1987 Ford Sierra Sapphire 1.8L - Transmission porn - see page 59

[danthecapriman]

1 hour ago, big_al_granvia said:

in later years didn't most folk clean the spray bar as a service job. know in my yts days i bathed a few in jizer

You can clean them out easy enough with bits of wire and those pipe cleaner things, or carb cleaner and a blast of air. Ford did sell new ones for quite a while too, I bought one from Hendy Ford probably around 2004 ish although I would imagine it wasn’t long after that they probably stopped doing them.

Its usually only a problem if the car hasn’t had regular oil changes though, the crud just builds up inside and with the holes being pretty small they just block easy.

 

[Peter C]

I fitted the new flooring today.

Whilst shopping for the new flooring, I checked the edge detail to ensure that it would abut with what was left of my existing flooring. Unfortunately, the edge pattern is just sufficiently different to ensure that it doesn't abut the existing panels and I had to cut the ends of new and existing flooring to form butt joints. The new flooring is also a different shade of grey but that doesn't bother me as I will be making a mess all over the floor whilst working on the Sierra anyway.

Whilst the floor looks shit compared with what I had before the petrol spillage incident, at least I now have a soft and level floor to work on again and my workshop no longer stinks like a garage forecourt.

Let's move on.

The mobile engine storage unit now resides behind the Sierra, where it can be easily accessed and, if need be, taken outside.

Fortunately, there is still plenty of space in the workshop to work on the engine bay.

More soon.

[danthecapriman]

B&Q have things available for customers that look suspiciously like your engine storage unit😆

Whats the plan for the engine bay? Spray down with degreaser then power wash?

[primeradoner]

5 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

 

Another slight design error was having the cam shaft come out of the head at the back. If they’d have made it come out the front you’d be able to change it much easier.

If you cut a hole in the bulkhead you could get them out  through the radio aperture.

[Peter C]

1 minute ago, danthecapriman said:

B&Q have things available for customers that look suspiciously like your engine storage unit😆

Whats the plan for the engine bay? Spray down with degreaser then power wash?

The mobile engine storage unit will be returned for its rightful owner as soon as I refit the Pinto.

Underside of the Sierra will be cleaned and painted.

The engine bay needs some surface rust removal, cleaning and painting.

Engine and gearbox will also be cleaned and painted plus I will fit a new clutch, have the flywheel skimmed and do some general maintenance work.

[vaughant]

Great work and as always wonderfully well documented 🥰🥰🥰, makes worthwhile reading then 👍🏼👍🏼.

This forum is pretty decent but a few I was on back in the day were fucking dreadful for how they took pics and wrote up the job to the point people quickly lost interest. It's definitely a skill you have 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼.

Ever since I went to the Ford factory in Cologne I've always taken engines and gearboxes out from below,ie jack the car up to heaven and drag it out, always found it easier.

I thought better once as I'd mainly done fwd engines and I swapped the m52 engine in my 328i out for an M50 (I'm sure a million bellends will tell me I did it the wrong way round but for me the M50 was a far more robust engine than the M52,iron block, no nikasil bollox, and makes the same power bear as damnit).

I did the same as you, got the crane, got it out eventually after a lot of trials and tribulations (actually even easier on the e36 as the front unbolts) but when I looked, 4 bolts, couple of balljoints etc would have had the rest of the subframe off to just pull it forward which I did afterwards to push it back in. I think it took less time to put back and was a lot easier that trying to get it on the mountings. 

But I'm sure I'm in the minority doing this to a rwd car but it's something that works well for me.

[vaughant]

Elaborating on the Cologne point,I was following a focus MK1 around the factory from paint to build, not fully but on the bigger processes and they just had a pretty empty engine bay on say op200 and by op 210 it was all in 🤣🤣🤣.

I was in awe and it was just a method that worked really well. 

Find it easier to them work on the thing on the ground 👍🏼👍🏼.

Nice trick with the shopping trolley 🤭🤭🤭... Might "loan" one myself in the future 🤣🤣.

[Bren]

8 hours ago, big_al_granvia said:

the pinto was a cracking engine for its time, totally over engineered but the bottom end was bulletproof . 

 Thirty odd years ago my dad bought a granada - it was a two litre injected pinto with a manual box. It went surprisingly well - the only disadvantage againt the cologne engines was crusing - it was a bit harsh at  higher motorway speeds.

Years ago I bought a sierra with the 2.0 dohc I4 engine. I thought it was inferior to the pinto - it seemed harsh at all speeds and the engine itself had more weaknesses that the pinto.

[R Lutz]

14 hours ago, Bren said:

 Thirty odd years ago my dad bought a granada - it was a two litre injected pinto with a manual box. It went surprisingly well - the only disadvantage againt the cologne engines was crusing - it was a bit harsh at  higher motorway speeds.

Years ago I bought a sierra with the 2.0 dohc I4 engine. I thought it was inferior to the pinto - it seemed harsh at all speeds and the engine itself had more weaknesses that the pinto.

The 2.0 DOHC (yet with only 8 valves..) would shatter their fly wheels. I have never known any other engine do this. 

[Bren]

36 minutes ago, R Lutz said:

The 2.0 DOHC (yet with only 8 valves..) would shatter their fly wheels. I have never known any other engine do this. 

I paid £50 for the sierra on account of timing chain issues. After pulling the timing cover I found most of the guides at the bottom of the cover in pieces and the chain had worn a grove in the aluminium head. A mate in the trade got me parts at cost from the ford dealer - still not cheap.

I remember thinking " this isn't progress" and I wouldn't have had this with a pinto.

[danthecapriman]

I never really understood what the point of that 2.0 twin cam engine was. They didn’t seem to use it for long. 

From memory they didn’t really offer any real gains over the Pinto either. Most of the ones I worked on were very late Sierra’s and they didn’t feel much if any better than the Pinto engine Sierra’s to drive.  
My least favourite Sierra’s were always the CVH engined ones. Another odd decision given the Pinto was already available and designed as a rear drive unit. I’d always assumed the CVH idea was down to the ‘lean burn’ CVH economy?


The best Sierra that I worked on was an F reg (I think) saloon in the same colour as Peter C car. It was towed in with a snapped cam belt. Got it into a bay and stripped the old belt out, timed it all back up then went into Halfords next door and got a new belt. Fitted it and it fired right up no problems. All that was while the owner was waiting. 
That to me is what made those old Ford’s. Basic, simple and robust. You’d have absolutely no chance doing that nowadays. The owner was over the moon with it, as he wasn’t local so within a couple of hours of it happening he was back on the road like it never happened.

[mk2_craig]

13 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

never really understood what the point of that 2.0 twin cam engine was

Something to do with emissions standards maybe? 

[danthecapriman]

40 minutes ago, mk2_craig said:

Something to do with emissions standards maybe? 

Must be something like that.

How long was it actually used for? Cant have been much more than a few years. It must have cost an awful lot in development and design for such a short period of use though.

Did the Transit use that engine?

[danthecapriman]

5 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

Must be something like that.

How long was it actually used for? Cant have been much more than a few years. It must have cost an awful lot in development and design for such a short period of use though.

Did the Transit use that engine?

Just been reading about this engine.

Apparently it came out in 89 as a replacement for the aging Pinto to boost refinement and performance. After the Sierra was discontinued it was developed further and had a completely redesigned 16 valve head and came as either 2.0 or 2.3 and was used until 2006. 
It has no shared components or design with the Pinto and was a completely new engine.

I had no idea it was the same engine as those later 2.0 and 2.3 units with 16 valve. I always assumed they were different engines. Learn something new everyday!

[MantaGTE85]

Didn't this 8v DOHC engine continue to be used in the Granada LX/GLX/Exec and early base Scorpios for quite a while after the Sierra was discontinued? And what about the Galaxy MPV?

Another one I can think of is the mk5 RS2000 but that was 16v and 150bhp from 1991 until I think 1996.

[adw1977]

I think the 2.0 Granadas continued to use the Sierra engine 

Feb 1994 brochure

[danthecapriman]

45 minutes ago, MantaGTE85 said:

Didn't this 8v DOHC engine continue to be used in the Granada LX/GLX/Exec and early base Scorpios for quite a while after the Sierra was discontinued? And what about the Galaxy MPV?

Another one I can think of is the mk5 RS2000 but that was 16v and 150bhp from 1991 until I think 1996.

The type of engine did but not as an 8v it only went in the Galaxy and Scorpio with the 16v head.  
I think, as far as I can work out the original 8v engine only went in the Sierra, earlier Granada/Scorpio and some Transit’s. The 16v came in around 95.

[adw1977]

There is a 2.0i 8v listed in the April 1996 Scorpio brochure but it's stated to be EEC-V when the Sierra engine was EEC-IV.

[Peter C]

Extract taken from Wikipedia, mostly a repeat of what has already been said.

The Ford DOHC engine is an inline 4-cylinder (I4) automotive internal combustion engine with dual overhead camshafts (DOHC), produced by the Ford Motor Company. Offered from 1989 until 2006, it was initially available as a 2.0-litre 8-valve engine, and later in 2.0 and 2.3-litre 16-valve versions. It powered various Ford models in both front wheel drive and rear wheel drive applications. It was Ford's first in-house twincam engine design to reach volume production.[1]

History

In Ford's technical reference the engine is given the somewhat anonymous designation of "DOHC".[2] Some sources call it the Sierra engine, but only when used in that car, and in some enthusiast forums it is known informally as the "twincam", or the "twink". Its lack of recognition extends to the aftermarket, as few tuning shops offer options for the engine, and it does not appear in Ford's own list of four-cylinder racing engines.[3][4]

The engine was designed to replace the 2.0-litre OHC Pinto engine, which by the late 1980s was lagging behind the competition in terms of power output, efficiency and refinement. Apart from the inline configuration and approximate displacement, the DOHC shares nothing with the Pinto engine, and is described as a "clean sheet" design.[5][6]

The DOHC was produced at Ford's Dagenham Engine Plant in London.[1]

In late 1989, the DOHC was launched in 8-valve form in the rear-wheel drive Ford Sierra, Sierra Sapphire, and Scorpio (in the United Kingdom and Ireland, the MkI Scorpio retained the previous model's name and was sold as the Ford Granada MkIII). In these cars it was mated to either the new all-synchromesh MT-75 5-speed manual transmission or the existing A4LD four-speed automatic. The engine received mixed reviews, being seen as an improvement over the Pinto, but not the leap forward expected.[1]

The MkV Escort had been launched in 1990 to disappointing reviews, and Ford were looking to boost the image of this critically important range. To that end they introduced two new high-performance Escort sub-models for the hot hatch market, the RS2000 and XR3i. The RS2000 debuted in 1991, with a DOHC engine mounted transversely in a FWD application using a revised block with different mount locations.[7] Engines in these cars also received a new multivalve cylinder head and tubular exhaust manifold. In the Escort RS2000 16V, the 2.0-litre DOHC developed 150 PS (110 kW; 148 bhp).[8] The XR3i followed in 1992 with the choice of two 1.8-litre versions of the new Zeta engine.[7]

The Sierra was discontinued in 1993 and the RS2000 in 1996, but the DOHC continued in use in the Ford Galaxy MPV launched in 1995. By this time, a 2.3-litre 16-valve version of the engine was offered alongside the original 2.0-litre in both 8-valve and 16-valve versions. The 2.3-litre also appeared in the Ford Scorpio and the Ford Transit van. The DOHC remained the main petrol engine for the original Galaxy until its 2006 redesign, after which production of the DOHC ended.

I had no idea that the engine could be installed transversally and that it was briefly fitted to the Mk5 Escort.

[Peter C]

Last year I cleaned up the accessible areas of the engine bay but removal of the radiator, engine and gearbox has revealed that I have more work to do.

There’s plenty of surface corrosion on metalwork beneath the front panel.

The underside of the battery tray is screaming for help!

And the transmission tunnel needs a good scrub, possibly more.

The good news is that there is no serious corrosion or damage to the exposed areas. Not bad for an almost 40 year old Sierra.

To start the process, I propose to pressure clean everything but I doubt I will have time to do much before Saturday.

More soon.

[grogee]

22 minutes ago, Peter C said:

Last year I cleaned up the accessible areas of the engine bay but removal of the radiator, engine and gearbox has revealed that I have more work to do.

There’s plenty of surface corrosion on metalwork beneath the front panel.

The underside of the battery tray is screaming for help!

And the transmission tunnel needs a good scrub, possibly more.

The good news is that there is no serious corrosion or damage to the exposed areas. Not bad for an almost 40 year old Sierra.

To start the process, I propose to pressure clean everything but I doubt I will have time to do much before Saturday.

More soon.

Do you really want to clean that tunnel? The accumulated oil and grime is doing a good job keeping the rust away. 

I can understand why you'd like to spruce up the engine bay (god knows I'd love to do it to my Maestro) but mere mortals won't be able to see the tunnel with the gearbox in situ, will they? 

[Peter C]

1 minute ago, grogee said:

Do you really want to clean that tunnel? The accumulated oil and grime is doing a good job keeping the rust away. 

I can understand why you'd like to spruce up the engine bay (god knows I'd love to do it to my Maestro) but mere mortals won't be able to see the tunnel with the gearbox in situ, will they? 

I will know that it’s filthy and I like to impress my MoT tester friend with spotless nooks and crannies.

Once cleaned, I will paint all exposed metal. Once done, it will be good and won’t need doing again in the future.

And it’s FUN!

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, grogee said:

Do you really want to clean that tunnel? The accumulated oil and grime is doing a good job keeping the rust away. 

I can understand why you'd like to spruce up the engine bay (god knows I'd love to do it to my Maestro) but mere mortals won't be able to see the tunnel with the gearbox in situ, will they? 

It's the perfect time to do it. Moar grime may accumulate in time

[Sheefag]

I've got rather a lot of old industrial lighting pieces, that need paint and grime stripping from them and am considering rental of a Laser Cleaning Machine.
A solution that might possibly work for you?

https://lasercleaning.co.uk/cleaning-laser-hire/

[Sheefag]

 

[danthecapriman]

22 hours ago, Peter C said:

I will know that it’s filthy and I like to impress my MoT tester friend with spotless nooks and crannies.

Once cleaned, I will paint all exposed metal. Once done, it will be good and won’t need doing again in the future.

And it’s FUN!

When I did the Capri all the underside was done in body colour, I know nobody will see it of course but it means it’s all as it should be and clean & tidy. I’ve since gone over all the underside surfaces with Dynax UB Clear wax just so they’re well protected from moisture but the wax being clear means you can still have that body colour factory look.

Might be worth getting a can or two of the clear stuff this @Peter C ? Best of both worlds then.

[Peter C]

1 hour ago, danthecapriman said:

When I did the Capri all the underside was done in body colour, I know nobody will see it of course but it means it’s all as it should be and clean & tidy. I’ve since gone over all the underside surfaces with Dynax UB Clear wax just so they’re well protected from moisture but the wax being clear means you can still have that body colour factory look.

Might be worth getting a can or two of the clear stuff this @Peter C ? Best of both worlds then.

I'm going to assess the condition of the underside of the Sierra once I have cleaned everything, hopefully this weekend, then I will decide how best to make it pretty.

[Peter C]

I’ve taken the top cover off and arranged the gearbox in an upside down position and will leave it like this until Saturday morning. Hopefully, all the old oil will drain out by then.

[lesapandre]

On 09/06/2026 at 15:02, Sheefag said:

 

Just don't annoy Pussy Galore...

[Peter C]

The gearbox has spent the past 48 hours in an upside position, with the top cover off. I am pretty sure that all oil has now left the building gearbox.

I've put the top cover back on, the gearbox is ready for a wash.

I've removed the clutch.

Would Ford have installed a Borg & Beck clutch back in 1987? Or is it a replacement? @sierraman

Either way, there isn't much meat left on it.

Next, I removed the flywheel.

I need to find a local place to have it skimmed.

I guess the best way of finding a suitable place would be to Google search a local engineering shop?

With the flywheel removed, I could see the crankshaft rear oil seal.

I was expecting more oil residue around / beneath the seal but I'm pretty sure that it needs replacement.

I've stuffed old rags into the exhaust and inlet ports. Nothing bad would happen if water got in but I'd rather keep my powder ports dry.

Finally, I needed to waterproof the distributor. 

As I didn't have a condom big small enough to fit over the dizzy, I put a latex glove over it and wrapped the lot with gaffer tape.

I've also taped up the crankcase ventilation port.

I think I'm ready for tomorrow's big clean.

More soon.