Decided for the new engine build I’d like a fuel pressure gauge

 

I don’t know if anyone knows but the lighting on the Stack pro control gauges differs from the rest of the range.

standard stack gauges can be seen in daylight with ease and come night time you simply turn lights on to illuminate them.

The stack Pro gauges are tinted and can not be seen unless they are lit up. When they are on standard brighteness they are blinding at night and still a bit too bright during daylight so I had to invest it there stack dimming unit which does work nicely.

I wish I’d of known this before as I’d of simply chosen the standard range, especially the price of them

 

 

 

After a few drives out the gearbox started acting up again.

It was jumping out of second gear still, I contacted Pete who said drop it off and he’ll go through it again.

i wasn’t best pleased but if it needed to come out again so be it.

Whilst the box was out I thought I’d take the opportunity to drop the engine out and have some fittings welded on the sump for the WRC breather and have the valve guides redone as it’s the only thing that’s not been done

 

 

The box was collected around November and I had planned to fit it come Spring as the weather was getting cold and it’s normally the time I lay it up for storage.

However I cracked on and fitted it, a few road trips and drives out and box is perfect.

Pete said it’s had a lot of work done to it now including his big tooth helical first gear, sc 2nd and 3rd, new selector rods, ball bearings, brand new wire eroded selector cones, wrc tension spring and newly machined shims.

After I had the head back from engine shop it knocked a tappet out straight away and started smoking on over run.

i contacted the guy who built it and he said let it develop, it could take a few hundred miles for the tappet to sort itself out and assembly lube to burn off.

i went to a show around 50 mins from me and the blue smoke was embarrassing, all the signs of a knackered turbo.

so I took turbo off to find it swimming in oil

 

I ordered a brand new turbo core up with billet wheels and refit it on the car.

whilst I was on I ordered up a set of Victor Reinz valve stem oil seals and went ahead and fitted them without removing the head, I don’t wish this job on anyone

 

Brand new tappets fitted and had to leave it over night for the sealant to cure on the cam seals

First drive went ok and the tappets were silky smooth, so I decided to take it out for the day.

i was only out for around 20 minutes and the smoke was still present, it didn’t get any better or any worse, it was exactly the same.

Blue smoke on over run only when oil was hot. I contacted the engine builder and he said he couldn’t understand how it could be the head. The only thing I had done was remove the head for guides and re fit it. I hadn’t altered anything else apart from take gearbox out.

I was convinced something was wrong with the head and didn’t want to use the car anymore as the blue
smoke was embarrassing, so I decided not to use the car last year and put it away for winter.

 

I set about removing the head and disassemble the engine, at this point I’ve decided the head is going off to be done properly, I’m not cutting corners paying cheap twice any more.

I contacted the engine builder and said I wasn’t happy and this has gone on for almost a year and I’ve had little use out of it and would like some
money back as it cost me

Ł110 AB07 cam
Ł90 tappets
Ł80 YB1261 head gasket (which I can’t get anymore)
Ł80 guides
Ł50 oil
genuine EFL90 Ł15
Ł200 cam caps
Ł20 head bolts

and other stuff I can’t think of just now, he gave me Ł180 cash back as that’s what he charged labour.

At no point did he offer to look at it again or rectify it.

On disassemble I found oil starting to collect in the inlet and the new turbo

 

 

evidence of oil burning on the rear of the valves

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right now the head is waiting to be dropped off over Ford Fair weekend at Mark Shead’s for polish and porting with matching inlet, 1mm oversized big valves and MAD cams.

Im not 100% sure what I want for the block but will be at a minimum CP pistons and Carrillo rods, will know more after another chat with Mark

 

what a nightmare matey. I've always wanted to rebuild my engine but it seems to be OK at the moment. If its not broke don't fix it and all that.

 

Yeah well onwards and upwards, lesson learned i
supposed

 

Nice oil pump!

 

i made a tool years back to do this same job I all so modded a spark plug so I could link my compressor up to it witch held the valves closed . not a nice job but it can be done

 

The tool I used came with an adapter for the spark plug hole to run from a compressor but I wasn’t confident on using it, so I used nylon rope to compress to stop the valves dropping in.

I didn’t come across any problems but it was a slow job and took me most of the day to do

this was the tool

 

i used same tool....very helpfull..great project btw

 

thanks 👍

 

Managed to find a brand new Hart plenum this week,




been sat in someone’s garage for 5 years.

im still undecided what to do with it. Can either leave it the original grey cast or have it vapour blasted so same finish as my 4x4 plenum

 

Nice did you get the throttle bracket and the reverse mechanism for the throttle body

 

I’ve got a bracket being made next week that should work without reversing it, same design as Jano Oddkids he does for the RS Turbo using Cosworth management with throttle body



can just make it out on the pic

 

Does anyone know where to find these type of dash panel warning lights from?

 

Good article in rallye news pal 👍

 

thanks mate 👍 tried to keep it brief

 

When mine was in the other month i had to shorten it abit....its easy to get carried away....

 

yeah I know what you mean, tbh I done it in less than 10 mins on my phone 😆