Mk1 Escort Twin Cam Rebuild

[Scottlotus]

G'day fellow car nuts. My old man owns a 1970 Mk1 Lotus Twin Cam Escort and now that I, myself have started some motorsport we thought it was fitting to rebuild the Escort. Not only cause it needs a good bloody engine rebuild but also to broaden my general knowledge about race cars.

There is a little history behind the Escort. It was initially my dads friend
(Geoff) dads car (sounds a little confusing). Anyways this car was bought by Geoff's (my dads mate) dad as a family car in the 70's. After a few years of being the family car it was garaged. From here Geoff bought the car off his old man with the plan of completely rebuilding the car for the 95 Round Australia Rally. My dad was asked to navigate for Geoff and as a car nut himself my Dad willingly agreed.

After some time the escort was completely rebuilt as a rally car. Modifications such as an 80L fuel tank was installed, the rear firewall was refabricated so the tank could fit in the boot, the engine was overbored and stroked to bring it up to 1700cc, larger valves, cosworth pistons, rear suspension was turreted to make shocks vertical, seam welded body, vented discs on front and solid discs on rear, larger wheelstuds, 6 point alloy cage, higher output alternator for spot lights etc, L2 Cams and a 4:1:1 Quaife lsd. The standard 4 speed 3 rail/2000E box was kept. The engine was line bored, the crank tuftrided, fully balanced and blueprinted by Bryants Engineering in Brisbane.

After the 95' Round Australia Rally the Escort was bought by my Dad in 98' off Geoff. I reckon he had a little emotional attachment to the car and couldn't bring himself to say goodbye. After the rally she looked a bit tired and needed some help. Dad did some work on and off for 10 or so years to bring the car back to a reasonable state. Some semi slicks (ao48's)were bought and with some new springs and shockies under it (lowering a couple of inches) the escort started looking less rally and more sprinty.

In 2005 Dad did his first race at Leyburn Historics Sprints. Dad did a few more events such as Noosa Hillclimb and Mt Cotton Hillclimb. I got to race the escort (Just got my P plates) at Leyburn in 2008. It hasn't been raced recently as its needs a rebuild and so the work begins.

We plan to convert a steel Datsun crank to shorten the stroke and bring it back to 1600cc, posted the crank to Elan Factory in Melbourne a few days ago. New pistons, new valves, new cams (race cams not fast road), new conrods, new quadrant and the list goes on. I will try to post up some photos from the 95 rally to current in this post. Continued photos of the current rebuild will be posted weekly/fortnightly. We pulled out the engine two days ago and took off the head today to have a look at valves and what not. It DEFINITELY needs a good clean up.
#2 valve appears to be more black then the others. Seems that oil is leaking down the valve stem or some where else. The piston also appears to have marks from the valve hitting it. The timing must be a few degrees out, the consequences of trying to time cams yourself. Anyways hope you guys enjoy watching this rebuild.

And if you are thinking about getting into motorsport, dont hesitate, once you start you will wonder why you didn't start earlier. I have a very tiny income as a part time casual (being at uni I have no time to work) and I am currently thinking whether my first car should be a track car or a road car. I think I might be catching public transport for longer than I thought. _2:

Any help in regards to the rebuild and tips would be appreciated.

[R0BD0G]

sounds awesome so far... what colour?. doing a 1600 for my escort at the moment.. not a twin cam though. cant wait to see some pics

[rag top]

awesome plan!

Looking forward to the pics as well!!

[Scottlotus]

Here is some photos.

[Scottlotus]

More photos

[Scottlotus]

Anyone help with the upload of more photos? I have managed to resize them. But i have reached my quota. How do i upload more without deleting my already attached photos?

[rag top]

Looks awsome! How long is the engine rebuild expected to take? How long for the crank to be machined??

[Scottlotus]

Hopefully the rebuild will be done over the christmas period. Final exams for uni are about to start so once they are finished it will be heads down bums up.

The crank was posted to yesterday and it was expected to take 2 weeks.

[Scottlotus]

The last link you can see the #2 valve has been leaking.

[rag top]

Originally Posted by Scottlotus

Anyone help with the upload of more photos? I have managed to resize them. But i have reached my quota. How do i upload more without deleting my already attached photos?

Sign up to a photobucket account and link them back here.
http://photobucket.com/

hahaha - you beat me to it!

[Scottlotus]

Originally Posted by rag top

Sign up to a photobucket account and link them back here.
http://photobucket.com/

hahaha - you beat me to it!

haha! it appears to be the only way.

[Scottlotus]

Originally Posted by R0BD0G

sounds awesome so far... what colour?. doing a 1600 for my escort at the moment.. not a twin cam though. cant wait to see some pics

Its just a plain white. But with mudflaps and spotties haha

Are you prepping your 1600 for race or road?

[R0BD0G]

road... only just on my p's so i dont want a full blown race car just yet lol

[Scottlotus]

Originally Posted by R0BD0G

road... only just on my p's so i dont want a full blown race car just yet lol

same here mate. I just got my green p's. Contemplating buying a race car before a road car though. have you done any motorsport yet?

[outback_ute]

Welcome to the Forums Scott! Great story with the T-C there, something to get your teeth into! I bet your dad & his mate had a lot of fun on the Round Australia, great pic with the works Cortina.

Looking forward to progress updates

[Scottlotus]

Originally Posted by outback_ute

Welcome to the Forums Scott! Great story with the T-C there, something to get your teeth into! I bet your dad & his mate had a lot of fun on the Round Australia, great pic with the works Cortina.

Looking forward to progress updates

cheers mate. he had an absolute ball on the round australia.

[Scottlotus]

made some progress yesterday in the shed....

the head is completely stripped now we just need a valve spring compressor to get out the valves. cheapest one we could find was on ebay for about $30 : considering we are already exceeding the projected budget, dad spent $1200 on some semi slicks for our z car as we had one last round at morgan park, we have decided to make a valve spring compressor from a g clamp and a lathe.. haha

it was interesting to note that the cam bearings have wear marks on only one side. the side that copped the horziontal thrust from the lobe when spinning. i thought that was pretty cool.

here is some more photos of the head and the new valves.

[Scottlotus]

here is a photo of manland

http://s876.photobucket.com/albums/a...t=IMG_5347.jpg

http://s876.photobucket.com/albums/a...t=IMG_5345.jpg

http://s876.photobucket.com/albums/a...t=IMG_5344.jpg

http://s876.photobucket.com/albums/a...t=IMG_5343.jpg (fuel tank, had it baffled)

http://s876.photobucket.com/albums/a...t=IMG_5342.jpg

http://s876.photobucket.com/albums/a...t=IMG_5338.jpg (standard 3 rail 2000E box)

http://s876.photobucket.com/albums/a...t=IMG_5337.jpg (new valves)

[AustinA40]

2 Escorts, 1 Rally, 1 Track.

[Scottlotus]

Originally Posted by AustinA40

2 Escorts, 1 Rally, 1 Track.

love the vice grips!! haha

[Scottlotus]

Dad turned up a little tool to fit a g clamp which acts a spring compressor. It works a treat. Here is a few photos of the valves after we got them out. Exhaust # 2 seemed to be leaking but the valve itself isnt bent. We put it in the lathe and it spun straight. The brass valve guide may be worn and hence the valve stem seems to wobble when it is put in there.

Some more photos.

http://s876.photobucket.com/albums/a...t=IMG_5482.jpg

http://s876.photobucket.com/albums/a...t=IMG_5482.jpg

http://s876.photobucket.com/albums/a...t=IMG_5485.jpg

http://s876.photobucket.com/albums/a...t=IMG_5487.jpg

http://s876.photobucket.com/albums/a...t=IMG_5489.jpg

http://s876.photobucket.com/albums/a...t=IMG_5492.jpg

[9triton]

another photobucket tip -

you are copying and pasting the wrong link : its the one that has ' IMG' at the front and back of the link

- that way the photo uploads automatically into the message - without us having to individually click and open each link

ie like this (its called the IMG code on the photobucket site)and is in this form:
[IMG] http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/v...ratiochart.jpg [/IMG]

Brett

[Scottlotus]

Originally Posted by 9triton

another photobucket tip -

you are copying and pasting the wrong link : its the one that has ' IMG' at the front and back of the link

- that way the photo uploads automatically into the message - without us having to individually click and open each link

ie like this (its called the IMG code on the photobucket site)and is in this form:
[IMG] http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/v...ratiochart.jpg [/IMG]

Brett

ahhhh ok no worries. cheers for the tip.

[Scottlotus]

Cheers Brett.





the valve spring compressor.

[9triton]

cool - thats it .

good luck with the rebuild - inetresting to see the twin cams internals.

brett