hi all; not sure if ive posted in the right place, but hey ho

i bought a 2wd sapphire cosworth on a G plate about 3 months ago, i'm new to cosworths so my knowledge isnt great

The engine has done 60k and its never been rebuilt, its running stage 3. (350bhp ish)

now when i start the engine up from cold it sounds really rough, now is this piston slap? once i've driven the car for 10 mins - 15 mins the noise has virtually gone

the car also uses a bit of oil, is that common with cossies? or is this a sympton of something else?

if it is just piston slap, should i be overly worried? i havent got the money at the moment to get the bottom end rebuilt

any help appreciated

Cheers, Terry (a worried owner!)

 

sounds like most cossies mate,i didnt need to rebuild mine till over 100k.
Lots use a bit of oil too,but ome dont,could be losing it down the breather(if it has one),loads of places ,just keep an eye on it.

 

hi, welcome to passionford

piston slap is not uncommon in 2wd cossies, neither is using oil . fortunately, there's not anything to really worry about, unless you get fed up with a constant loss oil system

just enjoy it until it goes bang , you can sort the problems out after then

 

Hi Terry,

Piston slap on 2wd is common due to the gudgeon pin design in the piston. Once the piston has warmed up and expanded slightly in the bore the noise as you say goes away. Nothing to be concerned about. Oil consumption should be around the 1 litre mark per 1000 miles. If it is a lot more than that, then you like every other cosworth owener will need to start thinkng about an engine refresh/rebuild.

Dont let cossie paranoia ruin your fun. I would aslo recommend you get the car to an expert to have fueling and boost checked. Unless you 100% sure the person you bought it off had it setup correctly.

 

is it common on a 60000 mile engine though?

 

Sound advice from Rich there.

I agree, try not to worry too much about things, it ruins driving it imo, as I worried about EVERYTHING on my Cossie for a little while, found I didnt really enjoy it beacuse of this.

Obviously keep an eye on the essentials, such as oil/temp/leaks etc...

 

Yep i had a 40000 mile 2wd with piston slap had only just got into the rs scene so i took the car to harvey gibbs as i thought the worst his words was i can rebuild it but theres no need as being 2wd it will sound the same in 20000 miles and i think the ford booklet that came with 2wds also says about piston slap

 

carefull its not no4 big end bearing..............

 

as above really fella!i thought a cossie was allowed to burn 1 litre every 600miles?

 

there honestly only 2 cars i have ever been driving behind and you can smell them using oil and thats a 2wd sierra cosworth and a ferrari f40
you can smell it when travelling behind them, its like leather to a perv

 

my old 2wd celica used to smell like that from behind. strangely enough its because id fitted a 2wd cossie engine into it

 

i thought most cossies that have done a few miles suffers from piston slap - isnt it in the manual about noisy engines from cold??

 

yes it is perfectly normal for piston slap from a 60k 2wd ebgine. the 4x4 piston uses an offset gudgeon pin which helps eliminate the slap. 1 litre of oil per 1k miles is the acceptable limit usually

 

Do not worrie mate its ment to sound like that when cold

I've done 109k still on the original bottom end 2wd

And it goes ok too

Paul

 

good advice already, but also get the chip/fuelling checked as lot of stg 3 chips overfuel like hell and contribute heavily to bore wear and oil consumption

 

thanks for all the replies guys; that has put my mind at ease somewhat, i didnt realise all cossies burn that much oil

needless to say i might enjoy it a bit more now, and wont worrk too much about giving it some stick

at least the bottom end rebuild can wait

 

He said it sounds rough - could be anything! Could be say the coolant temp sensor playing up at lower temps making it run rough, but sorted when warm.. or could be the chip.. s'not necessarily something mechanical!

 

so does a 2wd sapph well most of them, only 3 doors and the first few sapphs have centre line gudgeon pins as the first of the sapphs used the shonky 3 door engine naughty ford

 

i was led to beleive that 2wd pistons used a central pin and the 4x4 pistons used an off-set one. Cheers for clearing that up Tony

 

they do indeed alot seem to have the over run fuel shut off set to 9,999 rpm

 

what you were told was correctish a 3 door is 2wd lol

 

how can you tel if a saph has a 3 door engine?? mine was a 88 model.

 

very funny Tony. You know what i mean

 

Quote me if i'm wrong Tonythe 3dr/early saff engines had the large water jacket exhaust side where the later had holes like the 4x4 head and some other minor differences

I've pics somewere

Paul

 

yes and no
the later sapph engine did but not the normal sapph
the 3 door block is identified by the 205 being small
the proper sapph bloch has a larger 205 on it
the 3 door head has a 2 bolt head where the stat bolts the sapph head has a 2 bolt stat housing but with a 3 bolt head
rs500 head is 3 bolt stat and 3 bolt head.
later 2wd heads had the closed water ports 1990 spec
these are the obvious differences the true way to identify the heads is the casting number on the front.

 

Cheers Tony,Typical Ford eh

Paul