papak

I swear I searched EBay yesterday morning but I was searching for it as a "Duratec" part. Great investigative work! Thanks, it's on the way to me now. All of the basic components of the Mazda 3 2.3l are compatible. I should have the pistons installed tomorrow and the head on this weekend.

When the machine shop disassembled my 2.3l Duratec, they lost the lower O/P chain guide (the fixed one). Any help in locating a replacement would be greatly appreciated. No, Ford doesn't sell it; you would need to purchase a short block to get one.

I have a used but very functional and complete Caterham factory exhaust system for sale. This will fit all Duratec 2.0/2.3l engines. I will get pictures posted when I return home this weekend. Header, collector and muffler, all stainless steel. $750.00 Located in Los Angeles.

I raced a normally aspirated 944 for 5 years or so. I got the car with 120k on the motor and the only failure I ever had was a pinion gear on a replacement LSD diff. I ran an air-oil separator, external cooler and a large Acusump with the stock oil pump. I probably had 10 qts in the system. It ran flawlessly. I have an early Raceline wetsump that fits with the stock oil pump on the 2.3. I plan on adding an external cooler and a small Acusump after the break in. I'm rebuilding the engine with fresh bearings so I should be fine. I plan on keeping the redline at 7000 until I get bored and rebuild it from 200hp to 250-260 or so. Then I will add the dry sump etc.

In what was the engine originally installed? The balance shaft was only stalled in the cars, not the trucks.

In order to remove the bolt holding the pulley and timing ring to the crankshaft, is it sufficient to just install a long enough 10x1.5 bolt in the alignment pin hole on the side of the block to hold the crank or is it still necessary to use the bar across the pulley as well?

Duratec. Damned auto-correct!

As I go about building my first Duratec (2.3l), I am trying to find out what differences exist between the standard pump and the "high output" one. Does anyone have any factual information regarding the differences? is there any external dimensional change? TIA

The balance shaft assembly weighs 18 lbs or so.

All of the necessary info was on the focus fanatics site. Not a big deal. The Cosworth BS delete kit is about $40 and simply seals the oil supply port once the BS are removed.

Thanks. I'll search over there.

I understand that the Duratec has a balance shaft. Is this removed in the course of a rebuild for our purposes? Ramifications? Sorry but the search function isn't working.

I would imagine that I could achieve the same clearance with a few (?) carbide disks if I wasn't concerned about esthetics. Hmmmm. Sawzall?

So you had to shave the right side and bottom of the case? Was this a 5 speed or 6 speed?

Bernie, Thanks for the explanation. I guess a concentric slave cylinder would help the clearance issue to some extent. I really prefer the Birkin chassis to the Westfield but building a Duratec is a pricey exercise relative to the Miata motor. The only reasonable part is the Suby diff. Kevin

I understand that the major issue with using a Miata engine/transmission in a Birkin is that the transmission is a tight fit. Just how tight is it?

Which 2.3l Duratecs have a balance shaft? Remove or retain?

Will a 2.3l Duratec fit in a widebody Birkin with a wet sump and the stock valve cover?

If you want a completed car, the Morgan dealer on Pico in LA has a +2 for sale. Beautiful repaint and purportedly mechanically correct. The door gaps look a bit off to me but then I'm not an Elan expert.

Well, I'm finally on board here. I am a recently retired commercial pilot and long time gearhead (just ask my long suffering wife). I have had a string of race cars over the years (FV, FF, 944, vintage FV to name a few). I've also restored few sports cars as well, in-between the track cars. I picked up a very nice '08 BMW Z4 coupe a couple of years ago but now that I have everything correct on it, all I can do is polish it. I really don't want to start modifying it, so it is up for sale. Looks like I will probably be picking up a Birkin kit in Vail in February. John was kind enough to pass on the secret logon info so that I can tap the collective braintrust here as I move forward with the project. I have also connected with the California Caterham Club (I am located in LA). They seem to be an interesting bunch as well.