1966 MK1 Cortina Deluxe

[Jim Bell]

Race car soon.

[derskine]

It won't be fast by any means but it'll be miles better than it is.

There's something about a modified Ford pushrod engine though.

[danthecapriman]

Nice work. Definitely better sorting this engine than just lobbing a pinto in. Pintos are great engines but in the later cars.

[derskine]

Been busy again tonight.

The exhaust pictured above has an exhaust manifold for a crossflow, the flanges are slightly different so it doesn't fit a pre crossflow.

I cut the end flanges off and redrilled the holes. I then bolted these flanges to the head along with the centre flange, which does fit, and then welded them to the manifold.

By using the head as a jig I now have a perfectly fitting manifold.

 

[derskine]

Pushrod powaah!

 

 

[320touring]

She goes well:)

 

but FFS film in landscape:)

[derskine]

I had my phone in the ash tray haha.

It did actually work really well - observe ash tray location.

 

[Jim Bell]

K and N filter for plus 19 bhp.

[derskine]

K and N filter for plus 19 bhp.

Same reason inlet manifold is painted red m9

[Jim Bell]

#pro

[320touring]

so when is it getting drifted?

 

Would be grand to see it inn person sometime:)

[derskine]

It's absolutely not going anywhere near a drift track haha.

I will start to bring it to meets and events and stuff now that it's awesome.

[320touring]

It's absolutely not going anywhere near a drift track haha.

I will start to bring it to meets and events and stuff now that it's awesome.

AWW boo!

 

Woohoo!

 

(in that order)

[derskine]

Slight (continued) problems with this.

 

A while ago I had an issue where the car would just cut out and not start before cranking it to fuck.

I thought that was a blockage, so cleaned the sender out and thought great it's sorted.

No, it's not - I've cleaned the sender out, drained the tank, rinsed it out, put some mig wire through the fuel line, tried a different fuel cap, changed the fuel pump and made sure all of the connections were tight and changed the fuel filter.

 

Still doing it!!

 

So my next step is to fit an electric pump, I'm thinking a motorbike pump so I don't need to fuck about with pressure regulators and t pieces.

Truthfully, I think it's crud from the tank plugging the filter that the mech pump can't overcome, however, a new tank is just shy of £200 so that idea is pretty much out the window for now.

[derskine]

Recently I bought an electric pump and fitted it, and my fuel starvation problem was even worse.
 
So today I drained the tank (this was made easier by using the electric pump), and removed it from the car.
My plan was to use electrolysis to remove the rust from the inside of the tank.
 
First, I cut out a circle of sheet metal the same diameter as the sender mounting plate, fitted the rubber seal and tapped round the metal sealing ring.
 


I chucked some water in, until the tank was almost full (I will need to repeat the process with the tank upside down), towards the end I started adding boiling water.
Once the water was warm I put some soda crystals in.
I put some electrical tape on the end of a bit of steel flat bar and some where it would rest on the tank filler neck, so that it wouldn't short.
Finally, I connected the positive side of a battery charger to the steel bar and the negative to the tank.

 


After a while, I could see it was working.



I'm familiar with the chemistry behind this so I'm confident it'll do the job, I will need to run this for a couple of days though.

[martybabes]

                                                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ darn sorcery.  Burn that man!!!

[derskine]

Got it stewing away at the minute, I really hope this solves the problem!

[Skizzer]

That's just genius, that is.  Fantastic.

[Asimo]

Oooh, please explain what chemistry is going on in the tank. I like talk of ions and valency, cathodes and wotnot.       

[derskine]

Basically, the anode (which is also mild steel) donates iron ions to the tank via the electrolyte which in this case is soda crystals and water - which is effectively the sodium salt of carbonic acid.

As a result the anode will appear corroded and reduced in size once finished.

The cathode, which is the tank, will appear free of rust with some nice shiny new iron ions.

 

I'm an electrical engineer not a chemist but this is my understanding of how it works.

[cort16]

Very smart solution hopefully it works.

What did you use for your electric fuel pump in the end is like to fit one to mine to cure the infinite cranking issue ?

[derskine]

Cheapest I could find which is this... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/161152185316?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Already correct pressure for carbs so no regulators needed.

Did certainly help with my infinite cranking issue but not sure I will keep it if the mechanical one will do the job.

[jonny69]

What I noticed with the electric pump compared to the mechanical is that the engine almost always starts and runs immediately, first time. With the mechanical pump I have to give it a couple of pumps of the throttle, then, 9 times out of 10 it fires as soon as it cranks but splutters out but then fires up and runs properly the second time. I'm guessing because it had got the fuel up the pipes properly second time round.

[derskine]

What I noticed with the electric pump compared to the mechanical is that the engine almost always starts and runs immediately, first time. With the mechanical pump I have to give it a couple of pumps of the throttle, then, 9 times out of 10 it fires as soon as it cranks but splutters out but then fires up and runs properly the second time. I'm guessing because it had got the fuel up the pipes properly second time round.

 

Pretty much the same with this one. 

I will be keeping mechanical pump for a number of reasons, my electric pump is fitted to the battery tray and looks shit.

Also the fact that without an inertia switch, if I was to crash, the pump would continue spraying fuel everywhere unlike the mechanical pump.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it, and my mech pump wasn't the problem.

[Guest cortina123]

Good job on cleaning the tank, but you will have to stop the tank from rusting again by sealing it with something. The tank on my mk1 Cortina was the same, with heavy rust and pin holes, i used a product called por15 fuel tank sealer and i used some 2 part epoxy putty to fill the pin holes before filling the tank with the sealer. It has worked great and has been fine for the past 2 years.

[derskine]

Welcome!

RE the tank, it has a fairly big hole in it which has been repaired with a pop rivet, so I'm looking at getting another tank in the near future anyway, but I think if I get a decent tank I'll definitely seal it in some way!

[Guest cortina123]

Welcome!

RE the tank, it has a fairly big hole in it which has been repaired with a pop rivet, so I'm looking at getting another tank in the near future anyway, but I think if I get a decent tank I'll definitely seal it in some way!

Ahh okay, sounds like it isn't  worth repairing then. You could look out for a mk2 1600e fuel tank, it has more capacity but fits the same.

[derskine]

 

Engine out today to change clutch and rope seals.

Upgrading to later diaphragm clutch so also bought a mk1 escort release bearing and 8mm spacer.

[purplebargeken]

These are such nice looking cars. Great thread

[Jim Bell]

This is one of the best looking cars ever.