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Triumph TR6 - Leaking On Exhaust Manifold

Hello everyone. I am on a little on the shallow side when it comes to technical skills and knowledge (but keen to learn more)!

I need some advice please.....I have fluid leaking onto the exhaust manifold. It seems to be coming from the intake manifold right above it. I was concerned that it's gas and so shut it down pretty quick. I can't see where it is coming from.....could it be oil from the carbs which is migrating along the intake manifold and then dripping down? Or ?

It is a very small leak and I difficult to pinpoint or even get enough on your finger to distiguish it. It sure smokes when it hits the hot exhaust manifold (scary!).

Thanks in advance for any help.

Cheers
Fred
Fred R

My first question would be does it smell like gas/petrol/fuel? Next item would be to verify that you have the standard CD175 carbs. Even as the jets set up changed over the years on the CD175 carbs, the float bowl remained the same. Depending on the year of TR6, there is either a jet housing or a plug that protrudes through a hole in the bottom of the float bowl. This housing or plug is sealed by an 0-ring. Get a leak there and you will dump fuel out the bottom of the carbs.

Another possibility is that you have a coolant leak at the manifold. No danger of fire with this, but still messy all the same. Are you losing coolant for no readily apparent reason? Does it only leak after the car has come to temperature and the cooling system is under pressure?

The odds of it being oil from the carbs is small. First there is not much oil to begin with and if there is a leak, it is typically internal to the carbs and in turn pulled into the engine and burned inside the cylinder. About the only way for this to happen is excessive oil and some spillage while filling.


SteveP

Thanks Steve.....thanks to your description, I think it is a coolant leak. I'll pursue that further.

Fred
Fred R

I also hope it's coolant - but, also check the fuel line that goes between the carbs - could have decomposed enough to cause a leak.

My original '73 was the victim of a fire - electrical in nature - which was a real mess to repair. In addition to a fire behind the glove box (the crash pads burn REAL GOOD), cracked the windshield, melted part of the top, scortched the wood dash, and melted the main wiring harness into a real mess.

So be careful - good luck.

Bob
Bob Blair

Thanks Bob for the additional info.....on further inspection sure seems like coolant, as Steve speculated.

Your ordeal with your '73 made me wince. I'll be real careful with mine, just in case.

Thanks again Steve and Bob.

Eagerly waiting for Spring in Alberta,
Fred
Fred R

Down here in sunny Calgary its going to be +10 C (50F) all week. Better get to work spring is here ... for now!!

SID
Sid Turner

Bob
Ya gotta hate when that happens.
Was it determined if the fire was caused by the dreaded rheostat dimmer?
Just curious.

Fred R, Hi Welcome.
Quote "I have fluid leaking onto the exhaust manifold" Where is it leaking onto the exhaust? There is 2 coolant lines that just happen to be above the exhaust manifold. Check connections,rusted pipes (holes) and maybe with your finger see if you fell any wet spot(s) along the pipes.
Rick C
Rick Crawford

Sid that was not nice. We in southern Ontario are enjoying a small snow storm that hasn't let up all day.
Right now it feels like this winter will never end.
I experienced one of your chinook winds once,
it was quite something, walking around in a T shirt
in January one day in Calgary then take a bus 4 hours
north to Edmonton step out into howling winds,
-40 temps and windchill of -65. I still remember the
weather mans warnings "Exposed skin will freeze in 60 seconds" We had a little saying while I was there,
You walk out side but the cold will turn you around and walk you right back inside. -45c is the coldest
I've ever been in, quite exciting, ...for short periods
of time. Okay, not much TR talk here but I'm going a
little cabin crazy at the moment. What I would do for one of those solo drives late in the evening sometime
in the middle of August.
Chris
Christopher Trace

Chris ... in Calgary we are used to the weather changing every 20 minutes and in many ways there are a lot of people here looking forward to winter returning for a while ... during February or even March rather than July or August like it inevitably seems to. Never been as cold as the day I headed west to the sunny Okanagan with the roof down, wearing my touque and every jacket I brought with me for the July 4 weekend and the Ralley in the Valley ... go figure! I refused to put the roof up on a sunny July day??

Don't worry your wish will come true ... just be patient ... and remember no whining when its 100F and 98% humidity, OK!

SID

Sid Turner

Rick - Re: Rheostat Dimmer

I don't really know - it happened on a sunny day in May in 1977 (about 6 months after I just finished paying off the car loan!!!) so my headlights were not on. I had just come home from work and was changing my clothes upstairs, when there was a knock on the door and a man advised me that my "car was smoking". I looked towards the driveway and saw smoke billowing out of the cockpit! I grabbed the garden hose and dove in to put out the fire. It seems to have originated behind the volt meter. It may have started from the supply wire to the CB radio (remember those?) or where a wire passed through the firewall. All the damage was confined to the passenger side of the dash.

Are the rheostats famous for shorting out and wouldn't my lights have had to be on?

What ever caused it MADE A MESS!!!! (sob)

Bob (still in shock)
Bob Blair

Bob
I would not say they are famous but it only takes a few to make some very unhappy TR6 owners. A fire in a TR6 now a days you will hear about. It is such a useless piece of equipment on a TR that it may as well be bypassed. Then the possibility of a fire caused by it is eliminated 100%. Lets face it, do you know of anyone who actually dims the guages because they are a problem (because of brightness:) while driving at night? It is so simple to bypass. Simply join all the wires TOGETHER that attach to it....done!
Yes you are correct Bob, lights or parking lights need to be on for this critter to be a problem. 10-4 Bob.
There I said it again:)
Rick C
Rick Crawford

This thread was discussed between 27/02/2005 and 02/03/2005

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