Hello Tigers,
I have just joined the net. I am Jim Barrett at
anitabar@mindspring.com . I have been a Tiger II owner
since 1969. I used to be a charter member of Tigers East in
Virginia, but in about 1975 when the club became more concerned
with Robert's Rules of Order than Tigers, I dropped out. I have
been on my own ever since. My Tiger, a daily driver, has only
270k miles on it and I have never changed the oil (ha), I Just
change motors.
My first Tiger II modification was to replace the 4 blade
fan with a 14" 5 blade fan from a Sears aftermarked Rambler
station wagon airconditioning kit. Had to enlarge the hole to 1" for
the original water pump. Now have to add a 5/8"to 1" washer to
fit normal water pumps. Got the washer from a lawnmower blade
replacement kit.
By the way, to make the normal water pumps fit, I simply
press the fan mounting flange in the proper amount. (Take the
back off to allow support of the shaft while pressing.) Never had a
flange come off and I have probably used 10 water pumps over the
years.
Traction Masters were installed after I bent both shocks
while autocrossing.
The original 289 went through 2 rebuilds. The first time
because I dropped a steel check ball from the original carb
down the intake. Man!, that makes a lot of noise as it destroys the
piston and puts dimples in the head. That overhaul was just to
hone the cylinder and replace the piston. That didn't last long
before I had a Tiger with a very bad smoking habit from that
cylinder.
Next I installed a Boss 302 in the Tiger. If anyone has
Popular Hot Rodding of Feb. 1974 "Swap Talk" page 20-22 or
STOA Technical Tips of 1977 you can read about my Boss 302
installation. By the way, STOA didn't bother to contact me before
or after they "copyrighted" my article. With the original radiator ,
no hood scoop and no body cutting plus driving in Washington DC,
the Boss 302 was a constant battle with overheating. I finally
installed another radiator in the trunk ( cut out the front of the
spare tire well plus another hole for exit air in the floor) connected
via the heater hoses. This helped, but then I had heat coming up
the back of the neck as well as the feet.
The Boss 302 was freighting. I had plain old Sears tires
on it and I could burn rubber at 60 mph in high gear. I took it up
to 7000 rpm in high a few times, (2.88 rear and 25" tires). Pegged
the 140 speedometer for whatever that is worth. At that speed the
Tiger becomes very light and dangerous. I added an accelerometer
and could pull 7/10 G all the way through 3rd gear with the skinny
tires.
Had to add an extra fuel tank during the gas crisis as I was
commuting 120 miles a day at 9 miles per gallon. Put "T's" into
the fuel tank cross over pipe and connected a truck saddle tank in
for a total of 31 gallons. Gas station people would drop their jaw
when I filled up. I would sometimes joke that I only have a 10
gallon tank and therefore their pump must be wrong.
The Boss 302 originally had a Cleveland water pump on it
and I changed it out for a Windsor pump so it would line up with
the radiator outlets. Had to modify the alternator forging to make
it fit the heads. Motor mounts were a direct fit. Very crude home
made headers, but they worked. Finally learned how to weld long
after that.
Sixty thousand miles of too many hard runs and a factory
piston skirt design defect caused the skirts to break off of all
pistons. Talk about piston slap noise! Years later I found out
about the design defect in an article about the Boss.
Some one else wanted the broken Boss 302 more than I
did so the original motor started its second overhaul. This time it
was done right with machining, new pistons, balance, etc. I put
Windsor 351 heads on it. Mail order cheap stuff that I milled down
until I had 10.5 to 1 compression with the pop-up pistons. Had to
mill the heads a different amount to equalize the chambers. Ported
the heads and added screw in studs and "hardened" push rods from
PAW. The studs broke in less than 1000 miles (I just love oriental
made parts) also noticed the push rods were almost worn in two. I
replaced the studs with Mr. Gasket studs and Ford Moto- Sport
push rods and never had another problem. The cam shaft was a
marine cam I had left over from my boat. Headers were from JC
Whitney. Exhaust is 2 1/2 inch EMT with Royal Scott mufflers. A
straight shot from the headers to under the axle allow both to last
forever. The motor needed stronger valve springs and new lifters
because when I got it up to around 5000, it floated the valves and
one of the PAW lifters then rattled for about 10 minutes.
Got the bug for more power and I put a 351C 4 barrel
from a 70 Torino in the Tiger. This was a big job. Had to keep the
Tiger for transportation during the week while working on it
during the week ends. First pulled the motor and using a hammer
and a cold chisel, (had no air tools then) cut out the firewall.
Fabricated a firewall out of 1/16 plate and welded it back in
( moved back 6"). Then built new front frames from 2"x 3" x1/8"
tubing. The "Hump" in the new frames was a lot lower than the
original frames. I cut out some of the inside front fender well to
gain 4" on each side. Replaced the hole with sheet metal pop-
riveted in every 1". While building the frames I re-installed the
289 and drove the Tiger. Then changed one frame side at a time
while the 289 was in the car. Again drove it with one new and one
old frame. Added the other frame the same way. Again with the
dumb cold chisel and 3 pound hammer. Very hard on the arm
joints. Added a 1" square tube from the top of the firewall to the
area of the front cross member, braced everything with 1/8" plates
and welded it all solid. Now I had room for a wider radiator so I
had a radiator fabricated using the old end tanks. Added hose
fittings at all four corners because the 289 takes upper right and
lower left while the Cleveland takes upper left and lower right.
Capped the two extra holes with some rubber caps I found at a
plumbing shop.
Built a real nice set of headers using a Torino set as starting
material. ( now know how to weld ok). The headers are "flat-4"
like a NASCAR instead of quad 4 like most headers. This provides
ground clearance. Still have the 2 1/2" EMT exhausts and the
same Walker Royal Scott mufflers from years ago.
The wheels have bands welded in for 6 1/2" wide in the
front and 8" wide in the rear. Use Goodrich TA 235-50-13 on the
rear ( this size is becoming hard to find anymore).
No rear fender chopping, just rolled the inside edge and then using
a jack and some boards I slowly stretched the fender well out. The
Tiger II has stainless steel wheel well trim that, when installed,
makes it very difficult for most people ( i.e. not Tiger owners) to
tell that the fenders are not original shape. The front fenders are
done likewise and of course, the classic cut in front of the tire to
allow wider tires to turn. Use 225-60-13 as well as other sizes at
various times on the front.
A JC Whitney Camaro reversed hood scoop allows the
original air cleaner (turned lengthwise) to fit. I use a Purolator
AFP-83-1 or equivalent air filter. It starts round, but after
squeezing and pulling it becomes oval and fits very well. It is a lot
taller (and cheaper) than the original Tiger filter. Hewland Sharp
roller rockers, screw in studs, big Crane cam and Hi-intensity
lifters and a Holly 650 double pumper allow a fairly smooth idle at
800 rpm with 15" of vacuum. The 351 Cleveland makes the Boss
302 seem like a 6 cylinder.
The only problem I have had with the 351 is that at 15k
miles the original Ford Moto-Sports camshaft and lifters wiped a
lob. Have you ever tried to get steel cam chunks out of an original
Tiger oil cooler? It ain't easy. By the way, my oil filter is
mounted under the headlight in the right front fender well. Used
the original adapter and mount to bolt it in. Used long oil hoses
clamped to the original fittings.
After going through several types of fuel pumps I now
use a Holly Red pump mounted behind the rear end. Makes a lot of
noise, but it always works.
To solve the problem with lifting at high speed I
fabricated an air-dam out of 1/4" x 1 foot plastic. It starts at the lip
behind the bumper and extends down and around the sides. Cut
and bent the plastic to allow air to get to the oil cooler.
Re-enforced the plastic with aluminum bars behind and a piece of
MG-B side molding about 3" up from the lower edge. This made
the Tiger stable as a rock at very high speed and also dropped the
temperature 15 degrees on the hottest Florida day. The plastic
broke after a few years and I had to take it off. It was a pain to get
a jack under the front cross member with it any way. I am now to
old to drive stupid for very long.
Now that I have bored everyone, maybe you could help me
with a problem I can't solve. The Tiger rack and pinion is to far
forward of the steering arms. This causes reverse Ackerman after
turning the tires more than about 15 degrees. The reverse
Ackerman (outside wheel turned more than inside wheel) causes
the poor handling of Tigers in racing and causes speed, and tires,
to be scrubbed off on tight corners. I can't move the rack back in
line because it would hit the motor. I am trying some major
modifications to the steering on a "Tiger-pine" to solve the problem
, but that is another story.
|