New engine for ‘t Kreng

Been very quiet with my Triumphs for a while. Although ‘t Kreng has seen a bit of action lately, the DHC has been in storage since early October. At the moment I am waiting for Robbie’s workshop to be available so I can at last fit the rear coil-overs to the car. Will probably be somewhere in March.

To kill a bit of the spare time left, I have been planning on a new engine for ‘t Kreng. Over the past few years I have been considering various engine options, ranging from Rover K and T series through Ford Duratec to all sorts of V8’s. But I have decided to stick to the 16V Triumph Slant Four. It is more than powerful enough to make for a rather quick road car. Only problem so far is that the engine lacks a fair bit of torque at the lower end of the rev range. It is also very thirsty when you use the loud pedal a bit to enthusiastically.

So the challenge I have set myself is a Sprint engine that produces 200 BHP with good pick up from lower revs and better fuel economy. So things to do or get sorted;

• Flowed and ported cylinder head;
• Fully balanced bottom end with lightened flywheel;
• A brace to keep the bottom end together;
• High compression pistons;
• Fully programmable injection and ignition;
• New inlet and exhaust manifolds.

To get some inside information I recently visited an old racing driver in Belgium, who used to drive a Dolly Sprint in the 70’s. The good thing is he still owns and drives the car.

Was an interesting afternoon in his workshop. The only downside was that he didn’t do any work for third parties anymore.

But luckily, and quite by chance, I already found someone, with quite a good reputation, who is willing to have a look at a Sprint head to see what he can do to it. Balancing and lightening the flywheel wasn’t a problem at all. He stressed that he was very busy though.

To be continued ...