I have read about the 2.3ltr engines in the UK but was never sure how it was done...

yeah wish i had the knowledge and connections you guys have.

Reckon i'll go see:

Pitstop Service Centre
11 Mary St / PO Box 132
Hindmarsh
SA 5007
Tel / Fax: 61 8 8340 3321
Email: pitstop@adam.com.au
For Cortina enthusiasts, new, used, recond parts. Engines built to order, recond and secondhand gearboxes, steering and suspension parts, incl. urethane bushes. Wrecking Mk.I and Mk.II Cortinas.

and see what they say.

when i get round to it i'll let u know their plan and their price.

there are 3 things you really should do if you are going to build a pinto.

one get the book by David visard called how to modify your ford SOHC engine.

two get Des hammils book, can recall the name of it now but i'll dig around here and find it for you.

three get back issiues of the english 'classic ford' mag. try to get the last 5 of them. there are some very good giudes on the old ford engines


also try www.pumaracing.co.uk/pinto.htm

www.spannerfodder.com/the_works_escorts-pinto.php

www.esslingeracing.com/index.htm


also get in contact with HPE harris performance, Ron harris and his sons currently own the fastest pinto powered escorts in the uk. they have three N/A cars running low 12s (12.2)

pinto............... wernt they the cars made in the US and the fuel tank was right near the back bumper. herd they were made illeagal because everytime a car ramed the back of them the tank was pierced and the fuel would ignite almost always?

not quite the feul tank had a big recall.

but the engine was the 2L SOHC and in the UK and OZ the pinto is the common and accepted name for the engine.

What are your thoughts on these?

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ESCORT-2-LT-RACE ... dZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ESCORT-2-LT-ELEC ... dZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ESCORT-2-LT-CUST ... dZViewItem

Good value? preformance?

the extractors while looking very good just dont seem right for the power he is claiming. for that power i'd expect to see 4 into 1 pipes

if you email him see if you can get some usful pics of the insides of ports and close ups of the chambers

I'm very interested in this head:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ESCORT-2-LT-RACE ... dZViewItem

Though not sure how long until i have enough cash to get work the whole engine.

How do you think it would on my stock pinto? it has been skimmed 100thou.

It would pretty much be bolt on for the time being but reckon it would good for a future build.

100thou is fine but it will bring the comp right up and you'll be best to use 98ron fuel

a big port head with mild cam will work well you won't see 255hp as i doubt that guy did aswell unless it was on the JMM dyno lol

there is a company in NZ that is doing some very good work latly one of my friens pits for a guy that is getting one of there heads for his rally car
they also do a bottom end using datsun L motor rods

i'll find out there name for you

cheers mate.

u got any idea what this compression i might get? stock con rods and pistons alright for time being? i haven't forgot your advice - good for up to 6500rpm.

thanks again for your help, its great to have someone with your knowledge to run things over with

If you've skimmed your block 100 thou, what's your current deck height .... are the pistons level with the block?

To be honest i haven't checked yet.

I can only assume they are to factory specs which is, quote:

'Piston to bore clearance........0.025-0.045mm'

'Bore...........90.82mm'

'Stroke...........76.95mm'

Yeah and sorry I meant the head has been skimmed 100thou. my block is standard.

Was just interested to see how it would go before im ready to do the lot.

Also wondered what is required to make the engine suitable for unleaded. im using that flash lube additive at the moment.

for unleaded you only need to have hardend exhaust seats put in.
did one like that back when i just finnished school so should be about 5 years ago. at the same time fitted crows biggest cam and ported the head mildly.
pluss a single 45mm dellorto carb.

the engine is still going strong today with no messurable valve resesion.

the compression would depend in if it was a factory high or low comp head.

but 100thou is 2.5mm the comp would be getting up around 10:1 10.5:1 if you have zero deck hieght and flat tops

i've had 3mm taken off one befor and it ran on 95octane but the we had to use 3degrees base timming.
would be good to pull that car out of the shed now we can get 98octane fuel here. and put some timming back in.

Yeah ... no worries ... that's why I thought I would ask.


100 thou is a reasonable amount to take off your head so it might be a good idea to do some calculations to see what compression you really do have.

There are a few things that you will need to work out before you can calculate your compression ratio.

The first thing you need to know is the cylinder swept volume in cc. ie ... the volume taken up by the bore and the stroke.

The next thing is the deck height volume, if the pistons are level with the block then this figure will be zero, if they are below the surface of the block you will need to calculate this volume, and if they are above (unlikely) you will need to do the same.

You also need to know the cylinder head gasket volume, ie: the bore diameter and thickness (compressed). probably easier to measure your old head gasket as that has been compressed already. Just make sure if you do that to use the same brand of gasket again.

Next is the ringland volume, which is normally around 1 cc

And then you need to know your combustion chamber volume. This can vary quite a bit depending on what has been done to the head, for example how much shaping has been done to the chamber surface and also the valve height in the chamber depending on how deep the seats have been machined etc.

The formula to work out the compression ratio is as follows.

Compression Ratio (Equals) Cylinder displacement (Plus) Total Chamber Volume (divided by) Total Chamber Volume

Total Chamber Volume = Combustion Chamber Volume + Head gasket Volume + Ringland volume + or - deck height volume.


So a quick calculation on what you may have for your engine (I'll have to assume a couple of figures here) would be like this.

Swept Volume - 499 cc (Std Bore)
Combustion chamber volume - 40 cc (I'm using an educated guess here, but I have measured a couple of heads with 100 thou removed and its "around" this figure, but as I said this can vary)
Head gasket volume - 6.5 cc (assume)
Deck Height volume - 0 cc (Pistons level with block)
Ringland volume - 1 cc

Cylinder displacement - 499 cc (Plus) T.C.V - 47.5 cc (Equals) 546.5 cc (Divided by) T.C.V - 47.5 cc (Equals) 11.5 Compression Ratio.

As an example on my race head I took 110 thou off which gave me a comp of 11.96.
This figure was achieved by running zero deck height, a cylinder displacement of 509cc (40 thou oversize pistons) and 39cc chamber volume.

You should be able to do most of the measurements with a good vernier caliper and a straight edge.
The only specialist tool would be a burrette to measure combustion chamber volume, although you may be able to find some other sort of measuring device that is graduated to fractions of cc's .... a syringe possibly??

It would be an interesting excersize for you to try .... and a bit of fun too!!


Cheers,

Alan.

Yeah should do that but dont reckon its worth doin till im actually doin some work on it.

As i can't make up my mind where to head with the engine i have decided to spend the little time i have on getting a few other things right first. At least then i can get some money together and decide whether work my standard pinto or go for the cosworth yb head that i dream of.

So suspension:
Replace shock absorbers
Reset rear leaf springs - Stiffen/lower
Fit a rear sway bar
Front springs - lowered stiffened

Any advice or recommendations on these mods would be great.

Cheers