Well its now a year around since I have been writing this build diary, and things are coming along slowly but surely.

Theres lots of pictures on this page, so please be patient while it loads!

CLICK ON PICTURES TO SEE THE FULLSIZE IMAGE

Engine

Short Block:
The main thing thats happened this month is that I finally got an engine! 2 litre Pinto with a 205 block for a grand £30. In in bits and need rebuilding, but I have spent the last couple of weeks at home cleaning it up and getting it ready to go back together. On close inspection with a micrometer the bores show very little wear at all with about 0.05mm ovality and 0.1mm total wear, well within the 0.15mm limit as suggested in the haynes manual. There is no identifiable wear at the bottom of the bores. The crankshaft measures spot on mid limit after a quick polish with some scotchbrite on the journals. The big end journals are 0.005 out of round but thats well within the liits, with the main journals being spot on for roundness. The pistons show no scuff marks at all which backs up the fact that there is not much wear on the engine. The auxiliary shaft is in perfect condition, with no wear to the critical distributor drive gear. The blocks surfaces are both flat (checked with a straight edge and feeler gauges).

Parts on order:
Main bearing shells (arrived)
Crank thrust washers (arrived)
Big end shells (arrived)
Full gasket/seals kit (arrived)
Piston rings (arrived)
Water pump (arrived)
Fuel pump (arrived)
Dizzy and coil (arrived)

Head:
The cam is totally shot as are the valve springs and followers so a new cam kit is called for, an FR32 is the most probable replacement. Unfortunately the head is not suitable for unleaded (not bearing the correct markings) but the valve seats do not show much recession yet, so they will be reground and the engine will be run on additive for the forseeable future. The valves are all in good condtion, but required some major cleaning, and the valve guides show little wear.

I have midly ported the head, with the most attention paid to the valve throats rather than the ports, since I am sticking with standard sized valves at the moment. All of the steps and casting ridges have been removed in the throats, and they have been opened out as far as possible without affecting the valve seating. The inlet ports have simply had some of the casting roughness removed, but have not been polished (inlet ports should never be polished otherwise fuel will condense on the walls rather than make it into the combustion chamer!) infact they are still quite rough. The exhaust ports have been smoothed more than the inlet ports, but have yet to be polished. The short turn on both the inlet and exhaust ports have been extensively reworked, forming a nice radius, rather than the sharp edge present in the standard head. Hopefully these small modifications should see a few more BHP than standard.

All thats left to do is to regrind the valve seats, and remove the spot facing ridge from the combustion chamber.

Parts on order:
Camshaft kit (arrived)
Camshaft bearings and thrust plate (arrived)

 

Vernier Cam Pulley

Bought new from eBay for £48. Very well made and ought to look good perched on the front of my engine! Oh of course it also serves the useful purpose of allowing cam timing to be set very accurately!

Seats

These could be described as seconds. But at a saving of nearly £100 I am not going to complain. All I need to do is trim the removeable panels. (with the help of the girlfriend of course ;-) ) They were repaired after being damaged in transit to another customer, then repaired and sold to moi. Although I am a while away from actually needing them, but I couldnt pass up the bargain!

Camshaft

In my quest to build a cheap, but resonably well tuned engine I managed to get a Kent FR22 (older brother of the now common FR32). It was fitted in an RS2000, but looking at the distinct lack of wear on it, it wasnt fitted for long! Got a little rust patch on the front journal. Nothing serious and it will polish out and be as good as new. I'm not complaining for £50 anyway!

Spec:
Kent FR22 Camshaft (fast road)
11.04mm lift (inlet), 11.67mm lift (exhaust)
272 degree inlet duration, 285 degree exhaust duration, 87degree overlap
2500-7000rpm power band
Timing: 31/61 79/26