MG-Cars.net

Welcome to our resource for MG Car Information.

Recommendations

Parts

TR parts and Triumph parts, TR bits, Triumph Car Spares and accessories are available for TR2, TR3, TR3A, TR4, TR4A, TR5, TR6, TR7, TR8, Spitfire and Stag and other TR models are available from British car spares and parts company LBCarCo.

Triumph TR6 - Dan Masters site

Dan, I love your web site on V8'ing a TR6. I just purchased a 5.0 mustang as a donor car. I have been thinking about doing this for a long time.

I am in the planning and asking alot of questions stage. Is there anyting you would do differently on your car if you had to do it over?

Did you use the stock hangers for the TR4 springs. I will make my own hangers and would like move the springs inward and remove the stock snubber brackets from the wheel housing for more tire clearance. I don't have the TR4 springs yet but was thinking about cutting a section of the rear frame bottom out and fabricating a "ramp up" type bracket and mounting the rear spring up in the frame? Don't want to move them to the inside of the frame rail and cut the trunk floor, plus handling would suffer also. Does this sound feasible to do?

Did you mount your axle on the top or bottom of the leaf springs?

Thanks Tim
Tim McCauley

Why all the major suspension mods? What's wrong with the stock setup with modern bushings and lowered springs etc...

John Parfitt

John, to answer your question, absolutely nothing.
I use a slightly modified rear end setup, poly, extra bracing on the hangers and rear arch, coil over conversion, rear sway bar, with a 5.1 litre Ford V8
and it is just a ball of fun to drive.

Tim, Dan is somtimes slow to repond to questions on this site, be patient, he is getting ready for an all out race weekend at Terre Huate Indiana on the 8,9,10,& 11th of June for V8 powered Brit cars.
I too followed Dan's web site and built my TRV8 to his design except for the rearend which is not only working well for me but atleast one other TRV8er.
Please feel free to contact me if you want to chat.
Chris
catrace@sympatico.ca
Christopher Trace

Christopher, I also have heard the stock rear end will hold up well under normal driving conditions. With 260-280 Hp and a 5 spd I would feel more comfortable with a narrowed 8.8 unit. I don't plan on abusing the car, it's far to nice for that but I'm building it to be reliable and durable.

I also don't want to chance breaking any of the original parts incase some day I want to put it back to original. I am only doing this once and want it to be bullet proof first time around.

Any pointers or advice are welcome.
Tim

Tim,

Chris is only telling part of the story when he says I'm sometimes slow to respond - I'm just slow period! So slow, in fact, that my car is still not on the road.

An engine identical to the one I'm using in my TR6 was dyno tested by Car Craft magazine, and was rated at 360HP, with, if I remember correctly, a maximum of 350 lbft of torque. I was afraid the rear end just wouldn't hold up to that kind of torque if I really drove it hard (and if I didn't, what's would be the point?). I believe with that kind of torque, either the diff itself would explode, or the hubs, axles, or U-joints would. On the TR6 factory race team cars, Kas Kastner recommended replacing the outer axle shaft after every four races to reduce the possibility of having an axle break in competition, and these cars were only producing around 190HP. I didn't want to take a chance, and at the time I was putting the rear end together, neither Chris nor Jay had experience with a stock rear and a Ford in a TR6 to go on.

Chris, how much power does your Ford produce? Are you going to put it on the dyno at the V8 meet next week? If you're putting out some serious power and the rear end stays together, that would indeed be good news. Not having to change out the rear end would really make the swap a lot easier, and a lot less expensive.

As it stands right now, I'm using the stock TR4A suspension set-up, but I'm not real pleased with it. The springs have such a deep arch that 4" lowering blocks are needed - NOT the way to go for good handling or maximum power transfer. If I don't do anything else, I plan to have the stock springs re-arched to eliminate the lowering blocks, but I am looking into otheer options as well. One of the few benefits of being slow is that you have ample opportunity to change your mind.

I don't completely agree with Chris and John about the TR6 IRS. It's an OK system, but not a good one, the suspension geometry leaves a lot to be desired. I really believe a good live axle will handle just as well or better than the TR6 IRS (but the TR4A live axle set-up is NOT a good one). One of the major problems with the set-up is the use of sliding splines for the axles. When a lot of torque is applied to them in a corner, they have a tendency to stick, which is most decidedly not a good thing. If I were to retain the stock set-up, I would at least change the axles, perhaps using a Corvair system, which many TR6 owners have done.

For a good live axle set-up, you should consider the set-up used by Ted Lathrop in his TR6. You can find his car on the website. The only problem I find with that is the body mods required to fit it, particularly the lose of interior and trunk space to make room for it. As I use my British cars for a lot of long distance travel, I can't afford to lose any interior space.

Chris, Ted Lathrop, and I will be in Terre Haute next week for the British V8 meet, you should be there too if you can make it.
Dan Masters

Dan,

I agree with you on the orig rear susp. My shafts will stick now with orig power train.

Glad I checked this board today because yesterday I received my TRF catalog and was going to order the TR4 leaf springs! Doesn't sound like I want to go that route. Would it be possible for you to measure the TR4 leaf springs(eye hole to eye hole, front eye hole to centering pin and arch)? No hurry, I am also slow....3yrs looking for a TR6 worth buying and 2 yrs looking for a deal on a Mustang GT donor car. It will probably be late summer before I get all the pieces gathered up and start.

Can't tear apart a perfectly good TR6 in the summer...our winter was to long in Ohio to not enjoy the TR for most of the summer.

Thanks, Tim
Tim

Tim,

If I can, I'll get the measurements for you tomorrow. If not (there's a lot of stuff between me and the measurements you need), I'll measure for you when I get back from the V8 meet and vacation in 2 weeks.
Dan Masters

Dan,Tim,
Wish I could make the convention, I really do but this is the busiest time of the year for me. If it was in Aug. no problem. Last time I dynoed the car I had 220HP
and 260 ftlb at the rear wheels. With the extensive head work I did last year( port matching and polish,roller rockers with a higher ratio and over sized SS vales) I am estimating with the help of a G-tech performance meter about 245 HP and 285ftlbs at the rear wheels. Add on 25% for power eaten up by the transmission, six u-joints and the clunky old british Diff that I like so much and you end up with 306 Hp at the flywheel ( the number that everyone likes to quote because it sounds so much better) (( I wish all the the car makers would anounce rear wheel numbers instead
of flywheel numbers. Flywheel numbers are great if you
are bench racing but I want hear what it does where the rubber meets the road)) I don't do alot of tire spining because it just bothers me to leave expensive
Italian rubber in powder behind me. I have done it acouple of times starting in second and can produce a 40-50ft. strip but I would rather wear it out on corners. Tim, although I don't abuse the rear end I do push it quite hard routinely with no problems. Jay Smith's TR4 prouduces more power than mine and far as I know he is still waiting for it to fail so he can pop in the ford nine inch he has in waiting.
Dan have a great time and wish guys well from me. I'll be at the next one that is held in Aug.( put in a word at the next planing meeting would you) say Hi to Carl and Steve for me.
Chris
Christopher Trace

This thread was discussed between 26/05/2005 and 08/06/2005

Triumph TR6 index