Click for larger image
Cylinder Head work
3/02/01
I have now striped the cylinder head and of all the bits and have taken it to the Machine shop. Holbay in Ipswich. When the head comes back I will have the inlet and exhaust ports opened and it will come accompanied with a fast road cam, new followers and valve springs. The cam will be profiled from a blank to my requirements. It should be a little hotter than an FR33 and give more low down torque.
The only work I will have to do to the head is re lap the valves and fit the all the other little bit's like the cam shaft. I will add a photo of the nice clean head when it arrives.
18/03/01
Since my spark plug problem I am swaying to waiting to fit the head to the new engine when it's built. I don't think I will gain the full potential out of it when the engine is running less than a 100psi on all 4 cylinders and the way I drive it, the engine will probably die in a short space of time.
I will re-do the compression test next week and poor some oil down the plug holes and check to see if its the head or cylinders that are causing low compression. I am glad I have a spare engine waiting for a rebuild.
20/02/01
Had a chat with Holbay about the spare engine and decided to get the engine stripped and up to them. Also had a chat with MJS about getting the spare gearbox looked into. So to hell with running another compression test on the old engine, having a nice engine built.
22//02/01
Got the gearbox to MJS, and striped my engine for delivery to Holbay on Saturday.
24/02/01
| The engine totally stripped and in the back of my car. When stripping the engine checked the condition of the bearings. There was no sign of ware no bronze showing or marks or anything. Got the engine to Holbay and had a good chat with Richard, (he knows his stuff) decided on a 2.1 bore, KS pistons which are lighter and will cope with high sustained RPM. Heavy duty bearings and con rod bolts will also be fitted. To finish of the fly wheel will be lightened and balanced. And the whole engine will be built on site. | |
|
Click for larger image |
The head has come under scrutiny again and is going to have a little more work. It's having the 3 angle seat cut. and the valves will have the same treatment to match the head. The camshaft will also be changed to a rally spec, lose a little below 3000 RPM but will kick you in the back after that and will give power up to 7000 RPM. Hummmm nice :) The only thing that's going to rob power from this engine is the twin 40s. I may have to upgrade to 45s at some stage. Anyone got some 45s for sale (must be very cheap, cos the wife don't know how much I have spent so please don't tell her) if you have click HERE to mail me.
27/02/01
Received a call from MJS. Your gearbox sir. (Bad news springs to mind like the box is totally shagged and I am lucky it worked at all). Bad news I said. Not at all was the voice on the phone one of the best that has come my way. Cant see a thing wrong with it. What would you like to do just put it back together with new gaskets?? I enquired about the parts that ware the most. He said normally it's the syncro and bearings. I enquired about the cost and decided to get them replaced while the gearbox was in bits. Kos it's going to have a hard time.
03/03/01
Went up to
Holbay
to see how my engine was coming on and got a couple of pictures of the
work while I was there. Had another chat with Richard abo ut
the engine and head. He is going to test the head on the flow bench just
to make sure that the head porting work and valve work is
passing wind correctly :) When my engine is nearly ready I will have
to strip the engine out of my
cat to get the last few bits that need swapping over and
for a final check of the inlet
manifold is matched to the head. It wont be too long now.
There were a couple of other pinto blocks waiting for work They are going to be full race 2.4s and they are having alloy heads on. At a cost of about £4,500 to the owners. wow..... Who said the pinto was dead. A RS turbo engine was sitting in bits on a bench the boy racer owner wants a 1.9 conversion and to get over 225+BHP from it when it gets back and I just missed a Cosworth full racing engine about 450BHP on tap. I would have got a picture of it for you lot to drool over. |
| For all them 16V'ers out there, he had a nice 2.0 ZETEC nearing completion, it's going to have throttle bodies, forgot what ignition system, it has a larger valves and ports, hot cams, strengthened and balanced bottom end and high performance pistons, it should produce 210BHP+ & it's going in a kit car. He didn't know what it is though. I did ask if he would swap my pinto for it. |  |
| If you are going to fit a Puma
engine to you kit, Holbay
do a 1.9 conversion for it. And it's shit hot. Holbay
are also developing a set of hot cams for the engine too.
I mentioned that I wanted to get the car setup on a rolling road and the Colchester one closes half day on Saturday, but Richard also knows the guy who owns that rolling road and is going to have a chat to see if he will open all day on a Saturday for us. There are 5 people interested in going so far and I am trying to get one of the kit car mags to come down and do a feature on it. If you want your car to be featured, watch this space for updates. |
7/03/01
MJS called and my gearbox is ready for collection. So later on I collected it. Now all it needs is give it a nice coat of paint. All I got is either red or silver. I will do the cover plate in silver and the main part in red and leave the alloy stuff alone.
It's all coming together now.. Just waiting for the engine. It will be worth waiting for :)
Ok,,, here are a few pictures of the engine... I will put some words together later...
The last picture is the old engine that came out
