Herald Tuning

[rstaaron]

Hello there! Hopefully a nice simple one for you. I'm looking at tuning my 68 12/50 Herald but want to keep it as period correct as possible. Now not being old enough to be there first time around, I was looking for some pointers. Prefer to keep the original engine and will obviously do the basic required maintenance to it first.

What do you lot recommend?

Pic of the motor in question...



Cheers, Aaron

[ettorebugatti]

There is a Spitfire Competition Preparation Manual/Triumph Official Competition Preparation Manual out on the web.

This link is also quite extensive:
www.totallytriumph.net/spitfire/engine_building.shtml

[Seth]

The 12/50 already benefits from a better camshaft compared to the earlier Herald 1200 engines. I think its the same as a Mk1 or 2 Spitfire. So using that as a basis there's no reason you shoudn't get a decent increase to Spitfire bhp using a pair of HS2 carbs and ideally a Mk2 Spit tubular exhaust manifold. I imagine the spit probably also had a slightly different distributor advance arrangement. Re-working the cylinder head a bit should improve matters a bit more too, especially if you can find diagrams/pictures of proven combustion chamber shapes. Even if not a bit of smoothing to the ports and a skim to up the compression a little would help out.

[mdh]

Just drop a 1300 Spit lump in complete

[MrSpeedy]

Jun 21, 2012 11:57:43 GMT mdh said:

Just drop a 1300 Spit lump in complete

^^ This!

The 1300 (later the better, but externally look the same) had been tuned to over 130BHP

Cam, head work, HS4 carbs, extractor manifold etc etc. Canley's have done a few of high spec 1300's I believe.

It's a good little engine, a lot better tuning base than a 1500.

Sticking with the visually similar 1200 would be making life dificult for yourself imho

[rstaaron]

I was looking at building a fresh engine out of the car first to keep it mobile as long as possible so a 1300 is a good idea by the sounds of it, although 130bhp is tempting it's probably overkill for my needs! ha ha! Need to sell my Saab now to fund it

[Copey]

my mates got a 2ltr Vitesse engine in his Herald, could be worth looking into

[Deleted]

As mentioned twin carbs and proper exhaust will release easy extra omf and electronic ignition will give you a reliable spark with a decent bosch coil and good quality leads, remove the engine fan and fit kenlowe that will gain an easy 2-3 bhp.

But first make sure your engine is in good health eg oil preasure and compression check and check crank end float.

Also you could wip the head off and clean up years of curse word and carbon build up

Some recommend the go faster petrol as it has a octane level nearer what the car was designed to run on and they get a better mpg which offsets the extra cost

[redsunbeam]

Have a look at www.sideways-technologies.co.uk
Theres everything from mild to daft on there.

[andyborris]

You'll get lots of advice here club.triumph.org.uk/cgi-bin/forum10/Blah.pl/Blah.pl? some of it may even be useful!

[rstaaron]

Cheers people, will be getting a 1300 to build up by the looks of it then. Cheers for the links and advice, will let you know how it's going on in my readers rides thread