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Triumph T6 Spitfire Gt Build Chris Sherrington.


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The loss of the earth path...... a downside of fibreglass - or rather a downside of using wiring looms intended for steel bodied cars in GRP ones.

 

Remember tasked with MoT'ing a friends Mini Jem with entirely fibreglass monocoque and Mini van wiring loom.  Was like your experience.  Everything worked at home (after a fair bit of messing about), but at the MoT station, a few hundred metres away...... nah!  I ran some nice fat earth cables from battery -ve to the four corners of the car to create some decent local earth points and the problem was solved.

 

Solvable but irritating - best of luck with resolving it.

 

Nick

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Well its been a funny weekend. Friday we missed the mot because of electrics. So Sat morning early I went to a Guy in Exeter who has those econo/Super seal block connectors in stock. Picked up a bunch of them so I had more than needed. 

 


 

Saved me postage and it also means I can rewire when ever I got chance. I then drove 7hrs north to my cousins 21st Birthday party. All I could think of is how annoyed I was that I hadn't done them sooner. So today (Sunday) I drove 7hrs back through thick traffic. I got to camp at 21:30hrs. I went straight to the Workshops and pulled the wiring apart and rebuilt it. The only thing that needs doing now is a couple of joints need soldering in my Lunch break tomorrow to finish the Y joints off. Now everything works, no new switches needed or replacement parts bar the wiper switch which should arrive tomorrow anyway. So I'll call the Mot guy tomorrow and book it in for another Mot test for last thing on monday.

 

Another thought has also come to mind, I think I'm going to sell the Honda Hybrid thats been in constant use while the Spitfire has slumbered. I'm going to get a Towbar fitted to Spiddy. Its going to be a custom fit one with the chassis rails extended rearward to allow the brace to mount securely. This will mean I can tow my motorcycle and any gear that wont fit in the car. I can't tow with the hybrid as EU laws state that new vehicles need type approval and the car needs to be load tested for a trailer. Well My 1966 Spitfire doesn't need that crap and I'm glad its going to be my main car again. However a backup car will need to be on standby just incase. Something like the Spitfire thats fibreglass, cheap to insure and hopefully tax exempt. Been looking at Reliant Fox and Kittens but first job is Getting Spiddy back on the road. Fingers crossed the Mot goes well tomorrow. 

 

More when it happens.

 

P.s. Nick I fitted separate earths but the battery is exposed in the engine bay and thats where the corroded earths where. Maybe time to seal off the bulk head.

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A Kitten would make a great modded car. I had an estate (and a Rebel Estate) as my first cars. The Kitten in particular handled really well and was a really fun drive. See if you can get a zetec in that 😃

Joe Mason at Reliant Spares is the .an for these. He also does front disc conversions and various other bits and also kana Tempest Sportscars. http://www.reliantspares.com/

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Did 80 miles today in Spiddy, I was mapping the car the best I could so i can drive it knowing the mixture is ok and not going to melt the engine. I've got another 120miles to go before i drop the cheap oil and fill with the good stuff just before the Dyno run to map the ECU properly. However, a couple of things have stood out already from the miles covered. Firstly the new engine rev's clean through to the red line and it howls like a banshee through the last 3000rpm's. Its much more sporting and rev's quicker but I do find that the power has gone to a level where I wont be using it all when out for a joy ride. The previous engine had just enough power to be able to use it all and want a little more. The new engine is more than needed and its not even mapped properly yet!! Second thing is the brakes. I changed out the 1144 mintex fast road pads because I found they lost their bite under very heavy braking. I put Ferodo DS2500 in and they are much better and rather than bite early and then tail off these seem to brake harder the hotter they get. Winner, I also used a top quality brake fluid upon bleeding the system but the main difference is how the pads react to heat. So 80 down 120 to go. Will call the local Dyno people up tomorrow an see when they can fit me in. The sooner its dialed in the better and the more MPG I'll get. 

 

Chris.

 

P.s. Big thankyou to Marcus for reshimming my LSD triumph Diff for me too.

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Ferodo DS2500 are good.  Nearly worn out my first set now.  They went on in 2009 and have probably done 35 - 40k.  Slightly less cold bite than 1144s, but they don't loose it when properly abused either.  Not cheap though.

 

Nick

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Well, interesting news. The Dyno has been booked 21st June. I'm currently running the EFI firing in one batch as it was easier and one connector was wrong on my harness for the cam sensor. However after being unable to find some one who was able to do the mapping or could fit me in when is suitable for me (sooner rather than later) was harder than I thought it would be. So I decided to book it in with the guys who make the ECU Specialist Components and the throttle bodies for ATpower. I've got a decent trip next weekend to an archery comp about 200miles(400 total) each way and then another 250 to Norfolk for the mapping. That will see it run in and I'll change the oil on the Monday night (500mile mark)to the Fully Synthetic 5w30 Castrol with a new filter. Can't wait to see what the new figures will be. Its more lively as it is but the ignition is probably a way off. Its nice knowing the guy's who make these great Ecu's will be doing the mapping too as they will do it right. I've heard so many stories of half arsed mapping. I've even been to two different places that didn't change the map much from what I did which was well off. Fingers crossed all goes well. I'll be clocking mpg figures with the new cams in to see what we get before and after.

 

Chris.

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I visited Joe the other day, gonna keep an eye out for a Kitten I think as they are mega cheap to insure. £90 fully comp.

Let me know if you come and see him again, I live a mile down the road.

 

Good luck with the remap.

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Chris not sure if you're in Devon or Barnstaple at present?  If Devon then I can recommend Steve at Tipton Garage in Tipton St John (between Honiton and Ottery St Mary).  I know John Bonnet has been very pleased with the work done by Mark Shillaber in Launceston too.  Presume you have the software needed to connect to and map the ECU?

 

If you're back in Edinburgh then this is all fairly useless......

 

Nick

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Hi Nick,

         I'm back on camp now in Barnstaple. To be honest I've known loads of guy's that were happy with there mapping but when I looked at it I could have done that myself. John's Guy sounds good as I'm sure your guy is. However the company that I'm sending this to are the guys who designed the ECU and the throttle bodies. They can can exploit all the extras they packed into it and can access it quickly and easily with no excuses of "I didn't know it did that" or why didn't you tell me about that" because I'm no ecu Guru. They have cars racing at le mans and will make it the best it can be. Not only that but they cost the same as everyone else!!!! All I have to do is drive there and watch them work. This will be the best it can be, no excuses.

 

Chris.

Edited by CHRIS211083
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Well another thing done today. Fitted another quick shift lever, the last one had a plastic bush in it which became worn so I fitted the original standard modified lever but I spotted this new one which has a rose join on it so no play and no wear. 

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I also rewired the wiper motor wireing trying to sort out the intermittant one wipe function but I think its the switch thats buggered. Speaking of buggared, I looked under the car tonight and there is oil making its way down the chassis center. This is more than likely the rear gearbox oil seal which is what caused the box to self destruct the last time to Looks like I'll be getting a new seal kit as the one in there isn't doing its job. I also need to cut a hole in the tunnel cover so I can top the gearbox oil up until I can replace the rear seal. On the bonus side the Diff casing was totally dry. So at least we are slowly getting oil tight. 

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Ok so what has failed........ Well the tub!!!! The rear top chassis mounts have broken through the fibreglass. The chassis flexes and the tub needed spaced to Chic Doig did this with thick alloy tube. Unfortunately it needs a little more area to spread the load. I'll need to make some plates up and fibreglass the holes back together. Not to bad of a job but annoying all the same.

 

On another front, I went to see another plastic Spitfire with my Engine Conversion. 

 

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Alot of fun was had in the early morning but the reason for travelling near to Toby's was to get my car on the Dyno.

 

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Strapped to the Dyno and the result............Not quite as good as expected......There is a cork in the system.162bhp at the Fly.

 

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You can see the flat off of the power from 6,500 to the end of the run. The exhaust is more than likely the cause of this as its a bitza of different size of pipes and even though it sounds very nice it has caused the flat spot. The ECU programmer also said its a good thing it didn't make anymore as the injectors are at there max duty cycle and for anymore they will need changing for larger injectors. On the road however the car is now ridiculously fast. Below is my old Dyno sheet but they were done on a different dyno.

 

spiddydyno_zps733eefba.jpg

 

According to this I've gained 10bhp and have about the same amount of Torque. I originally thought I had 151bhp and 144ftlbs but it turns out it had 151bhp and 127ftlbs. However the torque has been moved up the rev range and is much more usable. Before the wheels would just spin everywhere and quick take offs were very hard to judge. Now its easier with much less wheel spin and the torque builds as the rev's rise. At full chat about 5,000rpm to 7,500rpm the car is a beast. If I change the exhaust and injectors we should easily see 170+bhp as these cams just keep gaining. However is it needed. Quite simply no. The car is now truely mental, It gets less mpg then before but by god is it fun. I've unfortunately not managed to drive the car sensably for the whole tanks duration yet but I'll let you know once I have but sitting cruising north of 70 + 20 I got 36mpg and thats with full throttle take off and over takes. The car is so much more usable with the torque further up the rev range and bloody mental. Don't know if I'll bother changing the exhaust but I was told today that I might actually gain everywhere by fitting a better exhaust and manifold together. Will see how I feel in a couple months but as the car is I can just about use all it has. Anymore might just not get used.

 

Chris.

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Ok managed to control most of my driving impulses and managed to get a real nice mpg figure rather than the drive it like you stole it figure. We achieved 48mpg. However there were still a couple full throttle overtakes so 50mpg is probably doable but just not by me. This is great as this means its only a couple mpg down on the old cams. Well happy I am and ive now covered almost 2000 miles since Spiddy was put back on the road. Lots more stuff to come but now im off to give my hybrid battery back.

 

more when it happens.

Chris.

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