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TR7's and rust


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I have confession to make, I bought into to all non-sense about TR7 worst car of all time stuff. Then I started really looking at them and when you do, you realise it is actually a pretty car. The hardtop is striking and the convertible is genuinely a looker. When you combined that with good handling and refinement, relative to other British sports cars, it becomes tempting. I keep seeing them popping up on ebay and there is the temptation.

However, most of these cars are listed as bodywork good condition for age, or have rust bubbles in various places on the bodywork. Now I bought a Dolomite, which I thought was relatively OK rust wise. Put it this way, before I had that car I couldn't weld, now I can. So I know what horrors can lurk underneath. So is it possible that bubbles in the bonnet/wing could be easy localised fixes or will they inevitably hide horrors? How easy is it to get panels and fix a TR7?

The mechanical don't scare me, as I am converting the dolly to a Sprint, so I am familiar with the engine. The only concern is the horror stories I have heard about head removal. On a Sprint engine, it is easy, for some reason the studs don't seize. From the sound of things, the 2.0 is the TR7 is less friendly in that reguard. 

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Rust and replacing panels can be a problem with the TR7 as with the Dolomite. However, there still are some well looked after TR7's around. I guess it just take time to find one. A number of TR7's have been converted to Sprint or TR8 spec. Head studs can be a problem.

Dave

 

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Rust on bonnet/wings/sills is quite normal & a fact of life on a TR7. As far as I know the serious problem areas are around the rear suspension mountings, behind the seats & bottom of the A pillars.

As you say getting the head off is hard work, and mine had to come in 2018 off for the first time after 37 years.... It took time and a proper head puller but it worked.

Howard

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6 hours ago, HowardB said:

Rust on bonnet/wings/sills is quite normal & a fact of life on a TR7. As far as I know the serious problem areas are around the rear suspension mountings, behind the seats & bottom of the A pillars.

As you say getting the head off is hard work, and mine had to come in 2018 off for the first time after 37 years.... It took time and a proper head puller but it worked.

Howard

Interesting, so some of these might be worth a look. Not sure I would touch a car with sill rust though.

As for the head problems, is there anyway of preventing them from seizing in the future once you have one off?

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"As for the head problems, is there anyway of preventing them from seizing in the future once you have one off?"

Obviously similar to the Stag, when I had mine off on my Stag  (that's a story) I drilled out the stud holes in the head plus 1/64th bigger (15 thou, have to be careful, the head doesn't have a lot of material between stud holes and water jacket) to help give clearance to prevent the dissimilar metals between stud and head reacting and also coated the studs with copper slip.

Also retorqued at different lbs ft across the head trying to equalise the clamping force as against 55 lbs ft across long studs, long bolts, and short bolts. The short bolts don't have enough head thickness underneath and transmit more clamping force to the gasket than the studs (which are twice as long and with two threads 1 into the block and the other the head using the nuts) which stretch. We won't go into climbing into the engine compartment with my Black and Decker and drilling the block into the water jacket where the factory decided in their wisdom that water flow would circulate just fine by thermal expansion from the very front to the rear of the engine, not on mine it doesn't now. 

Mick Richards

Edited by Motorsport Mickey
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Hi Mick,

would copperslip be the best solution. It is mildly conductive and may actually exacerbate corrosion between the head and the stud.

Perhaps an insulating grease may be a better option.  

I could be hopelessly wrong on this. 

sorry for thread drift

Roger

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No problem Roger, when I did this back in 2003 copperslip was my substance of choice for anti corrosion, I'm hoping that the extra free hole space clearance may work with that. Since then I've found out about ceramic anti corrosion paste which has the advantage of itself not exhibiting any reactive tendencies (as far as we know) which is what I'd be using if I had to refit a Stag head tomorrow.

Happily either my "shady tree"  home based torqing practices which even Gareth Thomas in a lucid phase (it was very brief), approved and theorised on the Stag Owners club forum about 2 years ago) are superior to the factory... hmmm... or I've not yet done enough mileage (18,500 miles so far) that will show up it's limitations that will necessitate removing the heads to find out...I remain confident...I think.

Mick Richards

PS: I have seen a desperate Stag owner who had a horrendous many month battle to remove his heads steadfastly corroded to the studs use electrical shrinkwrap on his stud shafts before refitting , which may there's more meat in there than you think between them and waterjacket. Trouble is it's a bugger to fix if there isn't ! 

Edited by Motorsport Mickey
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23 hours ago, Motorsport Mickey said:

No problem Roger, when I did this back in 2003 copperslip was my substance of choice for anti corrosion, I'm hoping that the extra free hole space clearance may work with that. Since then I've found out about ceramic anti corrosion paste which has the advantage of itself not exhibiting any reactive tendencies (as far as we know) which is what I'd be using if I had to refit a Stag head tomorrow.

Happily either my "shady tree"  home based torqing practices which even Gareth Thomas in a lucid phase (it was very brief), approved and theorised on the Stag Owners club forum about 2 years ago) are superior to the factory... hmmm... or I've not yet done enough mileage (18,500 miles so far) that will show up it's limitations that will necessitate removing the heads to find out...I remain confident...I think.

Mick Richards

PS: I have seen a desperate Stag owner who had a horrendous many month battle to remove his heads steadfastly corroded to the studs use electrical shrinkwrap on his stud shafts before refitting , which may there's more meat in there than you think between them and waterjacket. Trouble is it's a bugger to fix if there isn't ! 

Stag heads......oh what a trial. Took me 2 months to shift the left hand and when it moved it was just enough to get a hacksaw blade in and cut the three offending beggars........welded a nut on top and hey presto all good. Reassembled with as much copper slip as I could get to stay on the new studs. Great car,  so under rated. 
Iain

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  • 1 month later...

Several years ago l passing a workshop industrial estate, the mechanics were having trouble with Stag heads, their solution was to loosen all the stud nuts start the engine and stand back after a few seconds both heads pop up. Not being a Stag owner l should think this an approved method.

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Trouble is, most stuck heads stick on the studs (apologies about the alliteration!)

Pressure in the cylinder can break the gasket seal, but then  all the pressure escapes, leaving a tiny fissure and the heads still stuck on the studs.

The OP asked about TR7 heads - has he read about the Head Honcho?   https://www.triumphwedgeowners.org/head-honcho-in-action.html

J.

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