Triumph 2000
compound to the bearing, I tightened up the bearing cap bolts to the required torque figure. With the bearing cap removed I was then able to measure the deformed Plastigauge against the scale and determine that the bearing clearance was two thousandth of an inch – well within the allowed tolerance of 3thou. I repeated the trick for the remaining three main bearing caps and followed up with the six big end caps, with all of them being within tolerance, too. Happy days.
Timing is everything
Next up was the camshaft – the chosen item is a Piper Yellow grind that Jason refers to as a ‘CP+’. CP being the original factory code for the fuel-injected TR6 ‘150bhp’ specification as built until 1972, when the toned down CR ‘125bhp’ cars took over until the end of production. The Yellow cam should give plenty of ‘oomph’ but also work well with twin SU HS6 carburettors at low revs/idle.
Once the cam had been gently slid into the block, Jason used a cam timing degree disc on a standard cam gear. If you’ve never used one of these tools, I would highly recommend it as (with No.1 cylinder inlet positioned at full valve lift) we were able to get the new cam timed to a maximum lift figure of 110.5˚ after TDC, against the factory figure of 110˚ after TDC. At the first attempt! Jason couldn’t believe it: ‘I’ve never seen that before. I was expecting to have to use a vernier cam gear in order to get the timing just right – we’ve had a real result.’ As a break from the engine works, I also checked the gearbox over – first up was a session in our parts washer. It came up nicely and seems to select all four forward gears and reverse without any issues. I’m considering sourcing an overdrive gearbox as a long-term solution but will get the car on the road with the original four-speeder first. Plus, it is a more budget-friendly option right now. Finally, having concentrated on mechanical matters for a number of months, I’m going to have to bite the bullet and return to the bodywork – namely the sills. Our exploits touring the UK visiting classic car-friendly attractions (see p64) held things up, and then Matt Tomkins only went and headed off on a European holiday in his newly-finished Morris Minor Tourer. I’m hoping to be able to make a start in the next month or two once we’re all back into a regular routine. Neither of us have replaced TR sills before, so I’ve been reading up in anticipation, but any tips or advice would be most welcome.