have now sourced the 5.75" trigger wheel and its just right

It clears all the various mounting bolts, and will also let me fabricate a new timing mark pointer, which will mount to the existing bolt holes and come round the sensor (leaving enough clearance so it doesn't affect its operation) - I'll make this as a simple pointer and scribe additional timing marks on the pulley itself. I also want to accurately mark tdc, but more on this next time.

Next job is to get the trigger wheel machined out and mount it to the pulley. I'll then drill some slotted holes in the sensor mount (to allow some timing variation adjustment) so my edis will fire at 10 degrees btdc once its adjusted correctly.

With the sensor mounted at about TDC, the 9th tooth will need to be under this, with the missing tooth clockwise from the 9th tooth - edis needs varying "missing teeth" offset dependant upon the number of cylinders that the engine has.

Once the mechanical work is done, I'll mount coil pack and edis module on the inner wing to test, as without the connections to the microsquirt the edis will work in limp mode, and if all is correct fire at 10 degrees btdc. I am going to use wasted spark.

I have also traced the Davis Craig controller issues (on the RBRR) to high voltage spikes from the alternator, and back emf pulses from the overdrive solenoid, and knowing how microsquirt hates voltage spikes, I need to fit a more modern alternator. A simple reversed polarised diode across the overdrive solenoid wiring will remove the back emf spikes from that.

Next time (hopefully) edis and trigger wheel testing

More exhaust and engine goodies.

Well, one engine goodie anyway, a NOS rocker shaft - unobtainium, with the new rockers that I have it should make for a good quiet head in due course.

The ported manifold is now fitted, again a "feel different" response from the engine - no wonder the engines don't live up to their potential when fitted to a car. I have had to lower the idle speed significantly since completing the exhaust so it must be working.

I am now playing with a microsquirt kit, as I mentioned in my last post I intend to efi this engine while a build a new one (and overhaul the gearbox) so that I will have the efi all sorted - with perhaps some remapping required when the new engine is ready. The next project is to fit a trigger wheel so I can fit an edis module which will then talk to the microsquirt I shall make the brackets up for the crank pickup sensor on my spare engine block.

Exhaust Done

Outwardly the new exhaust still looks like an original triumph one. This was intentional as I like the classic look of the 2 Sprint tailpipes.

However they are a larger diameter than usual, and the centre box silencers are straight through - well almost - there's a U bend in the pipe at the end of the box - where the normal silencers just have 2 pipes going into a plenum, 1 in and 1 out, which significantly reduces back pressure.

The joints are flanged, there's a flexible section after the gearbox to downpipe clamp, to reduce loads on the manifold interface, and there's a boss fitted for a lambsa sensor.

All the pipes are larger diameter than normal, so all I need to do now is swap the cast manifold over for the ported one

Does it work, well its nice and quiet - hasn't ruined the character of the Sprint, and the engine is certainly more willing to rev, and go further upto the redline. I cannot quantify the power gains, hopefully I'll get the manifold on this weekend and see how it all is, but there's certainly more induction roar. Tick over speed has incresed too, presumably as the engine is doing less work pumping gases out f the exhaust

The costs came in at no more money than an after market large bore down pipe and system from a well known supplier. But this is of far superior quality to the phoenix system they market, it fits without issue, and with the flanged joints will be easy to remove or refit as and when I need to,

So well done to JP Exhausts - again.

The next part of the project is to EFI the existing engine, but a start on this will need to wait until after Christmas

More engine progress

While I have been in Edinburgh, the Sprint has been at JP exhausts in Macclesfield, I am due to collect it on Monday afternoon. I'm looking forward to that.

In the meantime some more engine goodies have arrived

NOS VP2 STD bearings from the states

There may appear to be too many shells for the big ends - there are, this was originally a set for a Stag, but the shells are the same, so I have a few spares now !

and the new inlet manifold for webbers or Jenvey throttle bodies

pictures to follow of the new exhaust