slomove Posted July 15, 2015 Author Share Posted July 15, 2015 ....Be careful using a stock disc if the engine revs over 6k. The standard type disc will disintegrate over that RPM. I have had that happen. ...... Be interesting to hear how the intake manifold works out. I hope it will not disintegrate. I have for a while dialed the cutoff back to 6800rpm. While I still enjoy the occasional spirited drive, I gave up on the track weekends for financial and health reasons (neck arthritis). So I guess the stock clutch will have to work. I have seen some race clutches for the Pinto in the $300-400 range and that is just bit rich for me now. The intake manifold was actually the smallest issue. I re-used my Weber style manifold for the Jenvey ITBs. I did mount them provisionally and made a steel wire scribe "hook" to mark the intake outline and then ground the manifold casting with a Dremel bur for a smooth transition, since the old silvertop Zetec intake openings were quite a bit smaller. But that took only an hour or so. Otherwise, a dab of Hylomar and it bolted on right away. The biggest issue was the mounting for the windage tray. I finally decided to re-use the old engine main cap bolts (they are not torque-to-yield) with the funny stud extension so that I could mount the steel tray the way it was intended. Howeven, since the SVT crank bearing caps are much skinnier than the ones of my old Zetec (and accordingly those bolts are too long) I had to use hardened spacer bushings. But so far, so good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitcat Posted July 15, 2015 Share Posted July 15, 2015 Here is a picture of my stock Focus pressure plate on recent inspection/replacement. Three mounting points (of 6) had broken off. All on one side. Thus explaining some of my shifting issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slomove Posted July 15, 2015 Author Share Posted July 15, 2015 Here is a picture of my stock Focus pressure plate on recent inspection/replacement. Three mounting points (of 6) had broken off. All on one side. Thus explaining some of my shifting issues. Jeez, how can that happen? Are the car parts nowadays so flimsy that they just fall apart or is that another example of "value engineering" and planned service life? The stock style clutch on my old engine held up for over 10 years and in the beginning I had the rev limiter set to 7200 rpm. Actually I could have probably kept using it another few years but want to replace it since the engine is out anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scannon Posted July 15, 2015 Share Posted July 15, 2015 Yikes, you were close to serious disaster Kitcat. Have you ever seen the results of clutch/flywheel explosion? I saw a '56 Chevy that happened to in the '60s. It looked like a bomb went off in the car. Driver lost both legs. Get an SPI rated clutch and flywheel if you plan on rpm in excess of 6k or install a scattershield. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Croc Posted July 15, 2015 Share Posted July 15, 2015 I like reading your posts Gert - they make me look at technical issues in different directions Have you ever seen the results of clutch/flywheel explosion? When my clutch went in the maroon car it made a big bang and lots of expensive rattling noises. Luckily the flywheel was intact and I would not have wanted that to go! https://www.facebook.com/TKAutosports/photos/a.538665846177151.1073741825.419249624785441/871124712931261/?type=1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitcat Posted July 15, 2015 Share Posted July 15, 2015 Thx Skip, that's just what my mechanic said. The car is 12 years old and that is the original pressure plate AFAIK. And it has spent it entire existence being abused on the track close to the 7K redline. I will upgrade all once winter is here and track days are over (all we could find were stock items and I was in a rush to get to NJMP). Will add scatter-shied if feasible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coffee break Posted July 15, 2015 Share Posted July 15, 2015 As a retrofit, are there Kevlar blankets made to wrap bell housings? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scannon Posted July 15, 2015 Share Posted July 15, 2015 As a retrofit, are there Kevlar blankets made to wrap bell housings? There used to be but I haven't checked for a long time. Try Jegs and the other race part suppliers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slomove Posted July 15, 2015 Author Share Posted July 15, 2015 Hey, don't scare me guys. So far I was under the impression that for my modest road driving purpose an OEM replacement part should be enough. After all, with the litigious habits in the auto industry one could expect that a replacement clutch would be designed to survive occasional rpm excursions. I just imagine a crazy 20-year old in a souped-up car with an exploding clutch that might shred the passenger seat the way the engine is located. I am not aware that happens often. So why would that be different in a Seven? I don't doubt Croc's and Kitcat's experience but suspect it may have to do with track driving habits? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scannon Posted July 15, 2015 Share Posted July 15, 2015 I guess you have to decide what your legs are worth to you. Sort of like buying a cheap helmet. Check to see if the clutch and disk you have has the SPI approved label on them or on the box. Otherwise check into a scattershield blanket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slomove Posted July 16, 2015 Author Share Posted July 16, 2015 (edited) I guess you have to decide what your legs are worth to you.... I found a few flywheels with that rating but no SFI rated clutch pressure plates or clutch sets for my size. I need a 8.5" clutch with 1"/23-spline shaft (i.e. '73 Ford Pinto) and performance clutches are anyway rare in that size with no mention of SFI. Given that the flywheel/clutch is spinning about 10 inches in front of my toe tips I guess I got to take that risk. I do have a roll of Kevlar fabric somewhere as well as Kevlar/Carbon hybrid. Maybe I just go and laminate a few wraps around the bell housing with epoxy. As for the old "cheap helmet for cheap heads" adage I am convinced this is mostly driven by marketing. While I would limit my choice to SFI rated helmets I would not bet that a $1500 helmet is always safer than a $400 helmet. It might but unless I see some verifiable test comparison I consider it smart marketing or cool design or just bullshit. There are many examples from other products types where the cheap ones actually outperform the fancy ones. Edited July 16, 2015 by slomove Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Croc Posted July 16, 2015 Share Posted July 16, 2015 After all, with the litigious habits in the auto industry one could expect that a replacement clutch would be designed to survive occasional rpm excursions. ...I am not aware that happens often. So why would that be different in a Seven? I don't doubt Croc's and Kitcat's experience but suspect it may have to do with track driving habits? I actually agree with you on this. The maroon Caterham blew the clutch because it was time after 10500 miles of previous owners hard driving. It was fairly new to me at the time so I did not have much opportunity to add my input to its blowing. It was an ex-road test car for car magazines and probably found its way to the track with them many a time plus drag strips for performance testing. The T-9, bell housing design, flywheel and clutch were designed for a much heavier car than ours. That design redundancy counts for something to my mind when you put it in a seven. Given they were used as standard in Ford Capri's in BTCC/ETCC/ATCC touring car racing globally for going on over 15 years and survived well says it should be fine for our casual road and odd track day purposes. A pure track car should consider a different approach as a wiser option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
super7guy Posted July 16, 2015 Share Posted July 16, 2015 How can you beat this value $85. http://www.speedwaymotors.com/23-Ford-7-3-4-Inch-Racing-Pressure-Plate,8585.html bolts in place of 8 1/2; requires spacing the throwout bearing closer to the flywheel. Wayne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slomove Posted July 17, 2015 Author Share Posted July 17, 2015 How can you beat this value $85. http://www.speedwaymotors.com/23-Ford-7-3-4-Inch-Racing-Pressure-Plate,8585.html bolts in place of 8 1/2; requires spacing the throwout bearing closer to the flywheel. Wayne Thanks for the link! But I am not sure of that would get me much further. Besides the fact that I would lose about 20% friction surface the bearing adaptation may be complicated. While it is a bit lighter it does not say that it can handle higher rpm. So, I guess I will just keep the regular clutch. But you guys have now scared me enough into some containment measures. I looked up the blankets but that does not convince me with the rather loosely strapped belt and no contiguous hoop. There was discussion about blankets on some drag racer forums but the recommendation was mostly to use shatterproof steel bell housings which is obviously not an option here. I will just wrap the critical area of the bellhousing with 3 or 4 layers of shockproof nylon webbing. It has almost the same breaking strength as Kevlar and at a combined 20,000 pounds I hope it may keep the shrapnel inside if anything bad should happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slomove Posted July 18, 2015 Author Share Posted July 18, 2015 (edited) So, that is now my bellhousing safety diaper. Since I had it out anyway I did wrap it with 8 overlapping windings of the before mentioned shock proof nylon webbing (1" wide, breaking strength 3800 lbs), held in place by generous application of gasket maker silicone. Much slimmer than a separate blanket and probably much stronger. Not that I hope I ever need it but you guys have a way of talking people into things..... I will probably wrap it with aluminum duct tape to keep the oil out. Edited July 18, 2015 by slomove Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xcarguy Posted July 19, 2015 Share Posted July 19, 2015 So, that is now my bellhousing safety diaper . . . . . 8 overlapping windings of the before mentioned shock proof nylon webbing . . . In the photo, it looks like carbon fiber. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slomove Posted July 19, 2015 Author Share Posted July 19, 2015 In the photo, it looks like carbon fiber. Nah, just black nylon strap. Actually carbon fiber would probably not be a good idea. Very high tensile strength but also very little yield. I suppose in case of a catastrophic clutch or flywheel event the retaining shell needs to give and be a bit elastic to decelerate and catch all the flying shrapnel. A rigid carbon shell may just crack at the impact point. I will re-install the bellhousing today but it is 96 degrees and humid outside. Let's see how far I get. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slomove Posted August 16, 2015 Author Share Posted August 16, 2015 Yay, the car is running again. Unfortunately much too hot here in SoCal right now to really enjoy it. The "new" SVT engine started at the first attempt and the ECU maps were not that far off (which I would have expected, given how close the performance specs of old and new engine are). Two tuning blats with the wideband lambda logger fixed the difference. I had to come up with a new alternator bracket and belt tensioner due to the different pulley locations and the old MSI alternator kit no longer available. It ended up a bit like a blacksmith job but it seems to work and has better pulley wrap angles than the MSI kit. And I suspect it is ample strong and not so fatigue-prone like my old alternator configuration. My new clutch scatter shield (Nylon webbing). I slathered it generously with gasket maker silicone for oil protection: Alternator bracket: New serpentine belt and tensioner: Everything back in place.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now