A little update (with a big consequence...)

The chaps at Tim Adams Racing had the 351w whipped out in no time at all, and stripped it down for inspection to see what needed doing..

Sadly it seems quite a lot - at least in order to survive any track day action.

There was nothing major awry (apart from a nut and washer they found in the sump, and loose steering rack bolts - which will account for my above noted steering tendencies no doubt - but the less said about that the better). But the bores needed re-doing, and the crank needs a polish. Then the list started growing in order to deal with the track day side of things. With the re-bore comes new pistons, new rings, new bearings etc and yet originally I didn't envisage touching the bottom end of the engine.

After doing that it'd be hard not to think about better sump baffling, new rods and all of a sudden the list gets longer and that doesn't even get me to the point of it going in - and that was new heads and a cam!

Kyle (at Tim Adams) walked me through what was needed, and as the £££ were beginning to mount up he came up with another option for me..

I think some of you might know where this is going if you clocked my edited title ..




I'm leaving the Ford V8 behind...





And going to the dark side with a (whisper it...) GM LS engine!!

Should I be ducking for cover I wonder?!!!

They're putting a package together for me which was way too good to ignore. Too good in all respects: strength, power, torque, running characteristics and so on, and they have remained conscious of my (lack of) budget and tried really hard to get back out in the car.

So what am I getting? It's going to be an LS1, which they rebuild with ARP rod bolts, race bearings, uprated camshaft, uprated valve springs, total seal piston rings, larger throttle body, Canems ECU and loom (which was something they helped developed with them originally), Corvette batwing sump (baffled and gated), plus all ancillaries (Starter alternator etc).

Needless to say this has blown my budget out of the water, and I'll take a bit of a hit, but I'll take some comfort in the fact that I had at least a good gear box and diff, running gear etc that will work with the new set up. As a billy bonus it turns out I had a TKO600 instead of the 500 I thought I had so there's plenty of room to manoeuvre in future if needed. A new bell housing will bolt straight on and re-use my original clutch slave cylinder etc, and the guys are going to sort me clutch out to suit.

It will also be dyno set up and mapped. You might wonder why not a different LS or one with more power etc, as there's loads of choice out there, out everything ends up being for "just another.. £200, £500 etc" and I have to draw the line somewhere. The guys know these inside out, and reckon 420bhp and 420ft/lb torque, and red line at 6400rpm. This is a great place to start out for me, and way more than I would have had with the 351w, with much sweeter running characteristics, not to mention approximately 65kg lighter as well.

Of the installation jobs Ashley there will be tackling that side of things, and will be tasked with mounts, oil system, cooling, fabricating an exhaust system to bring the LS headers to meet my existing system, as well as loom etc. In fact just about getting everything in and to the point of being able to drive it away. As much as I love to tinker I don't have the space, time, let alone expertise to do this myself and still get out in the car this year.

It brought a tear to my eye to think about all the work and effort (not to mention money) that has gone into getting the 351w to work in the Sierra. And to be fair if I was interested in posing around, going to shows and the odd Sunday spin it would have done fine as it was, but as it was always about more than that I feel this is the best way. It wasn't an easy decision to make though, but I know it's the right solution.

Hopefully some of the stuff can be re-cycled for the new engine (like rad and oil cooler), and what's not needed can be sold on to claw some money back. The bell housing, clutch, flywheel are all as new, and there's plenty of decent engine related stuff as well such as my collection of carbs, the intake, etc which will all be worth something to a kit car builder and the like.

Hopefully the next update will have a bit more vroom vroom about it!

Cheers everyone - and don't hate me for going GM
Iain