Project Rusty Triumphs in Scotland - Triumph HGF autopsy - 04/05/26

[Matty]

One of the true pleasures of old cars is the way they never stop kicking you in the nads for 5 minutes 🙄

[Cheezey]

When I was walking out of the station car park one evening a couple of Wednesdays ago you drove past in the Triumph. It sounded excellent and fruity. I could hear you right the way along the road. 

[Joey spud]

I really don't want to teach you how to suck eggs as I'm sure you know theses engines inside out and far better than me. 

If it was me I wouldn't be overly worried about those big end bearings or the uneven journal surfaces. It's a cast iron engine designed in the 50's not a highly stressed, high revving modern unit running on 0w-20 lubricant.

I was taught a grumble/rumble noise was more likely to be main bearing wear. Does the engine note change when you push the clutch down indicating those pesky thrust washers are wearing or was there any shiny flakes in the drained oil ?

I'm just really impressed you have kept it running for all these years more power to your elbow.

[Yoss]

I'd be inclined to agree with the above. Especially as they are reasonably easy to get at  and fairly cheap to replace (certainly compared to my Triumph anyway which has a cast iron gearbox and diff underneath). 

Hopefully if there was dirt in the oil ways you have flushed it out now, and it won't get any worse. I'd be prepared to try it at least once anyway. 

[captain_70s]

No discernable end float on the crank, which is nice. The grumble was under load only, which I think usually means big ends. Mains will presumably the same but the engine needs to come out to get at them, and at that point Id be as well getting the crank ground.

I'm not overly concerned about the crank surfaces, it'll do as many miles as it'll do and get another set. If I get a couple thousand miles that'll be fine.

I have a more pressing issue today...

It started today but briefly only ran on two cylinders before clearing. Odd.

20 miles later it became apparent that this was probably due to two cylinders being full of coolant...

[Joey spud]

Ah that doesn't look good.  Big end bearing wear is more of a regular tapping/ knocking noise when the engine is under load or when you snap the throttle open hard when stationary.

[greengartside]

Fuckin’ wars, man. Feel so sorry for you. Sending you some good luck your way.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Perfect time for a BMW M57 conversion. 

[big_al_granvia]

looks like the head is self steam cleaning

if you dont know a guy called Cameron Gilmour then you should 

[SiC]

20 hours ago, captain_70s said:

I'll need to dig back through old pictures of when this engine was apart and see if the crank was already scored and I elected to ignore it... I remember the bearings looking like they'd barely been run. It certainly seems like something abrasive has run through the engine.

Given it was from a 1982 Dolomite, that lump would have been the few last made. As the tooling would probably have been pretty knackered from multiple decades of manufacturing, including sizing up from 1300 to 1500, the quality of parts maybe not be the best quality. I can't remember how many miles it had did though - I probably have the speedo head around somewhere still. The late chap who owned it used as a company car before buying it off the company and using it privately, so possibly had a decent amount of miles in without it having imploded. But like you said, it had sat for a good few years too. 

[captain_70s]

Limped to @juular and @MrsJuular's place.

Looked at the head bolts. All tight. Compression in the coolant, coolant in the combustion chambers, so signs of oil/coolant mixing.

Coolant topped up. Removed thermostat to reduce system presdure. Made it home in a couple of hops with a stop to cool down.

[Matty]

2 hours ago, captain_70s said:

Limped to @juular and @MrsJuular's place.

Looked at the head bolts. All tight. Compression in the coolant, coolant in the combustion chambers, so signs of oil/coolant mixing.

Coolant topped up. Removed thermostat to reduce system presdure. Made it home in a couple of hops with a stop to cool down.

I just bought a 1500 and gearbox for my uncles Standard Ten project. 150 pound. This was meant to be a bit motivational and as im typing it, it isnt coming out right. But i suppose i meant at least it isnt an A series so at least a replacement isnt going to cost the farm 😊

[captain_70s]

The nice thing with these cars is everything is still avaliable, even if quality is often shoddy.

Sharing so much stuff with more popular cars like Spitfires and Midgets mean that only something like a Morris 1000/MGB/Mini can rival them for repop parts and NOS/old stock is still plentiful.

Even body panels can be acquired, albeit at Sprint prices...

I've bought a few cheap Triumph SC engines over the years, but they all tend to be knackered in the same way. Generally the thrust washer failing and resultant shreding of the bottom end firing shrapnel through the oil pump... You're doing well if you find something with a good crank!

Compared to the Acclaim, where nothing is reproduced, or Volvos where more bespoke components are NLA running BL junk is pretty easy. Even if they are shit.

This is all just punishment because of my wheel selection...

The good news is the country that made the spare tyre no longer exists.

[Yoss]

21 minutes ago, captain_70s said:

 

The good news is the country that made the spare tyre no longer exists.

Czechoslovakia? Yugoslavia? Mesopotamia? 

[Sigmund Fraud]

2 minutes ago, Yoss said:

Mesopotamia? 

I literally laughed out loud at that... Here's a copy of the manufacturer's sales literature :

[captain_70s]

On 27/04/2026 at 22:02, Yoss said:

Czechoslovakia? Yugoslavia? Mesopotamia? 

The first one! I think this is the first time it's ever been used, the less said about it's performance as a tyre the better...

Meanwhile big thanks to @juularfor lending me a grease gun, I hate it.

Three pistons liberated so far.

Most of a roll of kitchen roll and about 20 pairs of nitrile gloves used, everything I own and will ever own is now covered with grease...

Also, swung by @garbaldy's place and collected my latest purchase, a car roller.

Was good to have a chat and have a nose around the cars. Not often you see a Mk2 Escort, HB Viva, Pug 305 van and mk1 Mitsu Colt parked together!

[captain_70s]

All pistons liberated from the 145's NSF caliper.

Needed to get into the pistons to clear them up, the manual insists you mustn't split the calipers, and the caliper agreed.

Fucking Germans and Torx fittings... The welder was deployed.

I don't think these calipers had many miles on them. The only corrosion is to the leading edge of the pistons. Likely caused by the dust boots being entirely absent...

Rebuild kits have been ordered.

In Dolly news I started the head gasket replacement. 

The forbidden mayo...

There is enough wiggle room you can pry the manifolds out of the way of the cylinder head without removing the carb/exhaust, etc.

Ah, there's your problem. 

Definitely the most buggered head gasket I've ever seen. 3 burst cylinders! Still ran...

If you know Triumph SC parts you'll know that's a cheapo gasket, at the time I built this engine Payen examples were out of stock everywhere. This is also the gasket that failed on my first attempt at FOTU and was "fixed" by retorquing the head nuts, so actually surprised it lasted so long.

Not pictured was the exhaust manifold gasket which had nearly burnt through between cylinders 2/3. I think this is the 3rd one I've blown...

[Angrydicky]

Oh man you have no luck with those Triumph engines do you. I was thinking about chucking one in a Mayflower, but all the aggro you’ve had with them has put me off!

[captain_70s]

39 minutes ago, Angrydicky said:

Oh man you have no luck with those Triumph engines do you. I was thinking about chucking one in a Mayflower, but all the aggro you’ve had with them has put me off!

I'm sure a nice, fresh, properly built one is a fine thing. All mine have been built from the cheapest core parts I could find, really everything should go away to be machined, but I'm waaaay too cheap...

If you read the forum threads of people who build these engines properly you see how much more effort and expense they go to. I just fling them together and hope for another year or few thousand miles between failures, and I do drive the car quite hard!

[Yoss]

46 minutes ago, Angrydicky said:

Oh man you have no luck with those Triumph engines do you. I was thinking about chucking one in a Mayflower, but all the aggro you’ve had with them has put me off!

On the other hand they really are very easy to change. The longest bit is cleaning the surfaces up rather than the actual mechanical work. 

And as I recently pointed out on my own thread even when the cars were new Triumph would sell you a Continental touring kit that included both head and manifold gasket and valves. 

So even when they were new Triumph were expecting you to have to remove the head if you were going on any sort of long journey. And that wouldn't have been a Triumph specific thing, I'm sure all manufacturers did.