TR6 Opinions: best way to get 150hp TR6?

[MTribe]

OK, I finally had a chance to go through all the dyno charts and poke around. The racestorations stuff is beautiful!

It looked to me like the superchargers were around 175hp, and the only other ones up at 150 were triple carbs with a 10.5 compression ratio.

Anyone have a sense of how far a 9.5CR triple stromberg would get you? Someone mentioned 140?

 

[MTribe]

.
A supercharged or turbo car would be my choice if you can spend the money. 9.5 compression is high with a iron head, with 6 lbs of boost and water/methanol injection and or a good intercooler you might be OK with pump gas.

TRED--your car is insane!! What a project. Clarification... when you say 9.5CR is high with an iron head, so you mean for supercharging, when when you're on the bottle too?

I think I'm going to avoid the bottle since I'm not drag racing, but I'm curious what you think of mild supercharger boost into a 9.5CR TR6 motor...

 

[TRED]

I really don't know how much boost you can run on pump gas, with 9.5 to 1 If you plan to race the car and run good gas and a intercooler you could make a lot of power. I really think turbos are the way to go, but there is a bunch of extra stuff to deal with on a turbo car. But for some reason turbo motors can make huge power and not break with parts that would fail using other methods.

 

[pjsmetana]

Are there rules you need to follow? A small shot of nitrous at full throttle would be the easiest way to get 150HP. A 50 hp shot of nitrous and a 10 lb bottle should get you about 250 plus seconds of use, or a 20 lb bottle for double that.
A nitrous car is also bone stock till you hit the button.

Bone stock? Maybe physically, but you have to retard the timing, narrow the plug gap, use colder plugs, and so on... rendering the car with less power till you hit the button, which can ONLY be done under full throttle. Poor mans Horse Power (Nitrous) is not the way to go by any means. Its fine if your drag racing and your turbo/SC just isn't enough and you need that extra edge. But otherwise, nitrous is just trouble.

 

[poolboy]

"Anyone have a sense of how far a 9.5CR triple stromberg would get you? Someone mentioned 140?
_________________________

Here's a triple ZS, GP2, 9.5:1.
The triple zs may not have been mentioned on his graph but they are there. I know.
https://www.6-pack.org/sixpack//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=379&Itemid=2

 

[M_Pied_Lourd]

Don,

Projector beam driving light is my guess

Cheers,
Tush

 

[TRED]

I should have said the car can <span style="text-decoration: underline">drive</span> like bone stock when not using the nitrous. To use nitrous you are right about timing and colder plugs, but a MSD box with timing retard takes care of most problems. High octane gas is required if you use much nitrous but if your racing thats not a big deal.

 

[SpitBang]

150hp 'should' be reasonably easy to get from a TR6 if you bring it up to European spec, though I would advise a EFI system such as Megasquirt instead of Lucas PI for easier tuning.

By means of an example, I am getting 125hp from my (two liter) GT6+ engine, with stock cam and head, with a re-worked head I should be hitting around 150hp.
The difference I have from stock is the well designed and built exhaust headers, Lucas mechanical injection (PI) re-calibrated for the two liter engine and Megajolt for the ignition.

 

[Brosky]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]Anyone have a sense of how far a 9.5CR triple stromberg would get you?[/QUOTE]

I will give you that exact data in May, but I can tell you that without a cam and other work, it won't be much. This time I have a completely rebuilt engine with the TH5 cam, headers, reworked dizzy, triple ZS, aluminum flywheel, aluminum rad with no fan on engine, and even the CV joint axles which should help with a rear wheel dyno.

I really do not expect to be above 130, but my car goes like a bat out of heck and is very streetable, so I'm happy.

 

[tdskip]

[broken_record_on] The great thing about suspensions and brake mods is that they won't break your drivetrain and are easily reversible. I remember having to flash my lights and lay on the horn to make sure the Corvettes and M3s knew I was about to pass them in my Nissan SE-R, and that solely a function of a predictably handling car and youthful willingness to explore the inner workings of a big insurance claim incurred at a race track. So going fast in a rally in the NorCal countryside is more about carrying speed than having a certain amount of HP. [broken_record_off]

Now all of that said, it's you car and do whatever makes you happy!

 

[poolboy]

Hey Tom, and I bet you can cite more than a few more examples of cars with a lot less HP, upgraded suspension and skilled drivers, running circles around more powerful cars with so so drivers.

 

[DanB]

How about 200 HP:

https://www.britishv8.org/Triumph/DaleKnapke.htm

 

[MTribe]

[broken_record_on] The great thing about suspensions and brake mods is that they won't break your drivetrain and are easily reversible. I remember having to flash my lights and lay on the horn to make sure the Corvettes and M3s knew I was about to pass them in my Nissan SE-R, and that solely a function of a predictably handling car and youthful willingness to explore the inner workings of a big insurance claim incurred at a race track. So going fast in a rally in the NorCal countryside is more about carrying speed than having a certain amount of HP. [broken_record_off]

Yeah I'm looking forward to suspension too. I haven't had a chance to do enough searching yet to responsibly solicit opinions, but keep an eye out for a thread on that topic when I have...

With my experience in low HP cars on track and in autox, couldn't agree more with focusing on turning the car. In fact I think a lower HP car is better for learning since you don't have the benefit of just mashing the pedal in the straights to make up for lack of beauty in the turns, where actual skill is required. Throw in a peaky motor (like a high-revving 4, not TR6), and the forced learning is even more apparent in autox since losing speed in the turns means a lot less power out of them!

In parallel, I do want more power out of the TR6, and would like to experience the car at 150HP, part because the drivetrain was designed for at least that and part because I'm just curious to experience the car all those lucky brits had with their PI all these years...

The irony is that I'm extremely cautious on the open road and don't push too hard out there anyway, so maybe this is cerebral exercise for me. Though I love the idea of autoxing if I can sharpen things up a bit.

 

[MTribe]

150hp 'should' be reasonably easy to get from a TR6 if you bring it up to European spec, though I would advise a EFI system such as Megasquirt instead of Lucas PI for easier tuning.

Beautiful GT6! That must be a blast. Thanks for the thoughts and posting... where did source your PI system?

 

[Brosky]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]In parallel, I do want more power out of the TR6, and would like to experience the car at 150HP, part because the drivetrain was designed for at least that[/QUOTE]

Was it really? Maybe when they were new, but not at 35-40 years old unless you go Ratco.

 

[SpitBang]

Beautiful GT6! That must be a blast. Thanks for the thoughts and posting... where did source your PI system?

Ta, it is kind of fun

This old PI stuff is quite easy to source in the UK, but the clever part, the metering unit, was sourced through the afore mentioned Gareth Thomas. Metering units for the 2.5 liter engines can be found through a number of suppliers here in the UK. Though I guess there may be other people in Europe and Australia who can re-furbish and calibrate metering units.

I guess you'd be looking at around 250GBP for a complete PI kit, which would then need the metering unit and injectors re-furbished to make sure it works out of the box. Then there would of course be the shipping costs, which is why I advised a EFI system as it can be cheaper/easier to source the parts.

Someone I know has made a EFI system for their Vitesse, which is kink of interesting to see Megasquirt EFI conversion

 

[tr6lover]

spitbang, where did you buy your header from?
Randy

 

[LfmTR4]

Hey Tom, and I bet you can cite more than a few more examples of cars with a lot less HP, upgraded suspension and skilled drivers, running circles around more powerful cars with so so drivers.

Bingo! It's the twisties that make it fun, getting the power to the road. You wanna drag race get a 600HP Challenger or Vette it will be cheaper in the end.

Lou

 

[MTribe]

It's been a while and I'm starting to consider a 150HP upgrade again. I have decided to not go the supercharging route to keep the sounds as original as possible.

Someone was telling me dual Webers give more power--anyone have experience with this or know what kind of HP gain one might see? Keep in mind I have a GP2 cam and 9.5CR if that matters. Thanks for the ongoing discussion...

 

[martx-5]

Which dual Webers are you talking about?? If it's the DGV's, I seen lots of problems with them. Some people have got them to work OK, but most guys in our club who have used them wound up ripping them off and going with triple ZS's or SU's instead. That makes for a nice setup. Triple DCOE's are an option, but very pricey.