News from Ian Selinger in Oz (10.07.2008)

I have bought another Triumph to play with when I am not busy with renovating the house! I bought the car from a guy in Brisbane and drove it down (950k) myself. I flew up on Saturday morning and got home 4.00pm on Sunday. She is called Tracy, I know it’s not very original. She is a red (of course) TR4 1963 vintage with a Surrey top and in pretty good nick.

Journey from Brisbane to Sydney.

Took the inland route on the 15 (New England Highway) to avoid coast road holiday traffic and Doris (Sat Nav) also said it was quicker.

Left Brisbane 12 ish and didn’t really have any significant problems on the first day. The bonnet came open several times but as its front hinged it is not exactly a drama. I fixed that to some extent it is better but not perfect. I also had a lot of ‘pinking’ so I tried to retard the ignition but the vacuum advance unit was all but seized in the distributor body. I eventually managed to retard it one division but it didn’t make a lot of difference. The following day I removed the plugs and they looked as though the engine is running very lean which may also be the cause as could the later problems. Will sort out the timing with my timing light after all the other things are sorted.

Stopped about 5.00pm in Armidale as it was getting bloody cold being so high and no heater.

Started again about 8.45 the next day. No problems starting the car despite it being very cold overnight. I should have checked the oil and water but didn’t so I don’t know how much water there was in the system.

Engine got a bit rougher over the first few hours of driving but it would still pull well despite the pinking and I even took her up to 140kph at one point. Most of the time sat at 100 – 110 kph Then 5 mins after receiving a text from my wife saying she hope it was going well it went wrong! I was somewhere just after Muswellbrook when the temperature started to climb dramatically. By pure chance I was just approaching a rest stop so I pulled in and had to put about 8 large McDonalds cups (rescued from the waste bin) of water in the radiator. I noticed that there was smoke/steam coming from the carb filters for a minute after the engine was turned off which indicated that there was something not right in the cylinder head area. The oil filler cap had a little scum on it but not bad. I cleaned this off. No signs of water leak. Set off again, no power loss problems but sounded rough. It actually got much better at about 3250 revs. Whilst stopped I noticed that there was a slight petrol leak from the output pipe of the petrol pump. This turned out to be because the pipe bracket attaching the fuel line to the thermostat housing had fatigued and broken. I bought some tape and strapped it up!

Stopped in Singleton and removed plugs. 2, 3 & 4 all looked the same. Possibly a fraction light coloured (weak mixture) but ok. 1 was different but not coked up just a bit darker. Topped up water and pressed on. In Maitland temperature started to rise again. Emptied petrol can into car and refilled with water and also bought another 5L can for water. All was going well until 50k from Sydney when temperature suddenly started to rise again. Pulled off road and as I stopped enormous bang and lots of steam from bonnet. Bugger!!!!! It turned out to be the top hose had burst. Fortunately there was a spare in the car so I fitted this. Also fortunately I had 10 litres of water to refill the system. I limped on stopping every 20k to check water usage and top up when required. The first time as I opened the radiator cap to check the level the pressure released down the overflow pipe and emptied the bottle contents all over me and the inside of the hood. I got home about 4 pm but it was definitely rough over the last 20k.

At home I hosed all the antifreeze off the inside of the engine bay. Checked the oil filler cap and it now had a lot of scum on it. Dipstick oil looks fine and not over filled.

I have just replaced the head gasket be cause it’s easy. It did look as though there was some tracking across from no 1 pot to the water and oil ways. I hope its just a ‘head gasket’ rather than something more fundamental like a crack in head or block or a liner. I will find out in the next week or so as I start to use her again.

Hope all is well in blighty. I am looking forward to summer here but considering it was 16 and sunny today going down to 9 overnight winter is not so bad!