Triumph Spitfire 1500
Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 12:03 pm
I've been up and running for a couple months, figured it was about time for me to go public with my "Success Story".
The Car:
1976 Triumph Spitfire
1500 engine
bored .040
shaved and ported head
"fast road" cam
lightened and balanced crank
3.27:1 Differential from a GT6
The Conversion:
MS-II v3
EDIS
Stock single Stromberg manifold modified to bolt to TBI
Ford Tempo TBI unit
Ford Taurus injector (64 lb/hr, I think)
LC-1 Wideband O2 controller
Knocksense knock sensor module
The installation was pretty straightforward once I got the machine work done on the crankshaft pulley (welded a motorcycle sprocket to it) and the intake manifold. Everything is working very well except for the Knocksense, which I just installed and haven't fully debugged and tuned yet. (not it's fault... I did verify that it DOES work, I just don't have MS set up right)
For some reason, my engine behaves almost like a race engine. My engine builder didn't give me any specs on anything. I *think* it's a Kent fast road cam, but who knowns? Also don't know how much the head was shaved, or the block decked, so compression is unknown. It runs great, but has very little vacuum at idle (about 60-70 kPa), and any application of throttle zings it right to 100-110 kPa, which made tuning it for smooth driving nearly impossible using the Speed/Density model. When I switched it to Alpha-N below 2400 rpm and got it tuned properly, it suddenly became civilized and is a very pleasant driving car even idling around in the basement of 2nd gear. I'm very pleased with that!
I've still got a lot of tuning to do to find all of the "power" that is available, but I'm really in no hurry to do it. In fact, once I get the timing sorted out, I'm going to go for "stable" and just leave it alone for a while and enjoy driving it.
Many more details and photos on my blog: http://invisiblesun.org/blog/
Thanks to all in the MS community and the Triumph community who helped get me this far!
The Car:
1976 Triumph Spitfire
1500 engine
bored .040
shaved and ported head
"fast road" cam
lightened and balanced crank
3.27:1 Differential from a GT6
The Conversion:
MS-II v3
EDIS
Stock single Stromberg manifold modified to bolt to TBI
Ford Tempo TBI unit
Ford Taurus injector (64 lb/hr, I think)
LC-1 Wideband O2 controller
Knocksense knock sensor module
The installation was pretty straightforward once I got the machine work done on the crankshaft pulley (welded a motorcycle sprocket to it) and the intake manifold. Everything is working very well except for the Knocksense, which I just installed and haven't fully debugged and tuned yet. (not it's fault... I did verify that it DOES work, I just don't have MS set up right)
For some reason, my engine behaves almost like a race engine. My engine builder didn't give me any specs on anything. I *think* it's a Kent fast road cam, but who knowns? Also don't know how much the head was shaved, or the block decked, so compression is unknown. It runs great, but has very little vacuum at idle (about 60-70 kPa), and any application of throttle zings it right to 100-110 kPa, which made tuning it for smooth driving nearly impossible using the Speed/Density model. When I switched it to Alpha-N below 2400 rpm and got it tuned properly, it suddenly became civilized and is a very pleasant driving car even idling around in the basement of 2nd gear. I'm very pleased with that!
I've still got a lot of tuning to do to find all of the "power" that is available, but I'm really in no hurry to do it. In fact, once I get the timing sorted out, I'm going to go for "stable" and just leave it alone for a while and enjoy driving it.
Many more details and photos on my blog: http://invisiblesun.org/blog/
Thanks to all in the MS community and the Triumph community who helped get me this far!