Dale Knapke's 1972 TR-6 with 2.3L Ford SVO Turbo-4
as published in British V8 Newsletter, Volume XV Issue 2, September 2007Owner: Dale Knapke
City: Sidney, OH
Model: 1972 Triumph TR-6
Engine: 2.3L Ford SVO, turbocharged and fuel injected
Conversion completed by: owner
| Engine: | the 2.3L (140cid) Ford SVO 4 cylinder engine from a 1987 Thunderbird Turbo Coupe
has been updated with an Esslinger Engineering aluminum D-port cylinder head,
Esslinger Engineering 2277 hydraulic roller cam, and Precision Turbo GT30R76
turbocharger. Air enters through a hood scoop, into a hood-mounted plenum with
a panel air filter, before routing into the turbocharger. A custom 24x13x3
intercooler with 3" inlet and outlet has been fitted. The engine management
system is an Accel DFI Gen VII.
|
| Cooling: | custom aluminum radiator and 16" electric fan. |
| Exhaust: | stainless steel tubular exhaust header by Precision Turbo, routed into
dual SuperTrapp mufflers. (One 3" tube comes down from the turbo and then
splits into two 2.25" tubes.) |
| Transmission: | Ford Motorsport Heavy Duty T5 5-speed with 2.95:1 first gear. (Note: V8-spec T5s require a special pilot bearing when used behind a 2.3L engine.) Centerforce stage-3 clutch with McLeod hydraulic throw-out bearing (HTOB). |
| Rear axle: | 9" Ford with 3.89:1 ratio, Moser Engineering aluminum center section, Moser
narrowed axles, and Ford Motorsport limited slip differential |
| Suspension: | the front is stock, except with inboard lower A-arm pivot points relocated
to improve geometry. The stock rear suspension has been replaced with an
owner designed and built 4-link rear suspension featuring QA1 adjustable
coilover shock absorbers. |
| Brakes: | Wilwood master cylinder and (front) Wilwood Dynalight 12.18" vented
front front brakes and Ford Turbo Coupe 10.5" vented rear brakes. |
| Wheels/Tires: | (front) Enki 16"x6" wheels with 205/55/R16 Firestone Firehawk tires. (rear) Enki 16"x8" wheels with 255/50/R16 Firestone Firehawk tires. |
| Body Mods: | basically stock except for hood scoop (fabricated by owner).
The floor pan over the axle has been raised 10 inches, and a
rear cross brace has been removed from the frame to accommodate
the 4 bar link suspension. |
| Interior: | custom tan leather upholstered interior. Custom dashboard, steering wheel,
radio console, and welded-in roll bar. |
| Electrical: | AutoMeter instruments. Battery relocated to trunk. |
| Weight: | 2395 pounds (no driver), with 47/53 front-to-rear weight distribution. |
| Performance: | 11.21 second quarter mile at 121 MPH. (My goal is 10.99 seconds at 125 MPH.) |
| Mile Driven: | 60000 miles since conversion (about 1989), as of the British V8 2007 meet. |
| Comments: | This is not a difficult conversion to do! The modifications to accommodate
the engine are fewer then all of the V8 conversions I have seen, TR6 or MGB.
The exhaust can be routed through the chassis and not under it, so very low
ground clearance is feasible. The biggest challenge I faced was the four link suspension but that's not absolutely required for the conversion, especially if you don't intend to drag race your car (or run the very wide tires drag racing requires). You could leave the stock rear suspension or you could use the leaf spring set-up from a TR250 to greatly simplify the conversion. This would require running tires and wheels that are near stock in size. A stock Ford 2.3L Turbo Coupe engine puts out about 200 HP, which is almost double the original 6 cylinder. Unmodified, the Ford engine would make for a great driver with a lot of performance in a TR6 or an MGB. The stock Ford engine management system is a very good system and it can accommodate a lot of engine modifications before it becomes a bottleneck. I got close to 300 engine HP before I went with the Accel system. I now have about 400 HP at the engine. The stock Turbo Coupe wiring harness also is a good harness to modify for the application. There's a lot of extra wire in it, (which you'll probably want to remove,) but the engine management part is mostly self-contained and not heavily integrated into the rest of the car's wiring. There's a good following of hot rodders using this engine, so aftermarket performance parts and information are available. |
