S1 rebuild....not one for the purist

S1 rebuild....not one for the purist

Author
Discussion

Alan 1209

Original Poster:

157 posts

94 months

Sunday 1st January 2017
quotequote all
So where to start.Just over a year ago I bought a very sad 88 S1. The good news was that the outriggers had been sorted. That's about it, the 2.8 engine had one unleaded and one leaded head, the cooling system had not seen antifreeze for several years, the indicators didn't indicate and dip/main alternated from side to side. Both seats had collapsed but it did have a great looking dashboard.
.
But on the up side I am a mechanical engineer, and spent 43 years building and designing machines, how difficult could a TVR be.
So I sat down, made a list and got to work.
Item 1. Engine. You know all those stories about unused "crate" engines, well I found one in Tintagel. Its a 2.9 but heigh ho some S1's had 2.9s.
so I pulled the heads and this is what it looked like, at this point I could have just put it back together but where's the fun in that, so the heads went off to Specialised Engines and came back stage 3, big valves and gasflowed and added to this is a Piper ultimate road cam.
.
More later.

Barry S1

1,709 posts

188 months

Sunday 1st January 2017
quotequote all
My S1 had the same dash great car I miss it and
Keep looking for it to pop up somewhere,

Barry S1

1,709 posts

188 months

Sunday 1st January 2017
quotequote all

Alan 1209

Original Poster:

157 posts

94 months

Sunday 1st January 2017
quotequote all
Close, but no cigar. Mine has a black interior, with red piping. But I have tracked down a previous owner via Flickr

and here it is in better times.

Kitchski

6,514 posts

230 months

Sunday 1st January 2017
quotequote all
Looks same colour as mine!

Barry S1

1,709 posts

188 months

Sunday 1st January 2017
quotequote all
I had different wheels as well

Alan 1209

Original Poster:

157 posts

94 months

Sunday 1st January 2017
quotequote all
Dinner cooked served and eaten. I suppose I could drop in the odd recipe here and there,but that's not what your here for.
I should say at this point that I had done some research before I started on this little project for the known problems :-
1.Outriggers.
These have been replaced. Phew.
2 Squatting on pull away.
It has the S3 trailing arms which are corrosion free. Whoopee.
3 Overheating/under-heating/slow warm up!
Lets deal with the last one first. A quick examination of the plumbing shows that the swirl pot is used as a shunt to replace the water plate oil cooler that was fitted behind the oil filter, so cold water by-passes the thermostat and flows through the radiator. This may also answer point 2. Doh. Overheating, the standard radiators dissipation is marginal at best. Barely enough surface area when its all clean and hunky dory.
4 Night vision.
Physics says you can't travel faster than light, and having worked with lasers for 15 years i'm inclined to agree, but a milk float could out accelerate the photons from a 7" Lucas sealed beam unit.
5 Steering apparently lacks feel and turn in is a bit vague.
Can't comment on this, iv'e only driven the car 1.5 miles, but I can tell you that my old chim with 96 bottles of wine in the boot had no steering at all approaching a bend at just a little above the speed limit. We both survived thanks to a convenient french farm entrance and a very understanding french farmer.
6 Leaky roof.
Iv'e owned a midget mk1, 2 MGB's from the 60's and 70's a Sunbeam Alpine, a Chimaera, a 1966 Hillman Minx Convertible, a Saab 900 Convertible and I currently have a 2001 Volvo C70 ragtop. They all leak, its just a fact of life. Drill a hole in the lowest part of the floor turn up the heater and get on with it.
7 Noise.
Glorious isn't.

AutoAndy

2,265 posts

214 months

Sunday 1st January 2017
quotequote all
Hope dinner was warming and tasty....

A couple of points based on my S....

Steering is accurate and great when it works...check it out

Tends to only leak from the floor and bulkhead when it' rains ....just leave the roof off.....your driving an S now

Standard rad works fine I feel set up ok....no overheating after driving all day around Germany in 35 degrees

... wink


magpies

5,129 posts

181 months

Sunday 1st January 2017
quotequote all
Alan 1209 said:
Dinner cooked served and eaten. I suppose I could drop in the odd recipe here and there,but that's not what your here for.
I should say at this point that I had done some research before I started on this little project for the known problems :-
1.Outriggers.
These have been replaced. Phew.
2 Squatting on pull away.
It has the S3 trailing arms which are corrosion free. Whoopee.
3 Overheating/under-heating/slow warm up!
Lets deal with the last one first. A quick examination of the plumbing shows that the swirl pot is used as a shunt to replace the water plate oil cooler that was fitted behind the oil filter, so cold water by-passes the thermostat and flows through the radiator. This may also answer point 2. Doh. Overheating, the standard radiators dissipation is marginal at best. Barely enough surface area when its all clean and hunky dory.
4 Night vision.
Physics says you can't travel faster than light, and having worked with lasers for 15 years i'm inclined to agree, but a milk float could out accelerate the photons from a 7" Lucas sealed beam unit.
5 Steering apparently lacks feel and turn in is a bit vague.
Can't comment on this, iv'e only driven the car 1.5 miles, but I can tell you that my old chim with 96 bottles of wine in the boot had no steering at all approaching a bend at just a little above the speed limit. We both survived thanks to a convenient french farm entrance and a very understanding french farmer.
6 Leaky roof.
Iv'e owned a midget mk1, 2 MGB's from the 60's and 70's a Sunbeam Alpine, a Chimaera, a 1966 Hillman Minx Convertible, a Saab 900 Convertible and I currently have a 2001 Volvo C70 ragtop. They all leak, its just a fact of life. Drill a hole in the lowest part of the floor turn up the heater and get on with it.
7 Noise.
Glorious isn't.
1. doubles the value
2. see the suspension wiki - that'll sort it
3.I redesigned mine by fitting a cossy 24v and no swirl pot
4. most decent modern 7" with good lamps
5.never found that a problem
6 and 7 thumbupcool

Have a great 2017

Alan 1209

Original Poster:

157 posts

94 months

Sunday 1st January 2017
quotequote all
Hi Magpies.
Swirlpot designed out.
Car looks like this right now so can't check out the handling!
More stuff to follow, standby for gearbox upgrade and some chassis changes.

greymrj

3,316 posts

203 months

Wednesday 4th January 2017
quotequote all
This looks interesting, good to see another early car being rescued and restored. Mine is also a 1988 car so I might be able to help with info but it looks like you understand what you are doing.
I stayed with the 2.8 although an upgraded engine with Burton parts is due to go in this year. Changing to 2.9 means changing the injection system to Efi and a good deal of wiring changes so I went down the easy (!!!) route of trying to prove I can get a 2.8 performing right.
Keep us all informed of progress and hope to see the car around in 2017.

Alan 1209

Original Poster:

157 posts

94 months

Wednesday 4th January 2017
quotequote all
Yes I am having to change the ECU, the Ford unit is not up to the changes to the engine so I'm fitting an Emerald unit. I also bought the engine loom from them so you just need 5 connections into the existing loom, 12v perm, 12v switched, a good ground and a new fuel pump relay control in and power out.
I'm having to rewire the whole car as it was a real mess with wires cut, twisted together and taped ect.

phillpot

17,105 posts

182 months

Wednesday 4th January 2017
quotequote all
Alan 1209 said:
I'm having to rewire the whole car as it was a real mess with wires cut, twisted together and taped etc.
Factory original then wink

greymrj

3,316 posts

203 months

Wednesday 4th January 2017
quotequote all
phillpot said:
Factory original then wink
Certainly sounds like it! You should finish up with a few dozen metres of wire that aren't doing anything.biggrin

Just looked at the chassis picture. Not entirely sure how well they have done the patch repair near the rear swing arm mountings but I guess you have checked they are up to scratch.
Another issue worth checking is that the side and rear seat belt mountings have decent threads and that the side ones wont twist off the chassis when you tighten the belt mountings...common issues and far easier to deal with now.
It also looks as if the bonnet mountings might be original, if so they may not be man enough for the job any more. It does look as if they might have started to distort. I just used 2.5mm wall box section steel slotted for easy bonnet removal but there are a number of different approaches to improve the way the bonnet is mounted. Worth considering before you paint it.
Several owners have cut out the chassis cross member under the engine and fitted a removable one to allow the sump to be removed. Needs to be properly engineered to keep the chassis integrity but again worth considering at this stage. There are recent posts on this issue.
On the S1 the central rear mounting for the exhaust isnt really man enough, again easy to do at this stage.

Alan 1209

Original Poster:

157 posts

94 months

Wednesday 4th January 2017
quotequote all
The rear end repair is interesting, the outrigger tube goes right through to the main chassis rail and is then spot welded in through holes in the larger tube. The main tube integrity is fine. I don't plan to cut out any chassis tubes other than the uprights to enable a different gearbox to be fitted, more on that to come.

The welding has been tidied up since this photo. I'm badly out of practice.

If I need the sump off I'll just lift the engine a little. Helpful comments on hinge locations, I have been looking at that to see if I could come up with a better engineering solution, I have seen the later chassis layout at the front so I may just replicate that. The right side tube is already 2.5 wall tube so that may have been changed earlier. Thanks for the advise on the rear exhaust mount, it does look pretty feeble.

Alan 1209

Original Poster:

157 posts

94 months

Wednesday 4th January 2017
quotequote all
so while i'm on the subject, here is the engine/g'box setup

The gearbox is an RX8 5 speed from a 232 bhp model. You can probably see the modded dissy, this now houses a cam position sensor so that I can run sequential injection.
.
I need this for the oversized EV6 injactors.
Standard EV1's are 136cc and inject twice per cycle. I am now running 440cc injecting during induction only. this improves consumption and low end torque. And torque means acceleration.

mk1fan

10,507 posts

224 months

Wednesday 4th January 2017
quotequote all
What have you done with the swirlpot / plumbing?

Alan 1209

Original Poster:

157 posts

94 months

Wednesday 4th January 2017
quotequote all
Ive used the header tank from a rover 75, and run the oil cooler feed, which is the lower pipe on the pump outlet to that. the small pipe from the top of the thermostat housing runs to the top pipe on the header forming an air bleed and expansion space. the top hose goes direct to the radiator. The header tank is set up with the centre water level in line with the top of the thermostat.

mk1fan

10,507 posts

224 months

Wednesday 4th January 2017
quotequote all
Alan 1209 said:
Ive used the header tank from a rover 75, and run the oil cooler feed, which is the lower pipe on the pump outlet to that. the small pipe from the top of the thermostat housing runs to the top pipe on the header forming an air bleed and expansion space. the top hose goes direct to the radiator. The header tank is set up with the centre water level in line with the top of the thermostat.
I think I follow. A photo would be very handy.

I have a 'twin swirlpot' set up on one S that feeds the oil/coolant heat exchanger before going into the pump.

I aasume you mean the top hose from the thermostat.

I may well try your layout on the other S as I had been thinking about using a VAG header tank (for no other reason that VAG parts have historically been used on TVRs).

Brithunter

599 posts

87 months

Wednesday 4th January 2017
quotequote all
Very nice work there. Well done.