self servicing tips and tricks

[matt-man]

Hi all.

I have recently bought a tuscan and plan to do as much of the work myself as I can. I've worked on all sorts of cars before,mainly older stuff.

Anyhow, wondered if there were any tips or tricks? Firstly for the normal service,what's the best way to get as much oil as possible out? Also what oil do people reccomended? I've seen a few types mentioned.

For the shim service (mine was 12k serviced 2500 miles ago but I really want to get in there and check soon for piece of mind) where do you reccomended to get the best shims from?

Finally if anyone has experience and has documented it or wouldn't mind a Chinwag about it that would be great!

Thanks in advance

[m4tti]

I bought a shim kit to do mine.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Prox-Valve-Shim-10mm-Motoc...

As for oil, you'll probably be told to use 10-40 semi synthetic.. Don't ask why because no one will be able to tell you why.

Personally I use a decent quality Ester Synthetic

Edited by m4tti on Tuesday 30th September 09:05

[Getsis]

Some of these kits do not have the correct rockwell hardness for a speed 6 engine (I forget what it was). fine for most bikes engines but not a car.

[m4tti]

Getsis said:

Some of these kits do not have the correct rockwell hardness for a speed 6 engine (I forget what it was). fine for most bikes engines but not a car.

Who told you that.. I think youll find thats garbage. The shims in that Prox kit are made using a powder metalurgy process just like virtually all other shim.

Edited by m4tti on Tuesday 30th September 10:28

[coetzeeh]

Do a search and you will find threads where shims of questionable quality found their way into SP 6 engines. Well documented and discussed here.

To be safe I would only buy from reputable dealers.

[m4tti]

coetzeeh said:

Do a search and you will find threads where shims of questionable quality found their way into SP 6 engines. Well documented and discussed here.

To be safe I would only buy from reputable dealers.

Again prove it. They were questioned by a specialist who sells shims, and just like the semi synth oil, its not well documented or explained. the explanation given on the thread I recall was also flimsy seing as the bike will be running at around 5k rpm more.

And like I said they will be made using the same process. It wouldn't be cost effective to do it any other way now.

Its like the X-Files the truth is out there.. its just knowing where to find it.

Edited by m4tti on Tuesday 30th September 10:53

Edited by m4tti on Tuesday 30th September 11:16

[coetzeeh]

m4tti said:

coetzeeh said:

Do a search and you will find threads where shims of questionable quality found their way into SP 6 engines. Well documented and discussed here.

To be safe I would only buy from reputable dealers.

And like I said they will be made using the same process. It wouldn't be cost effective to do it any other way now.

prove it.

[m4tti]

coetzeeh said:

prove it.

Your the one disputing it...

But anyway.. kit from TVR supplier

http://www.thetvrshop.com/ProductsDetail.asp?PartN...

Kit for KTM

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Prox-Valve-Shim-10mm-Motoc...


Google the words shim and construction.

Uhh do you actually own a speed six.. You seem to pop up on a lot of these threads, but have a Griffith in your profile.

[m4tti]

Matt-Man.. feel free to pm me any queries.

I also have a speed six head on the bench with the shims (linked to above) installed with many thousand miles use.... and not a mark on them.

[twinreal]

I think the truth about the shims is somewhere between....
Maybe there are some shims out there with poor quality - i've seen the pic that Dom posted and this shim was definately not ok - but generally i would bet the ktm shims are identically with the ones from the known tvr dealers. Even the box is the same.
On the other hand, isn't the valve spring load of the speed six higher than of a motorbike ? One can say that the shims have to be harder then... ?

Anyway, i'm using the "original" kit from the tvr dealers, but many others i know are using the ktm shims and their engines are still running well and i've not heard anything of worn shims up to now. So i would use them myself as well.

[Getsis]

m4tti said:

Who told you that.. I think youll find thats garbage. The shims in that Prox kit are made using a powder metalurgy process just like virtually all other shim.

Edited by m4tti on Tuesday 30th September 10:28

Send me a shim from this kit and I will do a rockwell test on it and an old shim I have from a speed 6 engine and lets see if there is a difference in the hardness values.

Send an email to "g e t s i s at hot mail dot com" and I will email you the address to post it to.

[twinreal]

Getsis said:

Send me a shim from this kit and I will do a rockwell test on it and an old shim I have from a speed 6 engine and lets see if there is a difference in the hardness values.

Send an email to "g e t s i s at hot mail dot com" and I will email you the address to post it to.

There is a chap in the german tvr forum (Helmut) who did this test. In the end both shims had nearly the same hardness.

[GeminiJS]

Hi Matt

Looks like you have started something now. I bought a complete boxed set of shims from Clever Trevor to be safe as I didn't want to risk any issues. I think I paid about £70 but on the basis I was saving a lot of money doing the job myself and knowing it was done correct I thought this was money well spent. My Sp6 has now done 32000 and still original not noisy and uses no oil. Since I bought the Sag 5 years ago I have done 12000 mls and have used Carlube Triple R 5W40 Fully Synthetic. I buy this on Ebay for around £25 for 5L. To drain the maximum oil I remove the sump plug, the oil tank plug and the gauze filter from return pipe to the oil tank plus the main filter and jack the car in the direction of maximum oil drainage. At same time I usually check the shims so the cam cover is off and therefore I soak up any additional old oil from the head. Of course I have warmed up the engine first so the oil is thinner.

Regards - John

[clive f]

matt-man, a good investment is Graham Varley`s speed 6 bible, invaluable if you are able to service the car yourself.

http://www.varleyhyd.com/FJ062.asp

[5.0ltr]

clive f said:

matt-man, a good investment is Graham Varley`s speed 6 bible, invaluable if you are able to service the car yourself.

http://www.varleyhyd.com/FJ062.asp

Does it explain shim removal from cylinder Cliff?

[clive f]

5.0ltr said:

Does it explain shim removal from cylinder Cliff?

always lurking in the wings,

no it doesn't Bob

[coetzeeh]

m4tti said:

Uhh do you actually own a speed six.. You seem to pop up on a lot of these threads, but have a Griffith in your profile.

Your point being?

No I don't, the Griffith is gone too.

[m4tti]

coetzeeh said:

Your point being?

No I don't, the Griffith is gone too.

Point being that this thread was started by someone asking for advice from those who have serviced a speed six. As clearly (if I'm not misinterpreting the above) you haven't, your contribution added little value as you have no first hand experience.

What you were alluding to was a thread started by someone else where no context was given, so it will never be clear whether that shim failed due to failure in its manufacturing process or another seperate variable. Hence why I called it out and pointed out that I didn't believe the shims would deviate as the manufacturing process predominantly used would dictate they are much of a muchness

Too many threads get diluted with hear say.

Edited by m4tti on Wednesday 1st October 08:49

[matt-man]

Looks like a stirred a little hornets nest there...!

Some very interesting tips there! Thanks!

I'll get one of those shim kits and open it up once the weather starts to turn..don't think we have much good weather left.

Plug wise-once I get them out I'll put back what's in it but again anyone have a recommendation? Its been discussed a lot with rv8 engines which I followed with interest for my other tvr.

What's the right plug gap too?I didn't use to check them but I've recently noticed that they are not quite what they should be out the box.

Cheers !

[clive f]

plug gap from memory 1mm or 39thou, quite big.