Some Pictures and info of three key components to Centurion #4 High Mileage ability.
#1. The Kubota Z482 2 Cylinder diesel engine
#2. Triumph GT6 3.27 Rear Differential
#3. Laycock de Normanville D Type Overdrive
What I love about the Z482 is the weight or lack there of I should say. This is one of the few liquid cooled diesel engines you will see that the average Joe could pick up and set on the table with his own bare hands
The GT6 3.27 differentials are more robust than the Spitfire units to handle the 6 cylinder lumps under the hood. Not that the Centurion needs the extra beefy ness but what I was after was the taller gearing as 3.27 is numerically the highest differential gearing that can be had with the Triumph Spitfire and GT6 cars. The good news here is that many of the Spitfire and GT6 cars have interchangeable bolt on ready parts and it just so happens this is one of them so no need for fabrication with this modification. Just bolt it up and off you go
Triumph through out the years offered various overdrive units for there cars. The Spitfires came in the D type and the J type units. The D type was offered in the earlier cars and later upgraded to the J types. These were also found in the GT6 cars. The J types were more robust and could handle more power than the earlier D type overdrives. The sole advantage to the D type was taller gearing. One easy way to tell them apart is by which side the Solenoid is on. The D type is on the right side and the J type is on the left. The gear reduction on all of these overdrives are denoted as the first two numbers on the Face Placard where it says Serial Number.
The Spitfires offered a few different gearing options. 22% and 25%. The thing about these little overdrives are that they were not just made for Triumph cars but also could be found in Austin Healey, Morris Minor, Sunbeam Alpines and Volvo 120/1800 to name a few. For a good history lesson on these overdrives here is a link =
Sheffield Yorkshire providers of overdrive units
The overdrive unit that will be used in the Centurion #4 is a D type overdrive found in a Volvo 1800. Since I will not be pushing more power with the Centurion vs the Spitfire my choice was simple go for the overdrive that would give me the greatest gearing advantage not the one that will allow the most power potential such as the J type. Granted there is a little bit of modification needed to get the Volvo 1800 overdrive to work with the Spitfire but for the most part it will bolt right up
These overdrives were the same out of the factory they just made adapter plates for the various makes and models.
I will go into greater detail in regards to the overdrive and modifications needed to get it to work with the Spitfire drivetrain in a later post.
The main thing to note that you will see in the pictures is the Overdrive gearing of 32%. This is the tallest gearing they made and is roughly the equivalent of a .75 top end gear ratio.
Centurions FTEW
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