Building a hot vintage engine with Jonny69

[jimblowscash]

Would it be worth knocking up a little water pump for it? An ancillery one, driven by a belt, just to cycle it around and stop the block hotspotting.........Just a thought?

Shouldn't be too tricky, either....Or you could use a leccy one

just put a leckie pump on a rad hose ... simple

 

[Jonny69]

Not quite as simple as not having one though

 

[[huzeeee]]

Cause a zetec would be useless in one, doesn't keep the original cars character.

So would injection If your going to inject a sidevalve then you mayaswell fit a zetec.....

 

[Nitro_Junkie]

So would injection If your going to inject a sidevalve then you mayaswell fit a zetec.....

if we're gunna be stupid then a ScOT blower and 25% nitro

putting a modern engine/injection or anything into Jonny's stock pop is not the aim, old skool all the way and muchos kudos for doing something most people don't/won't do anymore - give the sidevalves time and attention

 

[Gojira]

So would injection If your going to inject a sidevalve then you mayaswell fit a zetec.....

Why? Bolting a Zetec in would be a (relatively ) easy trick, but would mean it's a lot less of a Pop, and would need almost everything else replacing.

Injecting the existing lump would be much more of a challenge, and leave young Jonny69 with a probably unique Sidevalver, that could still run most of the existing chassis.

I'm sure you can guess which one I'd recommend

(Hint: Power for the sake of Power you do not need, young Jedi)

Alan Woodford

 

[Jonny69]

I already have a pair of SU's don't forget, though it's easy enough to jet them so it'll run on alcohol or paint thinners

 

[penski]

Shorrock blower, period bike carbs and running on alky mix.

*n

 

[Jonny69]

On with the build...

First task is to get the old head studs out. I would have to hammer the head back on because they are rusted and bent and I don't want that so I'm going to replace them with shiny new straight items. I was a bit worried about them shifting but the oldest trick in the book worked on all of them so I was happy. Basically wind a nut on the thread, hold it with a spanner and crank another nut onto it really tight. Then 99% of the time you can undo the whole thing with the bottom nut:

To get the nut back off is a matter of mole grips round the stud and undo the nut:

Luckily it was only the last one that was REALLY tight and mangled up:

Now I want to take the valves out. I had to buy a slim valve spring compressor to do this because the springs are incredibly small in this engine and my old one wouldn't go in. Normally what you've got is a retainers at the end of the valve with a pair of tapered collets that hold it on the end of the valve. You compress the spring and the two collets pop out and you can withdraw the spring. It's a bit different on this engine because the end of the valve is tapered itself and the retainer has a slot cut out of one side and you have to pull it out with pliers. It's fiddle and requires a bit of brute force:

 

[Jonny69]

You have to jam the compressor between the bottom two coils of the valve spring:

Then grab the retainer with a pair of needle nose pliers:

Then pull the valve up like the top picture and get a hold of the spring with pliers and yank it out:

The valve then doesn't just come out because it's tapered at the end so it won't fit through the valve guide. This took a bit of head scratching but the valve guide is in two pieces and is pressed into place. One has to drift it out with a special tool, or in my case a clubhammer and a couple of screwdrivers. This is what it looks like when out:

 

[Jonny69]

I spotted a flow improvement opportunity here. Take a look at this very poor photo and you can see the top of the valve guide protrudes right into the port, semi blocking it up:

Well I'm not having that, so it's going on the lathe and it's coming off. There's still plenty of length on it to support the valve so that's free extra flow to me.

Lining up the valve springs I spot a little inconsistency:

Apart from the fact that they are about as strong as radio controlled car springs they are all different lengths so I will replace them all for uprated items. There is no way the standard items will be able to cope with increased revs, these ones are destined for a pair of spring loaded shoes or something.

One major annoyance is that this engine has solid cam tappets and you can't adjust the valve tolerances. To reduce the gap you have to grind the valve seats to make the valve drop down a bit and to increase the gap you have to get the end of the valve stem ground back. This means that as it stands I can't use my high lift cam because I will need different length valves and the process of getting them to the right ground length isn't something I can do at home, which goes against the aim of this project. Luckily Small Ford Spares do aftermarket ajustable tappets which is a lifesaver, by no means cheap, but it means I can use the cam afterall! Phew!

After a quick cleanup I can see that the surface of the block is good, the valve seats are all in good condition despite being used with unleaded fuel and the pistons are in good condition. There was hardly any carbon in there at all and the bores are in very good condition. All good news.

Final job was to flip it upside down and strip the block bare. Took the sump off, removed the flywheel and timing cover and started scraping all the old gaskets off. I'll be taking the cam, crank and pistons out next so they don't get contaminated with grinding paste or any of the muck when I start relieving the bore edges, then it's out with the power tools to do the fun bit. Mwahahahahah!!!!!

 

[saitrix]

Really liking this project Jonny. Interesting to see just how different a sidevalve engine is. And yes by the looks of it there will be plenty of bits to port around this engine. That really should help gas flow out inside it.

Nice even spring lengths I see there. You going to clean up all the outside of the block to make it look nicer?

 

[Jonny69]

You going to clean up all the outside of the block to make it look nicer?

Probably not

 

[Dogbreath]

I am just amazed that you can actualy buy tuning parts for these engines! I've seen stronger springs inside a ballpoint pen than those valve springs

Are the crank, rods and pistons up to an increase in RPM? A lot of engines of this era had cranks that looked like a bent bit of coat hanger. Is it a 3 or 5 bearing crank?

 

[saitrix]

Probably not

Haha, even a sleeper inside the engine bay, just need to hide the aquaplane stuff.

 

[Jonny69]

I am just amazed that you can actualy buy tuning parts for these engines! I've seen stronger springs inside a ballpoint pen than those valve springs

Are the crank, rods and pistons up to an increase in RPM? A lot of engines of this era had cranks that looked like a bent bit of coat hanger. Is it a 3 or 5 bearing crank?

3 bearings and alledgedly it's safe up to 7000rpm

I have to admit I won't be taking it up there but the cam is ground to let it up to 6000rpm rather than the wheezy 4500rpm. I guess the way to look at it is they are tiny tiny pistons on a long stroke. They are only about 62mm diameter and weigh nothing.

At the end of the day if it breaks it breaks, I'll just have to build another one

Haha, even a sleeper inside the engine bay, just need to hide the aquaplane stuff.

Under an old blanket

 

[Gojira]

3 bearings and alledgedly it's safe up to 7000rpm

I have to admit I won't be taking it up there but the cam is ground to let it up to 6000rpm rather than the wheezy 4500rpm. I guess the way to look at it is they are tiny tiny pistons on a long stroke. They are only about 62mm diameter and weigh nothing.

At the end of the day if it breaks it breaks, I'll just have to build another one

7K rpm on sidevalves! now that would be scary

Interesting that Ford were too mean to put adjustable tappets in
Probably saved all of a couple of farthings per engine


Keep up the good work, and keep us updated.

Alan Woodford

 

[lordedmond]

The ford Pilot V8 had the same type of tappit adjustment , it take many hours to get them correct but they tend to stay in ajustment for a long time


Your comment on unleaded fuel is interesting as the very early engines did run unleaded ,not sure about the pop but the 105e would run on TVO or paraffiin at a pinch no lead in those fuels , Fordson tractors ran on TVO and their blocks are similer but bigger than the pop, I bet the pop was designed to run unleaded .

TVO Tractor Vapourising Oil for those that are to young

thinking back to Ford 8 days and the POP petrol was less than 4s 11 d per gall four gal for a quid with change


Good luck with the engine build

 

[saitrix]

I remember you saying about that hill on your commute to work, those extra revs really will help as you will be able to hold in 2nd for much longer than before. Should make it fun to drive with no extra grip.

So when are you bringing it up to the midlands?

 

[Jonny69]

Yeah it's a funny old thing with the tappets. Maybe because the valve seats used to pit up when they were using 2-Star petrol so they had to re-seat them anyway? I don't know. The 100E engine has adjustable ones though damn it's eyeballs. Just to make things harder for me than they have to be

Anyway, finished stripping the engine. Took the cam, crank, oil pump and pistons out now so it's a bare block. Tomorrows job is to get some Gunk and give it a damn good clean all over then I can do that grinding. I think I might give it a paint after all, for the sake of a fiver in paint while it's out in bits...

So when you take a cam out and you haven't got a manual it's a good idea to take a note what way round it goes in. The easiest way to do this is to turn it so the no.1 piston is at top dead centre (TDC) on its firing stroke and make a mark with some white paint, or in my case some Tippex which I stole back when I was working at Marconi. That was a long time ago but I still steal things:

It's also a good idea to mark your pistons so they go back in the right bores, this saves you having to re-balance the engine but more importantly the bottom ends go back on the right crank journals. So make sure you also keep the big end shells round the right way and with the correct conrod:

With a bit of luck over the weekend I'll also get to take a grinder to the block and relieve it where I deem fit, then next week I just have to order some bits and get it assembled

Edit: by the way I don't read The Mail, it was in the recycling bin downstairs and I needed a paper to soak up any excess oil...

 

[Dogbreath]

So when you take a cam out and you haven't got a manual it's a good idea to take a note what way round it goes in. The easiest way to do this is to turn it so the no.1 piston is at top dead centre (TDC) on its firing stroke and make a mark with some white paint, or in my case some Tippex which I stole back when I was working at Marconi. That was a long time ago but I still steal things:

I guess you aren't going to go for a funky vernier sprocket to time your new cam in..

I always mark a tooth on the crank sprocket and the adjacent tooth on the cam sprocket , that way you don't have to rely on setting engine at TDC to get it accurate. Do it with a center punch and it won't rub off either.