oilyhands

I dont think the clucking is air coming past the seals, I think it's the pump running *dry*, if /when there were / is oil in the sump at idle then the clucking stops even though just as much volume is being evacuated from the engine cavity. I've heard it before on twin scavenge systems where one pump is dry and the other is still evacuating oil, add oil to the sump or put the car on level ground and the clucking goes away when both pumps have oil to shift. The problem only appears at idle where blow-by is minimal and oil circulation is at a low ebb, at this point the pumps capacity exceeeds the production of blow-by and oil volume, ignore it.. I've seen Peters DS belt arrangement, I think it needs a heftier belt *and* two heavily shouldered pulleys to prevent the belt being shed by belt-grow. Mikes proximity sensor is a good early warning system too. Oily Edited by - oilyhands on 3 Aug 2001 17:35:11

There are plenty of 1600Ks at the 180-190 level, above 180 requires a lot more cam, namely 1227/835 and bigger than 30mm valves necessitating head insertion or a VVC head, forged pistons are a must over 180BHP/7800. I know of a half a dozen or so 1600Ks at the 180/185BHP level using 740 cams and they report the performance as stonking with no lack of drivability, just a wall of torque, some of these have been running for 2-3 years (Johnty Lyons, Kev Strawbridge etc.) with no reliability problems. Oily

Its a fairly involved job and not for the fainhearted, the bottom pulley, cambelt cover , cambelt and cambelt pinion all have to come off before the pump can be withdrawn, make sure you prime the new pump and dont let crud into the oilways when the pump is off, make sure you fita new oil seal to the pump when re-fitting. Oily

Which engine? on a xflow its easy, on a Vauxhall , Zetec or K series its not so easy. Oily

Dont forget if you lever the pistons back the fluid has to go somewhere and that somewhere is out of the master cylinder cap. Make provision to catch the fluid or it could make an unholy mess, glycol based fluids make very effective paint strippers. Oily Edited by - oilyhands on 27 Jul 2001 23:36:31

You can use some fine (P2000 or P1500) wet/dry paper followed by fine rubbing compound , then T-Cut superfine, if the car is painted then be careful not to rub too hard, if its gelcoat then the coloured gel is quite thick, the larger nicks might need some coarser (P1200/P1000) paper. When rubbing down use warm soapy water and ensure the are affected is *absolutely* clean, if you feel any grit or foreign material between the paper and the surface, rinse with copious amounts of water. You might want to try some protective clear tape on the areas which have been scuffed, 3M make a suitable tape which you can get in skateboard shops (so I'm told..). Oily

The torsional loadings on the crank will be all to hell when you hit the rev limiter since it cuts some of the power strokes, the primary and secondary out of balance forces on a 4 cylinder engine are bad enough as it is without making them worse... Oily

Try EBD exhausts on 01908 570117, or try their website at www.exhaustsbydesign.co.uk Oily

I'm pretty sure that the standard piston is the Hepolite cast type , slotted and with steel clamps to limit skirt expansion, this are not renowned for their strength (the tops come off under duress). Certainly wouldnt recommend them for sustained high RPM. Oily Edited by - oilyhands on 18 Jul 2001 22:11:50

If you can get the sump off it is straightforward, I would use Vandervell VP bearings which are lead-indium in preference to the reticular tin ones normally used, these stand up to higher rod loadings, they are slightly more susceptible to damage from combustion by products than the softer type, but in practice you wont notice this. It might be wise to renew/uprate the rod bolts when doing the change. BTW why do you want to change them? Oily

For the exhaust to pop you need hydrocarbons and oxygen, it may be that your exhaust has a small air leak, or your advance at closed throttle isnt enough.Check your idle jets arent oversized and that you idle fuelling is correct, also check your static timing. On the K series side, many ECUs provide a fuel cut-off on overrun which prevents fuel from being injected when the engine is being driven by the cars momentum, this eliminates exhaust popping to a great extent, another way is to reduce the fuel numbers on the 'overrun' side of the map. The transition from no fuel (fuel cut-off) to normal map fuelling takes place in less than a single engine cy le when the throttle is opened so the affect on transient throttle repsonse must be minimal. Oily

Good point Kenny, Kent recommend 100thou extra to be removed from the valve pockets for all the 2x4 range, it's likely that the pockets have already been machined for the 234, but it's definitely worth checking clearances. Oily

There is a section on setting the idle mixture and balance on DCOE's and DHLA's at http://members.aol.com/DVAndrews/webers.htm It may help Oily

The reason for using offset dowels/verniers is to optimise / correct the cam timing, quite often replacement cams are not ground 100% accurately with respect to the dowel hole/keyway which can cause the cam to be mistimed when assembled using just the standard timing marks. With OHC engines , skimming the head can affect cam timing too. Generally a cam manufacturer will give a lobe centre figure which represents the point at which the cam will gives its maximum lift, usually this is between 102 and 112 degrees after TDC, another quoted statisitic is the valve lift at TDC, either of these two methods can be used to correctly time the cam, personally I prefer the latter. In order to acheive correct timing it is necessary to be able to vary the cams timing WRT to the crank position, hence the offset dowels/keyways/verniers. The big disadvantage with offset dowels and keyways is that the pulleys have to be removed to replace them when timing the cams, with a vernier this is not necessary. A 244 cam has a lobe centre of 103 degrees on the inlet lobe, so it will give maximum lift at 103 degrees after TDC. Assembly to the standard timing marks will get your cam timing near, but its worth checking where maximum valve lift is by using a protractor on the bottom pulley and a dial gauge on the appropriate cam follower. Dave

Universal salvage (01234 765555), I may also have a decent 1800K for sale shortly at around £700. Oily

Agree with all the suggestions so far, but if they dont reveal the problem, don't discount the possibility of cracked pad material, examine the pads very closely, I have had this happen when the pads overheated , a hairline crack down the inner pad caused the pad to warp when hot, the vibration and shaking which resulted was downright dangerous. Oily

The normal Rover loom from Caterham should be OK, you will need to modify the block to fit the starter/adaptor and the end of the crank will need modifying to take the appropriate spigot bearing, you make also want to remove the front bolt on engine mounting boss which is huge.. The Caterham bellhousing and sump will be required to mate to the 5 or 6 speed box (the 5 speed is the type '9' ?Sierra box), the normal K series engine mounts from Caterham should attach with no problems. Oily

The release bearing and carrier may not be overengineered but the same unit has performed relatively reliably in the Ford Sierra, sometimes for well over 100,000 miles. The problem is precison of assembly/fit rather than quality of componentry, at one time you could by a bearing with a sintered carrier rather than plastic/resin. I dont know if these are still available. Oily

Just because you dont have the 6 speed box it doesn't mean the release bearing isnt fubar'ed. In my experience they are of variable and sometimes questionable quality. The real pain is that the bearing itself is often not the problem,but rather the attachment between the bearing and carrier which can fracture if the bearing is not offered up to the clutch diaphragm entirely concentrically. I'm convinced that there is also a geometry problem with the 5 speed box and carrier also, this could be because often the long input shaft box is used and this is spaced 1 inch further back. This *may* have an affect on the bearing carrier efficacy. Oily

A manometer would allow you to balance barrels across a single carb by unsing the air bleeds and between the two carbs, generally though, unless the spindle is bent, just balancing between the two carbs is enough, you can get pretty close with a trained ear and 6 inches of rubber hose (oooh stoppit etc.etc.) Oily

These are set at the factory to balance the airflow between barrels on the same carb, unless you can measure the airflow on the engine side of the throttle plate with a manaometer, then dont mess with them. I doubt they are cuasing your erratic idle unless they have come undone completely. I would check that the throttle quadrants are returning correctly and not binding. Oily

Phegre engineering in Hartley Witney, Hants used to do them, as did Aldon (Brierley hill), Oselli (Oxford) and Auto - Technique (Luton). Tom Airey(New Cheriton) may well have a contact who can do them. Oily

dont have a problem with revving the tits off it, the problem is that with a 3.62 diff first gear is a tad too high for comfort and it would be nice to have 5th as more of a driving gear. I would certainly swap CWP, but the diff is pumped... so I wouldn't want to swap the whole thing. Graham, BGH Geartech/shaftech will sort your driveshafts out for you at a reasonable cost... pretty sure they graft the Lowbro joints in place of the existing tripods allowing them to mate with the diff flanges. Oily

Interesting that you chaps are considering raising your gearing, I have a 2wd Cos diff with 3.62 CWP and a CR 5 speed box, 2.39 first and .88 5th gear and 15/195/50 tyres giving 21.1MPH /100RPM in 5th gear. I find this much overgeared for most situations and am looking to go for a 3.92 or 4.1 CWP, the higher diffs (3.3 and 3.1CWP) can sometimes be found on automatic Sierras. Although the engine has more than enough torque to pull in 5th gear (185ft/lb) it's still achingly over the top with 100MPH being just under 5000RPM and 70MPH being 3300RPM and well out of the serious power band. Oily

The progression hole problem is a common one, especially with 4 valve engines, setting the throttle plates slightly differently can improve matters as can a small flat filed on the outside top of the throttle plate in the right position that causes the initial progression drilling to become uncovered slightly earlier in the throttle plates movement. A bit of trial an erro is called for here. The proper solution is to re-drill and with the correct tooling its a simple operation. I've seen it done for £15 per carb so £100 seems a little expensive. Oily