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S.A.H. built cylinder heads painted Duck Egg Blue ?


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I was looking at parts for sale for TR6 on Ebay and came across a listing for a TR 6 cylinder head. In the information it said that S.A.H. built heads were painted Duck Egg blue. Is that right? It also said that their heads also had a plaque riveted on them which tend to fall off. What was the location of the plaque?. I cant seem to find the Ebay listing now. I am curious because my TR 6 cylinder head is painted a light blue which I have always thought strange and not seen before.

Anyone out there got any knowledge of S.A.H ?

MARK

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My tr6 had a duck egg blue head when I brought it, had a  high compression and tendendcy to to pink.  The engine was built for the previous s by SAH in '70s, I brought it in 1984 and had a lot of fun wearing it out...

 

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Gents, very interested to know where the SAH head markings can be found for a 6 cylinder head.    I have a pale blue head on a TR250 and its mounted on a block that's painted green, rather than black.    So I'd appreciate any info on head SAH stampings or tag locations.

Jim

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We have a Head that was attached to an engine purported to be SAH and it is painted red.    No ID plate attached.   The rest of the engine was uninspired and  gave up a SAH 47 cam    Waste of time for us road going types.

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3 hours ago, DaveR said:

I fitted an SAH head to my 948 Herald in 1966 and this was green.

Dave

My 4A had an SAH 'C' spec head fitted in the 70s and this was painted in a light green.

Tim

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8 hours ago, Jim F said:

Gents, very interested to know where the SAH head markings can be found for a 6 cylinder head.    I have a pale blue head on a TR250 and its mounted on a block that's painted green, rather than black.    So I'd appreciate any info on head SAH stampings or tag locations.

Jim

 

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Hi Jim 

Similar thoughts ! Cant see any obvious markings but head is a light blue. The high compression aspect would fit my car as slight pinking has always been a problem.  This is probably made slightly  worse by running on triple webers.

MARK 

image.thumb.png.64ee06747336e42ba6084f2256c630a3.png

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Hi.

All good info.  At some point I'll need to take the head off and check it out to see how, or if, the head was modified.  From the numbers stamped on the head it appears to be a standard TR250 head.  At the moment it's a tired engine that leaks and burns oil.  But the head colour had puzzled me up to now and the potential SAH history adds a little more character.

Thanks for sharing.

Jim

 

BFF38642-83C0-4075-ADB4-D00D4D290D11_1_201_a.jpeg

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Jim looks same colour as my cylinder head. Would be interesting to find out if there is a connection to S.A.H.  I found a forum post by the late Alex Pringle on the subject and he obviously had a good deal of knowledge of S.A.H.   Is there anyone out there also with a good knowledge of S.A.H or could point in the right direction?

MARK  

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Interesting. My first spitfire 1500 had a blue head. 

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An SAH head still with its plaque and it looks like a light blue/grey colour. Planned putting it on my Swallow Doretti but now going with the correct low port head.

Cheers Richard

DSCN2888.JPG

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We know from Graham RobsonI that all the VC TR4 Rally cars were fitted with SAH exhausts, heads and camshafts in 1962 because Sid was way ahead of Triumph at the time and Graham needed to get a lot more performance in a hurry!   It worked because the cars achieved about 135-140 reliable BHP very quickly.  Reliability was vital as the team had little back-up whilst on a Rally and the driver and navigator had to cope if problems occurred, so more extreme tuning was not required.  The combination of a long flat torque curve and overdrive on 2/3/4, together with modifications to suspension and bodywork (alloy panels), gave performance that allowed the TRs to challenge the Walter's Carrera Porsche and the big Healeys.

I contacted Tony Sheach about 5VC, as I had spotted a tag on its cylinder head.  He replied thus:

Yes 5VC's head is here and basically untouched so far - it has the SAH label held on by two cold rivets.

You can see that the head is heavily worked from the outside and a lot of hours have gone into it as even the casting lumps on the outside have been worked flat, same as the block.

I’ve stripped the paint and this engine was always black - nothing else under it.  I do know that Morgan engines and some TR’s were a sort of pistachio light green, so what’s been said is nearly right as you could also call it a duck egg colour.

The cam in 5VC is original and has the Triumph part no for a TR4 cam but the profile is different.  I didn’t get much exhaust on it, but the ports on the head basically match a Phoenix manifold, so I suspect it had the SAH on it at some point but long gone.  As predicted and confirmed by Kastner, none of the three VC cars that made it to the USA had Kastner cams fitted and when I found 5VC it certainly did not, but it did have evidence of sealing which Kas confirmed he did do.  It’s obvious when you see it, but not the sort of thing you’d know unless you were told. 

I did have another SAH prepared car which was a TR3A registered BRX 448 - it DEFINITELY had the green painted engine in it and lots of period SAH bits including the ugly fibreglass bonnet and cut / shut inner wing, but no alloy tag on the cylinder head.  Last on the road in 1968, so I suspect it was all entirely original.  The car was restored and sadly lost a lot of its bits from what I could see, but it’s still around and changed hands a few years ago via a dealer in Yorkshire.

Ian Cornish

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Ian, interesting stuff re the SAH engine configs.   At some point I'll need to tear down my engine and check it out.  

Re colour my TR250 block is painted green, (similar to leyland engines - austins, minis etc - could be mowog green), and the head is painted a pale blue.  The engine number differs from the original but its in the same range, (replacement engine number CC5844 original (BMH cert) was CC5677).  And the engine hasn't been apart for many decades.

Jim

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