Pintobill's Pinto Engine

[PintoBill]

Well today saw a lot of work making ready to remove the engine from my MK4 tomorrow, this will be followed by a Complete Engine Restoration of the Short Engine, rebore, new pistons and rings, shells and main bearings. Block to be repainted and new Gaskets all round. Previously the top end was done less than 1000 miles with Cylinder Head skimmed, Valves and Valve Seats recut, New Kent Cam FR30 installed with new Cams and followers, this is a High Torque Cam and the Van was pulling like a train after the installation of this, but loss of power recently made me regret not doing the whole job the last time round, after burning oil on a little jaunt two weeks back a compression test revealed the Cylinders less than 50% of what they were after the head work so now the engine is coming out. Not the nest time to start this work late October into November but worthwhile nonetheless

[dirtydog]

I'm not sure there's ever a good time for an engine rebuild is there?


Yours sounds like it's going to be a goodun when it's done though

[PintoBill]

Thats probably true and if I had the choice I would have preferred this job a few months back !

[PintoBill]

Pinto 2.0 removal 1.jpg

[attachment=1]Today's been another fun filled day, last time this was out was in the factory at Southampton, anyway engine out, cleaned off and now stripping it ready for the machine shop.
Unfortunately having done the head a while back it looks like the cylinder head is going to need a decoke and the valves and seats checking as they are sooted well up, also the pistons which were very clean are also sooted up and it looks like the engine has been running hot due to a weak mixture the latter which the guys at the MOT station adjusted to get it through the emissions, cant let that happen again !

[dirtydog]

At least it wasn't raining or snowing today

[PintoBill]

Thats right mate a decent day for such work

[limitedblack]

Can I just ask about the gearbox input shaft. Does the spline have a bearing on the end of it that locates in the flywheel?

[PintoBill]

No it does not, have you seen one like this then ?

[limitedblack]

No, I'm just trying to work out a swap from type 9 to T5 on a different engine. It saves me splitting mine as you just did it. Thanks for answering.

Have you had a price for the rebuild yet?

[PintoBill]

I am trying to do as much of the work myself as possible, the machine work is specialist so that will be farmed out, the rest of the work I will do and I am trying to rope Diesel Head in

[limitedblack]

Bless him, that's another Sunday working then.

As you may or may not be aware I'm fannying around with a zetec now. Reading into them they have an amazing lifespan, and I would say mine blows zero smoke despite running without an air filter for 2 1/2 years. Researching these units the secret of long life is their honing, something that previously I didn't really understand it's purpose. Apparently Honda developed a special honing process that ford use in these engines, and it's reported that 150k engines still have the visible honing pattern in place. It's this that holds the oil for perfect lubrication, thus long life. Not sure what they do, but they say it's cheaper to buy a new short engine from ford than to replicate the honing. Must be clever stuff.

Difficult to find a good machine shop now. I remember taking an engine block down the jet wash once

[PintoBill]

Yeah machine shops might be a dying breed as people who get trouble with engines these days seem to bin the vehicle ! fortunately for me we have about three decent machine shops who could do this work, now I got it all out I cant wait to get it started and get the mk4 back on the road of course allowing for running in !

[PintoBill]

Todays activity was to deliver the Pinto 202 block and head to the machine shop, forthcoming now is the engine to be acid dipped to clean and remove the crap out of the oilways and waterways, then Rebore, Hone, New Pistons and Rings, Crank repolish, New Crankshaft oilseals, Shell bearings and Thrust bearings, block painted ,Head to have some attention as yet not sure of the extent of that. But its starting to take shape, Meanwhile now decided to fit Power Assisted Steering which will make the ride that much more enjoyable !

[dirtydog]

Sounds like it's moving along nicely

[PintoBill]

after a few weeks of delay the Engine Block is being rebored and all the new engine components will be ready for fitting next week, job moving along nicely and I am lucky to have a real engine expert on the job who's just at home at Brands Hatch with real racing engines who is lovingly restoring the 2.0 Pinto to its former glory.