Engine Fitting

[Guest johnboymac]

for whatever reason, I ended up buying a CVH engined donor - and have gotten to the rolling chasis stage with no great problems (skint knuckles etc...) (oh, kit is a subK - an no the anti roll bar does not fit.).

The engine does fit in the engine bay, but the inlet manifold butts against the bar where the pedal box will mount to, so needs to move forward half an inch, this may be possible if I build a raised plate to fit the engine mount to (in order to raise the sump an inch) and thus move the engine forward in the bay by half an inch - too an inch. This will then move the gearbox forward - hence problem (1) - will this cause a problem for the drive shaft? or is it long enough to take this extra inch?

 

problem (2) is the brake servo - this cannot be fitted due to the inlet manifold - is it safe to leave the servo off - and has anyone produced a guide on how to do this?

 

cheers, Johnboy.

[Guest Julian B]

Hi John

 

I personally would try and weigh up the costs of buying / making up a non servo system (have a look how the locost builders do it, Twin master cylinders and a brake bias bar) and also the cost of getting the prop extended, against the cost of going down to the scrappies and buying a 2 litre pinto engine. You should be able to pick up a whole car for £50, which is likely to be less than the price of the modifications.

 

All of that said if you keep with the cvh be careful about raising the engine at all. You may find that the carb hits the bonnet if you raise the engine. Can you get the sump shortened? This is something that is recommended on the pinto engines as in standard form they sit way too close to the ground. And as a guess if you move the engine forward an inch you could make up a half-inch spacer plate that fixes between the prop and the diff to reduce effect of moving the engine forward.

 

If i were to do this i think i would

 

1 Make up the bonnet with the nose cone

2 Temporarily make up the pedal box and temporarily fit it (without servo)

3 Temporarily fit the steering column, steering wheel and seat

 

Then see what effect moving the engine around has on these components.

 

Good luck

[Bob Tucker]

Hi John,

you can remove the servo from the standard Sierra setup, but obviously

the pedal pressure needed to stop will increase. But it's not quite that simple.

You need to obtain a different length pushrod to fit between the pedal

and the master cylinder.

Tiger Racing sell a suitable one.

Cheers, Bob

[Guest johnboymac]

Many thanks for the responses. Over the last few days, Ive spent sometime adjusting engine position etc, laid the bonnet over the top (just clamped together to test) and can see that the CVH just won't go, even without the servo, the brake cylinder is too close to the carb and would probably take a beating from the engine vibrating.

 

All in all my best bet is to source another donor (local scrappies are looking for £150 for an engine on its own with no ancillaries) - my wife has alloted me a further £200 budget - you cant image the summer of grass cutting, fence painting and general handyman stuff she has mapped out for me.....

another donor does have the added advantage of giving me a whole set of spare bits (such as hubs calipers etc..) - but has the downside of having a POS sierra sitting on the drive.

My current problem then is getting a donor - old sierras are few and far between in central scotland (its all the rain we get) - still will persevere.

 

(intention is to say the new engine is in the old sierra - or since I will have two donors - does it matter???)

 

again thanks for the assistance on this one and I hope that this experience can be of use to others who are considering a CVH

 

cheers, John

[Big Jim]

Don't try to buy one from the gready scrappy's, look in LOOT.COM, put "sierra" in the search box, and hit the tit, when you've finished looking through those, do the same with "Pinto" you'll more than likely find one within a week or so for less than £50, and possibly free (my last one was)