Engine - Pt 1

I spent quite a lot of time thinking about the engine specification I want to fit into my Cobra. It had to be a Ford and my budget would not stretch to a 427! so either 351 or 302. Eventually I came across another builder who had very kindly posted his engine build in great detail. (see Martins GD Cobra build in the links list)



Mark & Punch the Centres

I managed to purchase a 302 roller block dated 1986 from Peter Knight Racing, they will be performing the set-up and dyno testing a while down the road. It looks to be a very nice block to start with. This will eventually be stroked to 331ci rather than pushing it all the way to 347ci. I am after plenty of 'grunt' but ultimately want as strong an engine as I can achieve. I will have to wait and see what power output I get when all is finished.

This is now at the machinists (Dave's American Machine Shop) being chemically cleaned having all of the core plugs removed, bored and decked, new cam bearings fitted and the smaller core plugs all tapped rather than press in. I am sure that there will be a few other jobs done on it whilst it is there!

Should get this back in a few weeks. Can't wait.

Sadly I received the news from Dave that after the first deck cut the block was very badly cracked for about 25% of its face between coolant cores and piston bores. The block was scrap! This was a huge disappointment and was completely unexpected as apparently this is a most unusual place for these to crack.

At this point I had to make a call to Peter Knight Racing who immediately replaces the block with another one. Absolutely no quibbles I must say I was both extremely relieved and very impressed. As you can see from the photos this block is 1 year newer at 1987.


302 Block 2

The new block is now back with the machinists and here's hoping that all goes well. I should know in about another week.