Search results

I decided to book Oulton Park for February 2023, a risk at that time of year but with no changes to make I just wanted to use it. The day ended up being dry, conditions were near perfect and the car was flying. The front pads were finished, but a fault free day. I even got some video:

I borrowed the use of a dyno to run the engine in, and then booked Cadwell Park for August. The engine turned out well, no oil consumption and all temperatures solid. Done these enough times now to know if something was amiss. Then just before the trackday, @BIFCAIDS suggested we use the left...

Over the next month or so the donor bottom end was then stripped, parts sold on eBay (which covered the cost of the bottom end), and then dropped off at a new machine shop. I had already taken the previous block to this place for an opinion and he confirmed our thoughts. Now it was down to this...

First thing to do was a compression test. All cylinders healthy as expected, the engine was making good power still.. So only thing to do was pull the head off for a look. All cylinders showing the same mirroring after only 3 trackdays and dyno time... So I pulled the engine from the...

Yes, single VANOS heads anyway. Obviously I went solid lifter due to the camshafts to support the RPM but the flow is there (with the right inlake/exhaust manifolds). So once it was mapped nothing much changed. I had some decent days out in 2021 with mates, the engine performed well.... First...

Well.... I can put that theory to bed immediately as the M54 ports are WAY smaller in stock form than the M50/M52. I only know this as I have an M54 head here right now, and side by side there is no comparison. I can post up a few pictures if you would like to see, its certainly interesting, and...

The new engine certainly ripped throughout the summer at Anglesey, Cadwell and Snetterton... Although all was not well, through no fault of my own, it's now stripped to a bare block... Ill get round to updating with the details soon 🤦‍♂️

With this engine I wanted to get rid of the open ITG filter on the ITBs and enclose the whole setup. The plan was to make an airbox from two sections, an upper which matches the Jenvey backplate, with the biggest inlet pipe I can fit (5"), down to a front box containing a panel filter. I...

Flywheel, clutch and gearbox could then go back on then be lifted back into the car. At this point I decided to change the water outlet from the block to an AN style fitting rather than the OEM hard pipe that is three times the size. AN12 fitting welded onto the end and bracket made. Then a...

84.5mm bore really is the maximum possible with a stock headgasket. The head could then be dropped on and torqued down. Then the lifter trays, cams, upper chain and tensioner. At this point, I spent some time measuring the actual physical valve clearance 10-15 degrees before and after TDC...

With the rotating assembly in the block it was just a matter of bolting everything else back on. First was the oil windage tray, pump, and new oil pump chain tensioner, then the main chain guides and the front timing cover. The sump could then go on, and bottom end transferred back to the...

Yeah. Similar issue with K20s which tend to vibrate every last bolt on the head and block loose past continual use over 8500rpm. Doing 2-3 hour endurance races @ 250hp we finished with the idle control valve missing, the alternator bolt backed out and various other things on a number of...

There is a 20kg difference between alu and iron blocks. Been there done that I'm afraid to say over the years (n) Pulled both OEM threads, and pulled timeserts out, you either get lucky or you don't with them, the issue always seems to be the area around the hole, rather than the thread itself...

Tapered ring compressor makes the installation painless versus the cheap universal ones...! More soon!

Next job was to check the main journal bores for roundness with the main caps torqued down. These were fine as I expected, with the previous bearings coming out in great condition. I could proceed in fitting the new ACL bearings dry and plastigauge the crank journals to confirm the oil...

Before instructing the machine shop to remove material from the top of the block surface, I measured the 'actual' capacity of the combustion chamber in the cylinder head. This was previously original, and has only had a light skim (3 thou). 'The internet' says this should be 36cc, when in fact...

Funnily enough thinking back, the only times ive ever been taken to a weighbridge for a 'check' has been in Wales, says something that 😂 Hindsight, probably not been stopped since before any of those pictures were taken, so <2016. If you've got a shoddy looking/overloaded tow car, a shoddy...

I started towing for track days in ~2010 and thought il play the 'ill never get stopped' game. That lasted around 9 months before I got 3 points and £180 fine for it. These days, id assume its a lot more. The MAMs and limits mean nothing if you get the wrong traffic officer on a bad day...

Best mod you can do on them to be honest, transforms the car more than any power mods ever will!

Hopefully get back there at least once this year 😎

The pistons arrived a short while ago. Block has been machined to a new calculated deck height for maximum compression, bored to suit the new pistons and rings gapped. Now to assemble it 😎

Once the trays were in, the cams were installed and then clearances checked one by one. After stripping and changing the stacks a number of times, i got them all within the range of the CatCam spec, 0.20-0.25mm on each valve. At this point I was nearly ready to put the head back on the...

With the cams arriving and the valves/springs installed in the head, the remaining job was to convert the hydraulic lifters to solid as previously mentioned, and shim them to the correct lash CatCam specify. The hydraulic portion of the standard tappet was stripped, check valve and spring...

No intentions of cleaning it for a while yet 👌

The camshafts and cylinder head could now come off.. Happy with the condition of the bores/pistons and old headgasket, nothing out of the ordinary to show. I'm not changing anything there, it will just get a clean, new gasket a few other bits. Last check was to verify the actual...

Had a bit of time over the past week to crack on. Started with pulling the engine... Its always easier to work on these engines at a lower height, especially when not touching the bottom end or removing the flywheel/clutch etc. Further back in this thread, I had put together a stand for this...

Not in the traditional 'off the shelf' method, but fixed shims, yeah. Completely want to avoid the buckets and lash caps which Cat/Shrick sell, as they have an all too common problem with 'falling off' the valve stem under heavy use. Retaining the bare casing of the internal hydraulic assembly...

Received a nice delivery just in time for Christmas. Then had a couple of hours spare today to get the springs and retainers on the new head. Stripped the old hydraulic lifters and spent some time cleaning the old oil and gunk out of them. More on this soon. Finished by installing...

Hopefully some more RPM and noise with the new top end for next year 👍