83 Triumph Acclaim Sprint

[logicaluk]

one of the things i really never liked about the acclaim is the interior dim sorry light, its appauling so a little modification was in order.

take one way too cheap, how can they afford to post it from china, ebay item.
20190420_140309 by logicaluk, on Flickr

fit in the proscribed manor
20190420_135735 by logicaluk, on Flickr

the camera makes it look far better than it did in real life, so whip it back out and try again, cut off the lamp holder terminals, solder in some flying leads, root around in the odd ally box and find some light guides from a florescent fitting, this moved the cob back so the diffused lens could work better and
20190420_144105 by logicaluk, on Flickr
much better.
20190420_144537 by logicaluk, on Flickr


a slight oil leak was tracked down to the 1yr old cam cover seals breaking in half.
20190409_100855 by logicaluk, on Flickr


next job was the throttle it is very sensitive at part throttle, i have been thinking about the way forward on this for a while and was going to make a new quadrant/cam thing.
20190408_142747 by logicaluk, on Flickr

but settled on just moving the position of the cable entry for now its better but not right but Ive found some ecu settings that might just do the job, but as i started playing with those, my laptop decided 12yrs old was the perfect time to curl up its toes and started to die, the screen started going negative and it refused to talk to its charger so it couldn't work out what wattage it was and wouldn't charge the battery right when i was playing with settings so the it wont run right when warm.

The laptop now wont even turn on. bloody Dell, so its been replaced with a £140 tough book CF-C2, and it seems to be pretty good.
Dan

[79cord]

Those lights do work well don't they, unlike the stupid little 'globe' versions without the big board.
Congratulations upon bothering to mount it properly rather than leaving it floating as mine has for years!

[asbo23]

Great project.
My parents had an Acclaim when I was around 17 and used to drive it sometimes.
Their one was white.

[logicaluk]

Ive wanted to do a red, white and blue acclaim photo shoot for a long time. asbo.

i also did another one with a full width backing plate in the hope it might give a more even spread of light, it didnt, but it did get me to go back and fit some heat shrink to the wires as they looked like they might chafe on the edge, cord

[logicaluk]

Oops, a year between updates I'd better make it a good one.

Frank has been sat for best part of 8 months since he last ventured out of the garage, mainly due to an odd noise that only showed itself occasionally when sat idling, as soon as the clutch was pressed or the engine revved it went away. I thought pilot bearing, gearbox out.

Well yesterday for the first time in the 3 weeks I've been furloughed I nearly got bored and decided to wash frank, he's been sat on axel stands with me test fitting/ designing a turbo fannymold, all back together and out in the sunshine I had forgotten how much that car makes me smile, but I digress, the noise now strangely only come on when the clutch was depressed.....

Time to pull the gearbox.

Luckily I hadn't put the bonnet back on properly.

20200423_105248 by logicaluk, on Flickr

remove the battery and tray

20200423_112748 by logicaluk, on Flickr

After a lot of buggering about, including removing the throttle bodies to get to a starter motor bolt and missing a bell housing bolt completely, to be fair it was hidden by an engine mount bracket. Eventually the gearbox was off and the cause of the noise was evident

20200423_133955 by logicaluk, on Flickr

which had come from

20200423_133957 by logicaluk, on Flickr

The clutch and cover plate looked OK, so I took the flywheel off. A job that was made possible by this tool I made some time ago.

20200423_143024 by logicaluk, on Flickr

Now that was gone.

20200423_140040 by logicaluk, on Flickr

I can reveal I had another reason for wanting the flywheel off.
Old

20200423_141324 by logicaluk, on Flickr

New

20200423_141422 by logicaluk, on Flickr

With a new pilot bearing in the flywheel, I also fitted a new release bearing. But both the front and rear oils seals need replacing.
I've ordered them, now will just have to wait till they arrive.
Dan

[logicaluk]

Isn't it strange how things happen, I had quite happily put the acclaim in storage, thinking I wouldn't get it out for the for see able future.
First I get bumped up the list to have an injection in my back, then I'm at the RR weekender and for some unknown reason get the urge to do a track day, can't think why!

So I mention it to the Mrs thinking she will put the kibosh on the whole endeavor, she only says she wants to go too....

I'm writing this sat in my camping chair looking over the emptying weekender campsite imaginering what it take. More power is the main part, as I recall the power comes up nicely but plateaus early and at the top of the rev range is only making 70hp which is only one or 2 more than stock and that will not do.

I think the issue is in the yamaha r6 throttle bodies themselves I don't think the shutter behind the valve is fully opening, this is vacuum controlled much like an su piston.
The options as i see them (if you can see more please let me know)

1: delete the shutters, this will probably leave me with a very sensitive accelerator pedal.

2: change the springs either by cut the springs down, my head says if you cut a suspension spring down you get a lower car with a harder spring, I want softer springs not harder, but it might not work the same in a this application.

3: change the size of the hole in the edge of the shutter that I think controls the lifting again head says make it bigger but I'm not sure.

4: take the lot up the common and burn it.

Answers on a postcard or preferably in a reply to this message.
Pics to follow when I'm abit closer to the car.
Dan

Ps thanks hotwire and co for a great weekend.

[johnthesparky]

Nice to have met you!

[ferny]

Glad you had a good weekend, Dan. If I'd plan things better I'd have been on the site with you for a catchup. Instead, I ended up in the Peak District! 😄

[logicaluk]

May 30, 2021 22:37:08 GMT johnthesparky said:

Nice to have met you!

Was great to have met you and tom.

[logicaluk]

May 31, 2021 4:26:33 GMT ferny said:

Glad you had a good weekend, Dan. If I'd plan things better I'd have been on the site with you for a catchup. Instead, I ended up in the Peak District! 😄

It would have been ace to have seen you.
Catch up soon tho.
Dan

[paulthewall]

If you shorten any coil spring it will increase the rate, (stiffen it) (apologies if any education on the sucking of eggs was implied)

you could delete the shutter valves and make a bigger throttle quadrant to gain you some more travel on the pedal and hence a less sensitive throttle?

[logicaluk]

Jun 4, 2021 9:53:47 GMT paulthewall said:

If you shorten any coil spring it will increase the rate, (stiffen it) (apologies if any education on the sucking of eggs was implied)

you could delete the shutter valves and make a bigger throttle quadrant to gain you some more travel on the pedal and hence a less sensitive throttle?

Thanks Paul, sorry i seem to have missed it when you posted it.

No implied sucking of eggs education taken.
You have answered the spring question with the same answer i came up with. Then come to the same conclusion, can the quadrent be made larger, any thing is possible so i guess that will be the next step.
Frank however is still slumbering in a friends garage and no progress has been made with any project. I seem to be procrastinating with every thing.
Dan

[logicaluk]

I was walking past a friends garage and spotted this,

I almost forgotten I parked that there a few years ago.

So I did the decent thing and strapped a battery on and it said click click brooooomm

The plan such as it was, was to remove the fuel injection and return it to carbs temporarily as besides making no more power than before it was a bit thirsty,

So I did this.



But also found the battery had disagreed with the paint.




It's back running on the mechanical fuel pump and 39 year old fuel hose, which by the look of it appears to be in much better shape than the ECP injection hose date stamped 2007 which the outer had cracked down to the re-enforcement.

I also need to make up an small loom so I can plug the map sensor in.
But that as they say is a job for another day.

I did give Frank a quick wash before tucking him back up in his cozy garage.
Dan

[logicaluk]

So some paint happened in the engine bay, but photos didn't.
Carbs happened too, I'm sure I took a pic, but my phone got jealous and must have hidden it. Then I found the 40 year old wire hose clip that was supposed to be keeping the coolant in the heater matrix manifold just decided now was exactly the right moment to relax and let it all run out, so that was replaced, a very annoying oil leak was tracked down to the cam cover seal, which was replaced when I rebuilt the engine and had shrunk.



it was duly replaced with a 40 year old item which didn't leak

The lights were checked, and an indicator repeater lamp needed its contacts cleaning and the 3rd break light was reattached.

Barry popped over for a steak dinner and some light brake bleeding.

If anyone was curious as to what an acclaim with BC Racing suspension looks like on full droop,



It looks a lot like normal ride height.

If I can find some sensibly priced insurance, Frank will be off to the MoT station and ill be buying him his last VED.

Wow, I'd forgotten how much I love this car

[logicaluk]

Adrian Flux offered to insure frank for £134 all mods declared, so I nibbled their arm off at the shoulder, MoT booked for today and passed with 2 advisories one for the cam cover oil leak which May have still been weeping, and a coolant leak (which I'm hoping is just the pipe clip under the fanimold).
What really impress me was the MoT station fitting a straight cut gearbox, unfortunately it turned out when I did the clutch 2 years ago I forgot to put oil back in it, I hope the gearboxes are as tough as they say they are, I only did just under 20 miles so fingers crossed.
Dan

[logicaluk]

What a glorious day to be outside working on my car.
The plan for today was, find and fix the water leak, refit the Newman reground camshaft, remove the rear ARB as it's way too stiff, and it's causing the body to flex.

The MoT man said the water leak appeared to be coming from the thermostat housing to heater valve pipe, a quick look with the air filter box off, it was obvious it was coming from the thermostat outlet, the cause was the seal that goes around the stat which fell apart when prodded, rumour has it that a Rover K series one fits (on left),



It doesn't, euro car parts lists a stat for the Acclaim, but that's a Rover K series one too and doesn't fit either, I had hoped it would as the Pic shows 2 seals in the kit, but only one was in the box, Nill Point.

Turns out what you need is a stat from any Honda B,D or L engine like this



Which Barry The Acclaim Guru had in stock, Top Chap, and as he lives 15 mins away, a brew, natter and a poke about in the workshop quickly ensued.

When I had Newman regrind the cam, David Newman said to set the cam up the same as a standard cam, It has an extra 12 degrees of duration and .75mm extra lift. I've done a few timing belt changes on Acclaims, and they are all 1/2 a tooth out from where the book says to set them up, so there's a 50/50 chance of getting it wrong, if it doesn't sound right when revved just pop the belt off and try the other. I have an adjustable timing wheel, but set it up with the woodruff key in the normal slot for now.






The ARB came out fairly easily, by dropping the back of the fuel tank and slowly working it passed the hand brake cable round the trailing arm and rear shock then out.

Then I took Frank out for a quick drive, luckily the gearbox seems to have survived the lack of oil, handling has changed slightly but not by much just a slight roll on cornering. But there's no shove in the back when accelerating, to be honest I'm really disappointed, it just doesn't pick up speed like I was expecting.

I'm of to sulk.

Dan

[logicaluk]

If I were to say I hadn't spent some time last night looking at eBay listings for Honda D16 engines, I would be lying, contemplating the one thing I really don't want to do. So one last chance, before I buy an engine and have to reengineer the front of Frank.

Here are the specs this engine should be capable of producing more power, If anyone has any thoughts, thinks I'm missing something please take the time to say so.

It feels flat, doesn't pick up speed quick enough, there's no charge if you know what I mean.

Approx 815kg with full tank

engine
1335cc
approx 9.5:1 compression
8 valve hemi head
72mm bore, 82mm stroke
engine turns anti-clockwise
inlet valve 36mm 3 angle valve seats
exhaust valve 32mm 3 angle valve seats

std cam specs
inlet opens 10 deg ATDC closes 30 deg ABDC
exhaust opens 40 deg ATDC closes 10 deg BTDC
Newman uprated cam "+12 deg duration = 240 deg +0.75mm lift" (= 9mm total lift, I think I've measured this)
lightened flywheel -1.3kg

Exhaust
manifold is a std cast iron, 4 into 1 ported out to 2" outlet in to a 2" pipe that runs all the way to the back of the car.

Carbs are 2 x 34mm (should be good for about 100bhp) Kehines and appear to be running slightly rich according to the AFR gauge

Ignition timing tables, no noticeable difference between tables.



Please help, I'm at my wits end, all it seems to do is make lots of noise and not go very quickly.
Dan

[stealthstylz]

Has it been on a rolling road? The numbers don't actually matter but the shape of the curve can tell you more about where improvements are needed.

[lebowski]

I'm certainly no expert but those standard cam timing figures sound terrible for performance. Do you know the timing figures for the new cam?

[Darkspeed]

Small bore long stroke motor. Hemi head has a very offset plug so flame propagation will not be great. 34mm carbs are small for that size of engine so looks like its based on producing low rpm torque. Pulling away with 4 people on board 2000-4000 torque. Would make it feel nippy but not quick and no point revving past 4k.

Combustion chamber layout is poor - carbs too small - large car (relatively) and small capacity ! Will never be or feel quick. You will struggle to get 60-65BHP per litre from that motor.

For comparison a 1.3 CVH - similar combustion chamber - has a 42mm inlet valve !

If you want more power you need to get more air in the engine - 36mm inlet valves will scupper anything you try and do.

Changing cam may well make it slower as it could move the peak to an area where air cannot flow - so you lose all the low end torque and do not gain any top end as it cannot breathe there.

ETA

Go faster rule #1 - Go as big as you can fit and then tune it. If you want to go as fast as a 2.0L - buy a 2.0L