Triumph Slant-4 engine

1975 Dolomite 1850 engine bay

The Triumph Slant-4 is an engine developed by Triumph. According to Triumph historians Graham Robson and Richard Langworth in Triumph Cars, the complete story, the engine was developed in-house by a design team led by Lewis Dawtry and Harry Webster.

The UK engineering and consultancy company Ricardo, which did have a general engine-development contract with Triumph, was not directly involved with its design, but was usually kept informed of anything new being planned. Ricardo was involved in developing a new engine for Saab, for use in their new 99 model. When that development proved too expensive and risky to produce, Ricardo, knowing the slant-4 was almost ready for production, brought Saab into contact with Triumph.

Saab first used the Triumph Slant-4 at 1.7 L (1709 cc) for the Saab 99. Only later, as production capacity increased, did it become available in Triumphs. Development by Saab continued into the 1990s. The engine is a straight-4 with the cylinders tilted at 45 degrees (actually in effect half of the Triumph V8 that was used in the Triumph Stag).

The engine was used by Triumph in the Dolomite 1850, the Dolomite Sprint, and the TR7. It was also used by Panther in the Dolomite-based Rio (1975–1977). Triumph ended manufacture of the engine when the TR7 was discontinued in 1981.

Sprint version

Triumph added unique SOHC 4-valve cylinder heads to the Slant-4 for 1973's Dolomite Sprint. This is regarded as the first mass-produced multi-valve car engine.

A team of engineers led by Spen King developed the 16-valve cylinder head with all of the valves being actuated using a single camshaft rather than the more conventional DOHC arrangement. The capacity was also increased to 1,998 cc (122 cu in), and combined with bigger carburettors the output was upped to 127 bhp (95 kW). This represented a significant increase over the smaller 1850cc variant, however it fell short of the original target of 135 bhp (101 kW).

Despite BL engineers being able to extract a reliable 150 bhp (112 kW) from test engines,^[1] the production line was unable to build the engines to the same level of quality, with production outputs being in the region of 125 bhp (93 kW) to 130 bhp (97 kW). This led to the original model designation, the Dolomite 135, being replaced at short notice with the Sprint name.

This 16 valve 2 litre engine was also used in a small number of prototype and pre-production TR7 Sprints, built at Speke during 1977. ^[2]

Saab B engine

Triumph Slant-4 in a 1973 Saab 99L.

Saab later increased the engine size to 1.85 L and in 1972 the company brought production in-house (to Scania) for the 2.0 L B version. This engine shared much with the original Triumph design, including bore centres and bearings, but was substantially redesigned. Previously inadequate and unreliable features, such as the waterpump and its seal, were redesigned and became reliable. Some of these became popular as retrofits to original Triumph engines and cars.

The Saab B engine was replaced by the related Saab H engine.

References