Panko

So with us being in hard lockdown yet again, nothing much has been happening to the Escort. Ive been finding little things I can do from home on it. I pulled down my tail lights and cleaned them thoroughly, including polishing the cast alloy housings to (hopefully) make the light dispersion a bit brighter. Left (brake) has been done, right hasn't. can see a bit of a difference there. I also cleaned up the backs of the housings, so when I open the boot, Ill see nice shiny polished light housings I then attacked the chrome rings. I carefully wet sanded these with 600 and 1200 grit paper, then polished them with Bowden's Own metal polish. You can see the sanding marks a little bit, but they aren't bad and in the direct sun you can't see the sanding marks. The reason I did this is shown in the below pic. The bottom tail light was before, I did the polishing. Notice the dirt stained into the chrome along the bottom edge of the light? Now look at the above tail light, and that is the one I sanded and polished. I tried a few methods, but wet sanding was the only way to remove the crap stained into the chrome Today my big brake kit arrived. These are a reproduction "M16" calliper. M for metric. These were fitted standard to Mk2 Escorts. They are basically the same as my P16 callipers on my Mk1, but with a few upgrades. The pistons are marginally bigger, and the piston seals are a much better design. The major difference with these ones are, they are manufactured wider than standard M16s, to take vented discs. M16s are a split calliper, and normally to run vented discs, you can buy spacer kit that goes between the two halves of the calliper, which widen it and allow a wider disc to go in. These, are built wider ready to go for vented disc. They are a bolt in kit, other than 2 things that need to change. Firstly, the hard brake line that goes to these need to be custom made with an imperial fitting on the car end, and a Metric on the calliper end. Secondly, my two piece hubs, the wheel mounting flange needs a chamfer machined into the inside of it to clear the callipers. this is only because im running standard 1300 hubs. If i was running Mk2 or 2L hubs i wouldn't have to do it. I decided to go for the optional, matched pair slotted discs. This kit should well and truely stop the car This is from a fellow RSOCV member's Mk1 just to show what the brakes will look like when installed. **i dont have coil overs** Because I can't go work on the car, I am basically getting everything ready to go for the day I can go back to the shop and continue on the car. So this includes new hard brake and fuel lines. While we have the use the of the hoist in Mark's shop, I will replace the brake lines. Bundy tube is cheap. I bought 6m for $45. that will be enough to do the entire car. Ive got all the new door seals sitting waiting to be installed when I can go over, boot seal, everything I need to nearly complete the car on the outside and get it rolling again. Im also getting the ball rolling on the last of the "big ticket" items, like my seats. they are the last big expensive item that I need to spend money on. I found this photo online. this is the exact scheme im going for on my Recaro seats. Saddle vinyl trim on the outsides, and Sahara tweed in the middle

Correct. You know more than I do. however i thought (but could be wrong) the heads are still able to be bolted onto the 711m blocks. the Lotus blocks were 701 blocks, which we didn't get as a pushrod. im not sure if anyone did. but to look at them, they are identical to a 711m

Occasionally the heads come up on their own. it would be a cool project but yeah you're right. need a lot of money Interestingly. ive seen the same engine out of a Lotus come up for sale, for a lot less than an Escort lotus engine. I guess there would be a few parts unique to Escort.

you got that right. I wonder how hard it actually is to convert a 1600 kent to a twin cam. They are the same block after all. How do the DOHC cams get driven?

I know of at least one in the future. just not sure when. Its for a Zetec conversion into a Mk1. But its a fair way off.

sure is. Yeah i think ill make a few mistakes initially, but the gears are very defined, and the gates are very precise. so hopefully wont take long to get used to

I got the gearbox back together today. It shifts really nicely now. much better than it did previously. And bolted it back up to the engine. Aligning the gearbox on my own is a bit of a challenge, so sling and engine crane to the rescue.

Small update. at this stage, I will be reinstalling the running gear and subframe next Sunday. the hoist is clear and given the green light to go install it all. I also spoke to someone who works with these small Fords and owns a number of them, Tim from Angry Anglia, and he was saying he runs the same cam I have fitted in a number of his cars, and its a really good low/mid range cam. Lots of low down torque, and gets moving really well through the mid range. So im happy with that. ive put in my order for the rest of the parts i need to finish the car, including my brake upgrade For the front

possibly. I had the vac advance disconnected because I remember from on the 1300 the vacuum advance was faulty, so was running just mechanical vacuum. i had the base timing set at around 11 degrees BTDC. I think 12-14 is probably about where it needs to be. but the timing scale stops at 12 BTDC lol Once the engine is in the car and I have it running, I'll hopefully have had the dizzy fixed and graphed to suit the cam, and timing will be better.

Video time Apologies for the crappy footage. I was too lazy to set up the good camera, and it turns out the battery moved and was vibrating against the bench I had my phone sitting on Watch for the old fella zapping himself at the start I had him jumping it for me while I was on the throttle

Rev range is 1250rpm - 6000rpm. Designed to give instant torque down low and to be run with a twin choke weber. Id be happy with 65rwkw.

IT RUNS!!! Yep, it runs, and runs quite well. I didn’t film the first fire, but the second time we fired it up I did film. Ill post the video up later. I had to reset the exhaust valve clearances, which quietened down the top end a bit. But it runs like a dream. Its going to be a savage little engine i think. I haven’t done a comp test, im going to wait until its in the car and ive run it properly. In hindsight, I should have gone a slightly bigger cam. But i am looking forward to going for a first drive. Im expecting it should make around 70-80kw at the crank. Most likely ill put it on the dyno once its up and running to get a proper tune. So ill take your bets when its ready for the dyno

i will the feed one because its a lose fit. but the pump to carby hose is really tight. ill see if i have any clamps tomorrow. the old ones i think got thrown out because they were beyond serviceable life lol

Tomorrow is the day. I will have the engine up and running. Today, I got it all ready to run. Filled it with oil, set the base timing, and had it turning over on the starter. Ive also wired up my VDO oil pressure gauge for when we get it running so i can keep an eye on that. At this stage I haven't seen the oil pressure register on the gauge, but there appears to be oil pumping around. When we first cranked it, it was very slow, then after a couple seconds it took off, im assuming as oil started pumping around the engine. Before calling it a day in the shed, I stuck the plugs back in, and had a crack and cranking it over...it was very slow. Battery is in good health, so im going to take a stab and say this engine has a fair whack of compression. Suddenly this little engine seems to be very busy with pipes lol. ive decided not to hook up the radiator, but I am going to fill the block with water so I can at least run it for a short period. hence the radiator hoses pointing upwards. And hence why the heater hoses are linked together etc.

I also had my reproduction stickers turn up today. Dealership sticker and rego sticker

Fixed. In total i think ive moved it about 8mm. temporarily put the box back together and it works well nicely. Strangely smoother than before.

Ok ive done some quick measuring of the casting thickness, using the method Rod mentioned above with the straight edge. Its approximately 20mm thick in that spot for the pin, so i should have plenty meat to pull the pin out a bit and not weaken it too much

I could try. But it will currently be covered in weld. Could be a challenge. Looking back at your photos above, i reckon ive moved it about the distance that it was sticking out the back. Once I measure how far it has to travel in both directions, I will know if it needs to go any more. Also looking at the casting, where the pin comes out of, that surface is nearly 10mm further forward that the surface in which the selector rod comes out. My point here is that part of the casting looks a lot thicker, ie there is more support for the pin than it appears. perhaps it’s designed to be adjusted hence originally it had scope to be pushed from behind, or room for it to be shorted and pushed out the back. I think im close, and if so, i suspect there will be enough support.

From directly behind the pin? I don’t know how? With it welded together it would have to come from inside the shifter housing. Or do you mean from the side?

I was thinking once i got it, i could put a tiny amount of the steel in a tube around the base of the pin. That will bond it to the case I wish i knew how long the whole pin is. i did swing off it while the puller tool was attached, and there was a bit of flex. Im think it will be ok. Because i can rotate that spring by hand and holding the selector shaft in the other. So it can’t be a super tight spring load

Yep I won’t be going any further with it until I have done some accurate measurements regarding the full travel of the shift rod, in both directions

I separated the engine and gearbox to make the box easier to work on. But also to allow room on the front of the dolly to mount the radiator too if I do want to run the engine in properly. I am concerned about my replacement extractors though. My shitty luck, i didnt see this written on the lower side of them the other day. it reads "1300? Hit floor of rally car" which is a 1600. bugger

Homemade tool to the rescue. After doing some googling, there are tools available for this exact job, but only go down to 8mm. so i had to make something smaller. Step 1: make the device to clamp to the pin Step 2: Drill and tap a 10mm hole in the opposing end (thank christ for the drill press) Step 3: drill an 11mm hold in a solid bar to pull against So far the pin has moved about 5mm forward. I think it still needs a bit more but i need to do some precise measurements before I know exactly far how it needs to come out as a minimum

100% i never removed it. And it doesn’t look like the roll pin has ever been removed

Well it definitely can’t put anywhere else. I did some measurements yesterday and where the fork sits in neutral, is towards the tip of the pin. Now why, I have no idea. i have one more thing to check, which is inside the gearbox itself. Considering i can get every other gear, i think its right inside the box but i will check it. i need to do some more measuring, but there maybe room to add to the thickness of the fork on the back side. For example braze a bit of alloy onto it or something. Otherwise i am just about out of ideas. i do have an idea of how to pull the pin, but i don’t think i have the bits here to make up the tool im thinking off