This morning was a very early start for me as my Triumph was booked in for a rolling road session in Sittingbourne in Kent. Why Kent I hear you ask? Well there are very few people around that work on fuel injected Triumphs that also have rolling road facilities.
My booking was for 08.30, so with our wonderful rush hour traffic being the way it is, especially over the Dartford crossing I left at 06.30. I was working on the theory of if I leave at half six, I'll be there for half seven, or if I leave at half seven I'll be there for half nine!
After the usual delays at the Dartford Crossing I arrived at 7.50 and sat outside and read my book until the garage man arrived. When he did arrive he sprung into action and got my car in straight away. I went and sampled breakfast at the local cafe (wish I hadn't bothered to be honest) and then sat in the waiting room back at the garage.
Its quite unnerving sitting in a waiting room and hearing your engine being taken up to 5000 revs while they tune it. You're kind of almost waiting for the big bang and then the sound of boiling hot water and steam spraying everywhere. Fortunately, this didn't happen and by 10.15 he'd finished tuning.
To be honest the figures were really disappointing. The first run up only achieved 110 bhp and the best he could get out of it was 116 bhp. The car has a 150 bhp TR6 cam in it, so it should be achieving a lot more than 116 bhp
Anyway, by now it was 10.23 and I was supposed to be at work in Chelmsford for 12pm. With some spirited driving I arrived at work at 11.35. (And I stopped for petrol!) So the car can still get up and go when I need it to!
When I arrived home from work, I dug out the paperwork for the last rolling road session I had done in January 2022. 126 bhp was recorded then and that's when the car was on carburettors. So it's lost 10 horses since then. Bummer!
This engine is now in its third bodyshell and the last time it was rebuilt with new pistons and rings etc was September 2012, so that was eleven years ago. Eleven years of long distance events and hard rallying! On the last compression test I did the figures were lower than I'd hoped for as well, so I think this engine is now due for a proper rebuild. (Not just replacing the big end bearings like I have done twice already)
However, the 2000 mile Round Britain reliability run is only a month away now and I certainly wont have time to get the engine out, rebuild it and have it back in again before then, so it will have to wait. (Most engineering shops have a six week lead time now) I'm sure it will still cope on the event with no problems, it will just be a bit down on power.
I'll probably start pulling the engine out around the end of the year when the events have finished. There's never anything good on TV on Christmas day anyway!
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