The Tamora has had its annual service at TVR Power. There was a convenient drop-off on a Saturday morning as we were on our way to spend a weekend at Luton Hoo for my wife’s work party. Nice hotel (although we were in the Warren Weir annexe, which is still very nice).
Collection was a bit awkward as TVR power is a 70 min drive from home. To avoid putting someone else out I did a train-train-bus combination which took ~ 2 hours and was ok.
The plan was for a basic service as the car has only done 1072 miles since a full 12k. This was my first service to cost less than £1k – A spin at a mere £838, and it was only that ‘cheap’ since I have left a few of the niggles unaddressed since they are multiple thousands to fix…
There were 3 other Tamoras present…
One aspect of the service was to try to find out what was going wrong with the fuelling after the Millbrook incident and the fouled / faulty spark plug.
Lots of this may be related to the lean running noted on a power run, that was hopefully addressed through injector cleaning but that hadn’t helped at Millbrook.
Since plug 6 had been fouled, and we believed had therefore been dumping unburnt fuel into the cat, we expected the cat for cylinders 4 to 6 to show some damage.
However, when Jason took the cats off it was the cat for 1 to 3 that was damaged – 2 /3 of if had melted away leaving relatively little cat honeycomb.
They had suspicions it may have been damaged slightly during fitting, and also didn’t think it was an original cat. It looked more free flowing (200 cell not 400 cell).
A second hand cat was sourced for £200 + VAT so that has been fitted.
But why the cat on cylinders 1 – 3?
Having just spent a silly amount of money on a complete new central heating system I had decided to not go for the new injectors (£570 + VAT) and a full custom map (£650 + VAT) and to leave the brakes as they are for now (big disks £320 + VAT, Carbon Lorraine front pads £166 + VAT).
We discussed what I had thought was a crackling sound under heavy load at high revs. e.g. a fairly brisk 0 – 100 mph acceleration. Perhaps this could have been detonation but it wasn’t so obvious because of all the other noise. Dom suggested octane booster. I always run on Shell V-Power and I shouldn’t need extra octance boost if the engine would just run correctly…
The plan is to return in October / November for a bit of rolling road time to try to track down the problems in more detail. If they look too problematic, is it worth trying to correct it or just go for a 4.3 / 4.5 which are known quantities.
Some of the TVR Power thoughts on the problem are:
- Maybe the car has the crank from a 4.0 but the 3.6 injectors so runs a bit lean
- Perhaps the ‘indian’ rods have stretched and upped the compression
Some cat photos are below. It seems to be going the way of a de-cat rather than getting blocked up.
Other work done included:
- New plugs
- New oil and filter – Why isn’t that part of the service cost?
- Oil tank gasket
- Rear exhaust box hanger (the drivers side seems to crack quickly)
- Camber reset – Fronts were -1 and -1.25, rears were -1.5 and -2.25. Could things have slipped since Neil Garner did it last year, or is somebody’s rig not quite right?
Having paid the surprisingly expensive bill, I then asked where the MOT certificate was… The old one expires on August 5th which was 5 days away.
Turns out there had been a bit of a breakdown in communication. However, Dom was able to get the car into the garage / MOT centre next door and it went through with no issues. Just added an hour of waiting and £40. Got the car back very hot after lots of time spent idling (temps touching 100), but it soon cooled down with some driving.
A fresh tank of V-Power from the garage in Bedworth and I was on my way home (in lots of rain). Next drive, Shelsley Walsh Breakfast Club on the 10th August (if it isn’t raining). Track aspirations still on hold.
