Snapperpaul

I would buy new pistons and have them flush to block deck which is better for squish, you then have the opportunity to adjust compression ratio with gasket thickness and head skim

Oh yes it is, my original RH can (I won’t call it a silencer as it was more of an amplifier) was way to load for SVA which had a 101db limit, I ended up having a silencer made, 1” wider and twice as long, re-packable and so much more liveable

Have sent photos on one of my engines, this manifold was used once on an engine dyno I stayed with the standard Robin Hood manifold as it was already fitted to the car

No I don’t have a full system for it

Will do, it’s at a barn I rent so give me a couple of days. send me your email and I’ll send photos. On the dyno I made 170bhp with this manifold

I’ve got an over the side rail stainless 4 branch available, only used on an engine dyno for a few runs from new.

Whilst ignition timing can cause sluggish starting my issue was engine earth strap, as always I over engineered the solution but it worked. I found that there wasn’t a strap from gearbox mounting bolt to chassis so fitted one. The earth strap from battery to engine was too thin, earth straps should be the same thickness as the +VE strap so I fitted the right thickness from battery to engine bay floor near the starter, from there I ran 1 earth to the bell housing bolt engine side and another direct to starter motor attachment bolt and this did the trick, starter ran faster and even starts my high compression 2.1 Pinto with wild cam and very advanced idle ignition

I was thinking of doing something similar to the rear of my S3 but never got round to it.

I made my own one up but it seems that option is no longer valid. I got hold of a blank Robin Hood VIN plate, stamped it and riveted it to the engine bulkhead. I stamped the chassis in several places that are hidden under trim or in hard to get at places so if the car was stolen it would still be possible to identify it even if the obvious VIN stamping were cut out.

I agree with Matt, I saw Rusty take his linkage off and the main problem was it had been cut and welded to the original anodised steel tubing and that causes a weak weld

I used the grey leatherette over soft yoga mat with some green trim. I used 38mm plastic waste pipe for the required edge profile, it looks good and feels about right, slightly harder camping mat has been used on the side panels under the carpet, softer yoga mat on the tunnel top.

The rod with F cast in is a later cast steel rod, Des Hammill’s book says it’s good to 7200 with standard piston and pin but I always use ARP rod bolts as it is cheap insurance against rod bolt breakage

Bob my FR32 cammed engine produces max bhp @ 5600 to 5700 rpm max torque is 4200 my RL31 cammed engine was 173 bhp @ 6600 and 153 ft/lbs @ 4800 so I would expect the FR33 to sit around the middle of my 2 cams. would have to set the rev limiter to 7k but that said my FR32 engine runs injection rods and standard injection head and see’s 7500 on occasions the RL31 is built for near 8k but rev limit will be at 7500

£370 sounds reasonable you’ll want main and big end bearings, injection rods are better than no-injection rods, you’ll be limited to 7k rpm which means your camshaft choice should reflect this. on my engines the FR32 was a good street cam but I felt I needed a bit more, the RL31 cam is the most extreme I have tried and the one featured in the Penguin motors videos

Just add that Graham started off by putting his Weber’s and modified distributor on my engine to get a base tune he was confident with, a standard distributor won’t cut it if you want to get the most out of your combination of bits.

I am your man for info… I have built 2 x 2.1 Pinto’s one with +2.25 Pinto pistons and one with 93mm V6 pistons machined for circlips using Cosworth rods. you may know that I have spent months on Penguin motors dyno and my engine is in 5 of his YouTube videos and was in 3 Classic Ford magazine articles. First, if I was doing it again I wouldn’t got straight to 2.1, it’s only a 5% increase in capacity. I would consider forged pistons as you can stop worrying about breaking a cast piston. you need to work out what you want from the engine in so much as the cams that give you high power will push the peak torque and power way up the rev range and let’s be honest, it’s a road car. Even though I had an ex-race head it wasn’t as good as it could have been, not many people can build a good head. I based my 2.1 build on a very old Classic Ford article where they went full 2.1 with Vulcan engineering finishing it off, it made 166bhp, I made 175bhp but the Vulcan heads are still very good it’s just that Classic Ford didn’t make the best of it. Cosworth rods are longer (and forged) so the V6 pistons being shorter make the total length the same as a standard rod and piston. Small Vs big bore exhaust * https://youtu.be/nVBN_zEfpzg 36mm 38mm chokes https://youtu.be/0KHCZapyZd4 Distributor Vs mapped https://youtu.be/8PeoLFK3eTE Weber Vs Bike carbs https://youtu.be/Ta9MGDktTsI 2.1 Bike carb test https://youtu.be/QiJG_i53nIA what I would say is that the videos do t paint the full picture and after much fiddling with bike carbs and Megajolt they worked well with the Robin Hood 4-1 manifold and only dropped a few bhp and torques over the Weber’s, that said a 4-2-1 was better. I am happy to engage in more detail

The recommissioning of my S3 is stumbling forward at a staggeringly slow pace but I’m starting to look at geometry. tie bars, Gaz coil overs. 180lbs rear 120lbs front and camber wedges. what are the settings for toe, camber and caster front and rear? I want to get it in the ballpark before tweaking it on the road, currently it’s a bit lively at the rear but planted at the front. TIA

Late response from me but all Pinto blocks have 16, 18, 20, 202. 205 or 200 cast in both sides of the block. this is the easiest way of identifying the block size

A simple test is to shove your finger down the inlet port and feel the short side turn, non- injection you will feel a sharp edge, injection has a smooth edge/transition to the seat. If you can feel a slight cut out at the manifold face top of the port and it has an unleaded stamp it is most likely an injection head. whilst it is true that Pinto heads are large and don’t need opening out they do need a lot of work to make big power, mostly around the valve end and the valve guide boss. port matching the head to the inlet manifold is a relatively easy mod. unshrouding the valves where they get close to the chamber walls if fitting big valves. compression increase by skimming head depending on what carbs and cams you are using. mig you put a non-injection head and an injection head side by side it’s obvious which is which.

I find it impossible to post photos on this site but I’ve added links to the videos

I know there were 2 or more designs of 4-1 manifolds, I have had my engine on an engine dyno and also had calculations done on the 4-1 manifold that came with my RH S3a kit. The calculations on gas flow harmonics for my engine matched the RH S3a manifold and this was proved in the dyno with bike carbs. caveat; 4-2-1 proved to be better by my combination of carbs. cam, manifold work nearly as well. Regarding the RH silencer, when I went to SVA it was too loud and I fitted a db baffle which ruins power and affected emissions, IVA has a lower db limit so I can’t see it passing the sound test. I ended up getting a bigger repack-able silencer made, it was almost twice as long and an inch wider in diameter.

Weber 45’s with 36mm & 38mm chokes https://youtu.be/0KHCZapyZd4 Small Vs big bore 4-2-1 exhaust https://youtu.be/nVBN_zEfpzg Distributor Vs Mapped ignition https://youtu.be/8PeoLFK3eTE Pinto 2.1 Bike carb test https://youtu.be/QiJG_i53nIA Weber Vs Bike carbs https://youtu.be/Ta9MGDktTsI It is clear Graham prefers Weber’s over bike carbs but after a lot of work on the bike carbs, with the Megajolt mapped ignition working better with bike carbs than Weber’s and the RH 4-1 manifold liking the bike carbs better than the Weber’s we finally ran the Keihins with 90mm trumpets fitted and got within a few bhp of the Weber’s. There are 3 articles in Classic Ford magazine March, May & June and other Pinto videos on Penguin Motors YouTube feed.

The subject is pinned at the top of the Engine forum thread

A final run with my new but massively worked on Keihins now with the Robin Hood 4-1 exhaust (more on that later) and the longest alloy spun trumpets DanST produces made a huge difference. Power now 173bhp, the torque is up and the large dip in torque has gone. It seems that the bike carbs work better with the RH 4-1 than the Weber’s do, the Megajolt works better than the Burton dizzy on my engine and the longer trumpets make up an earlier loss. Now a Turbosports forum member had kindly ran the numbers on my full engine spec and gave me the best diameters of the exhaust pipes and all the possible pipe lengths that would work with the pulse harmonics and the RH 4-1 was bloody close so when I had the exhaust made by Paul Gooderham I got him to change the collector to fit a 2 ½” exhaust. The calculations also gave an ideal inlet tract length of 332mm to head face and with the 90mm trumpets I got about 285mm, this gave me those extra horses and more torque. I am not sure I can find another 47mm as it will almost push the carbs outside the bonnet. Watch this space…

The S3a had pre cut holes in the stainless scuttle for gauges, when I did it I covered stainless dash with yoga mat and leather cloth