Both Terry and I had always talked of grand plans to build a better engine for our Mk1PI  incorporating as many of great ideas we had come up with, most of which we had coppied from the engineering principles applied to late model vehicles. 

We started to build a new engine in October 2007 but in August 2008, before our new engine was finished I broke the crankshaft in the engine that was fitted to the car at the time.

The car has been off the road for nearly 18 months
and the new engine is nearing completion.

Engine Block

In an effort to reduce the overall weight of the engine just about every part of the engine has been reworked. High grade aluminium adaptor plates and mounting brackets have been fabricated to replace the original cast iron and steel items.

Time Line : September 2008

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Oil Pump

One of the biggest problems we experienced with the previous engine was oil surge.

In an effort to reduce the oil surge the oil pump has been modified to improve oil pick up using the oil pick up form a late model Toyota. Several pictures were taken inside the engine during assembly to ensure the modified pick up was positioned correctly.

The sump has been enlarged to carry an extra litre of oil and fitted with baffles and wind-age plate to help prevent oil surge.

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Clutch and Flywheel

This was the second crank shaft we had broken and the failures all pointed to the weight and size of the flywheel. A new Aluminium and steel flywheel was custom manufactured and Tilton twin ceramic clutch plate fitted.

The flywheel was machined from a solid aluminium billet and finshed with a steel friction surface for the ceramic clutch plates. A flex plate from an automatic is bolted to the back of the flywheel for the starter to engage.

Time Line : November 2008

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Vernier Timing Gear

Getting the cam timing correct in a Triumph is a must. The standard cam sprocket can be fitted in 4 positions allowing for a small variations in cam timing  but it is very difficult to do once the engine is installed. To solve this we fabricated an Aluminium vernier sprocket and modified the front timing cover to allow access,

Time Line : October 2008

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Inlet Manifolds

To complement the enlarged ports and valves fitted to the cylinder head the 3 inlet manifolds were reshaped internally to match the inlet ports on the cylinder head. To perform this task a double off set adapter first need to be manufactured to the internal tapper of the manifolds could be re-machined.

Time Line : August  2008

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Valve gear

A set of after market alloy roller rockers with an increased rocker ratio were purchased and the spacer springs that keep the standard rockers in place replaced with Teflon spacers and washers to reduce friction.

The inlet  valves were replaced with larger diameter single piece titanium valves from a lamborghini V12 and smaller generic single piece titanium valves used for the exhaust. Both valves have longer shafts with a smaller diameter that the original Triumph ones. The longer length allowing for easy fitment of heaver springs.

Chrome Moly valve retainers and heaver springs were also fitted.

Time Line : January 2010

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