64 replies to this topic

[Spherix]

Should have some nice updates the coming days; I've stripped the head and sent it off for a skim and adding unleaded valve inserts so I'll be able to drive it without worrying about that being an issue.

This also allowed me to identify more parts I needed, so I received a parcel with:
- headgasket & seals set
- timing belt/tensioner
- camshaft bearings
- camshaft locking plate
- water pump
- replacement inlet valve assembly (spring, valve and collets were missing)
- spark plugs, rotor, dizzy cap (will use shorter leads than default as the dizzy sits much closer to the plugs in my setup)
- oil filter
- head bolts

That should at least cover the head assembly and most service parts to be back to new state. Now that the weather is well above freezing again I can also source a hoist to put the engine in for a testfit.

Aside from that Ive inspected the gsxr 750 carbs I received for 50 bucks, and ive straight up put them up for sale again as they are quite worn internally. Two bike shops were also afraid theyd be difficult to tune, so instead ill be sourcing some Yamaha R1 carbs in good nick to use instead. Id rather have carbs that dont instantly need to be fully rebuild so I can focus on fabbing the inlet and such in the engine bay and getting it running on a base tune instead. I'll post pics once I've got the head back

[Spherix]

Bit of an empty update, I rang the engine specialist to find out how far they've gotten with the head so far. I requested a clean and skim to be done, and a quote for inserting unleaded valve seats. Turns out they had lost my phone number..

 

As they normally do performance engines, he mentioned he's not awfully keen on the state of the valves and the valve guides (these are not inserts in the Pinto), and recommended getting it all replaced. Rough labour quote excl. parts was 1200 euros, which is more than I paid for the whole engine. I mentioned this will not be a high performance race engine, but I'd rather have it as a reliable torque'y road engine. The valves didn't seem bad to me at all, so I've asked their professional opinion if this it's all 'good enough for a normal car' or if I should really expect something to break down by using the components in their current state. Getting a later injection head (unleaded) might be a lot cheaper, but it won't be ported as the current one is. 

 

Bit of a downer not to have any progress, but I suspect their quote mainly came from the fact that they operate in a high standard with smaller tolerances, and that the head could actually be fine as is... 

 

On the other hand I've sold one of my Minis, so I will have plenty of space for a hoist to continue any measuring & fab work in the near future

[stoneface]

You could buy a complete head for less

https://www.burtonpo...ohc-pch061.html

[Spherix]

You could buy a complete head for less

https://www.burtonpo...ohc-pch061.html

Whoa! Including components and everything!

 

Even looking up prices for new valves, springs and guides ended up in the hundreds. If the shop can't bring the head to live for a couple of hundred, that is an excellent alternative... I've seen bog standard heads go for around 50 bucks here.

[stoneface]

I've not brought a head from Burton recently but the one I currently have fitted was done by them many years ago.

They no longer have there own machine shop so I don't know who does them now, but they are well known in the UK for Ford parts.

[Spherix]

Yeah their website kept popping up for racing spec parts; with the weight of a head, trade-in surcharge and shipping/import costs it's still a hefty purchase, but certainly has my cogs turning to re-evaluate the local machine shop's quote. Cheers.

[Shooter63]

I've not brought a head from Burton recently but the one I currently have fitted was done by them many years ago.
They no longer have there own machine shop so I don't know who does them now, but they are well known in the UK for Ford parts.

They were using a company called CTM ( ex Burton guys) but I have a feeling they have changed who does there heads, as they are now listing them as CNC machined and CTM are old school

Shooter

[ryan22_lgm]

Just read through this and can’t wait to see this running! Wish more people made engines like this instead of chopping the front end off and bolting a mini shell to a vtec engine 🤣. Good luck with it !

[Spherix]

Right, picked up the head from the machine shop; luckily they hadn't done more than clean the valves and press in new camshaft bearings. I am a little sad to say that I agree with their diagnosis of the head needing serious work to be usable. Only two of the 8 valve guides (cast, not pressed) have little to no play, the rest of them have quite severe play in any direction, more than I'm comfortable with.

 

On top of that, I inspected the valves and not only is one inlet valve a different profile, but another one is a slightly different length as well. I knew buying the engine as it stood was a risk, but this is a bit of a downer considering it was supposedly built by a specialist, one with low standards perhaps...Slightly worrying to what i'll find in the block.

 

 

 

Luckily I've found a reconditioned head for less than 200 bucks close to home, it may not be a fancy ported & polished stage 2/3 head as the burton link, but it does have new guides pressed in, new cam bearings, etc. I looked in to getting one from Burton, but with supplying them a head, the product cost, import, shipping etc. I'd be looking at ~950 euros for a leadfree version. I'll have a go with the one found close to home first, and if I feel like I lack the power of the ported head, I can always draw my wallet again and sell what I have. This should at least not have any play, leak etc. compared to the original one. The big thing I do have to check is that the c urrent head seems to have some modifications done to it as shown on the pic below. I believe thats a freeze plug with threads tapped next to it to attach the thermostat housing in a different location than stock.

 

I also finally received my brand new flywheel/clutch setup including all the missing bits to set up for pre-verto, including a started motor.

 

Quick testfit seems fine:

 

Now that that's all in I can shop around to find a machine shop capable and trustworthy of balancing the crank and flywheel assembly, and in the meanwhile finally get a look of how that block fits in the engine bay. More soon once I've secured an engine lift!

Edited by Spherix, 21 March 2021 - 02:19 PM.

[Spherix]

Found a better head to use! Spotted one for sale via Facebook marketplace, a head that was used by a stockcar racing team that they only briefly ran on the dyno before they spotted the block having a crack, and then shelved the head as the class moved to Zetec blocks. One of the cam towers has been 'strapped', a technique they use to strenghten the cam towers when using roller rollers to push the engine to 8000rpm. As I won't be doing anything close to those revs I'm definitely not worried about it, rather nice to have it extra strong.

 

Came with bronze valve guides, newly ground in valves, and essentially everything but a camshaft, but I had one of those anyway. It's even been ported as well as the original head was, albeit slightly different as they cannot ground down the valve stem guide area due to FIA regulations. The man told me they run around 160bhp with a stock carb and lumpy cam though. 

 

 

 

 

Old head porting work:

 

vs new head:

 

 

I'll take it apart soon to completely clean and rebuild it with the camshaft/oil sprayer etc. so the head worries are sorted. Then it's definitely on to sourcing a hoist to get the block in the car to measure a bunch of stuff, and see if I can get lucky by selling/trading my LSD for a Quaife ATB...

Edited by Spherix, 28 March 2021 - 04:51 PM.

[Spherix]

I noticed the camshaft went a little tighter in the 'new' head vs the old head with brand new bearings. I oiled em and gave them a gentle lap with oil soaked scotchbrite, and now it turns over quite nicely I tend to be the type of person that wants to double check everything, so I took the head apart. The seller mentioned he had lapped in the valves for me, and while they all look fine, I found quite some lapping paste in one of the ports! 

 

 

Pictures are a little foggy as I had oily hands

 

 

 

I did notice quite a difference in the valve stem seals. The head came with these copper/brass ones on the right, vs the brand new ones from my head gasket set on the left. Could be that it's an uprated/racing spec item or something specifically made for those bronze valve guide inserts... As I don't know Pinto's too well, I have a search to do.

 

[stoneface]

The two types;

https://www.burtonpo...flow-fp720.html

https://www.burtonpo...d-v6-ft780.html

If you want info on them drop Burton an email. They are very helpfull.

I know with the x-flow you can get smaller diameter seals for using double coil springs.

Good luck with the new head, looks like your'e making good progress.

Edited by stoneface, 30 March 2021 - 10:29 PM.

[Spherix]

Cheers, found those right after and decided to use the OEM ones, they press fitted on as expected. Lower ones are used for high lift cams, and the race ones tend to be used for high rpms (8000 ranges). Seeing as I'll keep things fairly standard, I didn't feel the need to change.

Cleaned the bits up today:



Valves are all the same type and height this time around:



Lapped the valves in again, seems to make a difference so glad I did;



Then rigged a ghetto lathe to give the camshaft a wipe with scotchbrite



Even though I ran it for a minute or so per main bearing(?) Surface, I still see this texture on the outer ones. I cant feel it at all with my nail or fingertips, but I usually have cams that are smooth as butter. Is this something I should sort out?

[Spherix]

After rebuilding the newly sourced head, I have decided I'm bringing it to the engine shop again to have new cam bearings fitted. Fitting those was the only item they did on the old head, and the camshaft turns remarkably easy in comparison to the ones in the new head. It could be that the cam tower strapping has something to do with that, but as the cam bearings are easily damaged when pressing them in, I figured I did not want to take any chances here of ruining the cam setup. Attaching my electric drill to the cam in the new head does turn it over nicely, but by hand I definitely need to grab it with my fist to turn (without it pressing on any valves yet), vs just a finger or two when its in the old head with new bearings. I'll also give them the camshaft for a polish.

 

I've also finally sourced an engine hoist that I'm picking up tonight, and sourced some Kawasaki Ninja  (ZX9R) carbs to replace the worn GSX-R carbs I had sourced previously, so I can hang the block in the bay and see what's up there.

 

Then on to the diff: I'm going to sell the Salisbury unit as it's not right for my 'fast road' usage, and I can then retain my rebuilt pot-joint axles as well. As a replacement I was looking at the Quaife ATB seeing as lots of people on here post raving reviews about how it solved their torque steer. I don't plan to race this car, but with that much torque I can imagine I'll press the gas pedal a bit further every now and then. After talking to some local Mini racers, they are suggesting I simply mount an X-pin and focus on getting the suspension geometry set up instead of buying a Quaife ATB unit. I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to put in at this point. Any takes? I e-mailed Swiftune about this but haven't seen a reply in over a week.

[Spherix]

Today was a good day!

 

 

 

 

It looked as if it sat very proud, the block is also tilting forward quite a bit of where it should sit, as the rubbers and such were not done up. Big detail is that the cam sprocket was not attached here, so there is 5mm of extra height to deal with.

 

 

 

Overall fitment is much better than I thought though, the bonnet catches on the strenghtening crossmember as that touches the rocker cover. 

 

 

From inside:

 

I also held the 'original' K-jetronik inlet manifold in place that came with the car to get an idea of the space I have for fueling options. Looks like I have plenty of space for bike carbs and a plenum chamber. Ideally I run the inlet via a hose to the front to keep the noise down.

 

 

 

As I had the drive shafts with pot joints already sitting in place, I had to take the diff out as that has hardy spicer joints attached. I noticed the remainder of oil in the block was a tad gray, and when I wiped some on a towel, that easily stuck to a magnet. Not a good sign in my book. As a result of that, I've decided that for now I'll build in my normal SPI block so I can drive over summer, and then I can take the time to entirely strip back this block and rebuild it properly. I was already planning on getting the crankshaft balanced, but then I'll probably send the block off for a hone and clean as well etc.

Edited by Spherix, 11 April 2021 - 12:35 PM.