So, after the excitement of Goodwood, which was a fantastic show I shall endeavour to visit again next year, and a near 500 mile round trip running my Spyder at high speed it's time to start the inevitable tinkering process.
First job was a wash. On Friday the route into the classic car park was via a short gravel lane then straight onto some aluminium sandwich plate before pulling off onto a nicely manicured meadow where we all parked our pristine pride and joys.
On the Saturday, however, the parade of multi-million pound classic Ferraris/Astons/Jaguars/Me was diverted across the world's muddiest field where we all collected half a ton of mud on our cars' undersides. It was so bad I was actually glad I'd fitted mud and snow tyres, and it took four buckets of soapy water to get it all off today
The process of washing my Spyder for the first time threw up a job that'd been lurking for some time. Shortly after I fitted my recessed battery tray some very wise builders posted pictures of the drain tubes they'd built into theirs to stop the tray filling up with water. I made a mental note to fit one but never got round to it, so my battery tray was full of water when I opened the bonnet to clean underneath. I'll fabricate something in a day or so.
Having said that my Spyder ran faultlessly at high speed for three hours solid, I now find that this wasn't quite true. My old Triumph six uses a bit of oil, going from just below the max line to just above the min line after 460 miles at motorway speeds. When I took the oil filler off to top it up I found the tell tale mayonnaise that indicates head gasket failure
No big deal really, I have a spare gasket and it shouldn't take me more than half a day to replace. But I have a hunch that it failed due to the engine running rather hot. Usually, my temperature gauge doesn't shift from between the two central dots unless you're stuck in heavy traffic, when the electric fan quickly brings it back down if it rises. After an hour and a half on the motorway though, the needle was moving up too close to the red mark for my liking. It didn't actually overheat, and reducing speed to 50mph cooled it down again, but I want to be able to drive my car to Scotland on the motorway without having to constantly stare at the temperature gauge.
I guess the problem is that I've installed a smaller, modern, Honda Civic VTi aluminium racing radiator, assuming that a modern rad would be more efficient than an old Triumph one. This is probably true, but I hadn't allowed for the fact that modern engines are also more efficient than my old lump, and produce less heat. So, the plan is to fit a second radiator at the back of the car. I'll post some more information when the parts arrive...
I'll also be softening and raising the suspension at both front and back to give a less punishing ride and a bit more ground clearance. Once again, more info and pictures will follow once I receive the parts.
I'm also considering fitting a louder exhaust, mine sounds nice but it's not quite as spine tingling as the racers at Goodwood...
That's it for now, more later
