In the February/March 2016 Triumph World there's an article by John Eklund from Sydney, who drives his Stag every day. John's Tahiti Blue looks very nice on chrome 15 inch wire wheels. I'm a bit of a fan of wire wheels and one day I hope to have a set on our Stag. John wrote up seven modifications to help a Stag V8 keep cool in everyday traffic. Here's my take on each.
1. A Smiths capillary temperature gauge. I agree it's a very good idea, and the dual gauge with oil pressure is ideal. An idea from Andrew Richards: put a 50 ohm potentiometer in series with the wire to the temperature sender. Read the temperature at the sender with an infrared heat gun and adjust the pot so the needle sits where you want it, say 85 degrees at halfway. If the needle goes past halfway, you may have an overheating problem. A 50 ohm pot is about $10 at Jaycar.
2. An electric fan. Good insurance. I notice John has removed his mechanical fan. Recently I was driving our Stag in 30 plus degrees in heavy traffic when smoke came out of my Davies Craig electric fan: it had failed big time. Luckily I'd kept the original engine fan, and once I'd dealt with the burnt wires I carried on without further trouble. I haven't replaced the electric fan, because the original fan does the job. If I'd removed it, I'd have been going nowhere. My advice: don't rely on electric fans alone. The engine fan may rob a few horsepower, but we're not racing these cars.
3. A secret spoiler under the front. Damn fine idea: cheap, can't be seen, and it works. After fitting one I couldn't get the engine to run hot enough in winter.
4. An upgraded radiator. Our Stag still runs the standard radiator with no issues. The radiator man at Werribee says he can build a three-core radiator that's more efficient than a four-core. No need to spend the money on an alloy one.
5. An expansion bottle or header tank. Jim Ostergaard fitted an expansion bottle from a VW Passat, which runs at 22 psi, in the same place as John's. The downside is you can't easily get at the fuses. I fitted one of Chris Spain's (Stagweber, UK) alloy header tanks, with a float switch that sounds a buzzer if the level drops. Highly recommended, and it doesn't get in the way of the fuse box.
6. An electric or external water pump. Triumph Spares in Fairfield fitted an external mechanical pump, from a Mazda as I remember, to a club member's Stag and it seems to work fine. As most of you know, I had a pump fail 100 km north of Melbourne in October 2012: a faulty batch of 12-vane pumps with soft gears hit Australia and they simply wore away. Jim Ostergaard pioneered fitting Davies Craig electric water pumps to Stags, and his conversion features on the Davies Craig website. I modelled mine on Jim's. The digital controller on ours is set to 80 degrees and I've had no issues. On a recent club run to Griffith the temperature ranged from 32 to 38 degrees, damn hot on the ears with the roof down through Shepparton. The best feature is that the pump keeps running for a few minutes after you switch off, which prevents heat soak. The controller can be set to 75, 80, 85, 90 or 95 degrees and can also run the front electric fan. I wouldn't go back to the original pump. Leon Himmelfarb moved his alternator to the upper left of the engine and fitted the electric pump where the alternator was.
7. A radiator cowl. New ones are available from Stagweber and are a good addition; I'm looking to get one. John says removing the engine fan gives more power, but will you notice?
Everyone has their own ideas on keeping the Triumph V8 reliable and cool. I change the coolant every 12 months. Radiators deteriorate, so keep an eye out for flaky fins. Alloy radiators look great, but copper ones still last very well. Ours may still be the original, and I'll look at replacing it this year. In the engine I've been using Penrite's 20W-40 for Triumphs.
I guess this will generate some discussion.
Cheers, Graeme
Update from Vic Farrington, on his air conditioning article:
Yes, it's fine to make my air conditioning article available. I did the installation about ten years ago, and it's been shared with the SA club and others interstate. It was a lot of fiddling about, as you'll see, but worth it in the end.
If I had my time again I'd look harder at converting the standard heater box. The factory heater and cooler box is mostly vacuum controlled, with some electrical and mechanical controls, which brings a lot of complexity. The Stag uses a single slider to control the heater, change the flaps, switch in the air conditioning and set the temperature: all too much. After playing with it on and off (and the controls are a sod to get at) I simplified things with a separate vacuum-controlled heater knob, which is effectively what the Jaguar XJ6 system uses.
Factory heater and cooler boxes are now hard to find. Most US Stags had air conditioning, but relatively few Australian and UK cars were ordered with it. A number of the later upmarket Triumph 2500s had air conditioning fitted here aftermarket, with a modified heater box; one of those might be worth looking at, or a wander through a wrecking yard. Having said all that, I'm pleased with what I've done. We can go out in any weather, especially on very hot days, and I didn't want an under-dash unit where the parcel shelf is.
Cheers, Vic
Vic's full write-up and photos are in Downloads, and in the Guide under Interior.