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November 2006

Post Barkston Repairs

If you read the trackday report from Barkston Heath you will know that the Tiger was running rather badly that day. Well on the way home is got progressively worse. Inf fact it got so bad that I called out Niall Turner to have a look at it in case the engine was about to blow up on me!

Fortunately it wasn't that bad and proved to be repairable - it turned out that the inlet manifold gasket was leaking, the exhaust gaskets (fitted 2 weeks previously) had failed and the engine mounts appeared to be made out of cheese. The gaskets were easy to source from Burton Power and I soon had a nice new set of Felpro gaskets and a bill for £40! The engine mounts were harder to locate eventually I rang Tiger to be told by Sue they have some competition ones in stock (should have tried there first!).

Fitting the engine mounts is fairly easy if you do the jobs in the right order.

I started by stripping the exhaust out of the car (as I was replacing the gaskets anyway) and then replaced the drivers side mounting by jacking the car up and resting the engine on blocks of wood as I undid the bolts.

By removing the carbs off the engine you then gain access to the passenger side mounting and this is replaced in the same method. Then refit the carbs and reseal the water pipes.

I then checked the exhaust headers and filled them flat so as to get a better seal with the gasket and replaced the exhaust system using the new gaskets.

Finally the engine could be put back together and run up.

Battery Immobiliser

Whilst I was doing the above work I also decided to fit a battery immobiliser switch to the car - now the car is not intended for competition use so I have mounted the switch in a hidden location to act as an anti-theft device. Hence there will not be any photographs of the installation!

Basically you just need a quantity of battery cable (about 3 metres in my case) some large crimps and a suitable crimping tool (I borrowed this from Mervyn Garner), it is then very easy to wire! the second part of wiring the switch is to allow it to stop the alternator (otherwise when the battery switch is turned off the engine can still run!). I did then and then also put the main power feed for the dashboard through the spare terminals so nothing will work with the switch disabled.