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.

BMW E34 Steering Column re-work

First part that I am sorting is the steering column. You will probably have seen in my first post how this arrived. Good old eBay the never ending source of parts. The guy I got this from has taken special care in removing it from the donor vehicle and manages to keep all the bolts for me as well. He also supplied all the bracket's (most of which are removed!), a very good cowling in great condition and the lower shaft along with the rack coupling although I am not sure if I will use this or not yet.

The first thing I did was to remove the steering wheel and most of the support bracket leaving approximately 45mm after the two top mounting holes. This will be adjusted when the column is fitted to the car.

Steering wheel removed and the bracket reduced considerably.

I then removed all electrical parts as I did not want to damage these. Next followed the removal of the two security screws from the top bracket. There is a lot of talk about using a small sharp chisel to 'break' the friction and then cut a slot in the top and unscrew them. I decided to simply cut the slots using my trusty Dremel and have a go with a screwdriver bit in a socket wrench. I was able to undo them without too much difficulty.



Slots cut ready to have a go at undoing them. All went well!

After I removed the top bracket I took out the lock barrel. The removal of this is carefully described on YouTube. You also need to remove the snap-ring and spacer to allow removal the lock housing from the column. I also took the opportunity to clean the bearing and plastic cage. They just needed a good clean a bit of light grease for the bearing and they as good as new.

Next comes the best part, the removal steering lock. This was the bit I was least looking forward to and there is precious little on the internet to help in this.

What follows next is the procedure that I used to completely remove the steering lock mechanism which, as it turned out, was very much easier than I had feared.

You need to remove the pin that had the housing peened around it. Grind enough metal away to allow you to grip the end of the pin. It pulls out fairly easily. When the pin is out you can remove the rest of the components from inside the lock barrel aperture. I spent a while cleaning up the boss that is left (can't see the finished part as I forgot to photograph it) as I prefer to leave all clean and tidy.

This now just leaves the actual steering lock itself. This is a steel/die-cast sub-assembly, lightly pressed into the housing. You can simply pull it out with a pair of long nosed pliers. Takes a bit of a pull but should come out fairly easily.

All parts now removed all I have to do now is re-assemble it.

Column now re-assembled but showing the parts removed just behind. I will probably change the two slotted screws for M8x20 cap head screws. I still need to re-attach the two stalks but this can wait till later.

The picture above shows the remainder of the parts. A few bits to clean but that's pretty much sorted for now.

New screws arrived a few days ago so I thought I would add them. Looks much better and more secure.

Donor Parts

After having a real good sort out of my garage I started sourcing all the donor parts such. These are:-

• BMW E34 steering column;
• Polo Mk2 heater matrix;
• Rover 25 servo and master cylinder;
• XJS handbrake assembly;
• XJ40 Front and Rear suspension;
• XJ40 3.54:1 Power Lock differential;

I have added a few pictures of the bits as they arrived. Now the fun starts!



Needs to have the mounting bracket cut right back, the steering lock removed and the key barrel along with wiring removed.

XJS Handbrake assembly less mounting bracket which is supplied by AK

The XJ40 suspension arrived like this! Getting it into the garage was interesting. Fortunately one of my sons was home for a few days and he proved both willing and helpful, thanks Tom! I purchased this as a 'kit' from Black Country Jaguar. You can just see a full set of slave wheels on the right.