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Going back a bit, these are a couple of photos rolling into Small Ford Sunday. taken no more than 30 seconds apart, on two different cameras, but makes the colour look completely different. this colour still amazes, but also annoys me with how both good and bad it can look depending on the light its in the joys of metallic paint i guess. *the second pic is more true to the actual colour** I finally got the front bumpers back, and they came up fantastic. worth the wait. Now onto some mechanical gremlins. I had been having an issue with the cooling system. not over heating, but in fact running too cold. not getting warm enough to actually open the thermostat, which was a standard 89 degree thermostat. I figured it was because the alloy radiator was so efficient at cooling that yeah meant that I couldn't get her up to temp, and had no heater. This whole time I had been running just water in the cooling system, not coolant, to try flush the system out as best I can. I figured with this lack of heating issue, id pull the thermostat out and then put some coolant in. This is what came out. its a piece of gasket goo stuck in the thermostat. notice also the colour. that thermostat was brand new with this engine. so it has gone a very rusty brown colour thanks to the water. Pushing on the diaphragm by hand, the thermostat felt a little sticky. didnt want to move smoothly to open or close. So I ended replacing it with an 82 degree thermostat. not to make it run cooler, but so the thermostat would open earlier and start circulating coolant earlier. with that, and coolant in the system, it has made a difference. it gets up to the correct 88 degrees running temp now, rather than running too cold. Good Friday, the RSOCV had their annual Good Friday cruise. Over 30 cars got involved, and we went out to Warburton, up Mt Donna Buang (some of us more spiritedly than others) then back down and to Yarra Glen Hotel for lunch. Having driven the Escort up there previously with the 1300, flat out, and now with the 1660, also flat out, it was a much faster drive up there. I had a mate of mine in his Mini come along, who was behind me on the way up. Although I am not too concerned, he did tell me that it was blowing a bit of blue smoke between gear changes. granted I was pushing it, its the hardest it had been driven, and it was mighty cold up there. but it did it well. I adjusted the suspension up a bit to be stiffer, and boy does it turn well. On the way home, my buddy in the mini, and me couldnt resist but to see how they compared. its the first time the mini and escort had been out together. the Mini is a 1999 Rover, with a single point injected 1275cc, from Japan. Its since had a Cooper performance kit fitted, which includes a ported head with roller rockers, headers, exhaust, bigger injector, and a few other go fast parts. The Mini weighs 100kg less than the Escort, at 740kg, and with the Cooper engine package produces about 65kw. The Escort, a stock 1600 produces 60-65kw. Mine is a 1660, with a cam, weber, etc etc. It was a good comparison, the Mini nudged in front basically because i was slow getting into 2nd gear, otherwise equally matched. So for such a small engine in the Mini, it goes really well. its pretty quick little thing. I had to do a weekend run over to work HQ in Footscray, so jumped in the Escort to save the diesel in my daily. it really is such a great improvement over what it used to be in pretty much every aspect. able to sit on the highway comfortably, plenty of grunt to pull away, it just gets very warm in the cabin very easily, which was always the case.

Ok, end up taking the crank to the machinist said those holes were strange but said wont be an issue. Crank getting a grind and balancing done. Just glad there's no need for a replacement.

Could be an improperly done brinnel (hardness) test

Guys, thanks heaps, this had me sweating at 11pm haha. I looked at the wording and was like ???? What??? Have I been wrong this entire time? (It happens a lot haha) I went to look in the manual and it says "Place the thermostat back in reverse of removal" and without pictures I was nervous I was going to put it in wrong hahaha. God I love this site.

Then it's time for a stroker crank

that motorad looks like just a brand name? that part goes into the head where the hot water touches the spring part to let it open. so opposite to how you are holding it in the first pic like below (only pic i could find on google)

My Feb 93 XF van wiring is bog stock and I only have one relay at the brake booster and 2 down at the battery. btw that red circled plug doesn't want to come apart at freeway speeds like mine did, fortunate to avoid a large backfire saving the dizzy gear and rear muffler.

Looks like a Brinnel hardness test gone wrong, as Thom said, and someone didn't use sleeves over the rod bolts when installing the pistons. (Small chatter marks). The crank should be OK if it was in a running engine, it would have failed by now for sure. Just need to make sure there are no sharp edges around the dents, use a 5 or 6 mm drill bit BY HAND, and slower chamfer the 'holes' then linish the journals with some emery tape etc.

Worked like a charm. This mount is way better because it goes into the circular space underneath the gearbox, which the rectangular mount doesn’t really do, so understand now why it would be stronger. Thanks @deankxf Motor and Gearbox is pretty much in. I just need a nut for that mount which I am going to get now. Just need to finish off some wiring / mount the dash back up, plumb the power steering, extractors and then I’m getting very close to first start.

i can't remember, i have a feeling it fits into the mounting bolt as is (maybe the mount has a square at the end of the threads even to locate it) the EB cross member mounts have a square hole also, so i'd say ford must have been considering this mount option at some point

i haven't got any photos handy at the moment, but this thread has a lot of info in it if you have time to check it out

See that hole in between the xf cross member holes, you can use the e series gearbox mount with this hole fine in XF. I think they are stronger than the 2 bolt one. Exhaust bracket was a very strong pain in the arms trying to work around , most went in the bin. Probably very good at stopping the Exhaust manifold from cracking but not used with extractors

this works often, especially if you can get access to clean the threads up with a wire brush then lube it but sometimes with these bolts is you can jam something in to stop is spinning and then TIGHTEN the bolt until it breaks the bolt.. then you have access with the guard removed to cut the rusted stuff out with a grinder. i have centerpunched and drilled the bolt head off also, it's tough going, but can be done if needed. (one accessed by opening the door and above the top hinge caused me this pain once)

Ignore the 'MotoRad' wording... that's just the brand name of thermostat, which Tridon re-box's from India. The spring part, goes into the cyl head. The dome shape, faces the radiator as-per @deankxf's helpful picture. What I would recommend though, is test the new thermostat in a pot of boiling water first, using a thermometer to check it opens/closes correctly. I never quite trust aftermarket parts these days - especially suspension components (see @deankxf).

I was doing a closer inspection on the crankshaft and I've noticed 6 small unusual holes on the journals. This from a late Cleveland block, is this something they did at the factory or from a previous engine owner and what would be the point of this? The journals are all standard size.

Its definately factory, its all hooked up via the factory loom. I have read this before somewhere. https://www.fordforums.com/threads/xf-efi.45775/ If you check the comments, someone calls out the xf falcon later models, had the starter relay added. Thanks\\Foti

I'm leaning towards neither of them being factory. unleaded XF has an EST computer and map sensor, likely just something to minorly improve emissions at the time. they were often replaced with the leaded dizzy from XE or XF (special LEADED rotor button needed if keeping the XF cap/leads, otherwise use XE rotor and cap/leads) if you use an XE dizzy in the later XF, remove the ECU from the kick panel, one of My XFs had ignition breakdown with it still fitted (faulty) and when removed the problem was gone.

I've jumped the gun a bit, already bought a set of pistons to suit. Most stroker kits sell with .030 size pistons I need .020 size ones so I'll need to buy in bits.

that is definatly an x file,maybe something was dropped on it or slightly dented the crank and someone did a small drill to smooth it out ? dont think its going to affect a std engine,just for a talking point DJ used to use a tiny drill bit on his forged pistons if they developed a crack so it would not go any further ,just goes to show how much of a budget the team was on in the early days.

@Thom may have an idea?

Anyone?

I agree it's crazy why . Yes in the early falcons they did . I'm not 100% sure exactly which. Might been pre XP ? Might also been to do with some early 6 cylinders , 144 , 170 etc had a very small bellhousing pattern at the motor side and hence smaller bellhousing. Those I think had the Ford o matic but when they went to the 200 auto went to the BW35 Came across it also when a friend got a U.S Falcon , was a 3 speed manual 6 cylinder. When I built a C4 to go in it with a 302 the tunnel needed work

Im pretty sure i held 5th at speed up there. I don’t remember really having to work 4th. i think once it was at speed, it could hold 5th up hill fine. i can cruise around in 5th at 60km/h for example.

Well there hasn’t been much more work on the Escort, even though it still needs some finishing touches. Today however, I drove the car up to my good friend Michael’s house in Sunbury. Michael is the friend who found me this car for sale way back in 2016 when I bought it, and he hasn’t seen it since the accident. I figured it was about time i took it up to him to finally see it finished. From place its a bit over an hour, and a good bit of sitting on highway with 110km/h speed limit. Today in Melbourne it was around 29 degrees. The Escort, sat on 110km/h, or a bit more, with ease. That 5th gear has made it such a better car to drive. This was also the furthest from home (as the crow flies) i had driven the car, and the most highway, and highway speed driving it has done. everything was good. Temp was good, oil pressure, rpm, sat on about 3200rpm at 110km/h. I think today was a really good test for it, and it seems to be good and sorted. I was a little nervous being that far from home in case something happened.

nah m8,that was years ago,sorry,just fine tune the one you are doing up,might take a few dummy fits but once soughted hyd pedal is awsome.