More blasphemy ...

As I have a week off from work, and it was raining cats ‘n’ dogs today, I thought it a good idea to do some more measurements on the Duratec engine. Main target was to find out where the problems will arise. First thing to check was if it was possible to mount the strut brace across with the engine on top of the steering rack. Not really although the left hand side of the cam cover has room to spare;

If I can find a cover that has the same height on the RH side as on the LH side it won’t be problem. A quick browse on the internet came up with this rather nice and low cover for the Duratec engine. Of course this kind of stuff has its price!

Another problem area is the steering rack. Especially were the steering column joins the rack. If the engine is placed in the middle of the car it will clash with the lower steering column U-joint. This can be solved by placing the engine higher in the car, but will give problems with bonnet and (maybe) gearbox. And moving the steering rack is of course not done as it will alter the steering geometry and thus resulting in problems like bump steer. So I think the solution will be a combination of three options;

Placing the engine behind the steering rack and slightly off centre to the right;

Removing some excessive metal from the sump and the block (might even search for another sump);

To get it back as far as possible I do need to cut a few bits from the car. Most important one is the bracket for the bonnet catch. As the bonnet catch can’t be used with this engine that won’t be much of a problem. It might also be necessary to make a (small) recess in the bulkhead to create clearance for the water rail. Here the heater that sits directly behind the bulkhead might give some problems.

But the biggest challenge will probably be created by the enormous amount of room on both sides of the engine. What will be the best way to fabricate some decent engine mounts? Still some way to go before they’re ready.

As in the current situation it is impossible to place the engine correctly in the engine bay I have decided to start on another project. As I need to get rid of one of my body shells I think it will be a good idea to first use it as a jig, to determine where and how the engine can be placed, before I cut it up! I can remove material from the bulk head where needed making fitting a lot easier. So next job will be to put a sub frame, steering rack and heater in this shell and work from there;

Blasphemy or ...?

I was at Rob’s workshop yesterday to do some measurements in the engine bay of one of my TR7 body shells standing there. The fact is, he has a rather interesting modern engine lying around, a 2.3 litre Ford Duratec.

Even better, this type of engine seems to be rather good, can be tuned easily, parts availability is good, and it’s easy to put some rather decent (rear wheel drive) gearboxes behind it. And last but certainly not least, they seem to be rather bomb proof on their standard internals (250 BHP easily available and a safe rev range to 7500 rpm). Also being all alloy it’s much lighter than the original Triumph “slant four”. So more than enough reasons to try and fit it in a TR7. Especially as parts supplies for the Sprint engine have been rather difficult so now and then.

First measurements showed that this engine was quite a bit higher than the Triumph “slant four” so I was a bit sceptical of it fitting under the bonnet. But it turned out to be no problem as it can be placed further back. This, combined with its lower weight, should be rather good for weight distribution. But probably the biggest problem is that there is so much room around the engine that making some decent front engine supports will be quite a challenge.

On the other hand, last week during the midway halt from the Nacht van het Oosten at the premises of BCCP I found out that all of the difficult Sprint parts could be delivered or re-manufactured for reasonable prices .... dilemma !!!

But I won’t bother with the engine choice to much for the moment, as I 'm not going to start on ‘t Kreng ... yet. Maybe a nice DHC with a tuned Sprint engine under the bonnet ...

So after some coffee with the traditional vlaai;

It was time to turn the attention to Rob’s Mk2 Escort;