Jump to content

Very Sad 2.1 Pinto


Guest jimmytwobikes

Recommended Posts

  • 1 month later...
Guest jimmytwobikes

The car is still at the garage, the people who had the head wanted £600 for an overhaul, so i bought one from the midlands already overhauled for £350, it has now been fitted and is running good, the carb which was tuned to my original engine that had a performance cam in it, now needs rejetting and i have a feed to earth somewhere that keeps blowing fuses. The garage is going to give me a breakdown of what i owe them up to now and i suspect i will take the car away and store it in my garage for a couple of months to save some money up and then get the carb and wiring sorted. i dont know if i should just replace the loom as the previous owner had bodged it in a couple of places. but there are so many conflicting stories about wiring looms i wouldnt know where to get a good one from.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest lotusPaul

Jimmy.

 

I would be very interested in how much you have spent since I popped round. More for a learning curve for others to follow and learn from.

 

Please pm me if you don't want to publicise it.

 

Regards

 

Paul

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest jimmytwobikes

I dont mind publicising how much i have spent, if I can help someone avoid my mistakes then its all to the good,so far my expenditure stands at approx £1100 and that is without the labour bill from the garage for fitting the new head, and the new parts, so maybe another £600 there. I reckon by the time i get the car back the total repair bill will be about £2000. What a dick I have been!! Mind you, its easy with the benefit of hindsight to see where i went wrong, at the time i just thought i was doing the best i could for myself. never again!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Gargoil

Dude, a lot of people have had this happen. The pinto is old and through the ages had work done to it by Tom, Dick and Scarry. You chose what was right for you at the time (as did I, another 2 grand hiccup in ownership) so who can say what is right or wrong?

Just don't let it put you off. At some stage you will have a reliable kit that you will get a lot of enjoyment from.

It's not the driving that counts, its the owning.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You will never get back the money you spend on a kit car anyway. I don't smoke or gamble and drink very little so I look on money spent on the car as a healthy luxury, if it's spare then it's a safe option as long as I remember to tighten up the wheel nuts. I have just replaced the engine in my car and I reckon the money I spent on all the bits that go with it like clutch, hoses, fixings and sundries must be around a grand without the cost of the engine.

Just got to find time to finish it it off now.

On a sunny day when everybody else is driving around in a tin box and you are in your kit you will think it was money well spent

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest lotusPaul

Jim

 

I'll be happy when your driving around in your car, Not the cheapest way to have done things I'm sure but we live and learn.

I'll be putting a pinto into mine too. I'll be able to post up true costs of a fully rebuilt motor. I'm now back down at home so not so local but I'll pop in and say hello soon. As for electrics, it's pure magic but a few good books and late night reading are well worth it.

The best bit of advice I had was get a fire extinguisher, keep it close, and never secure the main earth so it's easy a quick to take off. Something I learned by mistake was not to leave ignition on. I burned out the coil a few times.

 

Keep us posted buddy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have done 3 Pinto builds on 2 engines

1 I bought fully built 2.1 with everything fitted just fit and run or so I thought but it did have some good bits such as ARP head and block stud kit.

The second I built from scratch using a low compression 205 block.

Separating out the costs is a little difficult as I bought several heads and cams and then decided on a brand new Kent RL31 kit.

 

Your basics are gaskets, seals, blanking plates and belts. Filters oils and fluids.

£100 to £150

 

It's probably best to divide the purchases in to bottom and top end.

 

Next is new parts, if this is a first rebuild I usually fit new high pressure high capacity oil pump and new water pump

£60 to £80

 

This is the minimum for a fresh engine base it now becomes a bit more expensive as you'll be looking at performance improvement and that means Head, cam and carbs as a minimum.

1 of my engines did a good job with just an injection head and an FR32 cam kit.

The cheap low compression transit engine with injection head I got for £50 the cam kit was close to £300

 

What I would say at this stage is that if you have good oil pressure then new bearings may not be necessary but if your fitting a new camshaft you must fit new cam bearings.

Go for good oem bearings there not expensive

£20 to £30

 

Big end bearings similar price.

 

When I started to get a bit more adventurous I spent an incalculable amount of time researching the machining I needed to do, this was based on the Head that I had already bought as the rest of the machining would need the combustion chamber volume to be known first.

Caveat.. Head gaskets have a huge influence but also have a cost penalty, my 2.1 engines are limited by available head gaskets, Adjusa is £40 and 1mm anything thicker is Cometic or Athena and they start at £120.

 

My tip of the day (month, year) don't obsess about 2.1 you'll only get to 2.09 and that is only 5% more capacity.

 

Any cam that uses double valve springs will need spring seats machining and shims to get the correct fitted height

£150

 

Valve seat cutting is about £20 each and fitting hardened exhaust seats is £40 each not necessary on an injection head (block marked with P,R,I, near No.4 exhaust port)

 

I bought Cosworth rods and V6 Pistons machined for circlips.

£100 & £180

The Cosworth rods needed the small ends narrowing so took the block, rods and Pistons to an engineering firm who bored and skimmed the block, fitted rods to Pistons and balanced the lot with all new bearings.

£600

The rest of the cost was oil cooler, clutch, starter, catch tank, the list goes on and on and on.

 

Now I know this is not a difinative list of costs and it is my humble opinion that you can do a cheap rebuild for a few hundred pounds or you can go all out and spend a couple of thousand.

 

My way has always been to buy bits as I go through a project thus spreading the cost and to buy secondhand and new wisely where I can.

 

Looking at my notes I have £1772.41 + another £155 but this was for a bare block build down to even woodruff keys

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
Guest jimmytwobikes

HALLELUJAH!!! My Canary is finally at long last, officially back on the road, got it back from the garage, RICHARD GAIGER at Basingstoke, She runs like a dream although the carb could do with tweaking, but the main thing is she is back on the road, Been out for a couple of hours this afternoon round the Hampshire B roads, and loved every minute of it. At last I can start event planning for the coming Summer!! There are some jobs still to do, but that is in the nature of a Kitcar, always work in progress. So a big thank you for all the encouragement and advice I have recieved from club members. it feels great to be part of such a caring community..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest jimmytwobikes

I bought an engine out of a P100 but it wouldnt run properly in the car, so i took it to a recommended repairer and he condemned the head, said it was worn out, I got a recon unleaded head from an engineer in the midlands for £350 outright purchase. and that has sorted my problems, the car runs sweet, not perfect, but certainly good enough to use. Now it is work in progress, all those little jobs you promise yourself you are going to do! Thanks for your interest and input. Its been a useful exercise for me, just bloody expensive, next time if there is a next time, i will just bite the bullet and pay out for a recon lump.

 

cheaper in the long run.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...
Guest jimmytwobikes

The continuing saga of the Canary! Been running it now ok for some months, just been doing general maintenance, Fitted Sparkright electronic ignition and opened up the plug gaps, it seems to be running smoother as a result. Went to Castle Combe in July and scored 101 db in the sound test!! So a trip to those nice people on site, Merlin Motorsport, they took £75 off me and gave me an ugly black add on to my exhaust which took it down to 99 db, At least i could get on the track with that. Since then bought myself a nice SS can to go inline with the existing silencer and it sounds a whole lot better, and looks a whole lot better too!! £35 off ebay!! Looking forward to Monday going to Castle Combe along with my son and his mate in their Westfields. Open pit lane day!! Heaven on earth!! First photo is the ugly Merlin add on, second photo is the cooler ebay item!!

 

Gy6c9U4.jpg

 

TY0D5PA.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...