Triumph Sports Cars

engine swaps and other performance upgrades, plus "factory" V8s (Stag and TR8)

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kick
Dick Allwright
Johannesburg
(9 posts)

Registered:
04/28/2011 10:41AM

Main British Car:
1964 Spitfire Daimler 2.5 V8

Re: Fitting Daimler 250 motor to a Spitfire
Posted by: kick
Date: July 04, 2011 11:17AM

Thanks Kevin. I would love to see your photos as it is quite a daunting task doing everything from scratch, but I'm really enjoying it.

I am not planning at this stage to go the nitrous route, but remain relatively standard in case I need the motor for my Daimler Dart.

I am also trying to use as many Spitfire parts as possible, so the rear axle hangers will be Spitfire with Datsun hubs bolted on to them using a flange welded onto the hangers. As the drive shafts now have double universal joints and a sliding joint I'm having to make a support to prevent the wheels from flying outwards. For this I'm intending to use Spitfire rear hangers, but running parallel to the ground. Not quite a wishbone as I'm keeping the original forward stay, but they will have the same effect.

My bell housing was made to fit a new engine backing plate and then welded onto the gearbox.


Cheers, Dick


triumphjam
Kevin Gill

(5 posts)

Registered:
07/01/2011 09:46PM

Main British Car:


Re: Fitting Daimler 250 motor to a Spitfire
Posted by: triumphjam
Date: July 13, 2011 08:15PM

Hi Dick

I am putting the contents of the E-mail I sent you in here so others may read it, also here are some of the photos.

"I used the saloon sump on the Dart motor and as far as I can tell it was almost exactly the same position forward/aft as you have yours but a bit lower.

I also moved the oil lines on the heads to the front for head to firewall clearance, even then the firewall had to be
cut back a bit for the R/H head.

I later put an Isuzu Piazza motor in it and will include a pic of that because it shows where the firewall was cut for
the Daimler.

I used Triumph Vitesse front springs which from memory had 1.5 coils cut off and then the ends were heated and squashed pigtail flat.

I used 41mm pipe for the extractors, way bigger than the ports because of the Nitrous, you should NOT go that big. They were a Tri-y design to get room on the left front and to provide for a 3 pipe merge between the chassis and the sump. BUT that did not match the firing order correctly.

The GT6 radiator was further forward by 2" and a bit lower than the pic ill send with the Isuzu in it.

There is one picture of it with the Daimler in it that shows the reverse alternator setup. I used the standard Daimler tensioner with this setup.

I also found a pic of the different input shafts that were used to facilitate the gearbox conversion. I used the short
Dart stick and knob in the Triumph box, essentially its all the same except my way you get syncromesh on first. Others have since copied my same conversion on their Darts in New Zealand.

The car was quick, 6th fastest or so out of all the classic racers in the New Zealand national meeting in 1988, ahead of Porsches, Cobras etc....it got a LOT OF ATTENTION

At one point I had a 3.27 diff in it and it easily ran to 136MPH.

For the oil filter remote I first used a cast alloy piece bolted to the block but it would not seal so later I just
cut the end of the housing as you have it and welded two tubes on at a slight angle and put two right angle fittings on, that cleared the frame.

The rear gearbox mount was GT6 O/D, it mounted to the Saloon Overdrive piece which bolted to an adapter plate on the rear of the main gearbox casting, the tailshaft had to be cut, shortened and rewelded by a specialist, it never broke. The chassis only needed a little clearance at the back there with a Triumph right angle speedo drive.

You can see the angle the engine sloped back at by the adapter plate machined for the Holley. The Motor probably had 170-175HP without the Nitrous, it had a LOT more with it, MUCH MORE THAN WAS ANTICIPATED!

Valve springs were Cooper S from memory, had problems with refaced cam lifters, the front scroll timing cover sloshed oil out under hard braking. Speaking of which I had Saloon disks and calipers on the uprights with 6mm spacers, later Princess 4 pot calipers without the spacers, heres a link to what someone else wrote up about my conversion:

[homepages.paradise.net.nz]

Diff gears and carriers were heat treated and frozen as appropriate in an effort to hold them together for short
periods!!!!!! I also pressed yokes off Herald axles onto the Spitfire ones as they were less worn and could last a few more races before pulling through.

Before you ask I did look at a lot of possibilities for a different rear end, someone had done the same as you with the Datsun 1600 diff, BUT nothing seemed to solve all the problems. Have you seen the drawings of the 67 Vette reared into a Spitfire! they are the best solution I have found!?

I eventually put the Isuzu motor in to cut down on maintenance, it was still quite fast. The last event I
entered it in before I sold it was a grass Gymkhana which it won.

I spent some good times with one of the loves of my life in that car!!!!!!!

The car still exists in the city, I even see it driving around ocassionally"

That should do for a start, I am happy to help in any way I can.

Cheers
Kevin

You can see where the STAG engine mount was used on the left hand side, the tower was trimmed back slightly, thats exactly where it bolted to the modified Daimler mounting plate, similar to yours.

Triumph Input Shafts Annotated.JPG
Daimler Dart into MK 4 Spitfire-1.JPG
Isuzu Piazza into MK4 Spitfire-1.JPG
Izuzu Piazza into MK4 Spitfire-2.JPG


triumphjam
Kevin Gill

(5 posts)

Registered:
07/01/2011 09:46PM

Main British Car:


Re: Fitting Daimler 250 motor to a Spitfire
Posted by: triumphjam
Date: July 13, 2011 08:31PM

Hi Dick

Heres how I did the engine mounts on mine, you can at least use your mount there to put the square tube extension on as I did because its exactly the same bracket. You can then use the Daimler tensioner in the standard position.

Cheers
Kevin
Mount.jpg


triumphjam
Kevin Gill

(5 posts)

Registered:
07/01/2011 09:46PM

Main British Car:


Re: Fitting Daimler 250 motor to a Spitfire
Posted by: triumphjam
Date: July 13, 2011 09:04PM

By the way all

It was Russ Carpenters article in a magazine back then, maybe Cars and Car Conversions, that gave me the idea for the manifold/Holley adaption, full credit to him for that one.

Heres two useful site references, the second one has his son posting.

[www.pistonheads.co.uk]

[www.pistonheads.com]

Cheers
Kevin


triumphjam
Kevin Gill

(5 posts)

Registered:
07/01/2011 09:46PM

Main British Car:


Re: Fitting Daimler 250 motor to a Spitfire
Posted by: triumphjam
Date: March 02, 2012 03:00PM

Hi All

Correction, I just found the magazine where I obtained the Russ Carpenter info, it was HOD ROD and Custom

Here is a link that points to scanned in pages from the series of articles,

[www.ukdrn.co.uk]

Cheers
Kevin
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