Triumph Dolomite Sprint Valvetrain in Motion

Description

Firstly, apologies for the poor quality - this was shot on my digital camera some years ago. Anyway - after some serious abuse the head gasket on my Triumph Dolomite Sprint gave way - and before finishing the rebuild I thought it'd be interesting to see what the single-overhead cam looked like in operation. The Sprint was fairly unique in being the first European (I think) production car with a 16 valve engine - yet it only had one camshaft, similar to later Hondas. The intake valves were operated directly by the cam, and the exhaust valves were operated by 'finger' rockers that ran off the cam and onto the valves. The engine in standard form displaces 2 litres (1998cc) and was factory rated at 127BHP and 122ft.lb. Blueprinted engines with slightly larger carbs easily made 150-160bhp. After the headgasket was replaced, the car went on to compete in a few track days and several thousand miles later it's still going strong as far as I'm aware! A job well done..... The engine wasn't harmed by spinning it over like this - obviously it can't fire because the plug leads are out and even if it did, all it would do is spray oil everywhere! You wouldn't want to drop anything into the head, though. The video is so brief because this was taken on-the-fly just as the engine was almost ready to run again - I was turning it over on the starter to see if it was still timed right and free to rotate, after having turned it over by hand a few times.

Keywords

Triumph, Dolomite, Sprint, engine, rebuild, valvetrain, valve, train, operation, cranking, head, gasket, exhaust, intake, rockers, SOHC, DOHC, VTEC, 16v, sixteen, 127bhp, retro, classic, modified, custom, racer, engineering, exposed, parts, track, day, drag, straight, four, slant, timing, chain

Related videos ^Experimental