Panko

Squirt a bit of oil in the cylinder and retest the compression, if it goes up, it's the rings.

yeah i know about that trick. but meh. its already got better comp than the 1300. 

also the pistons are dished, so getting oil how to the bores to try that trick is really hard. 

found it. 

Can see on the left there the block/chassis mount made to mount the subframe into the car. no idea how they have done the front of the subframe though. 

It has been done! 

I have a photo, buried somewhere deep in my phone or laptop, or an XH panelvan with AU IRS fitted to it. 

It was surprisingly easy apparently to make the subframe fit. 

1 hour ago, deankdx said:

so what's up with the heads? stuck valves? be able to tip some petrol in the head chamber with the valves closed and see if it leaks out either the intake or exhaust port.. 

or was valve lash not set properly? 

 

i think My gemini 2litre has 135psi and goes plenty good, but the compression ratio on them is very low like 8.2 or something (the worked engine should be up around 9.5 if i ever get it together

yeah the issue is most likely valves not seating properly, and valve lash. 
I honestly just swapped heads without checking valve lash etc. i did it just to see if results changed with a different head, which they did. 
 

Im not putting bets on it having a big cam, because it only has the standard intake and carby with it, but potentially a warm cam. 
 

id imagine once its running, and things are hot, the compression will come up a bit. 

12 minutes ago, Outback Jack said:

There's a Scat 1600 crank and bearings for sale on Gumtree over here and a lotus 1600 twin can head if your interested Panko.

Sent from my S21 using Tapatalk
 

Oh yeah ive seen the lotus head. I wish. 
would definitely be unique. A lotus 4 door escort. But certainly dont have the coin for that. 
if i ever rebuilt the 1600 in the future, id take it out to a 1700, injected, high compression etc. 

I have a 1600 for the car  

So i picked up a 1600 from a club member. It was an unknown engine, that he had sitting in his garage for about 5 years. He had never used it. 
He let me take the engine without paying and let me comp test it etc. 

It had 120psi on number 1, 2 and 4. 3 was showing nothing  

I swapped the head for a spare 1300 head i had sitting in the shed. Picked up 120psi on number 3 and 2 but 1 & 4 now showed zero the head i put on was the old head id pulled off the 1300. The 1300 gained compression when i swapped that head off. 
 

The bottom end in the 1600 has been rebuilt. I couldn’t make out the difference in part numbers, so the pistons are either 0.30” or 0.60” oversized. Bores are clean and smooth, no lip or scoring. 
Next stage is to get the 1600 head rebuilt, maybe some porting work too, and run a full gasket and seal kit through the engine. Ill also be looking at the camshaft to see if its stock or warmed up. 
 

120psi isn’t fantastic by any means, but considering from basic testing the loss in comp appears to mostly in the head, and the 1300 only had 90-100psi, this engine should be a comfortable upgrade even if it isn’t the best compression. 
 

it also came with another complete 4 speed and short shifter fitted. The gearbox feels better than mine, so i may end up keeping it and selling my 4 speed. 
 

my test bench, aka trailer  
 

1600 head off, 1300 head on 

Take ya pick 

Now, for another update. 
 

the mounts for the 5 speed have been relocated, and driveline test fitted into the car. 
all fits perfectly. The car is now officially built to suit a 5 speed  

Can just vaguely see how far it moved. Not far at all. A couple of inches

All in and clearing

notice the front suspension is gone. Almost ready for paint now  

1 hour ago, deankdx said:

probably a good time to stop is when you run out of money or DON'T NEED the new parts,.. however, i'm a big fan for having good spares especially if rare.. never know when you might need them

ha yeah well there is that. 
i am tracking everything I spend thus far. 
Depending on Mark’s final bill, im going to be pretty close to the budget i had from insurance money. Im happy to go a couple of $k over, but we will see. 
keep in mind the list of things i had to do on it, were desirable upgrades, not necessarily a need, but certainly make the car better kind of thing

Small update. 

I got the gearbox stripped down to an empty case, and then cleaned it and put the case, extension  housing back together. 

I also split the 1300 and 4 speed, and took the bell housing over and bolted it onto the 5 speed case. 

Before the end of the week, ill have the spare 1300 block and 5 speed box delivered to Mark so they can fit the driveline and move the gearbox mounts on the body. 

I dont have anymore progress photos of the car, but the car is getting very close to being painted. 

We finished cleaning and prepping the underside of the car. Bonnet is ready to go. 

Mark is hoping to have it painted before easter. His painter goes on leave for the month of April, with a temporary painter coming in to only do basic insurance work. 

If the car isn't painted by Easter, then it will be May before it gets into the spray booth. It doesn't bother me in the slightest if it gets delayed, it would give me more time to get other things sorted for the car. 

I picked up the new windscreen for the car today. 

I also took delivery of a pair of NOS "hockey stick" chrome trims, because mine were beyond repairing. 

I also have a pair of NOS Hella H4 headlights . 

When I started this, I honestly dont think i was expecting the build to go to the extent it has, and i didn't think there would be so many new parts fitted. 

My problem is, I dont know when to stop spending money on new parts

1 minute ago, deankdx said:

there was a shroud available at least for the narrow ones, i had one.. i assume it was on XF with no air con. 

yeah XD V8 are also narrow shrouds. 

Just now, slydog said:

I run a cooler around mine??? 

where do you run the pipes? 

The only way id get an intercooler pipe around there with the battery in situ is if it was silicone and squished down a tad. 

otherwise if i go a narrower radiator, i could potentially run the original HKS intercooler from the original turbo kit, which actually mounts to the driver's side of the radiator and mounts vertically. 

its probably not that efficient, but if i want the HKS kit to look period, the narrower radiator should allow this. 

Chris, if i went that path, id probably be inclined to run thermos anyway, so shroud wont be an issue. 

Ill keep the copper radiator and store it to repair at a later date, but going aftermarket gives me options to make some more room for piping etc. 

1 minute ago, deankdx said:

not going to look as original with an alloy radiator with fans on it either though

no. but the black ones are more discrete at least. I could also run with the clutch fan still 

14 minutes ago, deankdx said:

i had a 3core copper radiator in the narrow width in one of My cars, it was excellent. better than the wide 2 core ..

 

can your one be repaired? if it's not rotten it might only have rubbed through one fin, simple solder job by a pro will have it good as new(or as good as is was)

yeah but as i said above, if i can narrow it down, i might have a good chance to run pipes through for intercooler. currently there isnt much space, if at all, to pass through pipes. 

also if i go narrower, i might be able to run the original HKS intercooler next to the radiator like its meant to. make it look a little more original under the bonnet when the turbo kit goes in 

1 minute ago, slydog said:

Copper is worth alot more than ally. Mine is a stock AC falcon sedan rad I paid $50 for.

haha second hand bargain? 

im also considering running a narrower XD radiator, so i can pass intercooler pipes around the driver's side end tank. i cant do that with the XF radiator, its 100mm wider than an XD radiator 

51 minutes ago, slydog said:

Stock copper radiator works just fine. Mine uses a AC copper radiator and I haven't had to turn the fans on unless im trying to cool it after shut down. Even when pro charged with a single 14" fan it never got hot?

funny thing is, the copper ones are twice the price of an ebay alloy lol. 

mine has never gotten hot. but yesterday decided to pop  

Hi guys, 

I just blew up the radiator in the XF  

Given the new engine going in isn't exactly stock, and will eventually be turbocharged, I am looking at an alloy radiator. Ive heard mixed opinions of the eBay ones. But has anyone here got hands on experience with them? 

in particular this unit below. 

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Black-Aluminum-Radiator-80W-Fan-Shroud-For-Ford-Falcon-XC-XD-XE-XF-1973-1983/131996740559?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908105057%26meid%3D5bfea11ff93648a1905d36efc9b75955%26pid%3D100675%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D15%26mehot%3Dpp%26sd%3D272963200108%26itm%3D131996740559%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2380057%26brand%3DFord&_trksid=p2380057.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci%3Ae25db467-7f13-11eb-82c4-ba748d472e1c|parentrq%3A0b83dc8b1780acf049616da5fffc2a58|iid%3A1

5 hours ago, STARK said:

cool miss Xfalcon assume normally opened/ closed would be electric side  of things ? have a late throttle body with IAC mounted to it just haven't got there yet lol.

What car are You putting this late model TB in? 
 

i looked at doing this, but on a crossflow in an X series, the bonnet will not shut. 

1 hour ago, STARK said:

I went middle of plenum opposite throttle body figured air temp   there would be most accurate and ea series 1 engine wiring used (engine loom separate from main ) puts plug in the right spot.

 

yeah thats what I tried to do, but Fed up and did it on the top side...course didn't measure before hand, the bonnet wouldn't close with it there. 

when the engine comes out for the new engine to go in, ill re do it like you have. 

more progress on the car. Back panel is in, but not welded. just getting things all setup before being welded in. 

more little imperfections being sorted out.

factory creases from panel and body joins being smoothed. 

tonight after hours, we made a start on the underside of the car. got most of it done and prepped. (this was after only a short amount of time) 

Awaiting a conclusion as to how far Mark wants me to take the underside. Or rather, how far I think I should go with the underside of the car. given we got so much of it cleaned and back to bare metal tonight, id imagine another solid day and it will be ready to go underneath. 

As i sort of tried to say above. 
like for like, and this is coming from watching an engine builder (also fellow RSOCV club member) who specialises in building fast escorts, a 1600 on a low budget can produce more power, and rev better than a pinto with the same low budget spent on it. 
This is a guy who builds them with his own custom cam grinds, and engine dynos each engine and tunes them before giving them back to the customer. 
 

a stock 1600 (for arguments sake Ghia spec with 32/36 factory) vs a 2L Ghia Pinto (same carby) makes not much less power than the pinto. 
 

stick a mild cam, some basic porting, balance, side draft carbs into a 1600, and its making some solid power. 
 

its been proven by said engine builder, Pintos take more time, money and work to make the same sort of gains than it does a 1600. 
the 1600 is also a lot lighter than a Pinto. 
and it is a stronger engine. 
 

An old school trick was to stick 1300 pistons in a 1600. I have a set of 1300 pistons here. It raises the comp ratio significantly. 
 

I wasn’t going to explain why shifting the Pinto back on the mounts Doesn’t work, but Rod already explained it for me. 
It also would be mighty close to the heater bubble, if it were to clear at all, when shifted back on the mounts. They are a long engine. 
 

as for engineers, yeah wouldn’t need it. 
 

But there would be expense in upgrading brakes. Im pretty sure a Pinto wont fit with the original Mk1 booster like it is. Or if it does, the headers would be mighty close to the booster arm that bolts to the firewall. 

10 minutes ago, Outback Jack said:

2L pinto conversion would of been heaps cheaper even with 4speed they are great fun. Can even get twin cam heads for them.
As the old saying goes. "No substitute for Cubic Inches".


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yeah but ive said this before. Im not cutting the shell to make it fit. and to be honest, the OHC Pinto are an ok engine. but they are surprisingly hard to balance when you start modifying them. believe it or not, a 1600 is easier to balance, will rev harder than a pinto, and can make more power than a pinto with the same money put into either engine. and i dont need to cut the body shell. 

This is why im not keen on doing a zetec into this car either. it means no cutting. remember that I am modifying my 5 speed gearbox to suit the shell, rather than the other way around. simple, im not cutting this car to make things fit. 

10 minutes ago, Mr Polson said:

 

 

I remember my brother had a Ford Ka for a while, they basically run an injected Kent motor from I found about it. Wasn't a particularly fast car but was great on fuel




$2k in parts is cheap
I paid almost that just for the ZF6 to LandCruiser transfer adapter

 

Correct. The KA runs a Kent engine. Sadly produced less power and torque in the KA than in stock form in a Mk1 Escort  

in the UK they used the Kents also in the original Mk1 Fiestas. I wish we had them here. 
 

yeah well some of us dont work full time. And had 8 months of no income last year  

i know $2k is cheap. 
im looking at the prospect of $5k for transmission, transfer box and clutch rebuild in the Disco 

fecking cars...or should i say, fecking english cars 

quick connector for return fuel line broke and popped off...thankfully low pressure, but diesel everywhere  

1 minute ago, 2redrovers said:

Probably will.....

hmm maybe I see a future build coming on  

My original (gold) Mk1 which i never finished, was always meant to be a daily driver, and i stupidly didnt jump on an MX5 driveline into escort conversion when I had the chance, to turn the gold nugget into a reliable modern daily. 

we will see. give it a few years, if you still have it sitting around  

if there is ever a time i get another escort, that starts as a rolling shell, then id look at doing an engine swap like that.