Has this happened to you
Discussion
Owned my 2005 T350C since last April and have suffered most of the usual "teething problems" which in most cases have been sorted.
However 2 problems we have experienced here in SA no doubt due to the hot climate:
No1. problem is boiling fuel - no doubt due to the fuel being heated as it travels through the fuel rail - this has become a major problem as the superheated fuel is causing early detonation and loss of power when warm.
To fix this we are trying a modified oil cooler solution - running the fuel line to the front of the car - through the cooler and then back to the fuel rail - my TVR dealer has found an oil cooler that should handle the pressure - hopefully this will help get rid of this problem as at the moment even with a full tank the fuel becomes dangerously hot after about 1 hours driving.
Problem no. 2 is the heat soak from the exhaust heating up the gearlever, handbrake and generally making life hell in the cockpit - I know this is a well known issue with Tam's / T350's however in the sort of temperatures we get in SA - believe me - the car is practically undrivable on some days - even with the (Useless) aircon on.
We have thought of "lagging" the exhaust from the Cats through to the reonators with heat resistant bandage - we have already ceramic coated the branches which has helped but no where near enough.
Anybody got any thoughts / solutions to these issues that we may have missed - any comments will be greatly appreciated.
However 2 problems we have experienced here in SA no doubt due to the hot climate:
No1. problem is boiling fuel - no doubt due to the fuel being heated as it travels through the fuel rail - this has become a major problem as the superheated fuel is causing early detonation and loss of power when warm.
To fix this we are trying a modified oil cooler solution - running the fuel line to the front of the car - through the cooler and then back to the fuel rail - my TVR dealer has found an oil cooler that should handle the pressure - hopefully this will help get rid of this problem as at the moment even with a full tank the fuel becomes dangerously hot after about 1 hours driving.
Problem no. 2 is the heat soak from the exhaust heating up the gearlever, handbrake and generally making life hell in the cockpit - I know this is a well known issue with Tam's / T350's however in the sort of temperatures we get in SA - believe me - the car is practically undrivable on some days - even with the (Useless) aircon on.
We have thought of "lagging" the exhaust from the Cats through to the reonators with heat resistant bandage - we have already ceramic coated the branches which has helped but no where near enough.
Anybody got any thoughts / solutions to these issues that we may have missed - any comments will be greatly appreciated.
mwtryan said:
Owned my 2005 T350C since last April and have suffered most of the usual "teething problems" which in most cases have been sorted.
However 2 problems we have experienced here in SA no doubt due to the hot climate:
No1. problem is boiling fuel - no doubt due to the fuel being heated as it travels through the fuel rail - this has become a major problem as the superheated fuel is causing early detonation and loss of power when warm.
To fix this we are trying a modified oil cooler solution - running the fuel line to the front of the car - through the cooler and then back to the fuel rail - my TVR dealer has found an oil cooler that should handle the pressure - hopefully this will help get rid of this problem as at the moment even with a full tank the fuel becomes dangerously hot after about 1 hours driving.
Problem no. 2 is the heat soak from the exhaust heating up the gearlever, handbrake and generally making life hell in the cockpit - I know this is a well known issue with Tam's / T350's however in the sort of temperatures we get in SA - believe me - the car is practically undrivable on some days - even with the (Useless) aircon on.
We have thought of "lagging" the exhaust from the Cats through to the reonators with heat resistant bandage - we have already ceramic coated the branches which has helped but no where near enough.
Anybody got any thoughts / solutions to these issues that we may have missed - any comments will be greatly appreciated.
TVR had a problem with fuel vapourising on their S range of cars and actually fitted a fuel cooler (it worked). Maybe a cooler designed for fuel rather than oil would be a better idea and I would assume it comes with more appropriately sized connections? Maybe a post on the S forum would advise which part bin it came form?
I can only suggest using a heat retardant wrap on any fuel pipes / fuel rail in the engine bay.
And a lot more insulation (silver reflective) in the gear box tunnel.
Another idea would be to keep the air moving in the tunnel area as I find the heat soak happens in stationary traffic.
The fans in the back of pc's are 12v dc .. ideal for the purpose
And a lot more insulation (silver reflective) in the gear box tunnel.
Another idea would be to keep the air moving in the tunnel area as I find the heat soak happens in stationary traffic.
The fans in the back of pc's are 12v dc .. ideal for the purpose
We thought of wrapping the fuel lines / fuel rail however we are not convinced that this will be enough to solve the problem.
Also we thought of fabricating some kind of "deflctor shield" that would sit behind the rear manifold that can channel the hot air down and somehow circumvent the gearbox housing however this will be a major design and build and possibly be beyond our capabilities - this is really a job for TVR themselves however they are obviously aware of this issue and clearly do not consider it a worthwhile modification - pity!
Inspecting the cars underide closely yesterday we noticed how close the top CAT housing is to the rear of the sump and the lower housing to the g/box - wrapping these will definately make a difference however we are also looking at shrouding the box with a yet to be sourced heat retardent material as well.
In terms of cooling the fuel we are convinced that going the fuel cooler route will be the best way of sorting this out, a cooler has been sorted and we have manufactured custom fuel lines and bezel connectors to do the job. we intend fitting the unit to the underside of the car at the front chassis crossbrace well away from the motor - we have also fabricated a metal mesh cover for protection purposes - fitting this will be easy my only concern at this time will be if this additional travel will affect fuel pressure - cool fuel will be great but useless if the motor does not get the right right amout of fuel, affecting performance.
As we are so far away and really "out on a limb" we are used to finding our own solutions to combat problems like this.
One thing I can say - TVR seem to know very little about the cars they make - it seems that it is left to owners and after market tuners like Austec to come up with "fixes" to sort out their inherent design faults. I am seriously looking at trading up to a Tuscan S in April but will have to consider this carefully as by then it will have taken a year to "sort" the T350 and if similar problems exist with the new Tuscan I certainly would not like to go through that again.
Also we thought of fabricating some kind of "deflctor shield" that would sit behind the rear manifold that can channel the hot air down and somehow circumvent the gearbox housing however this will be a major design and build and possibly be beyond our capabilities - this is really a job for TVR themselves however they are obviously aware of this issue and clearly do not consider it a worthwhile modification - pity!
Inspecting the cars underide closely yesterday we noticed how close the top CAT housing is to the rear of the sump and the lower housing to the g/box - wrapping these will definately make a difference however we are also looking at shrouding the box with a yet to be sourced heat retardent material as well.
In terms of cooling the fuel we are convinced that going the fuel cooler route will be the best way of sorting this out, a cooler has been sorted and we have manufactured custom fuel lines and bezel connectors to do the job. we intend fitting the unit to the underside of the car at the front chassis crossbrace well away from the motor - we have also fabricated a metal mesh cover for protection purposes - fitting this will be easy my only concern at this time will be if this additional travel will affect fuel pressure - cool fuel will be great but useless if the motor does not get the right right amout of fuel, affecting performance.
As we are so far away and really "out on a limb" we are used to finding our own solutions to combat problems like this.
One thing I can say - TVR seem to know very little about the cars they make - it seems that it is left to owners and after market tuners like Austec to come up with "fixes" to sort out their inherent design faults. I am seriously looking at trading up to a Tuscan S in April but will have to consider this carefully as by then it will have taken a year to "sort" the T350 and if similar problems exist with the new Tuscan I certainly would not like to go through that again.
mwtryan said:
We thought of wrapping the fuel lines / fuel rail however we are not convinced that this will be enough to solve the problem.
Also we thought of fabricating some kind of "deflctor shield" that would sit behind the rear manifold that can channel the hot air down and somehow circumvent the gearbox housing however this will be a major design and build and possibly be beyond our capabilities - this is really a job for TVR themselves however they are obviously aware of this issue and clearly do not consider it a worthwhile modification - pity!
Inspecting the cars underide closely yesterday we noticed how close the top CAT housing is to the rear of the sump and the lower housing to the g/box - wrapping these will definately make a difference however we are also looking at shrouding the box with a yet to be sourced heat retardent material as well.
In terms of cooling the fuel we are convinced that going the fuel cooler route will be the best way of sorting this out, a cooler has been sorted and we have manufactured custom fuel lines and bezel connectors to do the job. we intend fitting the unit to the underside of the car at the front chassis crossbrace well away from the motor - we have also fabricated a metal mesh cover for protection purposes - fitting this will be easy my only concern at this time will be if this additional travel will affect fuel pressure - cool fuel will be great but useless if the motor does not get the right right amout of fuel, affecting performance.
As we are so far away and really "out on a limb" we are used to finding our own solutions to combat problems like this.
One thing I can say - TVR seem to know very little about the cars they make - it seems that it is left to owners and after market tuners like Austec to come up with "fixes" to sort out their inherent design faults. I am seriously looking at trading up to a Tuscan S in April but will have to consider this carefully as by then it will have taken a year to "sort" the T350 and if similar problems exist with the new Tuscan I certainly would not like to go through that again.
Fuel pressure won't be a problem.
I personally think your ref to inherant design faults is unfair. If the car was built with export to SA in mind I would maybe agree, but the car was built for use in Western Europe. You chose to take the car out of its design environment by importing it - you defacto elect to inherit problems..........IMHO
None the less, hope you're enjoying it.
>> Edited by Daftlad on Saturday 28th January 08:14
Daftlad said:Aways appreciate your comments daftlad - you have replied to some of my posts in the past with some good advice - and it has been much appreciated.
We thought of wrapping the fuel lines / fuel rail however we are not convinced that this will be enough to solve the problem.
Also we thought of fabricating some kind of "deflctor shield" that would sit behind the rear manifold that can channel the hot air down and somehow circumvent the gearbox housing however this will be a major design and build and possibly be beyond our capabilities - this is really a job for TVR themselves however they are obviously aware of this issue and clearly do not consider it a worthwhile modification - pity!
Inspecting the cars underide closely yesterday we noticed how close the top CAT housing is to the rear of the sump and the lower housing to the g/box - wrapping these will definately make a difference however we are also looking at shrouding the box with a yet to be sourced heat retardent material as well.
In terms of cooling the fuel we are convinced that going the fuel cooler route will be the best way of sorting this out, a cooler has been sorted and we have manufactured custom fuel lines and bezel connectors to do the job. we intend fitting the unit to the underside of the car at the front chassis crossbrace well away from the motor - we have also fabricated a metal mesh cover for protection purposes - fitting this will be easy my only concern at this time will be if this additional travel will affect fuel pressure - cool fuel will be great but useless if the motor does not get the right right amout of fuel, affecting performance.
As we are so far away and really "out on a limb" we are used to finding our own solutions to combat problems like this.
One thing I can say - TVR seem to know very little about the cars they make - it seems that it is left to owners and after market tuners like Austec to come up with "fixes" to sort out their inherent design faults. I am seriously looking at trading up to a Tuscan S in April but will have to consider this carefully as by then it will have taken a year to "sort" the T350 and if similar problems exist with the new Tuscan I certainly would not like to go through that again.
Fuel pressure won't be a problem.
I personally think your ref to inherant design faults is unfair. If the car was built with export to SA in mind I would maybe agree, but the car was built for use in Western Europe. You chose to take the car out of its design environment by importing it - you defacto elect to inherit problems..........IMHO
None the less, hope you're enjoying it.
>> Edited by Daftlad on Saturday 28th January 08:14
HOWEVER - please be aware that my T350 was purchased from a legitimate TVR dealer in SA - we currently have 3 T350's, 1 Tuscan, 1 Tuscan S and 6 or so Chimaeras on the road here, with 1 Sagaris and another Tuscan S currently on the water.
Youré comment about my car being built for western europe is totally unfounded as my car was ordered from new here to my specification AND TVR know about SA's hot conditions / high altitude / crappy fuel etc. PLUS every fault occurring wih the local cars has been reported to TVR for the last year - I can give you a long list of the various problems we have encountered here but not wanting to bore other readers please look up my profile for previous posts.
I toured the factory in late July last year and when I mentioned the problems we are experiencing here with the product the subject was hastly changed by Jason Oxley - my (especially arranged) tour guide.
I absolutely reiterate my earlier comment AND all the problems experienced here have been FULLY reported to the factory during the past year with no REAL HELP or SOLUTIONS coming forth from the factory.
Dont't get me wrong - I like my car and the edgy performance etc. but TVR designers need to live with the product on a daily basis and experience the frustration that most of us experience and make changes to the "inherent design faults" that we all put up with.
Our local mechanic has spoken to a number of UK TVR specialists, including the guy's at Austec and Racing Green who all say the same thing - namely that the factory shows a distinct disinterest in solving these issues.
Please do not think that because we are so far away from Blackpool we are ignorant of what goes on at TVR - I'll wager we are as clued up as anybody in the UK - accept the fact that until Smolensky took over there was a distinct, typically rebellious nature to TVR - and that was cool - however when you are paying this kind of money (in SA same as a Porsche Boxter S and Merc SLK AMG) you do expect a certain level of "daily driveability" which, sadly to date has not been achieved.
I really don't want to bun fight with you daftlad but accept the fact that we are in (Export manufactured) TVR's are driving a potential time bomb and please, any future comments be of a helpful nature.
I think most of us made the incorrect assumption that TVR did not have a dealer in SA. 
As regards helpful info, if you are thinking of any tweaks to optimise T350 suspension for any local conditions or personal preferences, I recommend the designer of T350/Sagaris suspension Neill Anderson who is now a freelance consultant, and can advise at economical rates via the internet! He was very helpful for uprating spec. of mine for occasional trackdays.
www.andersonautomotive.co.uk
As regards helpful info, if you are thinking of any tweaks to optimise T350 suspension for any local conditions or personal preferences, I recommend the designer of T350/Sagaris suspension Neill Anderson who is now a freelance consultant, and can advise at economical rates via the internet! He was very helpful for uprating spec. of mine for occasional trackdays.
www.andersonautomotive.co.uk
tail slide said:Thanks Tailslide, appreciate the tip - will contact Neill for suspension advice. By the way, you folks may be interested to know that we have 3 Chimaeras here that have been modified for track days, one of which is a twin turbo-charged '96 5L! Have seen this car at Kyalami and goes like stink - battles a bit round corners but in a straight line even the modified Porsches fight to keep up.
I think most of us made the incorrect assumption that TVR did not have a dealer in SA.
As regards helpful info, if you are thinking of any tweaks to optimise T350 suspension for any local conditions or personal preferences, I recommend the designer of T350/Sagaris suspension Neill Anderson who is now a freelance consultant, and can advise at economical rates via the internet! He was very helpful for uprating spec. of mine for occasional trackdays.
www.andersonautomotive.co.uk
mwtryan said:
By the way, you folks may be interested to know that we have 3 Chimaeras here that have been modified for track days, one of which is a twin turbo-charged '96 5L! Have seen this car at Kyalami and goes like stink - battles a bit round corners but in a straight line even the modified Porsches fight to keep up.
Excellent mwtryan said:
I really don't want to bun fight with you daftlad but accept the fact that we are in (Export manufactured) TVR's are driving a potential time bomb and please, any future comments be of a helpful nature.
You wont get one. You belive you're right, I belive I am. It's called a difference of opinion, no more than that.
Ozstyle said:No problem for any interested South Africans it's Classic Sportscars situated in Midrand (close to Kyalami) Telephone 011 466 2998.
Hi Mwtryan,
I'm in SA and had no idea that there was a TVR dealer in the state let alone Australia. I would appreciate it if you could provide the dealers details, as I have a Griffith 500 this may come in handy.
thanks,
Ozstyle
They are also the Morgan distributors as well. To my kowledge though there is a Grffith 500 in the country and thats owned by a German guy also called Tim (sorry, forgot to mention this in my previous post) also my mate Nick would never forgive me if I did'nt mention he owns a yellow 2005 Tamora. might be nice to see a TVR presence in Oz though - how many TVR's do you know out there?
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