Triumph TR6
Matt finds out why (probably) his TR came off the road
he month – January 2018. The location – Somersham, Cambs, UK. So began the Great TR6 Engine Exhumation-off, with myself and TRGB’S Jason Wright the indefatigable crew on deck, channelling our inner Tony Robinson à la Time Team and picking apart my project TR6’S engine, piece by rusty piece. Boy, was she stuck solid – I’m not overdoing things in the poetic licence stakes when I say that, at times, the process felt less a simple engine stripdown and more an archeological dig. Tony would have been proud of us.
When we started work the engine was still in ‘short block’ form, with the ancillaries removed but all the rotating internals still firmly in place. Long story short, the camshaft came out easily enough but the pistons were stuck solid… not ideal given that they must be removed before the crankshaft main bearing caps can be unbolted and the crank itself finally released. As is often the case – and to misquote a famous automotive idiom – disassembly was very much NOT the reverse of assembly.
It was also abundantly clear that the TR engine had suffered from water ingress in other areas of the block outside of the coolant waterways. The sheer amount of corrosion in the oil galleries suggested the engine had been run with water in the oil, possibly because of a head gasket problem. Could this be why the car was taken off the road back in 1985? It looks increasingly likely.
With the crankshaft still jammed in position, it was a case of removing the main bearing caps that would come away, and also undoing the big end caps that we could get to. The pistons themselves were corroded in situ so, after dousing everything with plenty of penetrating oil, the intervention of an old workshop favourite helped to get things moving in the right direction.
Hammer time
Yes, hammers of varying sizes came out and, bit by bit, we were able to release the shy pistons. In the end, Jason and I took it in turns to use the medium of big hammer/large punch to play a tune on the sturdy part of the casting either side of the gudgeon pin. Some pistons were jolted free more easily than others, but a couple disintegrated in spectacular fashion, allowing the crowns to come flying free like demented frisbees. One by one the pistons started to come away and we were able to rotate the crank to allow access to all the big end caps. With original components piling up on the bench, the extent of the corrosion that had so hindered our progress became more and more obvious.
The con-rods were rusted to the pistons, while both the main and big end bearings had seen better days and were smeared with rusty brown scars. If by some miracle we had freed up the engine while it was still in the car, filled it with
fresh oil and got it running, it would likely have eaten its own sickly bearings in double quick time. I’d always banked on having to rebuild the engine anyway, but it is satisfying to get to the bottom of what was wrong with it. The benefit of tearing everything down is the peace of mind I’ll have once everything is back together, safe in the knowledge I’ll then know this engine inside out, piece for freshly-machined piece.
Under the skin
While the engine is over at TRGB, my father Keith and I have made some progress on the body tub. With the front wings off we were able to strip back any loose bits of the original – seemingly bulletproof – underseal. As the incumbent layer had done a good job of protecting the inner arches, I really wanted to find a paint that would go straight over it, if at all possible. I previously worked with PC contributor Gary Stretton on another classic car magazine and he’s always rated Rustbuster Epoxy-mastic 121 Steel Renovation paint. So, a quick call to Rustbuster head honcho Ian Allen set things in motion quickly. Ian told me: ‘The 121 paint will go over the current layer of underseal, no problem. Just make sure that you clean up and feather back any areas where the coating has been breached, to allow the 121 to adhere properly.’
Before painting the inner arches we cleaned back the tops of the inner wing and applied a dose of Rustbuster FE-123 Molecular Rust Converter… it takes a few hours to go off properly, before leaving a clean surface ready for paint. Finally, we spent a dirty couple of hours cleaning back the passenger side half of the engine bay ready for paint. I mixed up some E-M 121 with thinners and
‘It is satisfying to get to the bottom of what was wrong with the engine’