A dark and stormy night, wind, rain and snow. Hell of a time to be whacking
on a little topless Triumph. But this storm will pass in due course, and the
forecast for the St. Patrick's parade this saturday is pretty nice. Perhaps
I should have brought Racket, the streetable Mark 1 Spit, down to the shop
after stopping at the store for a quart of Kelly Green latex paint, and gotten
it ready for the parade.
But with the autocross season starting soon, I've been doing some work on the
Killer Spit. The last few days I've been sneaking in a few hours at the shop
tearing down Killer's motor to take a look.
A quick side note, hopefully of some benefit to the readers. Some of you
have known me for years, but no doubt there's a handful of folks reading this
who have no idea who I am. One explaination of importance to this email list
is that I am a systems administrator for the Department of Computer Science
here at the University of Utah. Wearing that hat provides the skills and the
resources to make this electronic forum possible. Whipping off that hat and
slapping on the tattered, greasy flatcap identifies me as an avid Triumph
enthusiast. I've only been into Triumphs since, uh, 1976 or so, when I came
across a '69 GT6 for sale the day after I flagged for an SCCA regional at the
old road course here in Salt Lake City. So yes, compared to some folks, I
am still quite damp behind the ears. Actually, my exposure to Triumphs was
at a much earlier age, and this is not the time to go into the episode that
involves my sister, her boyfriend, a gaggle of neighborhood kids, a blue MGB GT
and a few laps around one of the ovals at Indianapolis Raceway Park.
Anyway, my major personal project, in conjunction with my brewing buddy Pugs,
who's been spending WAY too much time on sixties Caddies lately, has been what
is basically a frame up, uh, construction of what we would like to think is the
ultimate Spitfire autocross car. Well, at least the ultimate in its class.
In truth, it was the fastest Street Prepared Triumph of any description at the
1997 SCCA Nationals in Topeka. What that really means is that I snuck off one
run that was faster than Chris Moore in her J.K. Jackson prepared TR6. Hmm,
more possibilities for the FOT list. I call Killer a construction, not a
restoration, since it was cobbled together out of various parts Pugs and I
had laying around. A Mark 2 frame, a Mark 1 bonnet, an early Mark 3 tub with
the indent for the dual master cylinder, 1500 swing spring rear suspension, ...
Back to the point. Pugs and I have been running this Killer Spit for a while,
time to pull out the motor and check on a few things. Since we needed to work
on the clutch, as previous email mentioned, this was a good time to pull out
the motor and take a look.
Now, I am guessing that there are very few folks, if any, on this list who
have hauled home some decrepit pile of rust and corrosion, thinly disguised
as a sporting Triumph. I'd say there are very few of you in the FOT pews
who, when the preacher talks of rusty fittings, broken bolts, swiss cheese
body panels and such can jump up and give witness with a hearty "Amen!"
So it was with dismantling Killer. There is such a profound and simple joy
in applying a wrench to some bolt, breaking it free, and being able to spin
it off with just the fingers, air tools gathering dust on the bench. No
struggles with thirty oxidising years of nature, no time out to step outside
and take a deep breath, hoping to prevent the hurling of a 3 pound sledge
through the windscreen. I only wish that all my cars in the future were
like this, skinned knuckles a distant memory.
And once apart, more satisfaction. We recently went through a round of
discussion on synthetic oils. We've been running Redline in Killer, so
here's another vote in favor. Last fall we finished up our fourth, I think,
full season on that motor. Looking at the bores, one can see that the hatch
marks from the last rebore are starting to fade away in the area of the most
thrust of the piston skirts. I should get a real bore gauge, the tools I
have picked up no discernable wear in the cylinders. A bit of cruft around
the top of the cylinders where the rings don't travel, but no problem.
And the bearings look like they were put in last week, not a couple of
years ago. I'll probably just replace the rod bearings and button it up,
ready for another season of parking lot pylon madness. Hot damn!
mjb.
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