ZX 16V Project Pt2, Re-Shell And Power Upgrades....

I sold the engine to Blandy back in December, as I had happened upon the basis of a full engine build, in the form of a Block and higher compression pistons.

The last few months have been a battle of collecting bits, deciding what direction to take it and budget constraints, and making it work with what I already have to hand!

Currently, I have a big jigsaw puzzle, almost ready to assemble, crank has already been fitted and plasticauged, along with a Conrod and piston in to check deck height and valve clearance.







checking valve clearance -






Decided to paint it a striking colour





Big thanks to Carl Robson and Sandy Brown for helping out with the conrods, also thanks Sandy for the pointers in what to measure.

Also Ed and Steve at Warners for supplying the o.e parts at very good prices


Final Parts for the bottom end I think, thrust washers, had been on backorder for about 6 weeks.



Made up a bracket to hold the dial gauge (the magnetic stand is Dan's and ion his garage, didn't have it to hand)



pushed the crank, and got my end float figure



0.13 of a mm, ideal, tolerance is 0.07 to 0.32mm.




took the head and valves to South Wales Pistons for them to check the face and guides and cut the seats and valves.



20160515_182416 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr



20160515_182445 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

Piper double springs



20160515_182431 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

o.e stem seals, branded SKF.

20160518_185150 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

pushed into place with a socket and a dab of oil.



20160518_185217 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

fitting the springs and collets, what a faff! dab of grease helps, also not having the cam ladders gives and extra inch or so of clearance, I wrapped the head of the spring compressor in tape so the lifter bores weren't damaged.



20160518_194119 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

Cleaned and refaced the tappets.



20160531_204018 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr



20160531_212248 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

checked the clearance to the freshly re-fitted oil spray bars, looooads, could sling a 96mm crank in there easily.



20160522_132157 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

fitted and torqued up the crank, fitted the windage tray oil pump and the dipstick guide.



20160526_194635 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

new hockey stick seals for number one mains cap



20160526_093542 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

Turned back over.



20160522_162433 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

o.e steel gasket.



Payen Head bolts



20160522_163108 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

then cams in and ladders sealed with wellseal, water pump and timing belt kit on.



20160604_231216 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

doing the cam timing.

20160618_222112 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr



20160618_220408 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

then off the stand and fit a Steel lightweight flywheel with new bolts and a new dowel.

20160530_192525 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

Standard clutch fitted, will see how it copes with XXX amount of torque, I don't tend to abuse my cars so probably just fine! starting to look much more like an assembly, less spare bits kicking about



20160623_231258 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

Dragged the ZX around the units and washed it off, stuck it on the lift.



20160625_172931 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

Forkinghell this might actually happen!



20160626_004848 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

BOOSH.



20160626_005920 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

TRUMPETS



20160626_013230 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

a very rare Milltek exhaust was sourced, tailpipe is rather large but thankfully only externally.



20160626_133647 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

however the peugeot sport Group N Decat twin tube downpipe had a sleeve fit end for a magnex catback, also pretty small here at 2".



20160629_210434 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

so I bought this



20160629_110454 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr



20160629_210447 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

measure mark chop grind weld.



20160629_213817 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr



20160629_215406 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

fitted with o.e single piece clamps.



20160629_220817 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

Filled up with fluids.

fired up and running the cams in.



20160628_232045 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

I bought some Trumpets.



satchell engineering dcoe pattern throttle body trumpets, 45mm bore 50mm tall. by WELSHPUG, on Flickr



satchell engineering dcoe pattern throttle body trumpets, 45mm bore 50mm tall. by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

They do look mighty short but are actually 50mm, the length is to suit my total inlet tract vs cam profile and stroke etc, I let Colin do the maths.

so, MOT ran out on this in April last year, I think? lots of stuff happened before and just after then, new job, Girlfriend, a few different daily diesels.

ZX had sat in the corner abandoned for quite a while, though still a runner with a fresh battery, the bodywork being 2 different colours was beginning to get a bit boring, and whilst the new job is less per hour I'm doing 50% more hours a week, walk 50 yards to work, and get proper overtime, I still begrudge having to save over a months wages just to get a cheap blow over, yet IO know full well I am no sprayer :lmao

so, almost 2 years ago I helped my girlfriend sand back her 26 foot Kingfisher bilge keel junk rigger Yacht, hell of a job, spent weeks on end covered in blue and grey fine dust!

and then we Painted it, proper Hempel etch primers on the steel keels, normal yacht primer on the gelcoat followed by a lovely Gloss blue above the water line and black antifouling below, wet sanded between the last few coats of primer and each gloss coat, and I was particularly impressed with the finish from an over brushed roller job, can't find any pictures right now though :doh

so I decided to do the same to the ZX, sand it down with a makita DA borrowed off my girlfriend, flat back the fiddly bits by hand, then hit it with a roller and boat paints annoyingly I'd forgotten what kind of roller we had used and that we had followed with a brush, so the first coat of primer went on a bit thick and almost like crinkle paint :lmao easily rectified with a quick flat down before a few more coats though

20200428_115108 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

20200421_151431 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

20200415_161230 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

20200411_212547 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

20200404_155727 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

20200428_151934 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

20200428_160750 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

20200428_160758 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr

20200428_160806 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr


20200429_192914 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr


and here's the colour I'm going for

20200416_191621 by WELSHPUG, on Flickr


BLACK!