Thanks for the compliment Mike. Connie and I got a good laugh
wondering if you would accept an answer of "Slick 50 and S.U.
carbs" ... probably not. So... here's the story of the "Plum Pie" :
Maybe best to start with the name - The car # is not actually 314,
but 3.14 - roughly pi. The funnest color Krylon I could buy by the
case is Rich Plum. Result being the "Plum Pie".
April 2004, my friend Tom Britt, let me use his Spit racer for SWMS
[Southwest Motorsport] driving school, knowing full well that he had
a new fish on for the club.
I had a '63 TR4 that I had bought 3 weeks earlier, sitting down the
driveway by the gate. I also had the remains of the 14 Triumphs
hauled out of the mountains. Even I could figure the rest out.
I found the poor old TR in a very roundabout way, sitting in a field
in northern New Mexico. The tags had expired in 1987. The original
owner had given it to his daughter who drove it for a month and then
parked it for reasons I never quite figured out. When I found it,
various mechanical parts had been "liberated" [generator, fuel pump.
hoses, clamps, plug wires etc,.] but it was obviously a pretty much
intact, original car. One tire held air and there was evidence of
every color poly tarp you can imagine. Bought it for $750 and later
received a $50 refund because they couldn't find the title!
The day after my run in Tom's car, I towed it up to the house,
installed a batt., got a siphon to the carbs from a gas can and
sparked it [after a couple of weeks of Marvel in each hole]. Damn
thing started and idled [ thanks to the "liberators" of N.M. for
stealing every ounce of fuel out of it!].
6 weeks later it was ready for it's first outing... I, on the other
hand, was not. After working on it 'till 3am the day of the race, I
went for a couple hours sleep - 4hrs later was too late for the
drivers meeting and I was in no condition to drive... blew that
one!!... Anyway... I made the next race. The car had 68,000 odd miles
on it, steel wheels, street radials and the motor that had survived
in that field for so many years. I ran that motor for a year and a
half while upgrading the rest of he car. October of '05 it won it's
first race [SWMS All British] on that same motor.
Winter of '05/'06 I went to work on the new motor.
Specs:
Crank - Stock cast. Magnafluxed, stress relieved, shot peened,
independently balanced.
Rods - Stock cast. Maged, stress relieved, lightened [approx. 110
grams each] and balanced +/- .5 grams and shot peened
ARP head studs
ARE rod bolts
Pistons/ liners/wrist pins - 87mm Mahle [cast pistons]
Cam - Isky 666 - 486" lift, 286 duration [as I recall]
Lightened cam followers
Custom pushrods [-.115"]
Stock rocker arms, shaft and spring spacers.
All new grade 8 fasteners thru-out.
Compression ratio - 10.6 to 1
Cyl. Head - Used [shaved] head I bought would have been approx. 11.5
to 1 but I liked the porting, so I enlarged the chamber for the
compression I wanted. Stock valve springs with alloy retainers.
Port-matched everything.
Flywheel - Stock cast minus about a 11lb. shave. Independently balanced.
Clutch - Stock Borg & Beck. Independently balanced.
Ignition - Points. I've given up with Pertronix after having two
failures. I have a new Crane Fireball that I've been carrying around
with my spares - it runs so strong with the points I might just stick
with them.
Intake - Stock SU's with [original] early TR4 manifold. Haven't
touched the original needles or jets. Used to run cheapo velocity
stacks from Moss but having had a couple break-off at the flange from
vibration fatigue, I have forsaken them and never noticed any
difference. Only run filters during the worst New Mexico dust storms.
Exhaust - Unknown header that came with a TR3. 2 1/4" pipe in the
original location thru to the back. It has a Supertrapp tip on the
end but I've found that regardless of how big a baffle stack I use,
it really prefers to be open [at the tracks that still allow such].
Lubrication - stock oil pump and pan with an Accusump.
Cooling - Radiator is out of a Kia, Hyundai or some such - don't
remember. But it fits nicely into the space provided and is located
with the original support bars bent to fit. Fully ducted. The only
problem I had with this installation is that the rad inlet is so
small that the water wanted to go thru the water-pump bypass rather
than thru the radiator. Plugging the bypass cured all problems. Even
with the temps we had in Utah, I never even switched on the electric
fan and it never got over 85 deg. C - yes it still has the original
gauge reading centigrade. 6 row oil cooler sits behind the screened-
over left headlight opening [a speaker grill from a 6" SONY is a
perfect fit if installed from the inside].
Stock motor mounts. Trans mount is a stock piece with extra thru-
bolts to make it semi-rigid.
Fuel pump is the square NAPA "clicker" type. Been carrying a nice
rotary pump in my spares but have never seen the need for it.
Seems to make power to about 6200 rpm [at 5500'], goes flat by 6500
but will gladly do 6900+ if I want to forsake power to skip a shift.
Built it totally around Kas's Comp Prep Manual. Only problem is that
it was printed in 1965. No mention of forged internals or DCOE's ...
I'll be sure to get a more recent version soon. Oh yah, I just got
the new book - better read it I guess!
Chassis:
Poly or bronze bushings thru-out. A arm geometry is stock - meaning
no camber adjustment - measures about 1/2 deg neg. Toe-in is about 1/4".
The road springs are what the car left the factory with - perhaps the
years in the field did something to "season" them. Maybe it was the
heat cycles from -10 winter to +110 summer. I don't know but
haven't yet gotten to the point of wanting to upgrade. To drop the
front of the car I simply removed the spacers from the top of the
coils and re-installed them. For the rear I got a bit more creative.
Took the bottom leaf out of each side, installed 3 extra spacer
blocks [per side] between the axle housing and springs and clamped
them back together with longer U-bolts. When the time came to drop it
some more I considered longer shackles but didn't like the idea of
additional side loading that would result. Instead, I took the leaf
springs to my local spring shop and had them de-arched 1 1/2".
The rear tube shock conversion is the only thing that may not be
strictly "vintage legal" in some clubs. Like everything else on the
car, it is somewhat crude but effective. The brackets bolt to the
original shock location and run up inside the fenderwell. The shocks
are located at the bottom to the original mounting plates that have
been swapped from left to right. Rear shocks are KYB GR2, fronts are
Koni Classics.
The rear radius arms made the biggest single "seat of the pants"
improvement I've made and is something I think is often overlooked.
The transformation was amazing in keeping the rear end planted. The
difference is hard to imagine unless you've tried them. Everything
needed came off the shelf of my local speed shop. The bars are 3/4" x
14" swedged tube with heim joints at both ends. At the front they are
mounted to brackets welded to the body mounting outrigger that comes
off the frame toward the back of the doors. The rear heim simply uses
the same [oversized] bolt used for the shock bottom mount.
No rear sway bar. The front bar is 11/16" that came from another TR4
but judging by the welded splice in the middle, I have a hunch it
started life somewhere else.
Rear end has the stock 3.7:1 gears and an open differential. Axles,
hubs and bearing housings have been magnafluxed and get the treatment
every year along with the front hubs and stub axles.
The braking system uses stock hydraulics [original calipers with
fresh O-rings, original wheel cylinders with a light hone and fresh
kits, original single circuit master], Teflon/braided hoses, Brembo
rotors and 240Z drums. The rear lining is some type of Kevlar
composite from TSI and I like them a lot. Can't remember the
manufacturer of the pads, [CGI?] but they also came from Ted. I am
still undecided on how well I like them - For the sake of the Miller
race I removed my questionably legal drilled & slotted rotors and
Hawk pads, installed the Brembos and the TSI pads and bedded them in
on Sheep Lane in front of the track. They seemed to get better
throughout the weekend but I'll have to get back on my home track to
really know how well I like them. Regarding the single circuit master
cylinder - an upgrade is on the front burner. Anyone who has been
behind me knows my lack of faith, proven by the "courtesy pump" I
habitually give the brake pedal before standing on them - I've had
plenty of comments about my brake lights coming on in unexpected
places - No it is not a tactic to confuse my competitors... just self
preservation.
As of last year I had the car in a state where I stopped making
changes to it and concentrated on driving it. During the R&D phase,
every time I made a major change it was like driving a different car
every time out - very hard to get in a consistent "groove". In the
last 5 races here at home [Sandia Motor Sports Park] the Plum Pie and
I have taken 5 consecutive overall vintage wins against all comers -
911's, 914's 2002's, 240Z's, 510's and even the occasional Lotus or
TVR. I am quite proud of that little car!
It should also be mentioned that everything done has been with an eye
toward allowing the car to be brought back to stock if anyone so
desired - I still have every piece of road equipment that the car
came with and the only thing cut was a small flap in the trunk floor
for the fuel line out of the cell. The only thing welded to the car
are the mounting brackets for the radius arms.
So now maybe you all understand my hesitation to be a FoT... It's a
matter of "Don't get me started". Perhaps my real nick-name should be
Long-winded Lunker.
All the best to my new FoT friends,
Greg "Lunker" Hilyer
P.S. I just did the unthinkable - got out the file and added up the
receipts. $10,148.25 is the total including the purchase price of the
car and 2 sets of Panasports [1 new, 1 used]. If I add 10% for the
stuff I may have forgotten and pay myself the princely sum of $0.50
hr. I figure I'm still in it something under $12K.
.
On Jul 5, 2007, at 10:14 PM, Michael Bruner wrote:
> Don't let these Girls and Guys confuse you. We're a fun group as
> long as you tell us your secrets to building a TR4 that can keep up
> with a Chuck Gee Spitfire.
>
>
>
> "Greg \"Lunker\" Hilyer" <lunkercars@earthlink.net> wrote:
> That would be great as I am fairly confused already.
> Greg "Lunker" Hilyer
>
> On Jul 5, 2007, at 8:05 PM, Susan Kahler wrote:
>
> > Oh, no no no. He would be the un-official greeter. And he could
> > convey
> > the info about the non-rules and non-dues to keep up the
> > non-organization of the club.
> >
> > Ernest Husmann wrote:
> >> Would that make Steve the official greeter? Cause the FOT doesn't
> >> have any official types.
> >>
> >> */Susan Kahler /* wrote:
> >>
> >> I think we need to let you welcome newbies to the list more
> >> often! ;)
> >>
> >> Susan :)
> >>
> >> Gt6steve@aol.com wrote:
> >>> Hey Greg! Welcome to the FOT! After you do the Secret Pledge and
> >> memorize
> >>> all 7 versions of the Secret Wink and backsided Handshake we'll
> >> then let you
> >>> in to all the go fast tricks to make TR's run like Spitfires.
> >> Oh, dang, you
> >>> apparently know all that already. Damn, OK; for a mere 29.95 we
> >> can give
> >>> you all the tricks to enhance male performance and improve stock
> >> market appeal.
> >>> But wait, there's more! Never mind, there's not more. This is
> >> just us and
> >>> we'll learn as much from you as we offer. Fair enough? Then
> >> Welcome to the
> >>> FOT!
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >> http://www.aol.com.
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> http://www.team.net/donate.html
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >> --
> >> ***** Oh, I would *kill* for a Nobel Peace Prize! *****
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> http://www.team.net/donate.html
> >>
> >> ehusmann53@yahoo.com
> >> Fot mailing list
> >> Fot@autox.team.net
> >> http://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/fot
> >>
> >>
> >>
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> >
> > --
> > ***** Oh, I would *kill* for a Nobel Peace Prize! *****
> > _______________________________________________
> > http://www.team.net/donate.html
> >
> > lunkercars@earthlink.net
> > Fot mailing list
> > Fot@autox.team.net
> > http://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/fot
> _______________________________________________
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>
> mlbruner53@yahoo.com
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>
>
> Mike Bruner
> TR4A - #612
>
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