[TR] Triumph Stag

[davgil at aol.com]

Randall,
It sounds like you should have a valid warranty claim.  Why don't you take
your Stag back to the dealer and let them deal with that warped head.
David Gill
1976 TR6





essage: 1
ate: Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:16:56 +0000 (GMT)
rom: John Macartney <macartney.john at yahoo.co.uk>
ubject: Re: [TR] FW: 73 Triumph Stag for sale in Virginia USA
o: Randall <tr3driver at ca.rr.com>, triumphs at autox.team.net,
   "Autojumble at Autox. Team. Net" <autojumble at autox.team.net>
essage-ID: <142578.87916.qm at web28310.mail.ukl.yahoo.com>
ontent-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Further to Randall's detailed response on this issue, it's certainly true
he factory undertook some detailed investigation about Stag reliability
roblems in the US - but we had much the same difficulties on overheating in
he UK and Europe as well, with very much the same results.
hile Randall
overed some points that were remedied for the Mk 2 Stag V8, he omitted to
ention (maybe he was unaware?) that the prime reason for cylinder head
istortion falls at the door of Standard-Triumph's purchasing department and
ot that of Engineering. Purchasing, in its never ending pursuit for economies
f scale specified a lower grade alloy from Birmid and it did this without
ecourse to Engineering for its prior approval. I've known of this fact for a
umber of years but it was confirmed when I recently met and had a long
iscussion with Gordon Birtwhistle who was S-T's Senior Test Driver. Gordon
rove several of the very limited Stag prototypes for several tens of
housands of miles in a number of different climatic conditions without any
ooling problems at all.
ne of the points Gordon did raise in our discussion
as that many of the cooling problems in later production cars were the direct
esult of blocked coolant passages in the cylinder block caused by chunks of
he original casting cores still in there and not removed by production
peratives! That in itself is more than convincing proof as I know several
wners who have discovered the same when rebuilding their engines. On top of
hat, when Joe Pawlak was rebuilding the engine for "uncle jack," he removed a
mall 'tree' of core which he showed me when I visited his home mid-way
hrough the Trans-America Charity Drive last year. At the time of "uj's"
ngine teardown, there was evidence of overheating and a blown headgasket on
he same side of the crankcase as Joe found the sandcore! Perhaps it's worth
entioning that throughout that 15,000 mile trip last year, there were only
wo occasions when the engine temp gave me cause for concern and that was
nly
when it was 3/4 across the scale. The first was on a stinking hot day in
arly July when I was stuck in a queue to cross into Canada and the second was
n heavy traffic on an even stinkingly hotter day in San Francisco. But
hroughout the drive itself and especially in the southern states - Florida,
labama, Texas, New Mexico and California, the engine temp stayed stubbornly
t mid-point on the gauge - even when we were climbing Pike's Peak, CO at full
ower and at +12,000 feet ASOL. Perhaps if we'd had an electric fan with more
scooping' on its blades, those two isolated problems at the Frontier and in
-F might have been avoided?
inally, "why didn't the Stag sell well in the
S?" Quite apart from the coolant issues aforesaid, it was just too expensive
nd having been on sale in the UK and Europe a year before US release, too
any of its early and copiously repeated problems were already known and
idely reported in the press, so probably the car didn't have a chance against
he Benz Coupe at which it was aimed for the US market? FWIW, the Stag and its
wo saloon counterparts (2000 and 2500PI) are still my favourites and IMHO,
he best cars the company made post-war. They're certainly the cars that
enerated the most pre-tax profits for the company after the demise and sale
f the Ferguson tractor business to Massey Harris.
Jonmac