Blasphemy or ...?

I was at Rob’s workshop yesterday to do some measurements in the engine bay of one of my TR7 body shells standing there. The fact is, he has a rather interesting modern engine lying around, a 2.3 litre Ford Duratec.

Even better, this type of engine seems to be rather good, can be tuned easily, parts availability is good, and it’s easy to put some rather decent (rear wheel drive) gearboxes behind it. And last but certainly not least, they seem to be rather bomb proof on their standard internals (250 BHP easily available and a safe rev range to 7500 rpm). Also being all alloy it’s much lighter than the original Triumph “slant four”. So more than enough reasons to try and fit it in a TR7. Especially as parts supplies for the Sprint engine have been rather difficult so now and then.

First measurements showed that this engine was quite a bit higher than the Triumph “slant four” so I was a bit sceptical of it fitting under the bonnet. But it turned out to be no problem as it can be placed further back. This, combined with its lower weight, should be rather good for weight distribution. But probably the biggest problem is that there is so much room around the engine that making some decent front engine supports will be quite a challenge.

On the other hand, last week during the midway halt from the Nacht van het Oosten at the premises of BCCP I found out that all of the difficult Sprint parts could be delivered or re-manufactured for reasonable prices .... dilemma !!!

But I won’t bother with the engine choice to much for the moment, as I 'm not going to start on ‘t Kreng ... yet. Maybe a nice DHC with a tuned Sprint engine under the bonnet ...

So after some coffee with the traditional vlaai;

It was time to turn the attention to Rob’s Mk2 Escort;

A blast through the country

Being the middle of march it was time again for the (by now 5th edition of) the Nacht van het Oosten yesterday. This night time touring rally was again organised by Rutger and Gea Kwant (from Club Triumph Holland). As last year we would take part with four cars from "down south Limburg"; Rob V's mk1 Escort, Rob's TR7V8 and 't Kreng. It was also the first public appearance of Roger’s newly acquired 2500 mk1 saloon. And a rather nice saloon it is;

Contrary to last year we got to the start in Holten without any problems, giving us more than enough time to check in at the hotel, a few miles down the road. Here we met up with the first of the 10 English teams who also had entered the event.

With the luggage out of the way we returned to the start to sign in and get some Chinese food inside, after which it was slowly getting time to get started.

As usually the road book used tulip diagrams to define the route. This system makes navigating rather easy, as long as you have a half decent trip/odometer. Some of the crews looked like the road book was rather difficult to read though 😜

Contrary to the 4 earlier editions this one was promoted as an official CTH “bokaalrit”. The downside of this was that they needed a few tests to make up a ranking, and speed trials are not allowed on public roads. But as I’m not a CTH member anymore I could ignore these tests without a problem. And as usual with this event there was a large variety of cars participating, like a 2CV, a NSU 1000C or a Porsche 911. Of course there were some Triumphs;

With start number 33 at 18.33 we set of on the first leg. After a few small navigational mistakes on the first few diagrams we should start on a regularity section, but the road was just too good to stick to the set average speed.

Having start position 33 meant there were 32 cars in front of us. Luckily it turned out that most of the drivers did look in their mirrors so now and then, or they just took a wrong turn. So we managed to get to the midway halt with only 3 cars left in front of us, progress indeed. So far the car had behaved rather well indeed.

The midway halt was rather interesting, as it was at the premises of BCCP Fuelsystems in Gramsbergen. They are actually the firm that set up the engine in my car. We should have done some more tests here but we kindly refrained from that. After a cup of coffee and a short chat with Hans and Winneke about their racing Dolly Sprints, it was time to set off on the final leg.

This turned out to be very good fun indeed. As my navigator again had some starting problems, Rob (in his mk1 RS2000 Escort) caught up with us rather quickly. From there on it was one long chase to the finish back in Holten, where we arrived rather early indeed. Definitively one of the better drives I’ve had with ‘t Kreng.

After phoning Rutger that we had arrived safely at the finish we went back to the hotel where we had a few beers in the hotel lounge;

All in all it was again a very good Nacht van het Oosten. Compliments to Rutger and Gea for organizing this great event.

Final preparations NvhO

Just finished the last preparations on the car for this evening’s night rally, De Nacht van het Oosten. Checked and adjusted the front bearings slightly and installed a satnav on the dashboard.

Also did a quick check of the tyres, looks like I’ll need some new rubber in the near feature. I even found some time to wash the car. It still got the dirt from last November’s night rally on  it!

Changing heater (day 3) and preparations for the NvhO

With the majority of the work done the only things that remained for the Sunday morning where rather straight forward. Before I put the dashboard back in I had removed the gearlever, just to be sure it didn’t damage the dash. The other reason to remove it was to enable me to put the gearlever surround back without damaging it. Good plan, but not good enough. The surround wouldn’t go in place without putting a lot of strain on it. As I didn’t fancy damaging it in the process, I removed the bolts from the handbrake lever. This gave me just enough clearance to manoeuvre the trim back in place.

After that it was time to put the steering column cowling back in place. While cleaning it I discovered quite a lot of dark grey dust on the inside. Closer inspection revealed some wear on the top of the cowl where the steering wheel boss had rubbed along it;

To prevent this happening again I loosened all the bolts on the steering column and made it as long as possible before retightening them. At least there is some clearance again. With that sorted the only things left were the seats and the steering wheel. They went in without a problem. I even found time to polish the steering wheel’s spokes;

Yesterday afternoon I took half a day off from work for the finishing touches. Filled up and checked all the fluid levels and took ‘t Kreng for a short test drive. I think she should be OK for the Nacht van het Oosten on Saturday. Despite the rather bad weather she behaved rather well. She even managed to kick her back end out quite viciously on a slippery bit of road. Luckily the tree was standing far enough from the road side ... just!

On returning home and after the engine had cooled a bit, it was time for a check of all the coolant connections and the heater. I didn't find any leaks, knock on wood ...