Best place for a recommission and a bit of engine work?

[Murph7355]

My Griffith has been off the road since having kids - no time to use it. So it's been in the garage for around 8yrs without turning a wheel.

Boys are now starting to get interested in the cars so am going to look to get the Griffith back on the road.

Which places would people recommend be used for a general recommission of the car? I also want to get some engine work done - never been totally happy with the power delivery, lots of shunt despite a good mapping session. Think it could probably do with a milder cam. Would ideally want to get that sorted at the same time and place.

Recommendations gratefully received - location not really important as will need to get the car trailered there regardless.

[Murph7355]

Thanks all. Will give both a call/email.

[Murph7355]

Mr.Grooler said:

8 years! I can sympathise though!

I am looking forward to your post in a few weeks’ time “I’ve driven my Griff again and it’s amazing” Share some photos!

I have a Caterham 7 in the same position 2 seaters, new kids and lack of time don't mix that well.

Boys are now 5 and 8 and really showing an interest in cars, so time. To encourage it more. Not quite sure how I'll juggle taking them out yet - will cross that bridge later.

Looks like it could be more than a few weeks away though as places are busy. Regardless I'll post photos and a breakdown of what was needed once done

[Murph7355]

North Essex

Have also dropped a line to Python in Colchester.

Talking to all the guys above - on a positive note all are very busy, which I take as a good sign. The downside being that this might mean not getting the car back on the road until spring.

But in the scheme of things that's not an issue

Thanks everyone for input thus far - keep it coming.

Have seen a Griff and a Chim out and about recently...looking forward to getting mine back up and running now

[Murph7355]

Mr.Grooler said:

There's an obvious answer there if your family is 4 of you, albeit less practical... get the Caterham back up and running too and Mrs.Murph takes one lad in one car while you take the other in the other car

Or get a Cerbera too!

That may end up being the solution. Though she can't drive the 7 (moulded seat and I'm a foot taller than she is) so I'll miss out on the Griff...

The current alternative my mind is favouring is that the best behaved kid gets his choice for the week.... (The other goes in the Volvo with mum). Should ha e angelic offspring by this time next year!

First world problems I know

(Cerberas are lovely cars but not for me. Am lucky to have other stuff I can squeeze both the kids in which were easy to make a case for... Cerb less so).

[Murph7355]

Resurrection on this...

I'm going with TVRSSW for this work.

May use one of the closer suggestions when I get into routine servicing mode.

Thanks to all for the suggestions above.

Car will hopefully be going down in a few weeks. No rush to get it back - will be targeting an MOT for around Easter, plan being to just get the car taxed for 6mths a year

(Caterham is also out from under cover...I'll spanner that one myself - mostly - and get the boys involved).

Should be a fun summer next year

[Murph7355]

Car is now with Colin and Tina.

New battery and tyres fitted. A few bits in the electrics definitely not working but in theory nothing major. Fuel leak when the pump starts - pipes will need changing as expected. Various other definite odds and ends.

First step will be to generate the list of fixes and ball park prices. Will also need to decide on the cam I want in it as the H404 in there now is not good for a road car (Stealth is the current favourite - suggestions welcomed).

Updates as things progress.

Couple of quick and dirty photos. Superficially looks pretty good to say it's been stood for 8yrs. And damn do these things look good for a 25yr+ old design.

[Murph7355]

QBee said:

Don't forget to give your tyres some attention.
From what you have said they have been on the car for at lest 8 years, possibly a lot longer.
They lose their suppleness and hence grip after 6 years.
So you might get a nasty surprise when having fun.

New Michelin Pilot Sport 4 already fitted (thread of same title on here ).

[Murph7355]

tivver500 said:

When Col rebuilt my engine (after the crank nose got worn down...) he fitted stealth cams.
He reckons that they perform very well and I take his word for it (as I only have experience of my Griff) and he can compare mine against all the other cars he drives. It's certainly not lacking in power and has a reasonably flat torque curve from about 2000rpm which makes it very 'usable'.

Enjoy it when you get back on the road

Thanks for this.

Out of interest, do you know what numbers your engine made (understanding fully that all rolling roads are different!)...and also the rest of your engine spec?

With the H404 cam in mine made 320bhp, but was about as cultured as Chubby Brown when it came to road manners. And hence needs changing. Not having any shunt would be nice to start with, even if it means sacrificing a bit of power

[Murph7355]

spitfire4v8 said:

^^ something else wrong if it only made 320hp too .. h404 in a tvr 5 litre is 350plus hp all day long. A stealth gets you to 340-350 and the h404 is higher hp than that.

Mark Adams was the last to have a go at mapping it and was certain the cam was the challenge (pretty sure the condition of the cam was checked at the time). The Stealth cam was recommended at that point.

Manners were better than prior to the session but there was still shunt (annoyingly this time at 70-80mph in 5th). Pulled like a train when running through the gears etc - absolute numbers I'm not that bothered with. Rolling roads vary etc so who knows. But the manners were the issue.

Engine has single 72mm plenum, ACT exhaust and an Omex 710 ECU.

I have very positive experience of Emerald ECUs in my Caterham. So that may be a route later.

Will see where we get to.

[Murph7355]

When given help on here I like to bring things to a conclusion So here goes...

Picked the car up last week!

First things first, Col and Tina at TVRSSW have been fab. A pleasure to deal with, with decent updates all the way through the process and answering all manner of banal questions/listening to requests.

The car was sent to them on the basis that there was no rush and to fit it in When other works allowed. A number of unforeseen issues (out of everyone's control) also saw to delay things.

Anyway, some details...

I have itemised lists of every piece of work done on the car. I've broken them down into rough categories - general servicing/getting it back on the road after being laid up for 8-9yrs, and then "upgrades". Bits of the car that I was never really happy with and wanted to get sorted. (I'm not going to post costs up here...should my OH ever have need to log on here it could prove even more expensive Am happy to give broad input offline if people are considering similar though).

• Servicing

Considering how long the car has been sat unused, the cost for this was very reasonable.

- 12k service carried out (good way to find out what needed doing too)
- leaking fuel system drained and all hoses replaced
- clutch master cylinder replaced
- alternator replaced
- brake flexi hoses replaced
- both electric windows sorted
- speedo sensor replaced
- a few odds and ends reglued
- a few electrical connections sorted (this proved to be a common theme!)
- new tyres (Michelin Pilot Sport 4S are great tyres!)...I sorted these before sending it to be fair. But they really deserve a place under "upgrades"
- MOT (!)

And last, but by no means least (in every respect!), the aircon.

This proved a massive challenge to sort, needing parts that aren't readily available and a bunch of electrical issues sorting. The whole cabin cooling and heating system had always been a bit of an enigma to me and the various dials never really seemed to do very much.

They now work, though to be perfectly honest I'm not sure how ultimately useful/effective they really are

On the (incredibly hot) drive home (~220 miles), including getting stuck in roadworks I was convinced the system wasn't actually working. However testing over the last week has shown the system does issue cool air - I'll reserve the word "cold" for the time being!

I think part of the "problem" here is how hot it's been. The aircon struggles to battle ambients and, of course, one shouldn't try and cool the outside world! (The whiffs of cold air around your legs are nice though when they make it there).

At the risk of getting pelters I think it also underscores the wisdom/futility of a convertible in the height of summer (of which more later).

Anyway, I cannot stand things not working, and now this does. The dials do something and lights come on and off when they're pressed so from that perspective, it's a success

• Upgrades

1. Engine

I mentioned at the start that the engine had never been great. On full power it was a beast, but suffered really, really bad shunting when not fully on it.

The cam was replaced with a Stealth cam. Adjustable pushrods have been put in. Cats have been put into the system too to ease any MOT headaches (it still sounds like thunder!). And the Omex has been fully remapped.

I've posted power/torque curves below...



The dyno chart had two axes for power and torque, hence I've roughly transposed them into Excel here.

I've had cause to get into plenty of details with engine mapping and dyno's in the past, so am not fussed about the outright numbers shown. They thing for me in doing this was to remove shunting and that is now 99% gone. The 1% feels largely down to the way the throttle works/I interact with it...so it's not 100% perfect, but is an infinite improvement and a decent compromise.

It feels like it still pulls as strongly as it did before, possibly even stronger as it pulls harder lower down. And the car will pull from tickover in any gear.

It's a little lumpier when cold, but I 'm also OK with that. It eases after a few miles.

I think I made a comment on another thread (the supercharge/turbocharge one)...but why anyone would want more power in one of these I do not know

So I now have an engine that allows you to be lazy if so desired, and is nice driven that way...but that picks up and goes if you want to find out where the bulkhead is with your right foot.

1. Dash

Along with the aircon dials not seeming to do much, I was never happy with the various ali' switches in the dash. They never felt very nice to use as they wobbled when pressed and I was convinced they were going to end up pushed into the dash and falling behind

So I had a look round for alternatives and went with some that "clamp" to the dash.

The dash panel itself, once removed, was showing signs of wear. I could have left this, but decided to get it changed while everything was in bits. Also had the warning lights all changed to LEDs.

This work threw up a number of electrical issues to be traced and fixed. And once everything was put back, it was secured more firmly, including things around it like the steering cowl.

A couple of photos below...





Whilst these changes haven't made a massive difference to the way the interior looks, it feels so much nicer/higher quality to use (and from sitting in other TVRs over the years, I always considered mine to be well put together previously).

(The phone holder is a cheap way of me getting modern tech in the car...if anyone has hints on tightening up vent outlets and/or other phone mounting ideas let me know...I'm half tempted to change the head unit for a more up to date one - Pioneer do one with an integral phone holder - but at the moment am electing to stop spending and drive it ).





And that's pretty much that.

The car's extremely visceral to drive. It's very loud (a nice noise) and goes like stink in absolutely any gear, getting up to big speeds really quickly. I'm still adjusting to it having not driven it for a long time, and even when I had it wasn't running nicely.

It's amazing how different the car is to the other cars I've owned in the intervening period. Utterly exhausting in this weather - as mentioned above, I'm not sure convertibles in the height of summer are an especially "pleasurable" experience, especially for bald blokes who cannot stand sun cream. To be half way sensible you need to wear long sleeves, trousers and a hat, and at that point the heat really makes things hard work. Whisper it, but I'm looking forward to autumn/spring.

The car demands concentration, especially on bumpy b-roads. The more I drive it, the more confidence it will instil....but it's clear that liberties should not be taken (another thing on the list of maybes is that I think my front wheels are at least an inch too wide...I may look at changing these).

At the end of every drive thus far I think the best word I can use is "wired". Every sense feels like it's had a work out. (And at the beginning of every drive I always make sure my phone is on as there's still that slight doubt it might cause me grief Karma kicked me on this when I took the 911 out instead of the Griff and it threw a check engine light . Again, experience will help calm nerves. I hope!).

And perhaps the best two experiences thus far are why I got it recommissioned...my two boys.

My 6yr old threw his hands up in the air on full acceleration and had the biggest smile that never left his face. There is only one car he wants picking up from school in now.

My eldest simply went very quiet He's not been picked up in it yet (been off school) but this will also be the car of choice for him too.

A couple of quick additional photos of an uncleaned car. I'll no doubt be posting more regularly in here in the future. Meanwhile thanks to all those who offered suggestions and advice. The Griff is back!

[Murph7355]

Classic Chim said:

Everything was going very well until the unclean car photos

Shocking.
Lovely looking car.


Slowly home in with the car. You have identified front wheels or tyres might be too wide which is interesting.
It’s a car with such a light footprint you do want to avoid too wide unless the compound is soft.

Compared to the handling more modern tech involving 1000’s of miles testing with a tyre company etc a decent top range set of shocks for these with a good geo set up and even corners weighting is very cheap really so well worth using someone like Matt Smith Sportscars or any of the good Tvr centres should set it up well. It’s your best shot at it anyway.

That's clean for my cars

On the wheels/tyres, I ended up down a tyre size front and rear and thus far haven't noticed any negative difference. The fronts are a squeeze onto this width rim though IMO. And narrower wheels obviously weigh less so there'd be benefit there.

I'll definitely look into geo and corner weighting (makes a huge difference on Caterhams so can easily see big benefit on the Griff). Though the handling isn't bad.