Autocraft conversions
Discussion
red rose said:
Just had an update from Dave at Autocraft.
Engine and gearbox are back in the car, and they will fire it up tomorrow !
MOT now organised for Saturday morning, so we should be back on the road Sat afternoon.
Now I've just got to find the cheque book ....
Are you the first Autocraft Sp6 rebuild customer about to hit the road?
red rose said:
Just had an update from Dave at Autocraft.
Engine and gearbox are back in the car, and they will fire it up tomorrow !
MOT now organised for Saturday morning, so we should be back on the road Sat afternoon.
Now I've just got to find the cheque book ....
Excellent news Ian, fingers crossed for you on Sat, there is a run(subject to weather
on Sunday) if you want to get some running in mileage done
Dropped my Tuscan off this morning at Autocraft,
After talking it over I've decided to opt for a top and bottom rebuild, inc new lightweight pistons, etc.
I believe there's another Tuscan there for the same refit plus a supercharger! (GH I believe)
I played the game of buying an X-reg Tuscan for 18k and spending the extra cash on trying to get a reliable re-engineered Speed Six.
Only time will tell if it was a better idea that spending 28k in the first place. I'm planning on keeping the car for a while, so figure that the 10k + Vat on the rebuild is about the same as 2-3yrs depreciation on a newer car....but hopefully with more piece of mind.
Hopefully I'll be back on the road in February.
Al.
After talking it over I've decided to opt for a top and bottom rebuild, inc new lightweight pistons, etc.
I believe there's another Tuscan there for the same refit plus a supercharger! (GH I believe)
I played the game of buying an X-reg Tuscan for 18k and spending the extra cash on trying to get a reliable re-engineered Speed Six.
Only time will tell if it was a better idea that spending 28k in the first place. I'm planning on keeping the car for a while, so figure that the 10k + Vat on the rebuild is about the same as 2-3yrs depreciation on a newer car....but hopefully with more piece of mind.
Hopefully I'll be back on the road in February.
Al.
Picked up my car from TVRcraft yesterday !
As well as the “standard” head modifications (bigger valves, valve springs, valve spring retainers, locks, valve stem seals, guides, porting, gas flowing, head studs in place of original bolts, cooling and lubrication modifications), they also replaced the bottom end and main bearings, piston rings and oil pump. The conrods were rebushed, the block line bored and the engine balanced.
I also took the opportunity to have the gearbox reconditioned and a new clutch fitted whilst the car was off the road.
It’s taken a long time to get this far (8 months !), but I am very pleased with the results. The engine seems to be much smoother, and no longer has the top end “knitting needle” rattle.
Obviously it needs to be run in, so I can’t really comment on power but we will do a dyno run once it has clocked a few miles.
I had been worried that the car might have some electrical gremlins having been sitting in my garage with the battery disconnected since February, but the only bug far seems to be a door mirror with a mind of its own.
The only other problem is a dragging clutch. We noticed this when road testing on Saturday, but the guys were not able to resolve it in time. I probably should have left the car with them, but decided to take it away and hope that things would bed in with a few miles. Unfortunately this was wishful thinking and it has not improved. I got my head under the dashboard this morning and took up all the adjustment in the pedal, but made no real improvement, so it will be back to the experts tomorrow. (BTW this is a genuine TVR clutch that I bought a huge expense before TVRcraft sourced their own clutch !).
Will update as things progress !
Ian
PS As the TVR side of the businss has expanded, Dave had decided to use the TVRCraft name, and keep the AutocraftSVE name for their other "bespoke" stuff.
>> Edited by red rose on Monday 7th November 16:20
As well as the “standard” head modifications (bigger valves, valve springs, valve spring retainers, locks, valve stem seals, guides, porting, gas flowing, head studs in place of original bolts, cooling and lubrication modifications), they also replaced the bottom end and main bearings, piston rings and oil pump. The conrods were rebushed, the block line bored and the engine balanced.
I also took the opportunity to have the gearbox reconditioned and a new clutch fitted whilst the car was off the road.
It’s taken a long time to get this far (8 months !), but I am very pleased with the results. The engine seems to be much smoother, and no longer has the top end “knitting needle” rattle.
Obviously it needs to be run in, so I can’t really comment on power but we will do a dyno run once it has clocked a few miles.
I had been worried that the car might have some electrical gremlins having been sitting in my garage with the battery disconnected since February, but the only bug far seems to be a door mirror with a mind of its own.
The only other problem is a dragging clutch. We noticed this when road testing on Saturday, but the guys were not able to resolve it in time. I probably should have left the car with them, but decided to take it away and hope that things would bed in with a few miles. Unfortunately this was wishful thinking and it has not improved. I got my head under the dashboard this morning and took up all the adjustment in the pedal, but made no real improvement, so it will be back to the experts tomorrow. (BTW this is a genuine TVR clutch that I bought a huge expense before TVRcraft sourced their own clutch !).
Will update as things progress !
Ian
PS As the TVR side of the businss has expanded, Dave had decided to use the TVRCraft name, and keep the AutocraftSVE name for their other "bespoke" stuff.
>> Edited by red rose on Monday 7th November 16:20
Hi Ian,
great news that she's finally back on the road - saw your finished engine last week so am very pleased that the re-fit and set up obviously went to plan.
Hope the clutch niggle is easily sorted, guess you've got 1000 miles of running in to do now - I'll be the same - so look forward to hearing progress - you initial observations are encouraging though!
When they're both run in, we must meet up for a
JT
great news that she's finally back on the road - saw your finished engine last week so am very pleased that the re-fit and set up obviously went to plan.
Hope the clutch niggle is easily sorted, guess you've got 1000 miles of running in to do now - I'll be the same - so look forward to hearing progress - you initial observations are encouraging though!
When they're both run in, we must meet up for a
JT
Ian
Good news on the motor, a little sad to hear about the clutch niggle hope it gets sorted good an proper quickly.
Just out of curiosity does your engine still have the pulsation damper on the end of the crank? I never did ask Dave the question whether it would be necessary to retain this item after having had a full bottom end rebuild and balance performed.
Rgds
G
Good news on the motor, a little sad to hear about the clutch niggle hope it gets sorted good an proper quickly.
Just out of curiosity does your engine still have the pulsation damper on the end of the crank? I never did ask Dave the question whether it would be necessary to retain this item after having had a full bottom end rebuild and balance performed.
Rgds
G
TUSC-AL said:
I played the game of buying an X-reg Tuscan for 18k and spending the extra cash on trying to get a reliable re-engineered Speed Six.
Al.
In my opinion a very sensible move. Its exactly what I would recommend having the knowledge I now possess. I hope your chassis and suspension items are in good condition. From what I have seen elswhere corrosion sets in very quickly and especially around the exhaust manifold area. I found on mine that the chassis electrical earth points needed a good coating of grease, this should abate some of the electrical problems others seem to experience over time.
Your motor is in good hands with Dave/Alistair and the chaps at TVRCraft.
Rgds
G
yzf1070 said:
Ian
Good news on the motor, a little sad to hear about the clutch niggle hope it gets sorted good an proper quickly.
Just out of curiosity does your engine still have the pulsation damper on the end of the crank? I never did ask Dave the question whether it would be necessary to retain this item after having had a full bottom end rebuild and balance performed.
Rgds
G
Graham,
The car is now back with TVR craft to have the clutch checked. Hopefully will be sorted tomorrow.
Yes - my car still has the crank damper. Although I have a billet crank the rods are standard, so it was necessary (prudent ?) to retain the damper even after all had been balanced.
BTW, Al Melling has advised use of a 15/50 mineral oil in the Speed 6 and AJP8 engine (not semi syn or synthetic). This proved difficult to obtain and TVR Craft have ordered a consignment from Millers. As an added bonus, it is about half the price of the Mobil 1 that I used previously !
Cheers
Ian
red rose said:
[quote=yzf1070]Ian
BTW, Al Melling has advised use of a 15/50 mineral oil in the Speed 6 and AJP8 engine (not semi syn or synthetic). This proved difficult to obtain and TVR Craft have ordered a consignment from Millers. As an added bonus, it is about half the price of the Mobil 1 that I used previously !
For running in only?
red rose said:
No - for normal use.
That makes interesting reading. I did post a month ago when our Tamora had it's 1K service that our dealer had filled it with 15/50 Mineral Oil. Apparantly this was a result of work done in conjunction with TVR and TVR Power.
At the time they said it was highly likely that the car would run on that oil for the rest of its life.
gazzab said:
[quote=yzf1070]Ian
BTW, Al Melling has advised use of a 15/50 mineral oil in the Speed 6 and AJP8 engine (not semi syn or synthetic). This proved difficult to obtain and TVR Craft have ordered a consignment from Millers. As an added bonus, it is about half the price of the Mobil 1 that I used previously !
For running in only?
I just looked at my notes from the Melling show... "use straight forward 20/50 not synthetic" is what I wrote.
That's basically Duckhams or Castrol GTX!? (showing my age now)
I used to run the Chimaera on Castrol GTX Magnatec, but had the oil and filter changed every 3k - afaik the cam is still ok after 73k, where I've heard of some with worn cam lobes in less than half that mileage. As far as looking after your car goes, you can do the engine no greater service than keeping it in nice clean oil.
Steve.
Steve.
Steve_T said:
I used to run the Chimaera on Castrol GTX Magnatec, but had the oil and filter changed every 3k - afaik the cam is still ok after 73k, where I've heard of some with worn cam lobes in less than half that mileage. As far as looking after your car goes, you can do the engine no greater service than keeping it in nice clean oil.
Steve.
Castrol GTX Magnatec is a semi-synthetic oil, I was advised to use this in the Tuscan instead of the fully synthetic Castrol RS10W60 as this is only any benfit if the car is used just for track days.Although since switching to this oil consumption is virtually zero so will now be changed twice a year.
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