Well, it's been a while and I'm actually back with another build, finally. Egged on a bit by my partner who has always wanted a seven but didn't know where to start.

Nothing swanky about this one, a back to basics pinto engined Avon. Will probably stick megasquirt on it as a matter of course, but otherwise no supercharging or silliness. Have I grown up too much?

I might get off to a bit of a slow start as we are in the middle of trying to move house, but nonetheless everyone has to have a project, right?!

[Edited on 21/2/19 by flak monkey]

Good on you and yes everyone should have a project!

Nowt wrong with a Pinto engine IMHO either.

Unless you have one tucked away, have you seen the price a good pinto is fetching ? Same as the T9’s

I know Tiger really are just around the corner but my money would be on an...

A) Mnr (mx5) B) Gbs Zero (mx5)

Lots of cheap donors and parts

I know a few people who can help with parts.

I was thinking about going duratec as they are getting cheaper, but once you add up all of the other parts and the emissions stuff for IVA it's still expensive.

Could still stick an mx5 engine and box in an Avon, no big deal. Already sorted for a Sierra rear end anyway.

I think that's a great choice!
I am a bit biased though.
I changed the pinto for a zetec se last year.
It's good to see you back mate.

Firm advoate for Mx5s (but then I have owned 9 of them....). All the parts are from a sports car, the engine is bullet proof and power is easily upped. They will pass MOT with no cat if using a megasquirt, super cheap, the original layout of parts is "correct" FRWD

having seen the GBS zero, i would go for that, it is a lot more authentic looking...or be radical and go midi ?

quote:

---

Originally posted by dmrider_10
Firm advoate for Mx5s (but then I have owned 9 of them....). All the parts are from a sports car, the engine is bullet proof and power is easily upped. They will pass MOT with no cat if using a megasquirt, super cheap, the original layout of parts is "correct" FRWD

---

Good to see Sera back on here, and building, as her work on the bikes was amazing

I a little while ago had an urge to build again, but not a 7, as they are every were, infact not one day goes by when im out driving will see a 7, but I do live in the South east of England

I would, with enough garage space like to attempt a road legal Lemans 60's-70's car not for racing, with a big V8

But sadly, I don't have the garage space, nor the time, so I might make one 3rd scale, I could drive that

steve

I've got a 1.6 MX5 available as a donor. It's succumbed to the dreaded chassis rail corrosion, also corrosion in the sills.
I was intending to sort it but it's stood for couple of years now and just won't get time to do it.

I did think about going the MX5 route, but they really aren't that tuneable unless you stick a turbo on them, and that's not what I want to do.

Besides, I already have a Mk1 MX5 which is getting turboed anyway.

Set on the pinto route, its a nice simple and easy engine to work on and my partner wants to learn, so might as well start basic. Will probably stick throttle bodies and injection on it because I can.

Ultimately we are looking to build something simple and actually quite old school

I do have it in mind to build something a bit more extreme in the future too, but I am keeping that under wraps

Good to see you back mate! Only just come back myself!

Do you still have the yellow Camaro(?) you were rebuilding?

quote:

---

Originally posted by James
Good to see you back mate! Only just come back myself!

Do you still have the yellow Camaro(?) you were rebuilding?

---

Well, I made a start....

Found a complete Sierra rear sub frame with 7" 3.92 diff etc so went and picked it up on Friday. Now I only have my little M140i I ended up having to dismantle it at the scrappies to get it in the car...

Needs a damn good clean and new boots on the drive shafts. Other than that, it should do!





Had a bit of fun with the grinder to remove the hub nuts, but all of 5 minutes and both were done. It's now completely stripped to it's component parts waiting to be cleaned up.

Also went and cleared out melly-g's garage of Pinto parts! Many thanks for that

4 heads in various states of repair as well as a short block when I get back to collect it.

Me and Sophie have been busy... This is Sophie's first time working on anything in this amount of detail - although she has a practical engineering background she has never rebuilt an engine. So I am quite enjoying having a student!

We are going to pick up our chassis and suspension etc this weekend! Need to clear my garage out as I only have a single one now

Picked up a couple of pinto short blocks, both in need of machining which isn't a problem. Have stripped down both and have identified enough parts to build a new short block from the parts without buying anything else too expensive. Although both are not 205 blocks, one of them had later rods in it anyway and one of them had been bored +0.5mm and the other was at standard. So we are going to get that one bored to +0.5mm and use the stronger rods and oversize pistons. One has a standard crank in useable condition too, so we have most of what we need.

I'm just waiting for a quote for the machining work (bore and deck skim)



I cleaned up the differential and drive shafts yesterday - ready for a lick of paint and new seals/boots.

quote:

---

Originally posted by flak monkey

Picked up a couple of pinto short blocks , both in need of machining which isn't a problem.

---

It's true, the continental plates did shift slightly.

But they can't be that heavy as I managed to lift both of them in and out of the back of my car without much effort... and I'm only a weakling now

quote:

---

Originally posted by flak monkey
It's true, the continental plates did shift slightly.

But they can't be that heavy as I managed to lift both of them in and out of the back of my car without much effort... and I'm only a weakling now

---

I worked with a guy who when I went to collect it lifted a rover V8 out a SD1 with a rope round the engine and over his shoulders! mental sod

I did once carry my stripped down VW flat four up stairs into the garage loft but god it was heavy LOL

[Edited on 13/3/19 by Mr Whippy]

Shiny....

Going to collect my chassis and various other bits tomorrow morning - LWB van booked and an early morning I think!


Hopefully quickish progress will follow.

Popped into Tiger at lunchtime (since they are just up the road) and had a chat with Jim - seemed helpful enough, they are certainly busy, workshop is full. Gave me a copy of his book for my free so can't be too bad. Not that I am planning to need it much!

Looking forward to seeing the quality of your work! Makes mine look like a pig's ear.

Stu

Looking good so far :-)

I will watch your progress as it appears.

What paint have you used on the diff ? It looks great.

quote:

---

What paint have you used on the diff ? It looks great.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Andybarbet
Looking good so far :-)

I will watch your progress as it appears.

What paint have you used on the diff ? It looks great.

---

Me and Sophie have had a pretty productive day today. A lot of faffing around to get the suspension on the car and roughly set up. I need to make some extensions for the rack and modify the standard track rods as the Avon is a stupid width at the front.

Also had to make some spacers for the lower rear wishbones - the book dimension of 80mm for their position appears to be incorrect. We've set them as far forward as they will go for now.

Much complexity, be interesting to see how it handles as there is a lot of adjustabilty in the back suspension and none in the front. Time will tell.

Fitted the new 2.9 turn steering rack - had to modify the packers than came with the clamps as even those weren't the right size, nothing is simple. Column all bolted up easily though.

Removed the master cylinder, cleaned it up and painted it as it was rusty having been fitted bare. Re-routed the rear brake line and fitted proper p-clips rather than the plastic snap in clips in a couple of places.

Differential fitted without much drama.

Still a few modifications to do to some of the existing work, but nothing major, mostly tidying up and doing a few things to my own taste.

The next thing is to get the rear brake drums and back plates cleaned up and fitted

I like this car, it looks dead simple to work on and should be good fun.

How are you finding building the Pinto? I've never dug into an iron block+head engine before.

quote:

---

Originally posted by G13BLocost
I like this car, it looks dead simple to work on and should be good fun.

How are you finding building the Pinto? I've never dug into an iron block+head engine before.

---

Been a busy few evenings cleaning and repainting parts ready to fit. Also went to see the guys at Tiger to pick up brake lines and rack extensions etc.

Some of the parts that I collected with the kit needed a repaint having been sat around for a while. All simple stuff, but worthwhile at this stage.





I also got the new CV boots fitted to the drive shafts, the old ones were shot and these stretch ones were fun to fit with the cone. Really messy job!



This weekend I intend to get the car rolling, although I do need to find a new driveshaft nut for the LH side as both times I have bought one they have been incorrect

Lots of stuff happening but I have been a bit tardy taking photos of progress. Need to sort some shocks.

Front end is more or less assembled, rack modified, wheel alignment is done. Have also stripped and repainted the calipers, new pistons and seals to go in tomorrow.



Rear end is also assembled. Need to torque up the rear hub nuts and adjust the brakes a bit before doing the rear wheel alignment

I have quite busy, but again a bit bad at taking photos....

The car is actually now on it's wheels - the front wheel alignment is done, and I still need to do the rears, a job for one evening this week (and a lot of swearing I expect....)

The engine block, rods and new pistons are at the machine shop. Block is being bored and decked, pistons being fitted to the rods (later wide beam ones). It should be ready for collection next week at some point. At the same time I will be dropping off the cylinder head to be machined for 44.4/38.1 valves and have hardened seats put in. Also skimmed to raise the compression.

Before dropping it off I decided to get the bulk of the porting done on it. Mainly hogging all the material out of the exhaust ports and cleaning up the guides. Once it's back then I will do the final tidy up and smoothing work. The 4 exhaust ports are done - took around 3 hours - thankful for my big 3ph compressor and die grinder.

I have also made a start on modifying the sump and have moved the filler neck on the rocker cover. Those are both going to the blasters later this week and will then be ready to finish off.



Marking out for porting - 35mm high and 29.5mm wide


Comparison of original and new port sizes


New port - sides are actually parallel - measurements maintained throughout the port - no material removed from port floor


Smoothed guide - length is maintained but the guide is streamlined

Picked up the block, pistons and rods from the machine shop last week. The block has been bored/honed 0.5mm oversize and the top face machine 0.5mm to bring the piston crown flush with the deck face. New pistons have been fitted to the later wide beam injection rods too.

Sophie spent today cleaning the outside of the block and painting it, also had the modified rocker cover blasted last week so that got a coat of paint today too.

All painted with epoxy primer followed by 2k black and clear.





The rocker cover has some finishing touches to complete yet, those will have to wait until next weekend.



I still need to finish the porting work on the head before it's dropped off at the machine shop for big valves and a skim.

Another long break from updates... still been plodding on with things though.

Fitted new rings to the pistons - after finding out the brand new Hepolite set I bought had a huge gap - just over 2mm - even though its fresh bore and the rings were packaged for the correct size. Now fitted with Mahle ones which are spot on.

So the rotating assembly is sorted.

Modified the distributor tonight, just need to assemble it. Turned off the main body and modified the shaft. Machined up a cap to press on, just need to clean it up and assemble it. Will be running megajolt so no need for the dizzy other than as an oil pump.

Who did you use for your rebore ?

Cheers.

Cambs rebores.

Nothing wrong with their machining job. The hepolite rings are just junk.

I only ask as I am planning on forging the bottom end and just curious on local firms.

Cheers

Cambs rebores http://www.cambridge-rebores.co.uk/ are excellent. I've used them for machining work on all the engines I've built

Looking good - In fact some bits of that engine are looking very similar to mine, only you've done it infinitely faster than me
What are you planning for the carb's and cam on this one ?

your dizzy / oil pump drive looks almost identical to the one that the guys at H&H knocked up for me (I was going to do it myself, but it was part of deal)
Probably overkill but I'm going to take another old dizzy (hall effect EFI one) and strip it down without the gear on it to make an oil pump priming tool of some kind...

quote:

---

Originally posted by flak monkey
The rocker cover has some finishing touches to complete yet, those will have to wait until next weekend.

---

Been really lax with updates on this - mostly as a lot of things aren't photo worthy, especially in my messy garage....

In short:

The suspension is all fully assembled including wheel alignment and a set of shiny new adjustable Gaz shocks.
Wiring loom made and installed - yet to be tested, but it's all there and mostly tidied up as much as possible prior to fitting the body work.
Dropped in the gearbox and a spare block/head just for mocking things up and checking clearances. Everything looks OK.
Brakes are bled and the handbrake is hooked up.

Next major things are to get the roll bar and fuel tank fitted, along with the fuel pump (R1 to suit the carbs) before finally buying a bodywork set.

I’ve got a starter motor left over if you need one.

quote:

---

Originally posted by big_wasa
I’ve got a starter motor left over if you need one.

---

Shelled out some cash and bought a new tank and roll bar from Tiger yesterday. Mostly got them fitted today - make some brackets up for the tank. Just need to get some rose joints for the roll cage stays and paint the tank mounts.

Next job is fuel pump and then will be gettign ready to move house before getting the body set.

Not been doing much this week - had a lot of stuff on for other people and with work. Had planned to drop the cylinder head in at the machine shop but didn't have time in the end.

I did however get the brackets for the fuel tank painted and refitted, along with the roll bar stay brackets and rose joints fitted.

Made a mounting plate for the fuel pump, just need to improve the mounting of the pump, but I have a plan for that.

I was also impressed by the wheel cleaner I bought, a bit of a scrub and they came up pretty nice. These wheels are just temporary until I can afford something lightweight and nice. But these will do for the build and the shakedown miles.

Slower progress again at the minute - although I seem to have gained a lot of parts.

Replaced the brake master cylinder and reservoir and the leaks are cured there - thankfully!

Got a pair of seats - really nice new GRP ones from eBay and only £150 for the pair including delivery - they even fit in the chassis (only 400mm wide) but I do need to make some mounting brackets for them, which isn't a hardship. Will probably make some pads up for them eventually.

Also dropped the cylinder head off at my friendly machine shop who are fitting hardened exhaust valve seats, cutting all the seats for group 1 valves, fitting bronze guides and skimming the face. I'm expecting a big bill at the end of it! Once it's back I have a little port tidying to finish off then the engine can finally be built up.

Found someone selling a complete pinto exhaust with headers, collector and silencer, so that's that sorted. Also managed to snag a Bailey Morris propshaft of the right length which hasn't seen much action.

I finished wiring the rear of the car too - can't do anything more until I have the bodywork which is getting ordered as soon as we have moved house in a couple of weeks (because I don't have enough to do already!)

The battery also arrived today, so I will start to check out my wiring over the weekend too

Finally have a proper workshop back again after moving into our dream house in November.

I had the head away at the machine shop and got it back in December. Skimmed to bring the CR up to 11.5:1, bronze valve guides, seats machined for group 1 valves and hardened seats for the exhaust valves.

Today I finally got around to finishing off the porting and assembling the head with new stainless waisted stem valves, kent springs etc. Felpro thin head gasket too.

Got a little more done today - was hoping to have the engine pretty much complete, but it seems I need some longer ball studs. Other than that, the valvetrain geometry looks pretty much spot on. Wipe pattern is right in the middle of the pads on the followers.

Since I couldn't finish that I made a bracket to mount the coil on the back of the head.

Finished the engine assembly this weekend. Degreed the cam and pretty much buttoned everything up.

Made some alternator mounts too for the tiny denso alternator.

Just need to get the flywheel skimmed and then the engine and box are ready to go in.

quote:

---

Originally posted by flak monkey

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by jps

Is it ok to replace the studs for the manifolds with bolts permanently? The reason I ask is I am using a pinto in my build and have an over rail exhaust manifold which will need much shorter studs than the original cast manifold. Is a straightforward bolt a suitable alternative?

Great to see the progress btw!

---

Hi Mate long time .
I've only just started to come back on this forum after along time
It's good to see a build with a pinto just a little info the engine mounting stabiliser you have in your photo archives is the one I made and it worked very well and stopped every thing rocking
Jacko

Nice to see another excellent build diary and photo log, Sera you never seem to disappoint.

Ive been away for a few years too and good to see old friends still putting the hours in, will be nice to see another car finished.

quote:

---

Originally posted by jacko
Hi Mate long time .
I've only just started to come back on this forum after along time
It's good to see a build with a pinto just a little info the engine mounting stabiliser you have in your photo archives is the one I made and it worked very well and stopped every thing rocking
Jacko

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by bob
Nice to see another excellent build diary and photo log, Sera you never seem to disappoint.

Ive been away for a few years too and good to see old friends still putting the hours in, will be nice to see another car finished.

---

What does the flywheel weigh?

quote:

---

Originally posted by SJ
What does the flywheel weigh?

---

That's pretty light. I used a cvh 1.8 fly on my zetec which is 6.5kg standard.

Sera
great work keep it up and the engine will rev up nicely at that weight
Graham

Yeah, should go nicely

Engine and box are in, finally. Had to chop the extra engine mount off the chassis as it hit the sump. Other than that, simple enough.

Inlet manifold for the R1 carbs arrived while I was away for work. So that gave me something else to do today. Fitting the filter backplate was fun since the bolts which had to be removed from the carbs had been fitted with loctite. Nothing a gentle application of a blowtorch didn't fix, but a pain nonetheless...

Also did a little more wiring and made some brackets for the radiator.

It'd be interesting to see if there are any differences between a bike carb set up like yours and one like mine where the carbs are respaced to match the engine inlets.

Lots of faffing around in the last few evenings.

Fitted the drivers seat - had to weld some bits of box section in to suit the mounts on the seats, since they are generic ones. Snug fit, but they go in there....

New starter turned up, so fitted that. A smaller, modern, gear reduction unit which should help crank it over.

Made a pipe up for the water pump to head bypass hose. Need to get some clips, seem to have run out of the correct sized ones. Neater than a bit of hose cable tied to the chassis I guess.

Tidied up the alternator wiring

Messing around with positioning for the header tank. Anyone know how much room there is under the back edge of the nose? Wondering if I can fit it at the front out of the way. Its about 6" tall. If not I'll put it infront of the battery.

Lookin good there

Jason

I'd be intertested to know the radiator plumbing layout you are using, i'm using a Pinto with polo rad. I know there are multiple posts on here, but it seems there is more than one possible solution!

quote:

---

Originally posted by jps
I'd be intertested to know the radiator plumbing layout you are using, i'm using a Pinto with polo rad. I know there are multiple posts on here, but it seems there is more than one possible solution!

---

Faffed about and plumbed most of the rest of the cooling system, made up a throttle cable and some HT leads up since it's hardly a standard layout....

Take off in the top hose is the highest point of the system so will be connected back to the top of the header tank. The connection in the bottom hose will be the feed from the header tank.

Hopefully won't be far off firing it up this weekend.

Getting slowly closer...

Header tank mounted and plumbed. Will find out if its all water tight tomorrow after i have hooked the main filler hose up...

Anyone want to clean my exhaust headers up????!!!! :p:p





[Edited on 28/2/20 by flak monkey]

Very nice. I love old school Pinto engines (and crossflows)

One piece of constructive critisism; that inlet manifold is truly awful. Air doesn't go around sharp corners, and the pattern of airflow through those inlet runners will SEVERELY restrict your capacity to make power. You'll probably only get half the airflow in CFM that you would with straight inlet runners and respaced carbs. I know the maker of these manifolds sells hundreds of these things, but that doesn't make them right!

Cheers Chris

I've often wondered about how respaced bike carbs would compare with ones on a manifold like Sera's. Mine are respaced because I was too tight to buy an expensive manifold and just fitted them in the same way as Mr Kawasaki did. I'm sure mine are far from optimal though as the inlet tract is very short.

Stu

quote:

---

Originally posted by Memphis
Very nice. I love old school Pinto engines (and crossflows)

One piece of constructive critisism; that inlet manifold is truly awful. Air doesn't go around sharp corners, and the pattern of airflow through those inlet runners will SEVERELY restrict your capacity to make power. You'll probably only get half the airflow in CFM that you would with straight inlet runners and respaced carbs. I know the maker of these manifolds sells hundreds of these things, but that doesn't make them right!

Cheers Chris

---

Sera
Take it from me you will have no trouble with the manifold you have if you have a hunt around my archives you will find the carbs and manifold I made for su carbs and bike carbs
You are doing a great job the only thing I have found different to my build is the water pipe work I had no tee,s in my rad pipes
Top rad to termastat
Bottom rad to water pump i
Inlet manifold to header tank
Small pipe from water pump to tank
Tank top had a blow off top
Again look at my photos
Graham

quote:

---

Originally posted by jacko
Sera
Take it from me you will have no trouble with the manifold you have if you have a hunt around my archives you will find the carbs and manifold I made for su carbs and bike carbs
You are doing a great job the only thing I have found different to my build is the water pipe work I had no tee,s in my rad pipes
Top rad to termastat
Bottom rad to water pump i
Inlet manifold to header tank
Small pipe from water pump to tank
Tank top had a blow off top
Again look at my photos
Graham

---

Done a fair bit of stuff this weekend, and eventually got the car fired up. It's running a base map in the megajolt and I haven't touched the carb set up or checked the balance, but it's not running too bad.

Started off throwing fuel every where as the o-rings in the float seats had dried out and were allowing fuel past the seat inserts. Whipped the carbs off and fitted new o-rings. Problem solved.

Ran it at 2-2.5k RPM for 20 mins to bed the cam in and had no over heating, no leaks or any issues, which was some kind of miracle.

Let it cool down a bit and then set the idle speed.

Need to verify the ignition timing and carb mixture and balance and also fit a choke cable. That will have to wait until next weekend now. But overall pretty happy it's not making any horrible noises and didn't blow up

Vids are off my phone, so sound is probably crap

quote:

---

Originally posted by jacko
Sera
Take it from me you will have no trouble with the manifold you have if you have a hunt around my archives you will find the carbs and manifold I made for su carbs and bike carbs
You are doing a great job the only thing I have found different to my build is the water pipe work I had no tee,s in my rad pipes
Top rad to termastat
Bottom rad to water pump i
Inlet manifold to header tank
Small pipe from water pump to tank
Tank top had a blow off top
Again look at my photos
Graham

---

nice

Only thing I spotted and might be worth mentioning... for my JBA roadster I too used a "solid" column omitting the usual rubber shock absorber disk next the the rack input and I can only assume due to slight chassis flex the column hammered the bejesus out my rack pinion bearing till it all kind of fell apart after that escapade I refitted the disk and all was well, plus it kind of felt better too

Oh yeah one other thing, and I'm sure your not a stupid as me I replaced the alternator lower bolt (yours looks very shiny so I'm assuming it's not the original one) with a bolt that was threaded all the way through not thinking very much of it until the thread fatigued, bolt broke, alternator swung forward and hit the fan which then exploded and took out the radiator... oops

Hi Sera,


Have you finished the throttle pedal connection to the carbs? I've got a very nearly identical set up but having never done anything like this before I'm not too sure whats the best connection method ?

Jason

quote:

---

Originally posted by Deckman001
Hi Sera,


Have you finished the throttle pedal connection to the carbs? I've got a very nearly identical set up but having never done anything like this before I'm not too sure whats the best connection method ?

Jason

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by flak monkey

quote:

---

Originally posted by Deckman001
Hi Sera,


Have you finished the throttle pedal connection to the carbs? I've got a very nearly identical set up but having never done anything like this before I'm not too sure whats the best connection method ?

Jason

---

Hi Jason, yes I used a generic Venhill kit off eBay, about 18 quid I think. Comes with all the fittings you need.

Sera

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Memphis

Yes you'll have no trouble with the manifold under normal conditions on the road, but if (when) you come to tune the engine for serious power, it will be very restrictive.

[Edited on 2/3/20 by Memphis]

[Edited on 2/3/20 by Memphis]

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