VR6 made RWD put into a Triumph GT6

  Wow, another year slips by without a post. Not a lot going on with the car project but I have fiddled with it from time to time. Over the past year I've purchased a differential and started trying to fit it into my narrowed Miata rear subframe. After cutting out some large chunks (new plasma cutter!) it became pretty apparent that this wasn't the best differential choice as far as mounting style. But it is what I have and I'm not turning back now! I took a few days this past week and have managed to fabricate and weld in the rear diff mount. Need to fab up the front diff mount and then it'll be time to try and fit it into the car. To do that I'll have to empty the car first. Oh, it's still full from the move. Well add that to the "to-do" list. Also purchased in the last while was seat tracks. The plan is to put in non Triumph seats but using the Triumph seat tracks should make it easier. It is funny leaving the project and coming back to it. The firs...

  It has been about a year since my last post. Sadly it's probably been that long since I've done much to the car but not from lack of wanting to. This being a hobby it gets pushed to the back of the line of many things on my to do list. And since my last post we moved. Selling a house, buying another and moving are very time consuming. But the housing market being what it was and choices being limited we ended up buying a fixer upper. This has taken most of my free time and little time for hobbies. But things are getting more under control now and I even bought a part for the car project (a driveshaft). Perhaps I'll actually get to working on it again. Here are some pictures of the car on the car transporter. The car's cabin is filled with most of the parts needed to finish the car. Under hood is the engine and radiator. There may be a few more things added but not a lot. Judging from the tire gap it appears the new engine and configuration has the front end lighter. H...

 Wow haven't updated this in a bit. Since I wrote last I sorted out the computer issues that were keeping the car from trying to start. Bought a new battery and was ready for another test run. Oddly there was an issue with the fuel pump piping. There are 2 fuel lines coming out of the pump, one is for a siphoning pump or something. Previously I had just left it to recirculate back into the tank but it appears it needs some back pressure or nearly all the pressure goes out that line. Odd it hadn't done it before. For now I plugged it. With that solved the engine ran good and let it run for 5 min before deciding to shut it off. Next on the to-do list is sort out a differential. Wanted to go with a BMW E36 LSD with a 2.93 ratio. I've purchased a 2.67 set of gears that I could swap in as I don't think I'll need much help getting off the line with about 3x the power and low RPM on the freeway would be great. Pretty set on the LSD as with the extra power really need the h...

 This week we finished up the temporary hose routing then tried to start the engine. Sadly it was complaining of some error and wouldn't even engage the starter. Strange as we had this setup working before and only removed wires that weren't connected to anything. After much time reading diagrams and checking thing and changing some coding back to automatic transmission we were able to get the error to go away. Unfortunately the battery is dying so I need to replace that before going farther. Also on Saturday we brought in the floor from one of the scrapped GT6's. I kept it for the purpose of testing new suspension fitting. It's very liberating to be able to cut without worry that it's not the "right" place. And after I cut and fit it, sure enough, I could see a better spot to cut. So nice to have a practice run. Overall it's not looking bad. Looks like I need to enlarge the suspension/axle tunnel 3-4" forward. I'll try to move the rear suspen...

One night I decided to modify some suspension parts I bought for the project quite a long time ago. Was kind of a whim thing to work on this now and especially with so little planning but it looks like it might have turned out. Narrowed it 8 7/8 inches. Time will tell if this is a good amount or not. It's just tacked together so it is easy enough to change.   This week was spent fitting radiator hoses. Bought a bunch of 90 degree elbows, misc hoses and an aluminum tube. Starting to fit it all to the motor. Used the simple wire crimper method to bead the end of the tube. No pictures but there's plenty on the web. Right now I'm skipping connecting up the heater and some of that misc. I can do that later. Waiting on some caps to cap off the unused ports.

 Now that we have a fan shroud and radiator it's time to put them in the car. The GT6 and spitfire use different mounting points on the frame. Since my frame is a GT6 the spitfire mounts aren't there. Also the spitfire puts the radiator into a bracket then mounts it to the frame. Which I also don't have. So decided to make my own mounts. Wasn't much of a chore to make them. Now the radiator is mounted and I can move on to fitting cooling hoses to the engine.

 Last 2 weekends I worked on creating a fan shroud. Plan is to use the Passat OEM fan so it'll play nice with the ECU. Wanted to use the Passat radiator too but it was too large to fit under the hood. Looked at using the GT6 radiator but with the engine so far back the Gap between the radiator and the engine looked ridiculous. Decided to buy a cheap Spitfire radiator as it sits farther back. Yah it's from a 4 cyl but the radiator area looked about the same. The GT6 is more vertical where the Spitfire is more horizontal. If it's a problem we'll probably go with a custom radiator However most hotrods, including my last engine swap, seem to have problems cooling in traffic not doing high HP runs.. which tends to be due to not enough air flow over the radiator and not the radiator size. So this car will be getting a fan shroud which should greatly improve the low speed cooling. Anyway back to the fabrication. Fan shroud version 1 I created out of some aluminum sheet laying ...

 Been awhile since I took time to work on the car. Most of my Saturdays of late have been dedicated to house projects. And it also got hot so the garage wasn't fun to hang out in. Recently the weather cooled a bit and I thought it was time for a Saturday in the garage. Last Saturday was spent on the Alternator bracket. I'd cobbled one together for proof of concept but it was too flimsy to hold it while running.  So basically made a similar bracket but in thicker metal. The final part is 5 pieces welded together. I'd make a paper template from the flimsy bracket then cut it in metal and weld that piece on.  Looks to have turned out nice and sturdy. One thing done. Oh one other day I decided to try sitting in the car and see how the steering and pedal position would feel (I've never driven a triumph). I'm also considering changing the steering column to be parallel to the axis of the car instead of angled as it comes from the factory. Also wanted to see what room was ...

 Since last entry, time has been spent thinning the wiring harness. I purchased a copy of "VCDS" and an interface which is used for coding VW modules. With that I was able to tell most of the modules to not worry about the Auto trans, Electric power steering, tire pressure monitoring, Airbags and bunches of other non essential items. Haven't had time to try and recode the ECU, which is a bit trickier, but with the changes so far we are able to still start the motor without the items previously mentioned attached. With that completed we opened up a lot of the wire harness and started removing unneeded wires. I know wiring is not what some people enjoy but for me it feels like a mix between a puzzle and a treasure hunt. Working on the wiring has been a relaxing activity for the both of us on many evenings. If memory serves, the past 2 Saturdays were spent making test fit alternator brackets to check clearances. Holding the alternator in position to check clearances and make...

 This week we put together the oil system. A custom adapter plate to the engine to some AN lines to a remote oil filter. It ended up in the wheel well as it's tight inside the engine compartment. I think that it won't get in the way of the front wheel. If it does it can be moved. Also found that the oil dipstick wasn't in an ideal location now. Changing how the coolant pipes run made it in a less desirable location. So bent that up and welded on a new holding bracket. Also cobbled up some temporary set up for the fuel pump and piping to the engine. Then it was a new set of spark plugs and connect up all the electrical fittings. Friday night it was all together but it wouldn't start. Was giving a bunch of errors codes for stuff on the motor. Time to call it a night. Saturday morning we went out and pulled a spark plug. The plug was wet, so we were getting gas. Checked and no spark. Humm. More looking and there was no power getting to the coils at all. No power to the coi...

 The weather has improved so there was some time spent in the garage. One thing that needed to be done is to sort out the wiring harness. I pulled the harness, nearly complete, from the donor car. along with most of the computers, switches, fuse boxes etc.. To make it easy to sort out I pinned the wiring up on the wall and then plugged in all the computers and switches. This made it much easier to find the wires I need to keep and what I need to ditch. While it is there I also plan to use it to test run the motor. With the wiring and computers on the wall I ran the cable for the engine ECU to the car and plugged it in. Also ran some grounding straps to connect the critical items. Put the key in and it lights up and unlocks the steering column and shifter. It looks like every error light still lights though, oh well, I won't be using that cluster anyway so no worries there. The oil filter and dipstick need to be fitted to the engine before I can even see if it turns over. That's...

  Since the last entry I've converted the Tach to be driven by a stepper motor. The Tach was much easier as expected. The plate that holds the needle etc. on the Tach is the same as the speedometer but is just missing the Odometer parts. What wasn't expected is that that tach plate from my GT6 was more like the TR7 speedometer insides than the GT6 speedometer insides (or the other GT6 Tach I have). Probably this Tach was replaced at some point and the internals are the newer design. Funny though as now both the speedo and tach have matching insides. When mounting the stepper motor in the tach, this time, I printed a template on the 3D printer to help mark the holes that I needed to drill. This worked perfectly. Should have thought to use the printer for this type of work sooner. After calibrating the tach I edited my program to drive both the tach and the speedo at the same time. Been a pretty fun project. Still need to make a bracket to hold the tiny computer onto the backside...

  This week was spent installing the X27 stepper motor into the Smiths speedometer. The magnetic mechanical drive was removed and there was almost enough space. With a little grinding on the housing space was made. Had to drill 2 holes to mount the stepper. the holes were 2mm dia and accuracy was a must. But like all my other hole drilling experiences, the holes were just a bit off. With a little slotting things are pretty close. Close enough for some testing anyway. Cut the Speedometer spindle short and 3D printed a coupler to mate the speedo spindle to the stepper motor. Turns out the TR7 speedo has slightly larger bolts holding the gauge face on then the GT6. But opening them up the tiniest amount the GT6 face bolted right on. Luckily the GT6 needle seems to fit on no problem. With some calibration of the stepper motor to the gauge I am now able to enter a MPH into the program and the needle points to it on the gauge. See video if interested  https://youtu.be/iNGHQlcFkZA ...

  With the weather firmly in the cold zone not much has been done in the garage. Before the cold hit I started work on relocating the oil filter. The OEM filter was not going to fit and relocation made sense. However I couldn't find anywhere that sold an adapter for my engine. The closest one available was for a slightly different version of the motor and the maker couldn't tell me if it would fit and one of their distributors said it wouldn't. Took a plate and drilled it out and had some AN10 fittings welded to it. Volia adapter plate. Have pretty much everything I need to finish the relocation except for warm weather. Looking for projects to do inside instead. Which brings me to gauges. Since I'm changing the motor and trans there isn't mechanical outputs to drive the tach and speedo gauges. The easiest thing would be to put in some smiths replica gauges but I don't want to give up on the mechanical odometer. For some reason this retro feature makes me laugh a...

  Turned the car around in the garage. This car is so small I was able to fit it between the other two cars while turning it. No need to back any of them out. Now that it has the LH side out I can work on adapting the coolant system and oil system. Also found that the factory alternator from the donor car won't fit. So will do some adapting there. Decided it would be best to install the steering column to ensure there is adequate space around that. Took the column from one of the worst parts car so I don't have to worry so much about damaging it. On the plus side the steering fits no problem. Not much to show at this point as most of the work has been in research and measuring. I've fabricated and bought a few parts but nothing has been fully assembled. The donor car radiator is slightly too big to fit. Think I'll fit a spitfire radiator as with the engine so far back there is no need to have the way far forward GT6 radiator. Lots more to come.

Where did November go? Time flies. The engine timing chain, guides, oil pump and high pressure fuel pump cam have all been replaced, Timing covers back on, oil pan cleaned out and resealed. Engine fixed. Now back to customizing. Did a little more to improve the adapter plate. Added 2 counter sink bolts. Turned out nice but forgot to take a picture. It'll be apart again later. Put on the flywheel, clutch and starter. Tested the starter and it was a bit too tight to the ring gear. A little adjustment to the adapter plate and it seems to be working nicely now. Put the transmission on. The first time it has been installed with the clutch. It seems to mesh. Currently there is no release bearing mechanism in the transmission. Thinking of going with a concentric throw out bearing system but will worry about that later. With no driveshaft the car won't be needing a clutch anyway. Next up is to turn the car around so the LH side is facing out. That way I can get better access to the oil...

Been busy with other things and couldn't get to working on the triumph. One of the things taking my time was my boating hobby. Last weekend I sold the boat. That will no longer get in the way. This Saturday i pulled the motor to begin the timing chain guide repair. I bought the donor car cheap as this needed to be done. With the engine out I figured It would be fairly straight forward. Won't bore you with the details as VR6 motors aren't the focus of this forum. But one hang up is the oil pump needs replaced. Due to issues with the timing chain (the pump is driven by the chain) the impeller/gear was pushed hard against the back casting scoring both. Also the high pressure fuel pump cam was surface fatiguing so that needs replaced too. So need some more parts before it  can go back together.

 Well it has been awhile since last update. Sadly my time has been taken with other things and being able to enjoy my hobby has taken a back seat. While not directly related, but well it is, the engine donor car is finally gone! The few min I had free was spent grabbing the parts that I might want from it so it could be sent away. That day came this past weekend. They say the happiest day of a boater is the day they buy and sell the boat. Well for a donor car that is just a true. Very happy to finally have the shell out of my way. Next free time I get can be back on the Triumph. Maybe in a couple more weekends.

  With my the heat pushing 90 and my garage not being insulated or cooled it's too hot to work on my project. So spent my evenings this week removing wiring from the donor car which has been moved outside. Most of it will not need to go into the GT6 but I'm hoping to send the donor car to the scrap soon.. Best to just remove it all now and what i don't need I can throw it away later. The wagon contains most of the main harness of the car. In this car the main harness goes from all the way from the front bumper, through the dash and down both sides to the back bumper. No connectors to break the harness into sections (would have expected at minimum a dash harness). Seemed to me the harness must have been about the first thing installed into the car after paint so getting it out was a bit of a chore. Would like to say it was removed "uncut" but that didn't happen. The wires that went up the c-pillar into the ceiling and the wires that went under the car to the re...