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Triumph TR6 - Parts II

I gotta get a new water pump AND a new harmonic damper (sic).
Racetorations has an alloy pump housing and 6 vane impeller which along with an alloy main housing that holds the water pump and the thermostat comes to about $500US!! Pricey.

Richard Good markets an alloy dampener for about $900US.

These aluminum alloy parts certainly lighten the load and offer a leveraged effect high on the front of the engine and the rotating mass, but they also seriously lighten the pocketbook.

Anyone have any experience/comments/suggestions with/about these improvements/innovations? I'm looking for some analysis of net value here.

Thanks.
db
Doug Baker

Hi Doug

I bought the alloy water pump housing when I rebuilt my engine - the old cast iron one was in bad shape, or so I told myself, to justify the expense... I got it from Rimmer Bros on a visit to England, and with no tax and no shipping it was about $100, which seemed reasonable. From what I understand, there is only one manufacturer of these housings.

The housing is certainly a lot lighter than the original, but it gave me a huge headache due to the fine threads used for the thermostat housing and pump mounting. The pump mounting studs were the worst - when tightening the nuts onto the studs, the studs pulled out of the housing with no more than finger pressure on a stubby spanner - nowhere near enough torque to seal the joint. I managed to get the threads fixed with an epoxy thread repair kit - not ideal, but I couldn't see a way to helicoil because the material is so thin at this point (though this may be possible). I also had a bad thread on the back, where the heater pipe attaches, but I was assured that this was a one-off. Rimmer Bros offered to replace it if I would just send them back the defective one and pay postage for the replacement - it was a lot cheaper to take it to a machine shop and have them fix the thread.

I don't know anything about the alloy front pulley, but I found that using Rick Patton's fan eliminator and a Fidanza flywheel has made the engine spin up a lot more quickly than the original setup, without giving any problems due to stalling. Might be handy to have even lower rotating mass if you are looking at high revs? I set my engine up to give decent torque at low revs and I don't really rev it very high - I usually have my 4 year old daughter with me when I drive anyway, and if I go too fast she might drop her ice cream on the nice new carpet...

Cheers
Alistair
A Hewitt

Alistair,
Your comments and experience are much appreciated. Had not considered the aluminum not holding the studs well. That's a bummer.
I have an alloy flywheel (9# vs 31# stock)and have looked to lightening the rotating mass wherever I could and it made sense. Guess for now, I'll make do with cast iron!! I don't know where my torque and power's gonna be. With a CR of 9:1, light flywheel and BPNW's 270 cam, I'm hoping to get some increase in output in the 2000-5500 range, maybe lower AND higher. If I was Steve Pike, I'd know what to expect, but I'm just doing and hoping for the best outcome:-)
Doug Baker

There is some question if thew extra vane adds too much cavitation in the flow
DON KELLY

Don,
The advertisement I saw touted that the 6 canted vanes reduced or eliminated cavitation prevalent with the 4 straight vanes, but what do I know. Never been inside a water pump when it was pumping:-)
db
Doug Baker

This thread was discussed between 05/08/2009 and 06/08/2009

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