The Engine (Teardown)

The engine has been collected during the week from Pretoria. It took 3 strong men to lift it onto the bakkie, there was no way I was going to get it off alone! So it stayed there the whole week and today I stripped as much as I could to lighten it to the point where I could manoever it onto an engine stand.

First off was the aircon, then in quick succession the power steering pump, EGR, thermostat, water pump, coilpack and water outlet, exhaust, alternator and the inlet manifold. This is where I got my first shock.

The Duratec, especially the early ones, had the nasty habit of swallowing the swirl plates and their mounting shafts. This was due to poor materials used in the mounting of the swirl plate shaft. Upshot was the swirl plates and sometimes the shaft would be sucked into the cylinder jamming the inlet valve, with terminal results. Mr Piston would meet Mr Valve and that, as they say, was that.

So it was with some dismay I saw that all of the swirl plates were gone, but the shaft was still intact. This meant I could have bent valves, a holed piston or a ruined bore. The list goes on and it is not a cheap one either!! Or there could be nothing wrong at all.

I removed the cam cover - junked because there was huge hole in the one end.
Took out the cams, loosened the head bolts. It should have come free but no dice, the head was being held in place by something in the front cover. (Turned out to be the tensioner arm retaining pin)
So that meant I had to crack the engine to inspect the piston crowns and the valves. That meant undoing the dreaded crankshaft nut....

Anyone who knows the Duratec knows that the crankshaft and timing gear are joined together purely by friction. The friction comes from a dirty great bolt torqued up to a gazillion Newton meters, and 2 teeny weeny diamond encrusted friction washers. To remove it takes a 2 foot breaker bar, with a 3 foot tube extension, and some serious jamming of the flywheel/crankshaft at the other end.

Much sweating and cursing it came loose and I continued to strip off the engine down to the bare block. Off came the front cover, sump and the head.

I found the lightest of indentations from the inlet valve on number 3 piston, and that was it. The crank, bearings, pistons, rings, and bores all seemed in fine shape.

I was keen to put it all back together as though nothing needed to be replaced when I figgered that now I had gone to all this trouble, rather do a decent job of it. I did not want to face that crankshaft bolt a second time....

I scrubbed the block with aluminium cleaner and it looks pretty clean, almost new in fact.

From the local Ford dealer I ordered inlet and exhaust valve seals, crank seals front and back, gaskets for oil pump, oil filter housing and head. Then a new timing chain, tensioner and tensioner arms.

The following parts were ordered from Burton Power and Raceline:

Water Rail
Thermostat housing
210HP cams, uprated valve springs and retainers
11:1 Cosworth pistons and rings
Lightweight starter
Crank bearings
Conrod bearings
Cam Cover
Lightweight flywheel
AP Clutch
Conrod bolts

And a set of 45mm throttle bodies from Webcon.

So basically a complete overhaul is on the cards. I lapped the valves which showed the lightest of pitting, and the bores were honed.

The old sump was discarded in favour of a second hand Raceline low profile wet sump and the upright oil filter housing in favour of a secondhand horizontal unit. Both items were sourced from Clive Wilmot, he has a website http://www.racekit.co.za/ . Clive makes and distributes all manner of bits and pieces for Lotus 7 type cars. He races them too.