Barely Functional Racing LS Swaps a Triumph TR4

Mounts look good to me.  I am going to do some mounts at some point. I see where you made the metal supports. Where did you get the poly bushings? 

In reply to Somebeach (Forum Supporter) :

They were the CHEAPEST eBay "LS" weld in mounts I could find.

Technically, I mounted them upside down, but that was a result of wanting slots and the location of the engine in the chassis.  The portion I welding to the frame was meant to bolt to the engine block.

Here it is ( getting a weight) before I hacked it up:

Edit: here's the engine installed on the mounts.

Trent sent these Toyota calipers for the cost of shipping ($20).  They're a common upgrade for TR4's and TR6's.

The upgrade will probably have to wait until after the car has competed in the Challenge.  Because budget.

Those are 4X4 Hilux calipers, right?

This thing will be a holy terror.

I can attest that those calipers work really well.  But if you haven't upgraded your stub axles, you will get pad knock-back and won't have enough brake fluid to refill them without pumping the pedal after a few hard turns.  We tried a Jaguar master cylinder and a residual pressure valve, but the heavier stub axles fixed the issue.  Stock calipers and EBC Green Stuff pads work almost as well for autocross.

JoeTR6 (Forum Supporter) said:

I can attest that those calipers work really well.  But if you haven't upgraded your stub axles, you will get pad knock-back and won't have enough brake fluid to refill them without pumping the pedal after a few hard turns.  We tried a Jaguar master cylinder and a residual pressure valve, but the heavier stub axles fixed the issue.  Stock calipers and EBC Green Stuff pads work almost as well for autocross.

Truth here, I can attest to that. So good idea to hold off until after the challenge and upgrade the stub axles.

Just skimmed through this thread. Nice machinist hand! 

You are probably going to hate those headers. I ran them on my truck for about two years and had constant issues with plug wire interference. Finally ditched them for OEM manifolds earlier this year. 

The OEM manifolds are cast steal, not iron, so they can be MIG welded easily. So even if none of them fit right off the bat for your application you can take the truck ones (free since your Enovy parts car had them) and cut them up to make your own headers.  

In reply to Indy "Nub" Guy :

I ran a 90* pipe fitting off the water pump on my 4.8. Just tapped it and have it so my heater hoses run tight to the block. 

In reply to wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) (Forum Supporter) :

Yes, I have high hopes for it.

In reply to JoeTR6 & dherr & 1SlowVW:

Thanks for the tips guys, very much appreciated.

In reply to cruisermatt :

Thanks for the kind words 

Regarding the manifolds, my current truck ones are very far back rear dump. With how far back I set the engine, that would dump the collector right on my knees.  Center dump is best for this application I think. ZO6 manifolds would have been perfect, but they are expensive.  I'll try to work out a solution to the plug wire problem you experienced. 

Need some advice for the TR4 experts: apparently the front suspension points are a failure point on these chassis.  I'm going to fab up some reinforcements.  Please guide me to where they are needed.  Here are some pics.  Discuss.

Bump. 

• Does anyone have any experience or knowledge of the failure mode on these lower suspension mounts?

• Is it just TR6's and the later TR4A's that have problems, not this TR4?

In reply to Indy "Nub" Guy :

I'm not ME nor do I have a clue about old Triumphs, but from looking at those pics the inner flanges look way too thin to me. They appear to be less than 1/8" thick, is that correct?

Zero experience, but the mount in the last picture should be boxed in, I'd say. Looks like it will have to be a bolt in affair, but that's doable.

Id do a general post in the main forum doe the British car guys like scott, stu, etc.

I'd  toss some triangle gussets on the welded in parts.  

I concur on the gussets.  Basically make anything that is just a tab sticking up into a boxed mount.  Or run a plate from the frame rail to that pivot shaft  - end to end between the inner plates.

You could also machine heavier thicker pieces to replace those small bolt-on outer brackets.  But if you do that don't neglect the mount.  It'll need to be stronger too.

Overall, though, those inner mounts are THIN!

What I do is look at a part, think about the forces that part has to deal with, then add material in places that resist the movement those forces would cause. in the case of LCA bushing mounts, those forces come from what we ask the tires to do:

vertical (bump and droop): we don't have to worry too much about vertical forces through control arm mounts because those forces go through the spring and shock.

lateral (cornering): we want the mounts to have some side-to-side length to them, as well as have a wide enough base that they don't just punch through or tear off the frame. I would extend the existing piece to the full width of the top surface of the frame, or at least as much as possible without interfering with other parts:

longitudinal (braking): same concept as lateral, but in the fore-aft direction. The angled piece below (green outline), because of the angle, is reacting some portion of the fore-aft forces, as well as some portion of the lateral forces:

note: the yellow arrows represent the direction of the forces being reacted into the top of the frame.

EDIT: upon further thought, if you could make the welded part of the forward mount look like the green part of the rearward mount, you'd improve that front mount in both directions.

Thanks for the input guys.

Metal thickness is 0.112" on those tabs. Those bolt on outer tabs need to remain removable so the suspension can be removed.

I'll CAD up some gussets and see what it looks like.

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

I can also see this type of load happening here during moments of high acceleration (Directly proportional to the size of nub's sack to keep foot on the floor because this thing is going to be ridiculous in a straight line) when hitting a bump(like the hump in the middle of the gainesville parking lot course) or under hard braking.

In reply to Patrick (Forum Supporter) :

Word. 

Indy "Nub" Guy said:

Bump. 

• Does anyone have any experience or knowledge of the failure mode on these lower suspension mounts?

 

• Is it just TR6's and the later TR4A's that have problems, not this TR4?

 

I don't recall these mounts tending to fail. No problems with either of my TR3s, one of which was a race car.

Perhaps you are thinking of TR4As. I remember a recommendation in the Triumph TR4A Competition Manual (written by Kas Kastner) to drill a second hole in the frame mounting location, and use TR250 (2-bolt) mounts. I had one of these lower mounts fail on 1 of my TR4As, and I believe my other TR4A had some welding done to the mount(s).

The TR-amp got evicted for the night to wrench on the Bubble Butt:

Thanks to GoGators, Stampie, Robbie, & Gumby I have this pair of mufflers for Zero budget hit.  

Looks like they're not going to do much to quiet things down:

I've got this pile to work with.  This will be my first attempt at exhaust fabrication. 

Edit: I've also got a section of pipe (not pictured) hanging under Humpie that I can use too.  

In reply to Indy "Nub" Guy :

I have a pretty decent amount of cut up gm truck exhaust laying around if need more to work with. I can shoot you some pictures of the piles. I also could use your stock Enovy exhaust manifolds on the swap in the Whale, if you want to let them go. I would gladly buy them off you to give you some budget credit!