1973 Cortina van

small update new cam and repair parts arrived a couple of weeks ago and it turns out the new thumpr cam that was going to be fitted does not fit due to the block being a HO block these have a larger base circle cam fitted so i now have a brand new unused comp cams 299TH R7 Thumpr roller cam for sale and another cam on it way for the engine
once all the parts are here the rotating parts will all go off to balanced up and i'll have another go at rebuilding the engine hopefully to all be done and running ready for the new 2011 outlaw street season which starts in February 2011

Sweet, bring on Feb I say! Wheres the 1st meet? I'd love to pop down and see this run

Excelent, cheers for that, be good to get to a couple of events since I'm basically in the middle of the Pod and Shakey

Just spent the last 4 hours dribbling over this thread - what drama - I think i need a lie down!!
I cant add anything more to whats already bin said, me jaw is still on the floor!!
Shame about the glass issue, but i think you've pulled it off with the peuter on the side panels!

Perfect colour, prefect stance, perfect rims... i'm off to go dribble some more!!


"Excellent work, Holmes!" - Dr Watson

Hi guys just a quick update the last of the parts for the engine rebuild are now here so the rebuild on the engine will commence as soon as the the mk5 is finished at the end of this week

right the with the mk5 now done and out of the workshop its time to make a start on the rebuild of the 347ci small block ford v8 for the van

cleaned up the crank and refitted that with the old bearings then flipped the engine over and trial fitted the new camshaft and timing gears . the new cam has a pretty big lift

so this needed to be checked for clearance on the pistons this was done by temporarily refitting one of the pistons and putting molding clay on the CROWN of the piston in the valve recesses then refitting the cylinder head along with a pair of solid roller lifters push rods and rockers the valve timing was set to the correct setting and the crank slowly turned one full revolution of the camshaft then the head with removed and molding clay was checked for depth of the valves pressing into it . the heads and pistons are built around running a pretty radical cam on this engine so all was well though it doesn't hurt to check this on any engine that having a cam swap .
with this done i knew i could carry on with the rest of the build without having to worry about having clearance problems with it with this now done the engine was stripped back down and the cleaning of the block and all the parts involved commenced.
once that was done i fitted new Speed-pro bearings and refitted the crankshaft and the new camshaft

i cleaned up all the rods and pistons and removed all the rings ready for new ones to be fitted tomorrow



also cleaned up the cylinder heads these only really needed a i bit of a wipe as they have stainless valves and have only been run for a very short time i had previously checked to make sure the valves had not been bent when they had made contact with the pistons

also while cleaning up the crank i noticed the timing gear key way had slit down the middle luckily i had got a now one with the hardware kit for the cam

lastly for today i put the new hydraulic roller lifers in some oil for the night ready to fit them tomorrow

I have no idea on where to get the parts in a hurry, especially this close to christmas, but I hope you do manage to get them in time.

Tad confused...i thought the remains of the van shell had been sold on and the estate had now taken over from it?

new bearings arrived for the engine today so it was a quick run down to the workshop to get the engine back together ;D


rods and pistons in cam back in and degree'd timing gears back on heads and timing cover on