S4 Engine
When purchased the car came with a 2.0L SOHC 'Pinto' Ford engine from an Escort/Capri and although a little tatty and rough around the edges appeared to be in reasonable order - well once I had tried to get it going it became apparent that all was not right.
The engine would not turn over when I tried to run it – unfortunately I now know why – I considered that the reason why the engine did not turn over was because the pistons had seized in the bores – No such luck – At some time the cam belt had been taken off and put back incorrectly – Yep it was the pistons and valves which had prevented the engine turning- Arrrrrrrrrgggggg. Once realised I retimed the whole engine and it turned over like a dream and after a little coaxing it fired up but the misfire and the spitting back through the carb told me that all was not right, I had probably bent valve(s) whilst forcing the engine over. Then came the very nasty noises indicating this was the case and the bent valve(s) was not happy about its close encounter with the piston.
After the problems encountered with the first weekend of work it was with some concern I started stripping the head to inspect the damage. – Interestingly whilst removing some of the ancillary components I found the engine serial numbers, I decided to check it with the log book, well one of the previous keepers got it a bit crossed up and the Ford casting number is listed as the serial so there is no way of knowing if the engine has ever been changed.
It didn’t take long to get the head off and lo and behold in number 2 pot a washer had found its way in and that’s what all the nasty noises were having checked the valves none were bent – Hooray – the piston and head had received a few knocks and dings but nothing to cause undue concern. The inlet tracts were badly corroded though and the seats were suffering from a bad case of neglect Q -Is it worth fitting a late model Sierra head with unleaded seats? . The head on the car is nothing special so a change would not be a bad thing.
The hard work was rewarded by a rather pleasing find the bottom end was actually in pretty good condition with the bores in good order and being over bored by 1.0mm and looking like they had not done too much work – Bonus - before I go and sort out an unleaded head I will check on the existing head.
Well with a quick look at the head it became quite clear what all the popping and banging was about - the valves in number three pot were seized in their guides and not going anywhere - a quick look into the ports of the others showed that at some stage water had go into the tracts and corroded the valves seats and the guides so that to all intents and purposes the head is scrap.
Anyway that was the original engine.
Next I saw an advert on Find-it for a 2.0L pinto from a Sierra and duly took a trailer and collected it - what do I find - another plonker seller - He was an RAC man who did not know an 1.8 from a 2.0L still nor did I until I had got it home and checked the numbers on the internet. Oh well - the later 1.8's are unleaded and almost powerful as the old 2.0L - so in the first instance the car will be nice and economical and hopefully reliable.
I picked up a modified Pinto head from the net - only £50 and it looked OK, when will I learn, it turns out to be not quite what I want so back on e-bay for that one.
A trip to the local scrappy to get an EFI head to strap to the old 2.0L bottom end - bonus - it comes with a nice new cam belt still in its box but is quite a high mileage head - still its unleaded and looks reasonable enough.
The EFI head supposedly flows quite well for a standard casting and can with a free flowing exhaust and some decent carbs and a mild cam deliver 125-130BHP without much more work. I have a pair of 45 Dellorto's and a good exhaust from a Westfield - also picked up a Luminition system cheap to keep the sparks in place.
Well with all the above bits of metal I am hopeful that I will be able to put together at least one good engine that will give a few BHP over the 100.
2005 all change
With the arrival of the B+ I have found that these versions of the Dutton meet my personal needs far better than the S3/S4 types so the work on the S4 will centre around getting it on the road and sold on to fund another B+ project rather than seeing further development with a more powerful variant of the Pinto engine so all the ford parts will find their way onto e-bay / locost at some stage to fund the new car.
Well the car got run with the 185 1800 engine for its first MOT and a bit of running about the country but a fellow Dutton enthusiast had a low mileage 205 engine in his garage not doing anything so a deal with a swap on an old Rover manifold and 40 DIF carb had an engine and box on its way to me.
I converted the rocker cover to rear oil fill to get a bit more bonnet clearance
And also fitted a baffled lowline sump to give me a bit more ground clearance with the lower chassis height of the finished car it also has a Vizard design baffle in it.
Oh and a quick shot of the completed modified head that made its way onto the engine - I ported it all out closely following the David Vizard book for modifying the Ford SOHC - its quite a bit of work being a cast iron head but well worth the effort. The only thing that needs to be taken into account is the lack of decent fuel to cope with the compression ratio and unless used with good Super unleaded the car will run on quite badly.
