Category Archives: duratec

sump kit ordered

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So, I’ve ordered the plans for flakmonkey’s duratec sump. I’ve ordered the parts to be cut in stainless from Yorkshire Profiles. I didn’t ask if they were laser or water cutting it (ideally water – no need to heat the stainless up) and the thickest part is the flange to engine at 5mm.

Interestingly, the economics of getting parts cut mean that the unit cost drops rapidly once the job has been set up.

The costs break down as follows:

Quantity Overall Price Unit Price inc vat % reduction
1 £106.99 £106.99 £128.39 0%
2 £136.58 68.29 £81.95 36%
5 £302.20 60.44 £72.53 43.5%

What this doesn’t include is the £10 I spent buying the plans, costs of argon or stainless rods. Nor does it include a license to reproduce from the set of plans I bought. The chap selling them didn’t mention reproduction but if I was to flog a sump, I’d pay him another £10.

So, I’ve ordered two sets of sump parts in 304 stainless. Nice to weld. Nice and clean. Very easy to get a neat tig weld.

If you were to buy a cast sump the costs come in at £350 onwards, and even a welded stainless one (specific for a MK2 escort) comes in at £300+.

happy to sleep

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So, it’s been an excellent weekend working on the car.

More inevitable tidying up, sweeping up and putting things in the roof of the garage to create more space.

Also, I think i’m probably done with the parts washer for a while, most things that need cleaning are now clean:

  • block pressure washed clean – lots of crud came off, and the oil-ways were shot through with water. The oil-pump was also manually exercised (we have video – it looked foul and disturbing and reminded me of the line in Clerks: “I masturbate caged laboratory animals for fun”.
  • pressure washed the inside of the rocker-cover. I’m now fairly positive there’s no grit in there. sand blasting it wasn’t a smart move.
  • front engine cover cleaned and polished. It’s not mirror shiny, but i’ll do that if i have a quiet evening.

Then came the good stuff. The pinto is out, the gearbox is out and all the bits that can be weighed have been weighed. I think the pinto with flywheel and clutch = 95kg. The duratec will weigh a lot less.

Next job is to put the new bellhousing on the duratec block and offer it up to the gearbox and shove it back into the car. Let’s see how far back I can get it.

More additions to the weight loss programme

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So, all the lovely things arrived from RWD Motorsport today to attach the engine to the gearbox. I don’t have time to fit them yet (need to get the old engine out), but I did at least bother to weigh one crucial component – the flywheel. I’ve logged the new weight here in the weight loss programme page, but here is the headline figure: 12.7 down to 3.2.

That’s a scary loss of weight, and hopefully it doesn’t make the car undrivable. It should also be exciting with the AP Racing clutch that’s going in. So far, only my friends Jon, Sasha and I have managed to drive it without stalling. This new transmission installation will take it much closer to race-car in it’s feel; it should now at least give them a challenge.

And for your visual delectation, here it is in the flesh, next to the monster duratec item, or as my friends would say: Pics, or it didn’t happen.

i am the moon

as thin as a dead model

if I had a degree in divinity (BD), would that give me a degree in having an imaginary friend?

The joys of being old?

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what a fantastic start to the day – I had to get a crank in the post to SBD Motorsport to get it machined for a keyway, and got to the post office for 8:50. Sure enough at 9am, the nice lady took me through some posting and insurance options and off I went. It took a few minutes. Looking over my shoulder, the queue was massive behind myself (to the door).

I wish I’d made her take me through all 20 options before I chose the first one.

Next week I may do the same thing again, but post a parcel to myself.

I could enjoy becoming an old gimmer.

Dirty, dirty boy

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So, I have my nice shiny grubby duratec on its engine stand, and have started stripping it down to get it clean and remove the many ancillary things I don’t need on it. I’d forgotten just how grubby an engine is from the scrappers – i’m getting through so many blue nitrile gloves working on this engine (not latex – keep that for the bedroom, kiddies).

So far, I have removed (without incident) the following:

  • power steering pump
  • aircon pump
  • exhaust manifold
  • inlet plenum chamber and throttle body
  • drive shaft that runs back along the engine to power a wheel
  • all the hoses (fingers intact)
  • the wiring harness (still intact – who knows which bits i will still need, although it is showing signs of being severed with a gas-axe by the scrappers).

Then came the water pump – eurgh. What a bloody fight that was.

As part of the great take-things-off-the-block-and-clean-them plan, I thought I’d take the water-pump off and chuck it in the parts washer with everything else – “what could go wrong?”, I hear you ask.

Out come the three bolts with a satisfying amount of initial resistance then freedom. “Ahh” I thought. This looks like it wants to come off”. So then I get round the back and tap the exposed lug to free it from its gasket. That lug even looked like it was meant to be tapped there. That it wanted to be tapped there.

Twang – off snaps the lug. Ahh well. Water pumps aren’t expensive, and even better it is fate telling me to get an electric one. However, I still can’t get it off. I’ve had at it with the rubber mallet on the front, and tried a few taps on the back with a hammer and screwdriver.

time passes …

I have got it out, in a less than technical or satisfying manner.

First, I tried getting a flywheel puller on it – no purchase.

Second, I resorted to twatting it from the side with a 2lb knockometer. Wonderful – it moved, a little.

More application of the NCB special and more daylight in the crack. I then had enough room to get a ball-joint splitter in there to ease it out (ahem). It’s now in complete kit form – looking at the fitting system (o-ring and friction fit), ford didn’t want that coming out… ever. Needless to say as the engine went through repeated heat/cool cycles it became ever more fast in there.

The only downside is one of the lugs holding the hole for it to screw into took a mild knock, and i’ll have to tap out the thread again. I have to remember that this being an ally engine means it has to be looked after like a sick Victorian child rather than a bomb-hammer proof pinto.

Now that it’s out, I will CAD up a blanking plate and get it cut. I’ve already extracted the thermostat from the housing. The legs for that are fragile, aren’t they?

Ref This Thread – LocostBuilders.co.uk