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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 - HEADERS

One more thing. I just spent 2 agonizing days fitting Falcon stainless steel headers to that motor .My suggestion, buy a different product. Any company who spends the time and money to develope a part for a motor and does not build it to fit shows a lack of concern for its clients. I don't run my business that way and I don't think they have a clue. No thanks to the supplier on tech help either.
Don K.
DON KELLY

I haven't seen a set of headers yet that was pure, direct bolt on fit in all my years of fiddling with cars. They all required some degree of fiddling and fitting. It's just the nature of the beast if you think about the construction. Multiple bends in a tube detail, the flange plate being a heavier gage and different product form, multiple tube details brought into a welded assembly with the flange. Lots of opportunity for tolerance stack up and residual stresses in a scheme like that.

As a rule, I prefer to do the fit work outside of the car. The first question is will they bolt up or do I need to fiddle with the bolt holes? The next question on a non-crossflow head, in-line engine like that found on a TR6 is, does it interfere with the intake manifold? Next, install the gasket against the head, how does it line up, do I need to do any port matching based on the gasket (includes both intake and exhaust ports on non-crossflow in-line engines)? What about gasket trimming based upon the ports? Then I go to the intake and exhaust manifole in turn and check them with the matched gasket and see how things line up, do I need to do any match work on the manifolds?

All in all, a fair amount of fiddling to be done and it's even tougher if you are doing it with the engine in the car. When I fitted the Falcon headers, one bolt hole needed to be elongated slightly and I found that with the Cannon manifold for triple 40 DCOE carbs, I had to remove a good deal of material from the intake manifold. There is considerable thickness in those areas, so it was no big deal, just some tedious die grinder work. Then I went through the port matching exercise. I spent the better part of a Saturday doing all that, but it wasn't too bad as the head and the manifolds were all being worked on the bench and not on an engine sitting in the car.

The one real warning on these and any other header out there is that there is very little clearance between the frame members and the header when installed. The front engine mounts will allow the header to contact those frame members as the mounts collapse. If this is allowed to happen and the car continues to be driven with collapsed mounts, you will crack the headers. Seeing that these mounts are rather cheesy to begin with, I advise keeping an eye on them and plan on replacing them at intervals not to exceed one year if you run headers even if they look OK to you. The mounts are cheap compared to the price of a header (especially the Falcon) and much easier to replace.
SteveP

My big complaint is that one of the studs from the head is so close to the #3 tube that you can not put the nut on ,compound that with the addition of the clamp and what a hassle. I had to compress the tube(put a dimple) in order to put the nut on. I would think all the studs on a TR6 head are in the same place. Nice design flaw. If you used the weber intake did you have to use the stock clamps on the studs?
Don K.
DON KELLY

Don,

Answers to your questions.

The studs that hold the exhaust manifold on are in the same place. I think that the upper set of fasteners may be shifted slightly on all PI and the later carb engine heads. I have never bothered to confirm this, but I believe it to be the case. I do know that the intake port spacing is different

Yes, you use the stock clamping "footballs" with the Cannon manifold. The numbers 3 and 4 tubes are the ones with the least clearance. The sequence that I use is to first loosely the outer nuts on the header, then fit the football and stud loosely under the numbers 3 and 4 tubes. Here the memory gets fuzzy. I believe at that point I mounted the intake loose with the three long bolts (early 6), then placed the balance of the footballs and nuts on and tightened everything up. The reason for only those two footballs and nuts was the access problem for starting them with all the bits in place and I could reach down and rotate two footballs as needed to slide the intake in place, but not the whole group of them. Basically the whole fitting exercise involves much jiggling of loose components proir to tightening it all up because of all of the close fits.
SteveP

This thread was discussed between 23/02/2002 and 24/02/2002

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