64 replies to this topic

[Spherix]

Interesting! Even googling that gets me nowhere, the builder apparantly is a 30+yr engine specialist, he must've known what he was doing then. Once I get my open questions answered by the seller I may just have an interesting engine sitting in my garage soon. Thanks for the quick replies, very cool

[stoneface]

No problem.

I only know a little about the pinto conversion but I know a bit more about the ford x-flow conversion since I run one in my mini.

[Spherix]

I suppose I should edit the topic, curiosity got the best of me and the engine is on it's way to my garage!

 

Presumably when it last ran it had 125hp on the dyno, the head had some minor work done and the cam is described as 'mild'. To accommodate the high amount of torque it produces an uprated clutch and limited slip diff was fitted. After which, the builder never got around to fitting it and sold it on locally; that owner has had the engine about 30 years, also never built it due to too many projects. The crank is lengthened with a custom adapter to handle the mini clutch/flywheel. The block still turns by hand and is mostly complete. As soon as it arrives I'll crack the clutch and diff covers to see if those internals were indeed swapped out for uprated versions.

 

I'll probably end up stripping everything back to give it a complete rebuild as it's been sitting for so long, and with that presumed high torque I'd like to make sure the gearbox and one off casing is in order before I install it in my current shell.

 

As I'm suspecting the bonnet not to clear 100% over the cam sprocket, I might just lift it in my current empty subframe to see what kind of bonnet mods it would need to fit, aside from that it should not need any body or subframe mods (bar an engine stabilizer) to run. 

 

I'll post more pics once I've got it in my hands!

Edited by Spherix, 18 January 2021 - 04:06 PM.

[stoneface]

Nice.

Are you fitting in a round nose or clubman?

[Spherix]

A round nose MK5, I was told it previously was fitted to one, hence I decided to go for it. I've got a freshly painted shell sitting so wasn't too keen on doing body mods at this point. With a bit of luck I could get away with simply lifting the bonnet at the hinge side vs fabricating a bulge. Only way of telling is fitting it, as there were no photos or records at hand of the engine fitted 40 years ago .

Seeing as you have a 'similar' conversion, what oil do you use? Assuming gearbox and block still share oil.

[stoneface]

Good luck with the fitment in a roundnose it is very tight with a x-flow and no body mods.

 

A clubman or flip front would be easy and most of these were fitted to race cars with body mods, flip fronts, no inner wings etc.

 

Fitting the engine in the space is not a problem, but fitting the ancillaries, radiators, fans etc. is.

 

Cooling will be fun. I see from the photos you have a front mounted radiator with it. I think you may have more space along the front with the pinto than mine. Difficult to tell from the photos.

 

The x-flow has the inlet at the front and exhaust at the back.

 

I use Valvoline VR1.

 

You have an interesting project. If I can be of any help just ask.

 

 

[Magneto]

I'd be curious to see the drop gears and clutch arrangement - the add on to the crank for example....post up some pics when you get it apart?

[stoneface]

The clutch and drop gears are the normal mini arrangement.

 

I'm interested to see the crank adapter. On the x-flow there is a 2" plate fitted to the end of the block which is used to offset the crank adapter length. There only appears to be a thin plate on this engine, so I'm interested in how they did it. I have seen some cranks where the extension piece looks to be brazed into the end of the crank or it could be a 1 piece crank.

 

You can see the the x-flow adapter and plate here https://www.theminif...w-enigne/page-2.

[Spherix]

Thanks for the tips! I'm also very interested in how it was put together. As it's a one off, I'll be taking many pictures of how things came apart of course.  I do wonder if any of the drop gears or gearbox internals were swapped around for straight cuts and such. No clue about which flywheel is currently in either.

 

Cooling is going to be an interesting one indeed, with the large radiator it comes with I can't think up a way where that wouldn't be placed directly in front of a hot exhaust. The red metal part with the overflow tank attached to it was also mounted within the same roundnose engine bay. I'll likely switch the rad out for an aluminum one with extra core thickness so I can stick to a smaller width. I'll only know the clearances once the block is dropped in place though! Fingers crossed. 

 

My current engine bay was being prepped for the install of an SPI engine, I wonder if I can still keep my new master cylinder & servo in place... Oh well! 

[imack]

Looking forward to seeing progress on this, interesting old school project.

[stoneface]

To give some idea of the layout there's an old photo of my engine bay here.http://mk1-forum.net...php?f=3&t=15977

[Spherix]

That looks cozy, but doable! Those X-flows use a cam chain instead of external belt, correct?  If the cam sprocket on mine will foul the bonnet I wonder if I could get smaller cam sprockets somewhere to mitigate it.... Perhaps its best to wait until it arrives, otherwise I can speculate for a while haha.

[stoneface]

Yes the x-flow has an internal timing chain like a mini engine.

 

I don't know if they do smaller cam sprockets but you would need a corresponding sprocket for the crank drive as well or the timing would be wrong. If you want to look at ford parts I would suggest https://www.burtonpower.com/

 

Under all the injectors and air filters I have a front mounted mini radiator with fan, then an additional heater matrix where the fresh air ducting normally attaches with another small fan, and another large fan on the inner wing. But I also made a front grill with water running through it as an extra radiator.

[Spherix]

Yep, noted on the sprockets! Today I had a nice delivery

 

Very carefully packaged and braced, so all seems to have arrived in 1 piece from Germany.

 

I've done a quick inspection round and took some photos today. The front of the block seems to have a mounting point added, resting on a rubber block on the front subframe. The oil level can be checked with a custom pipe welded in to the lower gearbox casing:

 

A rough size comparison with my SPI engine:

 

Measuring from the right-most rib on the gearbox casing, the cam sprocket sits 20 cm to the right, 65 cm up, vs the radiator on the SPI sitting 23cm out and 60 up. I'll have to plop it in to the car to measure the actual clearance and such properly.

 

Sadly, a quick inspection showed that there is no flywheel or clutch present! I was told the engine had been fitted with an uprated clutch before storing, so it's quite the bummer. Only a pressure plate was found in the box of parts. My main worry here is not the clutch, but if I buy a new flywheel I'll likely need to get the whole crank assembly balanced. I've asked the seller if he perhaps forgot a box as it stood for 30 years. The crank itself seems in good condition and was machined to take the mini flywheel, so with a bit of luck it's just a purchase of flywheel and clutch assembly and get the whole thing balanced.

 

 

The thickness of the adapter plate it only 5mm. Seeing as there's no flywheel to pull, i'll easily be able to pull the casing off in the next few days to inspect the drop gears. and gearbox. The engine has a lot of mismatched bolts/nuts, so I'll take inventory and renew everything I come across on the casings at least.

 

 

The gearbox casing seems to have been modified quite a bit:

 

Side of the engine:

 

Back of the engine, I love the little space they've left for the speedo drive :)

 

Back of the block, it indeed seems like they've machined off the old location for the oil pump and dizzy, and blanked it off.

 

Pistons look totally fine, could perhaps use a hone. Moves around freely and everything seems to have been stored in a light coat of oil.

 

As the missing flywheel/clutch got me a tad nervous, I took the diff covers off. Thankfully this all seems to look brand new. There are no markings on the LSD however, if anyone can identify what I've got, that'd be great. Not having experience with them, how 'limited' is a limited slip diff? I cannot move the two hardy spicer shafts in opposite directions by hand, only in the same. As I'm intending this to go in a 'fast road car' I would like to keep some of the maneuverability while parking hehe. 

 

 

The left side had a large number of shims vs the right side having none, is that normal?

 

Peek in the gearbox: looks OK so far, right?

 

I'm no gearbox expert, so if anyone seems anything off, please let me know! I fully intend to drive this thing one way or another, so I'll continue stripping/inspecting the engine in the next days/weeks.

 

For anyone interested, I've also started a build thread of the car it'll go in here: https://www.theminif...ll-blue-custom/

 

Edit: LSD seems to match this one: https://www.7ent.com...d-lsd-used.html however that doesn't give me much to go by either haha.

Edited by Spherix, 25 January 2021 - 08:55 PM.

[imack]

The diff looks like it might be an old Salisbury Power-Lok.
Great project!