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Triumph TR6 - Mission success

Well, we took my TR6 on a road trip last week for our 20th wedding using wedding cars tunbridge wells aniversery. I wish I had a witty "oh my God!" saga of trial and tribulations but I don't. In fact, the trip was so trouble free except for one problem I was wondering if I had taken the Jeep and just imagined I was driving the TR. The trip left Eugene, Oregon through Portland to Hood River and on to Goldendale, Washington and almost back to Hood River before filling up with 300 miles on the clock. Which is 30.7 MPG but with calculating off 8% for smaller tires still came out at 28.5mpg. Of course it was mostly Intersate traveling and going through the Columbia River Gorge (the great wind tunnel of the Pacific Northwest) I probably had a 30MPH tail wind for 50 miles. While in Hood River I did about 120 miles mostly city driveing in three days and got in the low 20s MPG. On the trip home back to Eugene we went through eastern Oregon past Mount Hood, accross the Warmsprings Indian Reservation, through Sisters to Eugene. This leg was fun. I went from big river valley to alpine passes to high plateau destert and back through high passes. I was zooming up 4 and 5 thousand foot passes passing cars with ease. I cruized through the sage brush with a smile. While going through the reservation I had visions of my TR sitting in the sage brush with a broken wheel, top shredded and flapping in the wind with an arrow stuck in the trunk like an abbandoned old western covered wagon. When I refilled at Sisters with 185 miles on the clock I put in 5.8 gallons wich worked out to a corrected millage of 29.34! On the whole trip it never skipped a beat, and ONLY used 2qts of oil. The only problem I have is the exhaust system. I don't know if it's because the Falcon exhaust exiting from the center rear and the gasses being sucked in around the trunk or if I have a major exhaust leak. It is only a problem with the top up and fortunately I had the top down 90% on this trip.
skikir

29.34 MPG (drool) Over the course of the summer, and many hiway trips along the 90 (Toronto to Syracuse), I averaged 22MPG. It goes like a bat out of hell: blew the doors of a vintage Alfa last week, but wow she's a thirsty girl. 3 qts of 10W/30 through the summer after 2500 miles and time for an oil change. Almost time to put it away for the winter. Its been a great summer

Bryn

Skikir, TR6's are known for their exhaust backdraft.
It is mostly caused by the flat Kamm back of the rear end.
The exhaust tends to get sucked back and rolls back into the cab. The only way I found to get rid of it( and I tried three different configerations) was to have exhaust pipes built so that they exit on the extreme far corner of the car, that way the passing stream of air going past the car grabs it and off it goes. I use to have to pull over from dizzieness because of the fumes and now I never smell them.
Chris
Christopher T.

Your exhaust problem is likely to be a boot (trunk ?) lid seal .
Renew it and make sure the joint is near the filler cap NOT at the lock .
I had a similar problem which was not pleasent on a trip with the roof up . A new seal solved it completely .
s marshall

Skikir,
Sounds like a good trip with excellent MPG.
The Falcons and any other after market system that exits center of car has the same problem. Like Chris said "caused by the flat Kamm back of the rear end." (Karmann).
Chris, "TR6's are known for their exhaust back- draft." There is no doubt that the back of a TR6 is like a big back-draft area. With OE "style" of exhaust tips closer to one side and not exiting at center back, there is considerably less exhaust smell. I, in fact, do not notice it at all (exhaust smell that is). Plenty of air on the back of your neck for sure especially with the door windows up. We know Charlie has a fix for that though:)
S Marshall, your resolution of this problem I am sure works if you have a major gap in the trunk seal or a not so good sealing seal;).You noted this problem with the top up.
Something that gets overlooked..forgotten about, is the "extra" little gas tank '70 to'71 years have ( I do not think '69s have this).It is called the emission tank assembly. the tank is riveted to the passenger side of the boot. If it rusts out you will end up with stale gas fumes floating around in the trunk and are most noticeable with top up. The plastic piping for emissions control is also a potential "break" and can add to the problem. Even later model TR6s are susceptible to this problem but at a greatly reduced amount.
Bottom line if you are driving around with top up and you smell gas fumes ( s stale smell), check out your emissions system.

Rick Crawford

WHen we lived in Anchorage, the wife always had the rear window unzipped and complained of the exhaust smell; wonder why??? After convincing her to either keep the window closed or put the top down the problem disappeared. Never a problem when the hardtop was in place. This was the stock exhaust system. Since moving to Indiana and changing to the Falcon sport system she has not had any issues although I attribute this to her not having had the top up or the hardtop on for almost 8 years.

Not to try and pop anyone's bubble but the 28/29 mpg sounds a bit high. Just a note of caution to make sure that you are not running too far on the lean side of things. If all is well with the mixture, I will remain jealous!

On our last long trip, Seattle to Chicago, the car burned about a half an quart of oil. Since then it will consume almost a quart between changes @ 3k. Driving style now is mostly start/stop short trips which should be harder on oil use. This engine has never leaked a drop since the day my wife brought it home from the dealer. So we have missed out on all that factory installed progressive undercoating. Front seal on the transmission is a different story, this must be my punishment for some evil I did in a previous life!

Don
Yellowdog

Don
Will admit, when top is up, the rear window is not unzipped. Will have to try this some day.
Also Don, there are some past threads on "what is your gas mileage?" and there where a lot of posts with high 20s. I would think the high numbers where mostly highway. After all, we know it can not be for city...we just love to hear those pipes!
Rick C
Rick Crawford

The trunk seal has been replaced. Infact I suspected that and tied the lid down from the rack to bumper and that helped very little. I think I need to get the tips out to the corners but I shudder at the thought of some kind of goofy "s" curved pipes welded on and not to mention the trouble of dealing with Stainless steel.

I think many high mileage numbers are from uncorrected too small tires. I know if I did not correct for my tire size I would have got 32mpg!
skikir

This thread was discussed between 22/09/2005 and 23/09/2005

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