Yesterday's daily today - the J69 version

[Vulgalour]

I hate the weather, it can F.R.O. just lately. I'm still going out in it tomorrow to get tinker time in, but I wouldn't if I were trying to do what you're up to on the Anglebox.

[Jonny69]

This exhaust manifold has just turned into a complete nightmare. It now doesn't clear the engine mounts because I've got a Milton 'World Cup' crossmember, which is a standard crossmember modified to take bushed engine mounts similar to the rally Escorts. The manifold is only designed to clear the standard uprated engine mounts from Milton, so there is basically no off-the-shelf option and my only choice is to get one custom made. I've had a couple of days to think about this now but I think I've already sunk way too much money into it and the car has been off the road for far too long. I can't justify the cost of a custom manifold and I think my best option is to pull the engine back out again and swap the cam back to either a standard or warm road cam, use the standard intake and exhaust and be happy with it as it is: reliable, smooth and a bit quicker than standard.

[Jonny69]

More ball ache.

I got the radiator swapped and decided against pulling the engine out in the end. I chopped the old manifold up to make some clearance. All good. Got some split knuckles last weekend fitting up the intake and exhaust which is one of the worst jobs you can imagine and I always dread it. No worries - it's done now. So my plastic multi-blade fan doesn't clear the radiator. I've had to resort to the standard pressed steel one to get me going, which also meant changing the water pump because the pulley is different.

Second worry is maybe the rocker gear. Higher lift cam and lower deck height means the pushrods stick up too far and the rockers are at a nasty angle. You get around this by using taller rocker posts and/or shorter pushrods. I can't get shorter pushrods so I've brought all my sets of rocker gear in to work to measure the heights because I know they're not all the same. I need to make an estimate of how much out it is and if I need to make up some spacers.

Getting there. MOT is due in April so I've got a few weeks to sort it.

Standing in the rain for months has also taken its toll on the car.

[Jonny69]

Oh yeah, and just when I thought I'd run out of excuses there was a flood.



Just need an earthquake and I can type this out face down in a sewer pipe and actually be Joliet Jake. IT WASN'T MY FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD!

[Jonny69]

Wake up forum. I done some stuff.

Finally got some decent weather and no other distractions or excuses. I faffed about yesterday and sorted out the shed, post-flood, but screwed a few things back on. I wanted to do the valve clearances and get as much stuff screwed back on ready to fire up after I've made a new exhaust downpipe. I had a few problems with the valve height because the engine block has been machined down and the head has been skimmed, plus the valves stand higher than the standard ones. The way you work round this is to use taller rocker posts. I have two sets of steel rocker posts and had to take them to work to measure up and pick the taller set. Some of the adjusters were a bit loose so I swapped out for the best set of rockers, but found the shaft badly worn so I swapped that over to the better one as well. Did all that stuff yesterday and bolted it back on.

The engine has sat for probably close to 6 months now and the weather has been properly damp and horrible. No oil in it because I anticipated having this done and running by last July. Probably shouldn't be any surprise that it had seized, so I had to make up a decent lever to stick on the crank pulley to free it:



Had to take the rad back out and the fan off, but it's not seized now. It just pinged and now turns smoothly with no scraping noises, so I think it's not corroded inside or anything.

This is a steel rocker post, in case you've never seen one. Exciting:



And this is me staging a photo to make it look like I'm in the middle of checking the clearances when in fact I had finished the job:



So this is where I'm up to. 90% the way there, missing a few bits and need to buy a few new bits. The temperature sender is a different size in this head so I need to figure out what one I need. My rocker cover bolts aren't long enough for the thick alloy cover so I need new ones and I'll get cap heads instead of the useless slotted screws that Ford persisted to use. No idea where the other ones have ended up. This is what it's looking like:



Got my new alternator fitted:



And got the new radiator fitted in AGAIN:



Next update: last bits, exhaust, and hopefully fire it up.

[I.K.Brunel]

Loving your work here.

Interested in your un-seizing tool - does it only work on mildly sticky or can it be utilised on anciently gummed up?

Be a joy when it's all done.

[Seth]

Good news Jonny. So relieved it was saved from the flooding. Can't wait to see this out and about again

[Jonny69]

Loving your work here.

Interested in your un-seizing tool - does it only work on mildly sticky or can it be utilised on anciently gummed up?

Be a joy when it's all done.

I was going to weld a bar onto my spare crank pulley but it conveniently had 5 holes drilled in it, so I bolted it save wasting a perfectly good pulley. It is as long as I could get in there and I just gave it some shoulder on both sides and it let go. I guess it would be better than belting the pistons if you don't need to? It actually worked quite well for adjusting the clearances because the extra leverage gave me more control than a ratchet on the crank pulley bolt which is the normal way I do it.

[Jonny69]

Indeed, if you've been in the chat section, you'll see that the engine is running. I fired it up on Saturday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bakf-Xc6ncs

But not after the predictable* let-down the weekend before. I got it all finally bolted up and made up some HT leads out of a longer set. I had it turning over but my battery was a bit low and the jump pack also a bit too low, so I wasn't going to try to fire it up last week. I got a spark which was good news. What I had noticed while turning it over with no plugs in was that there was no fuel coming up and the mechanical pump wasn't even pumping. As it was working fine before, I went straight in for the drive mechanism. A lobe on the cam drives the pump finger up and down: If I did it manually, it pumped fine, so there was something up with the drive mechanism. I needed to check the lobe was in the right place so all I could do was stick my finger in the hole while turning the engine over and hope my finger didn't get chopped off. Well it turns out that Burton don't put the pump lobe on their race cams, so I've had to convert it to an electric pump. At the moment it's got a low pressure self-priming Facet which is suitable for front mounting. At some point I'm going to swap it to a rear mounted pump because apparently they're more reliable, but for the time being to get me out of a stitch I've welded up a bracket that doubles up as the mechanical pump blanking plate.

Edit: oh, and t'other thing. When I fired it up I noticed it wouldn't hold oil pressure. It would be ok just sat there running but any revs would kill the oil pressure and the light came on. I swapped to the standard pump that I took off it, but I reckon maybe the old engine died due to oil starvation.

[Jonny69]

Not everything went to plan. I went to re-torque the head bolts and nip the valve clearances and I noticed the rocker gear was a bit dry. Well, completely dry to be more precise. It took me a while to work out what was up, but it seems that only one of my steel rocker posts is drilled for oiling and I had it in the wrong place, so no oil for 100 miles. All four posts on my other set are drilled, as are the standard ones.

Initial damage looked like two melted rockers, corresponding melting on the rocker shaft and a number of eaten adjusters. I had a better look at it last night and the shaft is scrap, as are two of the rockers. Three of the adjusters are scrap but the tops of the pushrods have survived. I was worried about the valve guides but they seem to be ok, so fingers crossed on those. At lunchtime at work I picked a pair of replacement rockers off my spare set and re-dressed the pad that pushes on the valve using wet-and-dry paper on a hard surface. I also swapped out the damaged adjusters for good ones. New shaft is ordered and on its way as the spare one is a bit too worn for long-term use, but it'll get me out of trouble for now.

Shamefully poor damage pic using the knackered old camera at work:



It wouldn't even focus on the ends of the adjusters so you can't have a side-by-side.