1964 TR4 - Part 22 - Tuning The Engine (attempt 1) 

I’m sure he’ll get that sorted before delivering the car back to you Rollie.

Definitely. I always do that. I used to build limousines and made my custom wiring from scratch for each and every one, so I always keep track of my wiring. I am not done with the wiring here so my diagram is not finalized yet. I will show it once it is done.

LOL! I will post a wiring diagram at some point. It will make it clear :) I just want to add the radio and a USB before I finalize the schematic.

You are probably right. The spark it produces when I connect the ground doesn't look like a 1amp spark :)

The Mazda is where we left in the last video. No progress after that :( Unfortunately Nik is with me only every other weekend and not every time we find time to be in the garage. We are hoping to spend more time on it in the summer.

Triumph switched from SU to Strombergs, as SU was part of the BMC group and they prioritised their own cars over others. Harry Webster, Triumph's Director of Engineering saw this as a risk to Triumph, and so asked Alford-Adler (who, like Triumph were part of the Standard Group, which was owned by Leyland) to design a Constant Depression carburettor like the SU, that didn't infringe on patents. They did, but their expertise was steering and suspension, so sought someone else to productionise. Amal and Zenith quoted, Zenith won the business, and from 1963 on, Strombergs were used by Triumph. When Leyland and BMC merged in 1968 to form BLMC, SU was now part of the same group, so some Triumphs were fitted with SUs. Strombergs were/are better at controlling fuel flow and emissions, so were always used on North American Triumphs, even after the formation of BLMC

@@melbournedave978 thanks Dave. Great explanation. John .

I'm puzzled as to why he's not using a timing light. That is the only accurate way to set the timing.

Yes, but you have to go with the spec and I find that each of these old engines is pretty much unique. Also the vacuum advance and retard works differently on all of them and most of the times the "book" setting is not the best. I much rather do it "by ear" or at least with a vacuum gauge.

@@RustyBeauties Maybe you're better at it than me, but my experience was that using a vacuum gauge to set timing resulted in horribly inaccurate results compared to using a timing light.

I will do a comparison in one of the next videos. I found another used temp sender and compared the readings at ambient temperature. The original one was 157Ω and the other used one was 570Ω. So I installed the one I found, but the gauge did not move at all when the engine warmed up. So obviously it is faulty as well, but in the opposite direction LOL. I don't have the readings on either of them at a hot engine though. I should have checked that too, but I didn't think of it at the time. So I am ordering a new one and I will compare them all at ambient and hot temperature so I have something to compare to in the future.

Yes I know what you mean Pete, I am very similar but over the last few years I have begun to really enjoy the bodywork prep and paintwork tasks!

I love the 12v wiring... I've done so many limos from scratch. I don't know much about electronics though and that drives me crazy when some simple circuit boards fail and I can't figure them out.

@@RustyBeauties Ha-ha.. PCB's of yesteryear weren't so bad.. The modern ones populated with surface mount components and IC' & processors with the numbers scratched out are no fun at all, not to mention the £100's that you need to spend upgrading to the specialised equipment needed to work on the things. "Not all progress is in a forward direction". 😅

Yes, that is why it is recommended to re-torques the head a few hundred miles after rebuilding the engine. I will wait a little longer though. I want to take it for a test drive when the weather allows and will do that for sure.

I need an analog meter for that to be able to take a correct reading. It is the old, mechanical stabilizer. But I am sure it is the sending unit. I will deal with it at a later time. I am not worried about it.

Yes, that is correct. On modern cars you have a fuse for almost every separate circuits, but on these old babies many of the circuits share a fuse (if they are fused at all). I am even planning to hook up the radio and a USB charger to the same 2 fuses. I didn't want to make it way too complicated for the owner, by adding 3 or 4 fuses.

If there is an open vacuum port that would definitely affect how the engine runs. However the pipe on the valve cover is not a vacuum port, it gets connected to the air cleaners allowing the unused gas vapor from the crank case of the engine to be reused. So it will be hooked up at the end, but for now it does not affect the idle.

@@RustyBeauties ah okay, thanks for explaining that for me. Looking forward to rest of the project!

Usually the air cleaners reduce the airflow and make the mixture reach (similar to the choke effect), but I don't have great ignition here so I will go back and fix that first before I do the fine tuning of the carbs. The side draft carbs do not have an idle mix screw, the needle to jet relation is the only adjustment and this is the procedure in all manuals.

@@RustyBeauties makes it difficult for you, I've never come across side draft Stromberg's. No doubt you'll get there!

@@pbysome CD Strombergs are all sidedraft, can be used at an angle of up to about 30 degrees like on a Triumph Stag. Stromberg also made a lot of downdraft carburettors but they are all fixed venturi ("traditional") types

Both engine mounts are new and this engine even has a torque reaction arm and buffer which is also new. It is just how it is I guess.

It was in one of the clips without sound, sorry! It is pretty straight forward. It goes through the radiator (as high as possible as the heat rises) similar to the fan fasteners and then it gets locked in place on the other side with a little metal clip.

@@RustyBeauties So no holes need to be drilled!

😂 cosmetics at the end…. I have more important items on my list still