Winter Projects

[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by terence bower

Or to put it another way,use petrol.

Petrol used. Was trying to calculate cost of few ccs of 99 versus some squirts of brake cleaner! Think per litre latter wins.......

And using either was getting decidedly dizzy from fumes

The difficult areas were where stickers had been removed eons ago but glue left. Cheers, previous owner!

Thank you everyone for all your input on such a serious and sticky subject

[zefarelly]

THat could have been the stickiest situation since sticky the stick insect got stuck on a sticky stick.

I often wonder how I survived in the workshop before Brake and clutch cleaner

[delta]

BTW what did we do before tie wrapsMy first single seater was held together with insulation tape.I can remember the excitement even now as we were desperate to start her up. My mate who is now a very respected Ferrari engineer filled up the fuel tank with water. Kept on telling me how he could not understand where all the coolant had gone.We had to strip down the car to get the fuel tank out. Took about two weeks. happy days

[Lancsbreaker]

What did we do before ratchet straps?......I always reckon if God had meant us to tie knots, he wouldn't have had ratchet straps invented.....

[Al Weyman]

I remeber using thin alloy from printing plates to make little clips to hold things in place.

[Robyn Slater]

Originally Posted by delta

Attachment 30763 Block finnished.

I always paint my "special" engines

Glyptal,is the stuff,and it dosn't fall off

[delta]

Originally Posted by Robyn Slater

I always paint my "special" engines

Glyptal,is the stuff,and it dosn't fall off

Thanks Robin Its expensive £30.00 for 1 Litre tin.Dont leave the lid off

[zefarelly]

hmmm . ..what about the extra weight

I might give it a go . . . .if it helps avoid oil surge by helping drainage it can't be a bad thing . . . and Snetterton looks like its been redesigned by ACL engineers!!!

just read a bit . . .50/50 . . . . opinions split it seems.

[Al Weyman]

Waste of time from what I have read, paint the valley of a small block engine some say then you get oil dropping on to the crank so others plug up the center drain holes in the valley or put stand off pipes in. Joe I think we are going to be on the 300 at Snett in early April I will confirm when I know for sure, be good practice you guys for the 360!

[zefarelly]

3 hours milling and 3 hours porting today, and I've roughed out the 4 inlet ports of a new super dooper race head, I sold last years one after flow testing and rebuilding it, so the winter project is to better it.

[Al Weyman]

Apparently Smokey Yunick painted the inlet ports and inlet manifild internally with Glyptal as porting was not allowed but a few fine coats of this has the effect of smoothing the flow (worth concidering?) it was banned by NASCAR.

[zefarelly]

I googled glyptal as well Al

never going to paint a precrossflow port, you struggle to get them big enough as it is!

Inversely you'd want plaster of paris AND 4 coats for an Essex V6!

[Al Weyman]

Naw I googled painting inside blocks although I already knew it was a no no the google results confirmed it, one guy said he had torn down several failed engines with oil pump screen blocked with paint chipping also getting past the filter into the bearings but in 30 years had never pulled a failed engine down with casting sand stuck in the works so make your own mind up, one other guy also said he was too busy building race winning engines to waste his time with snake oil tricks like that! I will leave mine bare still I think and polish the bodywork instead to impress.

[Robyn Slater]

Youv'e got to believe everything you read on the internet...............

Question is do you believe what i just said..

[Al Weyman]

No but you take a concidered cross section plus your own reading and personal experiencies and make a decision.

FInally fired up the Camaro IROC-Z tonight and after an initial scare where a rocker came loose making a hell of a banging before closing a valve and sounding seriously bad I just pulled the valve covers and reset and tightened the rocker and fired it up and it sounds truely awesome I really can't wait to get this baby back on the track and hope I have put the problems with it behind me but wont hold my breath just yet!

[delta]

The Escort is still down at the paint shop. Me and Martin fitted the cage this weekend and hope to have her painted by next weekend. Next Saturday we will fit the axel and front suspension at the paint shop then back to Delta HQ and get the engine and box in.
We have got stacked out with work so its back to evening's only on the Escort which will slow up progress.March seems to be rushing towards us too quick.

[Robyn Slater]

Originally Posted by Al Weyman

No but you take a concidered cross section plus your own reading and personal experiencies and make a decision.

!

Fair comment Al,

If you've got a bit of spare time,browse the net on the subject of "ford crossflow block T numbers" . See if it makes sence.

[Al Weyman]

Here if you can be bothered to read it, not my area of expertise I am afraid although I used to race/build them then in short circuit stuff. http://www.lotus-cortina.com/library/block/blocks.htm

[zefarelly]

Originally Posted by Robyn Slater

Fair comment Al,

If you've got a bit of spare time,browse the net on the subject of "ford crossflow block T numbers" . See if it makes sence.

I'mnot convinced by any of that . . . . at approaching 50 years old I take and use any block that I can and treat tham all as individuals, I've recently taken a T1 block to 85mm and its perfectly happy.


head casting are equally vague in their consistency

[Al Weyman]

Same with Chevy blocks Zef, I have read about guys using some sonic sounding technic to see what overbore it will take, they sell plus 60 pistons for them but I had a block crack that was bored to that size and I would now limit to 40 thou max. I was also talking to an engineer the other day about the Ford 289 block which incidently is becoming increasingly rare and I know someone who is looking for one without much luck so i wonder how the Apps K crowd are going to get around that one, anyhow he had this engine that kept chucking water out the exhaust and stripped it twice and couldnt find a fault. In the end he pressurised the block by machining a plate and bolted it down where the head goes and found porosity in the block and this was at only plus 30 thou.

[zefarelly]

Delta, you want to give me that blast cabinet then there'll be more space round the escort!

Liners Al . . . better quality than te original blocks, installation just needs to be well executed

[Al Weyman]

Thats what I think he did in the end. He is an old school machinist well versed in this sort of stuff and would have done it properly.

[zefarelly]

One of my more serious winter projects has been a new cylinder head, for me! Last years 'best yet' engine didn't have the best flowing head. so I'm trying to work out what makes what happen at which lift, and go back through some old heads and old dyno figures etc . . . . so far today I've shredded half a dozen little flap wheels and burnt a motor out on the flow bench!

got the best low lift flow so far but still no matched the best High lift, but I think this is chamber related as much as anything, particularly depth, which is to an extent dictated by capacity and CR. some of the better heads are only 6mm deep, but mines 3cc to small and still 8mm deep!

[John Turner]

Brilliant, Zef; great to see traditional R & D alive and kicking.

[delta]

Originally Posted by zefarelly

Delta, you want to give me that blast cabinet then there'll be more space round the escort!

Liners Al . . . better quality than te original blocks, installation just needs to be well executed

Thats the paint shop Joe. I will ask the question for you.