The TR2s and TR3s with the smallmouth had the air deflector built into the
sheetmetal pressings for the front apron. The air that entered the
smallmouth had nowhere to go but through the radiator. When they introduced
the wide grille opening there was no problem with overheating because the
widemouth grille was introduced about September of 1957 and no-one ever
complained of them overheating till the summer of 1958. That's when the
engineers at S-T had to find a low-cost and retrofitable solution. The
result was the three-piece cardboard air deflector.
My TR3A which I bought brand new in May 1958 had been built in February 1958
and came with no air deflector. I heard many years later that dealers were
installing them if a TR3A owner complained of overheating. I drove mine
from 1958 to 1972 and rallied it extensively with no air deflector. As I
did all the work on my TR myself, I never needed to go back to the dealer.
That's why I never knew that an air deflector could be installed by the
dealer at no charge.
During those years I drove 80,350 miles and blew about 4 head gaskets due to
overheating. I think I also may have developed swollen tubes in the
radiator from the combustion pressure and this moved the fins away from the
cooling tubes in the radiator and made the heat transfer worse.
When I restored my TR from 1987 to 1990, I put in the original rad after
having it re-cored (5-row) and also an air deflector. I later added a 12"
diameter Kenlowe elecrtic fan between the grille and the radiator to cool
the engine in heavy traffic jams. I have had no over-heating issues or
blown head gaskets since then having driven 113,000 miles.
So while someone proposed that the development of the wider grille was to
improve engine cooling, in fact it made things much worse till the
introduction of the cardboard air deflector.
What's the old saying, "If it ain't broke, why fix it ?"
Don Elliott, Original Owner, TS 27489 LO, Montreal
-----Original Message-----
From: fot-bounces@autox.team.net [mailto:fot-bounces@autox.team.net] On
Behalf Of Duncan Charlton
Sent: November-06-13 8:27 PM
To: 'Friends of Triumph' Triumph
Subject: Re: [Fot] TR3 Prices
Curious... I hadn't heard that inadequate cooling was the reason for going
to
the "dollar grin" of the later TR3s. The small-mouth TR3s don't rely on
cardboard to duct air to the radiator, so I would have thought the earlier
all-metal design would work well for longer, especially in wet climates.
Our
1956 TR3 (one of the few drum-braked TR3s, TS 9858-L-O) never overheated
here
in Texas no matter what I did. I sure liked that car. It ended up in
Connecticut in the mid-1980s.
Duncan
On Nov 6, 2013, at 5:23 PM, Bill Redinger wrote:
> The wide mouth grille on the 1958 model was for engine cooling reasons
> experienced in USA cars. The factory did not use the TR3A designation,
dealers
> in the USA used it to denote a new model. The factory did use the TR3B
model
> designation though.
>
> Bill Redinger
_______________________________________________
fot@autox.team.net
http://www.fot-racing.com
Archive: http://www.team.net/archive
http://autox.team.net/mailman/options/fot/58tr3a@videotron.ca
_______________________________________________
fot@autox.team.net
http://www.fot-racing.com
Archive: http://www.team.net/archive
|