TR2/3/3A TR3's Maiden Voyage [long post]

[martx-5]

Today was the day for the maiden voyage at the end of a four year restoration on my TR3. It was not without incident. My son was with me, and we got about two blocks from the house when two cylinders went south. I limped it home and had a good idea of what the problem was, as I ran into the same symptom while running it in the garage about a month ago.

I pulled the top from the front carb float bowl, and sure enough...bone dry, just like the last time. Well this time I actually decided to fix the problem. It seems that the nylon piece that runs in the bore of the valve sometimes sticks. A bit of filing, and it moved in the bore without any more sticking. I did the same to the back carb just in case.

Out for a second go 'round. The car ran great! I didn't push things, but this thing has got WAY more pep then stock. Yes, I spent way too much on engine mods, but it's puttin' a smile on my face. The Toyota trans conversion worked out great. That sure is a nice gearbox.

I had to get used to the brakes. Without power assist, it does take some pedal pressure to stop, but within a mile or so, I could get it hauled down pretty good.

The nicest surprise was the rack and pinion steering conversion. It's very responsonsive...and light. Steering effort is actually lighter then my Miata (no power steering on that). I also have a 15" steering wheel instead of the stock 17" guy. Also, my two string and ruler garage alignment worked out really well. It tracks straight and doesn't wander around.

The only problem I ran into, is engine temperature. It was over 80 deg here on Long Island today, and temps on the car were running in the 190-195 deg area. I could shut the fan off if we were going along at over 40 mph and the temp would stay about the same. Once we slowed down, temp would slowly creep up, that's when I turned the electric fan on. It would hold the temp at that 190-195 deg mark.

I did notice that sometimes the temp would drop to 185 deg for about 30 seconds or so, and then would climb back up slightly. I'm gonna let things cool off for a bit, and check the coolant level. Perhaps I had some air in the system that burped out.

All in all, it was a fun ride...she's back on the road!

 

[TR4nut]

Outstanding Art! Your description of the R&P conversion is getting me interested again, I really like it in my TR4 and have been wondering how the TR3 would behave with it.

Did you put a thermostat switch in for your fan? If you haven't yet and are considering it, take a look at the setup MossUK sells. They have a stainless pipe setup with a welded bung on it - nice place to add the switch.

Randy

 

[mallard]

Its great to get a car back on the road after a restoration. The first few hundred miles always bring up a few issues. Not sure what you did to your engine but a rebuilt engine will run a little hot until it seats itself. Break it in slowly.I use SAE 30W for break-in and change after 100 miles, and then fill with 30 weight again and run 100 more miles and then run regular oil not synthetic at least until 3000 miles. All this may be overkill but it's cheap insurance. And keep an eye on the coolant. Great timing to finish a car to. Mine always seem to be at the off season.

 

[Perrymip]

That's a lovely outing report, including the mandatory false start. I'm especially interested in your response to the modifications. It seems like both the performance work, steering, and transmission all seem worthy. At some time I felt like all snazzy modifications were desirable. Recently, I become more wary and even start thinking of the original starter, generator, fuel pump, radiator, etc., as worthy, after all. So I'm glad to get your report as an antidote.

With the low note at the end of your report--TR cooling--I'm sure others will echo: that's life with a TR3.

 

[TRDejaVu]

Congrats Art; feels great doesn't it?

 

[Moseso]

Hooray, Art!
The first outing is a real buzz!
Yes, on the brakes. We're ALL used to power assist these days -- and those brakes don't feel like that at all. They stop the car just fine, but you DO have to push on 'em.

Here's to a short shake-down period and a long happy ride!

 

[mrv8q]

The only problem I ran into, is engine temperature.

Good report. My only advice would be to get an infrared thermometer reader, and poke around. On my '3, when the gauge reads 185º, the infrared at the housing/sender reads 175º......

 

[TR3driver]

the infrared at the housing/sender reads 175º......

Of course now the question is, how accurate is the infrared? Even if your instrument is perfect, you need to correct for the emissivity of the surface you are measuring to get an accurate reading. In general, the shinier something is, the lower it's emissivity, and the lower the reading you will get on the infrared thermometer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emissivity
As you can see at
https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/emissivity-coefficients-d_447.html
the emissivity of aluminum can vary as much as 10:1, depending on it's surface condition.

BTW, Art, I had something similar going on with the project TR3; where sometimes it would be OK and sometimes it would creep up. In my case, I believe it was crud that was lurking inside the cylinder block and got carried into the top of the radiator when I started driving it.

Also, since no one else brought up the old chestnut ... what did you do about blocking the bypass? The original thermostat had a sleeve that moved to mostly block the bypass port when the thermostat opened.

 

[vivdownunder]

The TR cooling system originally had a thermostat with a skirt that moved along to blank off the adjoining bypass as the engine warmed up. These thermo's were unavailable for many years.

If a non-skirted thermostat has been substituted, the size of thermo that fits the TR3A housing has a much smaller opening than the original skirted item, thus flowing less hot coolant to the radiator. Banked up hot coolant then escapes down the open bypass, and straight back into the engine, adding to overheating.

When a non-skirted thermostat is used, choking the bypass down to a 3/8" hole forces more coolant through the radiator.

Regards,

Viv.

 

[Don Elliott]

Here they are.

 

[martx-5]

I do have an original style skirted thermostat in the engine, as well as a new radiator without the crank hole. Right now I'm not overly concerned about the slightly higher temps. Perhaps after break-in they will drop some, if not, I'll persue some other issues. Since I don't have an engine driven fan due to the rack and pinion conversion, I may just have to go to a larger electric fan. Right now the one I have in there came with the rack kit, and it's only a ten inch fan.

Anyway, oil pressure on the run was a solid 65 psi. Having run the engine in the garage for about an hour and a half before yesterday, I got a little concerned because I had absolutely no oil leaks. But after yesterday's run, I now see a couple of drops of oil on the garage floor, so I can rest assured that the chassis oiling system is working fine! :laugh:

Edit: As afar as the temp gauge accuracy goes, I rebuilt the gauge myself using a donor, and when dunked in boiling water (here at sea level), it registered EXACTLY 212 deg. I'm very confident that the gauge is registering the proper temps.

Here's a pic of me driving with my buddy Dave who came over for the event!

 

[DNK]

Dang, It's a good thing the car is pretty as...

 

[newmexTR3]

Congrats Art! We missed you at Sunday's Spring Dust Off. There were about thirty TR's tooling around the north coast of Long Island. It was awesome.

Next time you're able to join in we'll have 3 black TR3's to show off!

 

[martx-5]

Yeah, I wish I could've been there, but I still gotta make sure the bugs are all out before I head out on a day's journey. I might bring it to Tony's next Saturday. I'll see how things go.

Edit: Gavin, how'd it go skirting around the closed viaduct?? That should've caused a major tie-up. :eeek:

 

[newmexTR3]

It wasn't actually that bad; we were probably in traffic for a good 7-10 minutes. It was slightly uncomfortable since it was almost 90 degrees. Otherwise, whomever picked out the route did an outstanding job. For the first leg I was behind a guy in a race prepped TVR who was goosing it and fun to keep up with it. Second leg I was behind a more conservative TR4. Still fun, but couldn't resist passing them on a 4-lane straightaway. :wink:

In other murphy's law news, car ran great the whole trip until I left the group to go home. At that point my 2nd brand new control head decided to implode. All of the innards starting falling out in my lap and then the horn got stuck in the on position. Had to pull over on the 495 and unplug the horn. Normally I would be super annoyed, but I'm numb to it at this point. UGH!

At this point I feel like it's a sign to abandon the control head / worm gear setup completely, as you have done, Art.