1972 Triumph TR6 looking for a purpose

These brake fluid leaks are starting to piss me off.  I removed the hard lines that connect the flex hose to the wheel cylinders to check the flares.  They were just a little rough, so I used a countersink bit to smooth them up. 

This seemed to work pretty well, so I reinstalled the lines with a slight amount of anti-seize in the joint.  Afterwords, one of the lines was leaking horribly from the other end.  It got the same treatment and is holding (for now).  The only fluid I see at the rear is coming from the bleed nipples, and that is probably residue from bleeding.

There was also a leak at the front coming from the differential pressure switch underneath the master cylinder.  I rebuilt it, but neglected to replace a copper washer sealing the unit.  That seal was replaced in-situ and appears to be holding fluid.  I'm considering just removing this part because it typically causes more issues than it detects.  But for now, everything looks dry and the pedal feels firm.

Moving on to clutch hydraulics and fuel.  After I buy more brake fluid.

Time to publicly shame myself.

Months ago I mounted the clutch slave cylinder this way.

But it's supposed to go like this...

Fortunately, I noticed that the pushrod was too short before adding fluid, otherwise the piston would have shot out along with the fluid.  To be fair, the machined face is on the wrong side of this particular part, but it's all that is currently available.  Swapping it around was simple and so was the bleeding process.  The clutch feels really smooth now.

In reply to JoeTR6 : You are right those bubble flares do tend to be hard to seat.  I use a little fine emery paper and anti-seize.  

I don’t know if the polishing is helping that much but anti-seize seems to be mandatory. 

It's time to do something about a fuel tank.  I have a later stock tank that was in my other TR6 until about 10 years ago.  It's been sitting dry since then.  Unfortunately, the shop that cleaned and coated it in 1994 didn't do a great job of getting the material evened out.  The coating was paper thin on one side and almost 1/4" thick on the other.  After cleaning out the loose material, there's only coating left in the bottom, top and ends.  I'd like to keep what's remaining to protect the seam in the tank bottom.

My plan is to mount a Tanks Inc. fuel pump assembly in this with a built-in surge tray and Walbro pump.  This will require some cutting and welding on top of the tank.  The tank looks really clean, so I'm really only worried about the remaining coating coming loose over time.  With the surge tray and fuel sock protecting the pump inlet, my guess is this won't be a significant problem.  And since the filler neck on a TR6 is about 3 inches long and straight down, it's easy to inspect the tank for problems later.

Should I just fire up the cutter and welder?

Hello there, 

Some times it's eaiser not to re-invent the wheel.

Just get a tank made for injection.

This company makes both versions - carb and injected.

https://www.fueltankparts.com/triumph-tr6-non-efi.html

In reply to JoeTR6 :

Joe, take a couple pics of the whole tank from the outside - I'd like to get a feel for the size and shape.  Maybe hold up a tape measure for comparison.

Looks like you have a big access port - or at least big enough for your phone, yes?  Maybe get in there with a wire brush?

In reply to JR2 :

I've thought about and looked for aluminum tanks for this.  In fact, I own one that is currently in a friends car that is already setup for fuel injection and is really high quality.  It was made in England by Andy Wiltshire who no longer makes tanks for TR6s.  If it comes down to it, I'll reclaim that one.  But since I have all of the parts, it's worth a try to use what I have here.

The problem with many of the existing aftermarket tanks (like the one Moss sells) is that it's missing the slight angle in the bottom that allows a full sized tire to fit in the tire well.  A stock tank will just allow a 205 width tire under it.

In reply to TVR Scott :

Here's what I have to work with.

The rectangular hole was cut to clean out the tank liner that was flaking off.  Part of the tank flange will be cut off, but the flange mounting hole to the left needs to stay.  That pretty much limits where the assembly can go.  Looking at the side profile, I also can't position the tray towards the outside because of the angled bottom.  From the end shot, you can see the tank top isn't exactly flat on top.  I can enlarge the existing hole in the tank and fill it with a sheet of 18 gauge, bending the edges to match the tank.  I'm going to push the assembly towards the front of the tank to avoid (as much as possible) the top/bottom taper towards the back of the tank.  So it looks like I'll put it in the orientation above and figure out what to do with the fuel sender.  If I bend the sender arm to the side, it will fit between the tank wall and tray.  The float will hit the bottom of the tank sooner, but this matches the bottom of the fuel pump pickup anyway.

Yesterday's small accomplishment - headlights.  They will soon be flickering into life.  Hopefully.

Joe, can you sneak the fuel pump in about here:

That would aim the hole in the surge tank towards the middle, and would also give you room for your sending unit to swing.

I thought about moving the surge tank to the middle of the bracket.  You'd need to do a little cutting and drilling, but so what?  For your case, you could flip the surge tank so that the tray would point out and the fill hole would be toward the middle.

Or maybe it doesn't matter?  If fuel is sloshing, it'll slosh both ways.  So one direction the surge tank is filling, and the other it's not as much.  Unless you're doing extended skid-pad runs, maybe it doesn't matter?

Also, if you want to swing by and see the TVR sometime, just let me know!

JoeTR6 said:

 A stock tank will just allow a 205 width tire under it.

Yes.. not to talk you out of modifying your tank.. but.. the spare tire not fitting was a concern for me also until I stumbled upon the idea of re-purposing an space saver tire from:

Gen1 Saab 900, Gen1 Volvo S40, and numerous Asian cars.  Google TR6 Space saver tire.

In reply to TVR Scott :

A few problems with that location.  The bottom of the tank angles up towards the ends and will block the tray.  Also, there isn't quite enough room on either side of the central seam.  Then there's me being lazy and not wanting to fill two holes.

So this afternoon I went for it.  Turned out pretty well.

The patch overlaps the tank by about 3/16" all around except at the central flange.  After working the tank mostly flat around the cuts, I held the patch in with welding clamps and tacked it down, then connected the tacks with solid beads.  This was the first significant welding I've done in a while, so my beads are somewhat sloppy.  The penetration was dead on.  Tomorrow I'll either check for leaks with fluid (water?) or just lay some tank repair epoxy over the weld to ensure it doesn't leak.  This leaves enough room for the fuel level float near the back.

I put the fuel pump assembly together today and painted the bare patches on the tank.  I'm just waiting for paint to dry to assemble this and get it into the car.

After that, it's time to mount the other fuel system components and make up some fuel lines.  I'm going to put a flex fuel sensor in the return line next to the tank to monitor fuel temperature and in case I want to try E85.  All of the components I'm using are E85 compatible.

The only disadvantage with where the pump assembly is located is the forward placement.  Since the tank is so thin and deep, I don't think it will matter much during acceleration.  And that is the lowest point in the tank.

Looks good, Joe.  I like it!

I hear ya on the surge tank and worries about starvation.  But I think this must fill well enough that starvation woes are reduced.  I thought about cutting holes in the surge tank and adding some one-way flaps in each direction.  Would be pretty simple if needed.

That's a nice tank mod there. Well done.

So the fuel tank is in the car and I've started making lines to connect the tank to 3/8" hard lines running under the car.  I'm going to run hard lines through the body past the differential, but is there any reason I can't use the same tubing right up to the tank connections?

In the front, I'm definitely using flexible hose to connect to the fuel rail to allow for engine movement.

The fuel tank is in and plumbed.  The factory tank vent is also hooked up but not shown here.

The next step is to finish connections at the engine.  A hard supply line is in place to carry fuel to the rail.  The return is on the firewall side, so the logical place to put the regulator is near that side of the fuel rail.  I also need to mount an oil catch can in the same area.  Here's what it looks like with components (sort of) where they should go.

The oil catch can is where the windshield washer bottle is normally located.  I can put the washer bottle somewhere else or simply eliminate it.  Alternately, I can make a bracket to mount the can on the inner fender panel using existing holes there, standing it more vertical and slightly higher.  The fitting holes can be chased out with a tap to clock them better.

Ideally, the fuel pressure regulator will go on the side of the passenger foot well.  It's sitting just above that spot here.  One problem with this location is that the return line points down and there isn't enough room for the AN fittings.  If I slide the regulator forward, there's an indentation for the right-hand drive steering column that allows it to just clear, but then the ends of the fittings are very close.  Looping the return hose would make this work.  I could also rotate the regulator 90 degrees to point the return forwards.  This isn't the coolest place under the hood, though.  Putting the regulator where the catch can is above might be better, but the regulator input would need to route around whatever air intake I come up with.  Here's what that looks like.

With the regulator here, a hard line can run right through the grommeted hole in the body and directly into the regulator outlet.  It should also be slightly cooler there.

Enough thinking, just do it already.

It was a bear bending and fitting the hard line that goes down to the return tube on the frame.  It's tight in the back corner and wrapped in heat shield below the grommet. The looped hose isn't great, but a straight run would get stretched.  I may order another 90 degree elbow and run the hose to the side.

+1 for just trying something.  I'm totally at that point too.

Overall it looks really nice.

BTW, do you have any idea what the thread is on the temperature sender?  I want to add in a separate sender in my expansion tank for the dashboard gauge.  Looks like it's maybe a straight thread, since the replacement part comes with an o-ring.

I think I've answered my own question.  The sender looks to be 5/8"-18, with a crush washer.

In reply to TVR Scott :

I just read this and thought it was a straight thread.  The factory used some sort of fiber washer.  I'm using the factory gauge and sensor, but the Megasquirt is using a GM sensor that DIYautotune sells.

In reply to JoeTR6 :

My setup will be similar.  I've got the EcoBoost sensor talking to the ECU, and then I want the factory gauge to work correctly.

I was going to install the sensor in the overflow tank, but I'm changing my mind on that.  That reservoir may not accurately reflect engine temp.  The factory sensor is at the back of the engine where the heater core picks up.  Maybe I can add something there.

Where did you put your additional sensor?

In reply to TVR Scott :

The TR6 water pump housing has an extra fitting opposite of the factory coolant sensor.  It's used for a water return pipe that heats the intake, and I'm not using that.  I've seen people add a sensor to the radiator outlet and inlet, and I've used a factory T connector to put a fan switch on the hose from the thermostat housing to the radiator.  That makes the most sense to me as you measure the coolant temperature as it exits the engine without metal-to-metal contact with the block.

We are in the process of recovering my running TR6 from the old house in Northern Virginia.  So far it's made it to Roanoke and Knoxville.  Dayton is next, then across the mid-west to Kansas and then Colorado.  The car is running great in spite of a 9 month hiatus.  The only issues are a lack of A/C, and that isn't too bad.  We've been stopping to visit family along the way, and our daughter met us in Roanoke to travel along (thus the return through Dayton).  It's been a blast so far.  Kansas may be another matter.