papak

I know mine was a 10mm hex. It's a common VW tool. Mine is probably 50 years old from my FV days.

I completed my Birkin in the spring of 2015. I am up to about 5400mi. now, right around that 1000 mi/yr. I'm planning on getting out for a blat through the Malibu hills this Sunday morning but will probably lay off for a couple of weeks after that as I am getting immersed in painting a couple of helmets. The problem I have is that nobody in my family has the remotest interest in my "gearhead" interests. I am bemusedly tolerated by all of them, wife included.

Pretty accurate article.

Did I see an a/c unit under the dash?

Tom is a straight shooter, very experienced with these cars and a pleasure to deal with. Pulling the motor isn’t that big a deal after you’ve done it a time or two. I’ve considered building a second motor as I come upon the desired components, maybe over a year or so. The “ in and out” is only a day or two doing it by myself, less with an extra hand. Talk to Tom about the turbo he did for a customer. It might be what you’re looking for.

I was going to head out on Sunday morning but my wife has playing tennis now (gggrrr). I finally got convinced to wear a helmet on the freeway. A friend had a 2x4 come through his windshield recently. As we all know, driving a 7 gives you a fresh appreciation for the debris on the road surface as well as a great view of the surface defects. I'm also running Brooklands windscreens. The hardhat seems a little racey and assuredly is "cop-bait" but it is definitely safer and more comfortable. I tried it a couple weeks ago on a two hour blat. It was the longest I had worn a helmet since Nam.

When I built my Birkin in 2015, I opted for a 2.3l. The 2.0l is slightly lower in height, probably by an inch or so. As far as I know, the 2.3 and 2.5 are the same height. The weight difference is negligible between the three displacements. You can just squeeze the larger displacement motors under the bonnet on the Birkin but you are better off getting a low profile cam cover from Tom Carlin, the US Distributor. He had a number of them made locally and it is a nice piece, well machined and true with the necessary rubber seal. As to power output, you will find that the larger bore motors put out a noticeably great amount of torque. Investigate the cheaper HP gains to be had before cranking up the compression. I stayed with the stock crank, rods and pistons and use 7,000 rpm as a redline. If correctly bolted together, this remains a safe, reliable motor. I did add Crane Stage 1 cams (should have opted for the Stage 2 cams) and a set of 48mm Jenvey ITBs. Make sure you use a motor from the Ford Ranger. No balance shaft, saving 40 lbs of rotating mass I am told over the Mazda motors. I am using a lightened flywheel from Exedy (for the Ford Focus application). 12.5 lbs compared to 19.7 for the stock one. I use a Davies-Craig electric coolant pump. No internal load from spinning the water pump. This is worth 5-7 HP at the high rpm range. As you start to raise the compression ratio, you start to get into other issues. You will probably want to get the crankshaft keyed. Higher compression pistons need forged rods as well as a forged crank. As you can see, the cost per HP goes up quickly. A Ford T-9 transmission is probably what you will run. You will need to change the gearing, regardless of the engine configuration. Make sure you use a good LSD in the diff. With as much power as these cars have, at 1200-1300 lbs, they are undriveable without a good LSD. If you are in SoCal, you can take a close look at my car and get a little seat time as well. PM me.

I have a 40a alternator on my Birkin. Several years ago, I ran into a similar problem where due to a heat wave in SoCal, coincident with my driving to an event on surface streets in LA. My car uses an electric coolant pump as well as both low and high pressure fuel pumps. As usual, I managed to hit nearly every red light as it started to get dark. With the lights on, they would go dim at idle with all of the other electrical load. Voltage was dropping to 12 or so (without accurate testing, we only presume that a new VDO gauge is accurate). In order to keep the coolant temp reasonable, I had to resort to manually idling at 1500 rpm as well as killing the lights when stopped at a light. All in all a bit nerve wracking. Afterward, the alternator tested perfect on the bench. I eventually changed all of the lighting to LED, revised the programmed settings for the coolant computer and raised the idle to 1000 rpm. I also avoid long trips across town in hot weather at night. Haven’t had a problem since. Correctly engineer the electrical loads to the extent possible. Have an auto electrical shop bench test both the alternator and volt meter. You may want to change the size of the pulley and adjust the idle for an event like that. Good luck.

I don't recall ever seeing one with the full bodywork before. Nice!

John, Thanks so much for all then effort. All good from this end except for having to update(change) my password. Probably due anyway.

One year we all towed from central Connecticut to St. Jovite for the first PCA Club Race up there. Lynn was ahead of us by an hour or so in the cop car. We passed through a construction zone and the cop regulating traffic said that a fellow officer had passed through an hour previously and they just stopped construction to let him through! When we met up in Canada that night, he said he was averaging 80 all the way. Maybe he’s on to something.

I had a friend back in Connecticut who purchased a used Pennsylvania State Police cruiser (Chevy Impala) as a tow car for his Porsche. Yes, it had 200k on it but the oil had been changed every 3000 miles. Big brakes, fresh Goodyear RSAs, HD cooling system, AC that would ice the inside of the windshield, the whole police package. The hard plastic rear seat was easy to remove to fit in the various tool box and spares and the trunk was cavernous. He left the antennas on top and never got stopped on a road trip as far as I know. $2500!

2012 Nissan Frontier. Basic, simple (to the extent that is available) and tows a 7 well. Every family needs a pickup and mine is ours. It’s headed up to San Francisco today to move my grandson back home for his final semester at SFSC. Had a new windshield installed recently due to pitting (75k on it now). Even the neighbors borrow it occasionally. I plan on holding on to it until a reasonably priced electric pickup becomes available. Who knows, maybe I’ll convert this one.

Finally had enough time to dig out a couple of pics (sorry but my editing skills are a work in progress). In the first one, a cutaway view of the tail shaft, it is obvious that the shifter enclosure is a dry area. In the second picture, the sheetmetal alignment bracket for the selector shaft "locking ring" (more accurately the reverse selector ring) is to be seen attached to the bottom of the top cover. A circular bump with a 1/16" vent hole is located immediately above this bracket. This location prevents gear oil from being slung out under operation. This invariably coats the top of the cover with a fine mist of gear lube over time (apparently an essential component of Ford's anticorrosion program). If you should choose to install a proper vent line, mounting the necessary bung in this bump-out serves to allow only pressure, not mist to enter the vent line.

Nice doors!

With a flashlight and patience, you can locate the fill hole with the cover off. You might try one of the inexpensive iPhone boroscopes. As Croc said, Ford designed these gearboxes to be lubed for life. While you may experience an eventual input or output shaft seep, it will most likely not prove significant.

I use a bit of silicon brake grease. Chris advised to stay with the plastic shifter saddle. It is cheap to replace if it shows wear and last a long time anyway. I have heard of a couple of fellows using a hole saw to cut an access opening into the side of the transmission tunnel to gain access to the side plug. They are mounted in an elongated "boss". Earlier cases have the filler lower, later cases have it higher. The lower hole allows .98 liter, the higher 1.25 liter.you can get more in the lower hole by jacking up the drivers side of the car.

Don't fill through the shifter opening! You will just end up with a puddle on the floor. There is no passage into the tail shaft or main case from there. If you can, remove the top cover and weld a threaded bung into the right front corner (CAUTION! Do not move the shift lever while the top cover is off. You risk screwing up the synchronizers.). This serves as a fill port and once filled, you can calibrate a dipstick as well. Over the model years, the fill volume varied from .98 to 1.9 liters. According to Chris at BGH Geartech, 1.2-1.25 liter works best. At 1 liter, the gearbox tends to run a bit warm, especially in competition and with more than 1.25 liter, hot, expanding lube will work it's way past the shaft seals a bit. When I last had my gearbox out, I also welded a bung in the location of the vent hole (you need the underlying baffleing to ensure that you are just relieving pressure) and added an AN-3 vent line that runs forward about 12" and upward another 6". Bone dry gearbox exterior now.

My fueling inconsistencies pretty much went away when I fabricated a cold air intake (ahead of the radiator through a foam filter). Intake air temp becomes much less of an issue.

You have such good access that I would consider using M4 or M5 Allen heads. You could then remove them with a cordless drill in 2-3 minutes.

Expecting my new Hero8 today. A couple of questions have come up that I am getting conflicting opinions on. What is the largest SD card it will handle 128 or 256? Will it accept an external power input? Thanks

Hitting Santa up for a car cam. GoPro or alternatives?

I went the CF vinyl route. Easy to do and it has lasted a couple of years now. I cut a new panel from .060 6061 and made sure I got all of the holes and edges exactly as perfect as I could. I cut the vinyl with the backing in place about ¼” over all around. I used flush head rivets to mount the aluminum and sanded the entire surface to make sure it was as flat as possible. Clean the surface with acetone install the vinyl by rolling it in place from one side to the other taking care to squeegee the air pockets out as you go. Any remaining bubbles or wrinkles can be eased to the gauge holes pretty easily. Just finish trimming the holes and edges with an exactoknife. I considered cutting the panel from a CF honeycomb panel but the tooling is a pain in the ass to work with and the weight savings is what, an ounce? When I get home tomorrow, I’ll post a photo.

In the Duratec, the crank sits entirely above the full static oil level with a wet sump. Windage is not an issue with these engines I am told. I have wondered, however, if applying a low surface tension coating to the non-pressurized walls might help a bit for track use.

Contact Tom Carlin (tbox56 on this forum). I'm sure he can help you out.