See Fuel Injection System for items on injection problems.
See Exhaust for engine bay heat shielding.
When switching on the side lights it makes the temperature gauge rise from the normal position to the red area, switch them off and it drops back down. If I turn the lights on, use the indicators or brakes the radio switches off momentarily. Maybe this is related.
The other weekend I took the car for a blast down to Devon. I was doing about 4,500rpm in 5th and the car spluttered and wouldn't go any faster as if I'd hit the rev limiter. I quickly resolved the situation by dropping down a gear. On another occasion operating the windows caused the car to splutter in similar manner.
Oh yes, and there's a noise coming from the fuel tank if I use
the car shortly after a journey.
Adam Dyte
Internet Mailing List Feb 97
You stated that once when you used the windows the car sputtered,
and also that dropping it down a gear made it clear up on another
sputtering occasion. These could be voltage related, the electronic
ignition may be affected by a low voltage state, you may want
to check this by running a volt meter to the power source for
the ignition (low volts of course), and monitor this rather than
any dash instrument. Revving the car by dropping a gear may have
increased you voltage, conversely using the window lowered the
voltage. Check your alternator belt.
You also stated that a noise came from the fuel tank, if your
venting on your tank is not working well you may not be able to
feed the fuel pump adequately. Try running with the fuel tank
cap off, and see if the sputtering goes away - this gives you
very good venting, however be very careful, as you could imagine
you may vent too well - particularly with a full tank in roundabouts!!
Robert Stewart.
At the time of its first service I was told about the approved TVR factory performance conversions, consisting of brake mods @ £400, gas flowed inlet manifold @ £1500 and a de-cat @ £1600. I was told to expect the power to be on the good side of 300bhp. This was ordered and carried out. After receiving my fully run-in and converted car I was not happy with its performance. Because I had been running-in the vehicle I was not aware of its complete lack of power. I now believe that the engine was bad and lacking in power from day one. My car was taken down to Southern Carburettors in Wimbledon on the 26th November. The power output was measured at only 216bhp, Remember standard is 275bhp and we were looking for just over 300bhp with the fitted mods.
The engine was sent back to TVR Power in Coventry on 17th December 1996, (this is where the engines are built) and on the 3rd January was delivered backed to The TVR Centre. On inspecting the returned engine it was found to have different heads, marked 4.3. There was also swarf found in the engine (a sure sign of shoddy workmanship). When questioning TVR Power, we were told that they had done nothing special to the engine, and that they had only adjusted the cam timing.
The engine was fitted on Wednesday 8th January 1997 at the dealership. The engine was smoking badly and ran awfully. Then The TVR Centre sent my car complete with smoking engine back to TVR Power on Thursday 9th January 1997. The car to everybody's surprise was returned on the Friday 10th , late afternoon. My car seemed to run OK, but to be on the safe side, we decided to run the engine in again for at least 500 miles. After completing just over 600 miles I returned the car back to the dealership on Monday 3rd February 1997. The engine was found to losing coolant and leaking oil very badly.
The car was later taken back down to Southern Carburettors on Tuesday 4th February 1997 and was found to have only 230bhp. When
we phoned TVR Power for an explanation, we were told that they had completed some major work to my engine, but were not prepared
to say exactly what . . . I will let you know what happens next.
Matthew Rooke
Internet Mailing List Feb 97
. . . We had some postings about cam timings last year, which were to the effect that the timing marks are not always in the
right place. Therefore the only way to be sure was to stick it on a rolling road ( or dyno ). So maybe they did this and the
swarf came in somewhere else, remember the heads had been off.
David Donnan
Internet Mailing List Feb 97
The need for dialling-in of cams is due mainly to manufacturing tolerances. The cam is machined from a solid blank, and then has
a sprocket bolted onto it, that is then driven by a chain, from another sprocket on a crankshaft, as you can imagine each of these
processes builds in a little "margin for error". If the cam is designed to open the valves at, for example, 60 degrees
before top dead centre, with the "margin for error" this may be perhaps 55-65 degrees, therefore straying from the
optimum 60 degrees. To get back to the optimum accuracy, the sprocket has slots rather than holes machined into it (or off-set dowels)
so that they can be minutely adjusted to give the exact (rather than approximate) set-up.
This is standard practice for racing engines and some "hot" road engines (it was done on my Caterham, and most small, high revving engines where owner want the maximum power - not that a V8 is small or high revving).
Hope this helps (if anyone is still awake).
Mike Jennings
Internet Mailing List Feb 97
My car was collected from The TVR Centre last Friday and is currently having the engine rebuilt (apparently to a much higher spec).
I am due to get it back either tomorrow or Wednesday.
I hope that this will prove to be the end of the saga. However the factory did express a dislike of customers modifying and especially testing their cars on rolling roads. Even though the conversion parts were organised and supplied by TVR Power (Coventry). I now believe that this will no longer continue.
I would like to point out that the guys (Tim, Bruce and Mike) at the TVR Centre (Redhill) were at all times were very supportive and understanding.
I will write again when I have driven her.
Matthew Rooke
Internet Mailing List Feb 97
I have now had my Chimaera back a few days and managed to cover over 160 miles this weekend.
She is now running sweet, loads of power, how a TVR should be! I haven't had the chance to put her on a rolling road yet, but it must be right now, because she scares me.
Looking forward to the summer!
Matthew Rooke
Internet Mailing List Aug 96
It's probably because of the higher compression achieved with the engine hot. If you've ever tried starting a car on a starting
handle, it's easy to turn over when cold, but when it's hot everything is sealing properly and you have to put your back into it.
Adam Quantrill
Internet Mailing List Aug 96
I had a hot-start problem on a Nova GTE that occurred under exactly the same conditions as you describe, although there was not a
problem with turning over the engine, just with getting it to fire. It always started immediately when cold or if I restarted
it quickly when hot. It used the usual Bosch Jetronic EFi system and the problem was with the fuel pump relay. I believe there
is a safety feature such that when the engine stops the fuel pump does likewise. When starting the relay switches on the pump before
the engine gets running. Except that after a few years it didn't do this when hot. It would restart after a short stop (e.g. stalling)
presumably because the fuel system was still primed. This is apparently a common fault on Novas/Astras/Cavaliers of that era as there
was a faulty batch of relays.
Simon Tonks
Internet Mailing List Aug 96
I have had the very same problem on 2 cars; my 350i and my old Fiat X1/9. I never did get to the bottom of the fault with the
Fiat, but the TVR turned out as follows:
Initially I thought the (very) sluggish turning over was a battery problem and I duly replaced it. Over the winter it didn't see much use, and managed to cool down between starts anyway, so the problem seemed to go away. Come this summer it did it again. I had a friend in the car, and he peered under the bonnet whilst I cranked it over at snail pace.
"Stop" he shrieked "its glowing red" and sure enough the braket near the alternator where there is an earth strap rapidly glowed a dull red. Inspection when it had cooled down showed the pivot bolt on the alternator (which also holds the afore-mentioned earth strap) had been welded to its washer! We thought about it for a bit and decided that the starter motor was at fault - the theory was that when hot the coil inculation broke down and the battery attempted to discharge directly to earth. As the starter motor is mounted about 2 mm from the exhaust down pipe it does actually get very very hot. Starter off and refurbished, back on. No major problems discovered by the motor refurbisher, just slightly tired brushes.
I also cleaned up the earth path in the vicinity of the hinge bolt. I believe with hindsight that the real problem was the poor earth path in the first place: the bolt only glowed red because the resistance across it was relatively high. As it glowed red the resistance increased and less volts were available to crank the starter. It didn't do it from cold possibly because the differential expansion of the hinge bolt and its hole closed up when cold, and the problem only initiated once it was reasonably warm.
Moral: as with all GRP cars, check your wiring and especially check your earth path. A simple check is to run a beefy wire from
the negative battery terminal to the casing of your starter (if it earths via the casing that is)
Crispin Hallam
Internet Mailing List Jan 97
I know that TVR Power will do the HC conversion for around a grand. That's an extra 35bhp I think - speak to Paul Willis 01203 366177.
Paul