Engine - Pt 9

OK, time to update where I am with the engine build.

Rocker Cover Spacers and Gaskets
Having taken a little time out to build the engine frame it is nice to getting back on with the engine build.

From the outset it was painfully obvious that I was going to need a couple of spacer plates for the rocker covers. These were made for me by Brown & Hawthorn on Coventry who had them Laser cut to my .dxf file and a lovely they are too. All they needed was polishing and lacquering to maintain the shine.

After polishing they were ready to be assembled. This took a little thought as once both parts have the Gasgacinch applied you only have one opportunity to get this right. I did a couple of dry runs to see how the gaskets could be 'adjusted' to make them fit correctly. After this I applied the adhesive and waited! I raided my wife's cupboards to find the grease proof paper to use as a barrier between the two parts as I gently aligned and fixed the parts together. This made it very much easier and I didn't have to panic as the parts only stuck where I wanted them to.

Parts with the Gasgacinch applied

Grease proof separation layer.

Completed spacers with gaskets fitted.

These were then left pressed overnight to allow the Gasgacinch to fully cure.

Inlet Manifold
Next I decided to get the inlet manifold fitted. I must apologise as I haven't got too many photos doing this as I got a bit engrossed in what I was doing whilst applying sealer and the like.

I carefully trimmed the inlet to head gaskets and made sure I could get them where I wanted making sure that all ports were clear of gasket and both gaskets were sitting exactly where they should be. When in the correct place I put tape (good old Frog tape) along the top of both to protect areas that I didn't want sealant to show and also as an alignment aid to get them back in the correct position. Also at the same time I masked all other areas I wanted to keep clean as well.

I applied Gasgacinch (meant to say. That's really smelly stuff but it smells really good though?) to the gasket faces and the cylinder head surfaces and allowed to dry for at least 5 minutes as recommended. (Doesn't 5 minutes take a long time when you are waiting for it to pass!)

Here's where I forgot all the photos!!

I carefully positioned each head gasket in position and pressed firmly down to bed it in. Felpro advise you to fit the inlet manifold at this stage with just a couple of screws to aid in holding the gaskets in position whilst the adhesive cures so I did, gently overnight.

Next day I carefully removed the inlet manifold and removed all of the masking tape. It would have been better if I had removed it from above the gasket whilst the adhesive was still wet!

Now I had to fit the 2 'China wall' cork gaskets. These are renowned for moving on assembly of generally leaking like a sieve. Both of which are really bad. In the Felpro set I used the cork gaskets are self adhesive. You just have to make sure that all surfaces are clean and oil free. I cleaned all surface with brake and clutch cleaner as this is a great cleaner/de-greaser.

Each cork gasket needed to be trimmed a little to make them fit correctly. As advised I then applied an 1/8" bead of high temp silicone in each of the 4 corners or valley areas and then carefully fitted each gasket. When they were well and truly stuck down I ran a 1/8" bead of silicone along the top of both making sure that again the corners where the heads and block meet have plenty of silicone. Then I placed the inlet manifold in position torquing down all bolts to the specified torque in the order specified in the book that I am using as my guide. I've probably mentioned it before but the book is by Tom Monroe and is titled "How to rebuild Small-Block Ford Engines". Great book it is too.

So here is the finished article, well inlet manifold fitted with all masking removed, the excess silicone removed and the gaskets trimmed to shape to suit the manifold.

Setting TDC
Now I needed to set the engine to TDC so I could fit the timing pointer and eventually the distributor (although that will be a little later).

I listened to several videos on YouTube to get my mind sorted as I didn't want it 180° out. I decided to use a piston stop to find the exact TDC so a little while ago I purchased one from Summit. When it arrived it was very different to the advertised photo so they gave me a refund. Anyhow I had no choice but to use it but was still very unhappy with the screw thread that the piston would be banging into on full travel so I modified it.

As supplied by Summit

Modified with a nice polished domed end

I rotated the engine (clockwise is the normal rotation for SBF's) until it was just before TDC'ish (and slightly lower than the stop would screw in to) and then screwed the piston stop into position. Next I added some tape to the outside of the damper so I could mark the extreme positions of travel. Before I could make the marks I needed a pointer so I fabricated one out of a bit of piano wire and screwed in into position.

Pointer and screw to secure it

I then very carefully rotated the engine until it just touched the stop and made my first mark on the tape. I then rotated the engine anti-clockwise until it again touched the stop and made another mark.

The midway point between these 2 marks it exact TDC (well I hope it is!) so I very carefully measured the distance, divided it by 2 and, after removing the piston stop rotated the engine clockwise until the new central mark aligned exactly with the pointer. So the engine is now set to TDC. All I have to do now is remove the pointer and tape and fix the timing pointer.

Aligned to centre mark

Timing pointer added

The timing pointer only needed a little filing of the holes to get it to fit exactly where I wanted it. I have added a white line to the pointer too to make it a little more prominent.

Thats all for now but hopefully more later this week.

Engine Frame

The time is approaching (be it rather slowly I must admit!) for the need of an engine frame for when I am able to take the completed engine across to Peter Knight Racing, Daventry to be setup and run in and certified.

So then, onto frame construction. What I would say is that it is essential to very carefully measure everything twice before you cut and especially before you weld. Do not assume that the engine mounts are symmetrical from side to side on the engine block! More on that later!

I decided to build my frame out of 30mmx30mmx3mm section steel so after measuring and calculating what I needed I bought a couple of 3m lengths of tube and some 30mmx8mm plates for the actual mounts. (As I was making this myself it meant that I had to purchase a nice new chop saw. Another great addition to the workshop!). This was then all cut to the appropriate sizes, de-burred and thoroughly cleaned as when the steel arrived it was covered in something like a graphite paste and was very messy to work with but it stopped it rusting before I used it though. As I normally do when making something I model it all out on CAD (day job!) just to make sure everything fits (or at least should do if you measure it correctly in the first place).

Nice new chop saw!

CAD of frame.

All parts cut to length

De-burred and ready to weld.

Now there was just one issue! I forgot to just tack weld the four mount plates before checking whether it fitted as expected. As you can guess it didn't!!!! I had not realised that the 2 pairs of mount holes were offset from one side to the other. Fortunately it was a simple task (ignoring the cutting and re-welding) to sort out and I am pleased to say that all is now OK. No harm done just another wasted hour or so.

Welded and painted with POR15.

Just now need to get that engine completed.

Engine - Pt 8

It has been quite a while since my last post. So after being rather busy recently I have finally had the opportunity to sort out measuring the length of pushrods I need for my particular engine.

I ordered these from Peter Knight racing and they arrived about weeks or or 2 later.

Now comes the task of fitting and adjusting the valve train.

First job was to clean all the pushrods making sure that they are nice and clean particularly inside as oil flows through these for lube for the rockers etc..

One thing I did notice was that there are a number of different designations on the rods. I am assuming that this is OK but will call and check just to be certain.

So... After cleaning each pushrod I carefully applied a little Graphogen to each end of the rods making sure that the holes are clear and then carefully placed then in their respective positions, all 16 of them.

After this I prepared the adjuster's and locking screws before getting the lifters out of their oil bath. I fully unscrewed the locking screws to leave just a thread or so engaged so I could clearly see which ones were still un-locked. Just had to make sure that the locking screw was not interferring with the adjusting process.

Rockers in oil bath. Been soaking for quite some time.

I then cleaned the excess oil off of the lifters and coated each of the rollers with Graphogen. Also the top of each valve was given a coating of Graphogen too.

With and without Graphogen on the rollers

Pre adjustment.

There's alot of information on the web regarding how to adjust/pre-load the valves (some good and some not so good). In the end (2nd time of course!) I very carefully followed the information given with my Compcams camshaft, which I should have done first. Still, all now seems to be good now.

One last thing. I thought I'd have a check/look at fitting the rocker covers but as I had suspected there is a height issue due to me changing to roller rockers. I knew when I purchased the rocker covers that they may not be tall enough so have already purchased 2 sets of gaskets, just in case. All I need are the spacer plates. The parts that touch rocker cover baffles are the adjuster nuts. I did also rotate the engine to make sure the rockers were at max lift but these are well below the adjuster nuts. You can just make out the 2 areas that touch in the photo below. It is quite tricky to measure the interference so I used the gaskets I already had. With 2 gaskets there was a little interference but with 3 there was clearance. The gaskets are 4mm thick each. I'll get 6mm thick spacer plates laser cut and polish the edges. When I fit the covers, spacer plates and gaskets I'll use some suitable liquid gasket to give a little peace of mind as well.

Not quite what I had hoped for but it will be fine with the spacer plates and a gasket either side.

Thats all for now until the spacers are made.

Wheels 1

After alot of discussion on the UK Cobra Club forum I decided to go for Vintage Wheels in the US.

There was alot  of discussion about either 407 or 427 styles. Both look really good.

407 Style

427 Style

Eventually I decided to go for 18" 427's as I simply prefer the look of these. 407's are great but actually a little 'too' smooth for me.

The main concern highlighted to me by Bob was that due to the high offest values on the front wheels the 427 style is slightly outset from the rim. For me this is not a problem.

Bob Lacey at Vintage was really helpful and a great bloke to deal with. I can't recommend him or his company highly enough. The wheels are a work of art and licensed by Shelby too.

Tyre/Rim sizes as follows:-

Front - Rim 8" wide, tyres 225/45 R18 Y (91) Continental Sport Contact 5 SSR
Rear - Rim 9.5" wide, tyres 255/40 R18 Y (95) Continental Sport Contact 5 SSR

At the time of order I also purchase chrome wheels nuts, spinners and the wheel nut covers.

After ordering on the 22nd March they finally arrived on 2nd May and I must say that I am really delighted with them. All fits well on the XJ40 hubs so that is a relief too.

Engine - Pt 7

Just a quick update today. Well I have finally had the opportunity to remove the sump and install the oil pump drive. Didn't take long just shouldn't have been necessary. Still the sump is now finally buttoned up and re-torqued to the correct settings.

After I spun the engine back over I thought I would just drop on the inlet manifold to see how it looks. I must say that I am really pleased with the overall effect. I know for the purests the block should be Ford blue but I am happy with my choice.

Earlier this month I was able to pick up the pulley set, alternator and a few other smaller items.

When I get a spare minute or so I will add a few more photos.

At least it feels like I am making progress finally.

Engine - Pt 6

One little thing you mustn't forget is the oil pump drive shaft. Really important to have the small pressed on collar to stop it being lifted out and dropped into the sump when the distributor is removed but more important is to fit it in the first place!!!

So.... off with the sump and the oil pump and in with the drive shaft!

This is the offending part. Such a small part but such an important job!

I've had a little more time than expected recently so I've been able to press on with my engine build. It's now time to fit the heads, roller lifters along with the ARP head stud kit and Felpro head gaskets.

AFR Cylinder Heads

Lunati lifters

Everything was very thoroughly cleaned in preparation for inserting the head studs. The threads were cleaned out and studs test fitted in each to make sure they all fitted correctly before final installation. I've opted to go for the ARP 12 point studs for the cylinder heads. As directed I applied ARP thread sealer to the studs that break through into the water jacket and then screwd them in to hand tight. The outer studs had a little ARP thread lube to aid screwing them in as well, again hand tight. Then I dropped on the head gasket carefully.

Studs all in and hand tightened

Head gasket in position ready for lifters and head

Next the first four lifters are assembled. These have graphogen on the roller and diameter of the body. Also liberally coated with oil too.

Then the head was carefully lowered onto the studs and two head dowels and the washer caps were assembled into their counterbores. Several of these were a little tight so a bit of very careful manipulation of stud and head was needed to make them slide home properly.

First head on finger tight

Lifters assembled

Now it is a process of 'the same again' with the other cylinder head. All went pretty smoothly. When both heads were on it was a matter of torquing the heads up in the sequence specified but in 3 equal settings upto the 80ft/lbs recommended by ARP. This was then double checked later just to check that all is OK. I'm using the excellent book "How to Rebuild Small-Block Ford Engines" by Tom Monroe. This has a wealth of knowledge and has been really helpful.

Heads on, all torqued up and double checked

Water pump trial fitted

State of build so far shown in the left picture and in the right the water pump loosely fitted as I was checking the bolt lengths from the stainless bolt kit I bought for the engine. Sadly three of the bolts are too short so these have to be relpaced. Now waiting for them to arrive.

There was a bit of a story with the water pump. I bought this just over a year ago from Summit and very pleased with it I was! When I came to fit it last week I realised that the flange shape of the pump did not match up with the timing cover. After much irritation and mixing and matching of gaskets I came to the belief that the pump was the wrong one for my engine. So up it went for sale and I started looking for a new pump, this thie I started looking at electric ones.

I put this up for sale on the UK Cobra Forum and quite quickly got a reply which was actually a question. It said "do you have the metal back-plate?". At that point the penny dropped and I realised that what I had assumed was a 'delivery/protection cover' was actually the backplate. Now all fits great and although I felt pretty stupid the situation is resolved. My wife was particularly pleased as she didn't know I make mistakes!!!

So, all's good in the end.

Just got the new bolts so all I need now is time to fully fit the water pump.

Engine - Pt 5

Been a bit of a wait for the next instalment! Work has been busy and what with holidays and the like not had a lot of time for the engine. Still finally got some time so have been making steady progress with the engine build. Had a few parts to order so these have also added to the delay but they have now arrived so I can progress.

One of the things I was waiting for was the sleeve below. This had proved invaluable and made assembling the piston assemblies a relatively simple process.

Piston No 1 in. The rest will follow in short order.

All in and correctly torqued to the ARP specifications using plenty of the assembly lube as directed.

All con-rods correctly torqued

Pistons all in and complete.

Next I added the cam retainer plate making sure it was the correct way round and with plenty of assembly lube on it as this will not be run for a while.

After this the next job was to assemble the timing chain assembly. This was quite a fiddly job as the centre distance is very tight ensuring no slack in the chain assembly once assembled. I carefully aligned the camshaft this the fuel pump eccentric dowel at 6 o'clock and the crankshaft with its woodruff key (which took quite a while to fit as this was very tight and needed a little adjustment to make it fit correctly) at 12 o'clock and also with piston no 1 at TDC. When all was double checked, I aligned the marks on both pulleys separating them as much as possible whilst sliding both pulleys onto their respective shafts at the same time. All went OK apart from one thing. The crankshaft was supplied with 2 different length dowels. Naturally I chose the slightly shorter one as I didn't want it protruding past the end of the pulley interfering with the washer and bolt. One thing I forgot was that this dowel also drives the fuel pump eccentric so off it had to come and in with the longer dowel. 2nd time went a little quicker.

Timing chain fitted

Make sure the dowel protrudes for the fuel pump eccentric

Fuel pump eccentric now on and torqued as specified.

It was at this stage that I intended to temporally fit the heads and measure for the pushrod length, but basically I forgot and got a little carried away by fitting the timing cover and then the mass damper.

I had waited 3 weeks for the crank nose adaptor to take the camshaft timing wheel so now won't be needing that (as I'm not pulling the damper off!) but will now need to make a new adaptor.

Oh well, more haste less speed!

The next pictures show the engine with the timing cover and mass damper (Fluidamper) fitted. Tightening the damper was pretty hard work as this needed to be tightened to 110 ft/lbs (as per ARP instructions) but at the same time having to stop the crankshaft rotating. Still, no issues. All fitted well first time.

Meant to say I coated the fuel pump eccentric with graphogen and liberally coated the timing chain with oil before fitting the timing cover.

I have opted to use Driven HR1 15W50 mineral engine oil in my engine as this is highly recommended by Peter Knight racing and as they will be setting up and running in my engine it would be rude to ignore their advice.

The timing cover was fitted using high modulus gasket sealant on both sides. When the bolts were tightened to the correct torque after carefully aligning the timing cover with the sump face and getting the best alignment for the crank seal. The seal was liberally lubricated before the damper was fitted to make sure there is oil there on initial start up. Excess sealant was carefully removed so all is clean and tidy.

Now it's time to move onto the fuel pump and pickup. Did a trial fit with the all assembled (including gaskets) just to make sure that all is OK with the sump. I was pleased to see that all fitted perfectly so now to the final fitment. First the oil pump was fitted with its gasket and then the two fasteners were torqued to the correct value. The process was then repeated for the sump pickup. Gasket sealant should not be used for these two gaskets. The torques were then re-checked before moving onto the sump fitment.

I am using a FelPro one piece sump gasket. I have heard really good reports about these and it was really easy to fit. Make sure all is really clean before you start. Lay the gasket on top of the block making sure that the 4 little tags fit into their respective pockets at the corners where the front and rear seals protrude into the sump. When all is correctly aligned screw in the 4 locating pillars and carefully locate the sump pan onto these and slide into position. These are a really great tool for aligning the sump pan whilst the peripheral screws are loosely hand tightened. When the 18 shorter screws are all in simply remove the 4 pillars and replace with the 4 longer screws. At this point it must be noted that there are 2 different torque settings for the different screws. The last thing you want is to over tighten these as you can either strip the threads of damage the sump flange. I was advised to carefully tighten all the screws in several stages to the required torque. This took quite a long time as there are a lot of screws. I will leave these screws to settle and go back next week to check all is OK and probably re-torque as I am sure they will have relaxed a little.

The sump pan  is a Miloden large capacity baffled sump. This one however is exactly the same sump depth as the standard Ford sump pan so as not to affect ground clearance. It's all nice and gold too! Well, that's pretty much all I have time for at the moment. It's been really great to make some more progress. Bottom end complete.

Heads next and sorting pushrod length and checking the timing of the cam.