Snapperpaul

I have just been offered a Blacktop

The madness continues

If you can do a Karting session you can do a track day.

The key thing is to not get drawn in to going beyond your capabilities

Most tracks today have plenty of runoff areas

You can insure your car for track days it's expensive

If you don't insure your car then don't go to mad

Don't fully agree with lotus Paul

The big issue is brake balance and discs on the rear will make your car very rear end twitchy unless you have a bias pedal box

The drum brakes were designed for a much heavier car so you have a braking advantage over a standard car.

Me, I would do a track day and find out if your happy first, you may be surprised

Try a lower opening temperature thermostat

The 80 degree stat you run will start to open at 80 and take a few more degrees to open fully.

You can wedge the rear of the bonnet and if that makes a noticeable difference on a test run there is a problem to be solved

Gasket pick

When you put the new wedges in use some grey Hylomar or silicon to seal them in and fill the gaps in the block which always weeps

The first bit is good, but no catch tank? well you can't catch the oil in the vented gas

The other issue is the filter is lower than the rocker so fluid will just flow out.

Have a look at the Burton catalog as it has a good diagram on Pinto catch tanks.

Excellent explanation from Longboarder as always

Can I just add a bit of related information, the pressure buildup and related airflow though an engine is a little contradictory.

Pressure in the crankcase is aided by ring blow by however on a standard engine the filler cap is vented and the crank breather sucks crank gasses out using manifold negative pressure.

There is a situation when the crankcase breather is pulling pressure out of the crank case and the filler cap is sucking clean into the engine to equalise because the crank case and the rocker cover are connected by the oil drains from the head to the block.

When you remove the vacuum savaging from the breather system only positive pressure has an effect, in a sense your only blowing out.

Some breather solutions run a pipe from the crank case to the side of the rocker cover and a separate outlet from the rear of the rocker cover to the catch tank freeing up one feed of the tank for a vent.

A lot of high performance Pintos run this system.

Proper catch tanks have baffles and wire wool to separate oil from air and vent the air.

I had a catch tank that had 2 inlets and no filtered vent so I put a Y connected into one of the feeds and attached the filter to it the result was that pressure built in the tank as both inlets were tacking pressure and oil spewed out of the filter.

I'm sorry this is a long winded post so here are my conclusions.

You can effectively run a crank and rocker vent feed to a vented, baffled catch tank with wire wool in the top section

Or

You can run the crank case breather to the side of the rocker cover and run a second breather to a non vented catch tank and put a small filter on the spare feed.

Bolt on any old Pinto head with a standard gasket and try it

I've got a standard Pinto gasket you can have, your not near me but I have the odd Pinto head around, I'm sure members closer will have stuff in the garage

That is too cheap....

2.04 first is a race gear no good for the road unless your running a 4.4 diff

Those plug caused me real grief if the head has been skimmed a lot they get spark gap shut by piston contact! mick

You won't get piston to plug contact unless the head has been skimmed 2mm

1.5mm if Pistons are flush to block

Check you engine block earths if starter slow

Feel the power lead to the starter, if that's got your Earth is not good

My trick is to smear oil resistant sealant on the sump then place gasket on and wait for it to set

The half moons need pushing on to the block which I do again with a smear of sealant

One area always overlooked is the fibre wedges that go in the block between the block and the crank bearing caps.

When I last did this I put a good amount of sealant in the whole first and it squeezed out of the front block face

Ultimately with careful use of sealant and careful fixing of the half moons I have an oil leak free Pinto

The Cosworth version of the Cologne V6 is a big lump and I am looking for smaller, lighter.

There are many 4 pot options that can deliver, Audi 1.8 turbo for instance, if I had the money the latest Ford ecoboost are impressive and I have a friend who has access to easy ECU's tuning but whilst I am keen to spend I am also a bit tight so always looking for the cheaper option

Surely Caterham is not 60 years old so can't have a Caterham 60 year celebration

I have 2

I do a lot of in Head planning and not enough in garage doing

I need to get the Robin Hood running well enough to get to this summers events then start on the Fury.

The Robin Hood will have the old carbs put back on, the ignition refurbished with all new parts and then taken to a local rolling road, I will then not touch it in any inappropriate way until the Fury is up and running.

Pondering about the gearbox...

I think the VR6 was only fitted in a transverse configuration and probably did not have a separate bellhousing.

I was thinking of using a type 9 V6 box and adapting the VR6 bellhousing to fit the type 9 tat way I would only need to re-drill the gearbox to bellhousing bolt pattern or make an adaptor plate

Mmm interesting, it may be challenge to far and I did have a VR6 Galaxy that stifled to get 12mpg round town.

I did have a look at the R32 engine but my god they are expensive

My neighbour has a VR6 lump on his drive, now I had one in a Ford Galaxy and it was impressive

It's only a 12 valve and I'm no idea if it will fit or what gearbox to consider but as I'm in thinking mode it's worth a think

I'm thinking automatic flywheel with torque converter removed

All Ford gearboxes had 2 bellhousing bolt patterns

The gearbox for an inline 4 cylinder from Crossflow to Zetec were the same

The gearbox for the V6 engines from 3.0L Essex to 2.8/2.9 Cologne were the same

The V6 gearbox had a longer input shaft and the top 2 bellhousing bolts were closer together than the inline 4 gearbox

I love the quote

"425 bhp in a light chassis should be frightening"

Yes 425 bhp in an MGB GT will be scary but no one could say an MGB is light, I owned one and it was probably the heaviest car I owned excepting the Ford Consul 375 lowline

All coming back now

Ford MT75 V6 Left hand drive variant modified to fit the Rover engine

Areas of concern were the non bearing spigot bearing fitted,a plain bronze tube, and a modification to the clutch trust bearing

Bell housing cut to fit Rover starter

Glyn had an issue with the gearbox which turned out to be the manufacturers extendended remote linkage which had failed, I think this was repaired or replaced.

I'm not sure but I also think he had another grarbox put in, now I'm struggling to remember but I think it was a left hand drive Rover box with the bell housing cut to take a repositioned starter motor.

If I can find his details I'll tell him your on the Forum but Rusty has not been a member for many years and if the car has had other owners who knows what's been done since.

Looks like Glyn Rust's old car

It was one of the best built best looking cars I have seen.

My Robin Hood manifold goes brown colour and only pickling paste will clean it, the better grade stainless of the Paul Gooderham exhaust system is good so I conclude it's the cheaper stsinless used by tricky dicky