The day started with a bit of faffing around but picked the wonderfully honed block from the machine shop along with the pistons:



Julian then hand deburred all the edges of the block beautifully and cleaned it all up ready for me to hand face the blocks to a mirror smooth finish to give a perfect mating surface. Then cleaned and all parts areas cleaned to make the build progress smoothly.

All was going well and Julian and I were working well together to get the sometimes trickey parts done with Paul spending time with us to show us how to do something ... plastiguaging the crank and main bearings was just amazing!

So by 8pm it looked like:



But when measuring the deck heights of the pistons in the bores it was obvious something was not right. FFS was this the final straw?

After removing the piston and offending rod it became clear that the rod was marginally bent and slightly askew. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and I should have checked the rods for 100% trueness when I dissambled but I didnt. I will next time if there is a next time. Seems the ringland damage had caused this.

Anyway all is not lost, I have learnt a vast amount about building the engine, plastigauging, measuring stretch on rod bolts rather than torque and found 2 awesome machine shops as well as spent a lot of time with good friends.

Shame it had to end in failure after the countless messages of good luck but we were up against it time wise on wednesday and the set back then ate all of the minute amount of contingency time we had. This further kick in the ***** was just one more step too far and I called it quits at 10pm last night despite offers from Paul and Julian to work through the night and Mark at Lateral offering to meet me at midnight with some more rods.

Plenty of time for cadwell though and will aim to get it together and tested/run in well in advance.

 

btw the above picture is not at TDC

 

gutted for you fella , chin up , like you said ready for Cadwell

 

Better you found it now before having issues with a newly built engine.

 

Well done either way Dunc.

 

Yep. That is why I pulled the plug last thursday. we 'could' have got it done but it would have been VERY risky or would require the engine to come out again immediately. Not worth the risk.

It will be built up shortly and in the car tested, run in and ready for Cadwell

 

Short engine built !!

Woohooooooooooo

Thanks to Paul at Zen for letting me use his workshop and special tools for putting it together and for Mr Cosworth (Andy T) for the piston clips - top dudes

Cheers also to Mark at lateral for the lovely Carrillo rods

 

Excellent Looking good .

 

Excellent Duncan, good to see that its come together......

 

Oh...i like shiny parts

 

Duncan,

This may be a silly question, but what part is the liner? It all looks like it was cast like that. Or is that the idea?

Ta,

Matt.

 

The liner is evident at the top of the cylinder bore Matt. Note the darker 6mm wide band that surounds the circumference of the cylinder.
Thats the top of the liner.

 

Ta

 

Yep as Frayz said

The liners are darton sleeves part number 300-031

The block was cnc bored by Knight Engineering near Weedon and the liners press fitted. A good operation they have there and I am very impressed by the std of work.

The liners were then honed to fit the cosworth 99.75mm pistons by Automotive Services in Kingsthorpe Northampton.

These liners should be good for silly bhp/torque the same as the previous ones were. The old ones saw 2.8 bar of boost and were stilll as round as the day they went in. For a bullet proof 2.5 engine I think it has to be the way to do it assuming the liners dont slip. Fingers crossed.

Should get most of the rest of the engine built tomorrow (day off from mapping) and in the car this coming week.

 

Duncan,
Based on information you have given over the years, it has to be said, I have been impressed with this principal of this spec of 2.5 bottom end. From my understanding it is all about the method/skills used to press the liners in that makes all the difference. Your previous block would seemed to have been done correctly, based on it's level of (ab)use, mileage and condition of liners (barr the recent issue which did not seem to be directly caused by a liner issue).

Can you divulge what the approximate costs for supply & fitment of these liners to a 2.5 block is please?

Have you gone high compression on your pistons now?

 

Pretty much built now

 

Yeah - i like this format of block. It gives me the confidence to throw anything and everything at it. It should take a lot more abuse than I am prepared to give it too.

Difficult to say an exact price Shaun but for that spec bare block you should be looking at around £1500.

Not especially, pretty much sticking to what worked before. I have no desire to get any more power at this stage - i quite liked 600 and to be honest I am not sure the turbo can really do much more.

I fairly certain that I will not go rotated set up on this engine .. I have something else in mind for that

 

Good work Dunc

 

Biting the bullet and going twin scroll front mount per chance?

 

Who knows

 

Good to see it built up Duncan

 

Seems the only way for a race car.. but the the gobstopper does alright with the usual rotated position

 

Fingers crossed it will run ok when i fire it up later in the week.

It is much more fun building an engine when not watching the clock tick away. You can make sure everything is right, double check it and check again. Hopefully I have learnt something from Paul.

 

You'll be doing builds as well as maps soon too

 

Def not mate

 

 

There will be no front mount turbo or rotated turbo this year.

I am very happy running 600bhp with a standard position bolt on MD321V turbo thank you

 

You mean 598 don't you

At least you have time to run it in, map etc in plenty of time for TOTB mate.

 

There is only 5 months left to this year

But V is good for you too

 

How are you getting on for prep TOTB Clive?