I’ve started stripping the Cosworth T5 gearbox as it had play in the input shaft (even though it didn’t when it went in a few miles ago!) and a very noisy fifth gear. Likely it’s just bearings that need replacing.

One of the bearings is a Timken 28577 / 25821 – the rest I’ll have to look up. The input shaft bearing is new anyway, I changed that when I replaced the input shaft.

EDIT: The SKF Part number for this bearing is 25877/2/25821/2/Q

Anyway, the gearbox is partially apart. Next week I’m off work, so I’m probably going to get on with it then – I really want the car back together! Only getting to drive it a few miles sucks!!!!

Well, really user error! I’ve never put a stop on the clutch pedal to limit the throw of the hydraulic release bearing, and now it’s come to bite me in the ass! The bearing over-stroked and was crooked in it’s bore and so was very tight. It couldn’t be moved by hand at all!

Oh well. Had to take it apart to find out that this had happened, and the bearing piston was solid in its bore! *Sigh* – Won’t be going to Germany in it in a few weeks now!

The Manta is once again ready for a test drive. Everything is together and working okay. No oil leaks, and nothing getting too smokey. I warmed it up with some fresh petrol to check everything and waited for the cooling fan to kick in. Everything seems perfect, so hopefully that’s how it’ll drive!

Broom, Broom!

EDIT:

Chris, The coolant system is using a Davies Craig EWP115 electric water pump. The coolant system is arranged as below. I will get a few photos for you in the next post. Thanks for your interest!

I finished bolting everything back on the engine, and started with a few extras like a cold air feed and exhaust manifold shields as the under bonnet temperatures last year were a bit keen!

After checking everything over it was time to start her up again. First checked fuel pressure – all was good and no leaks. Then checked oil pressure with a drill on the dry sump pump while the belt was removed, again all was good and no leaks. The coolant system was quickly filled and bled, and AGAIN no leaks! Very unusual! lol

Started up using the fuel that’s sat in the tank for the best part of a year and she burst into life. Missing quite a bit, but pretty responsive and definitely working okay whilst not chucking oil, fuel or coolant all over the place so I’ll class that as a win!

So now it needs some fresh fuel, and a new set of plugs and we should be all good.

The rest of the exhaust needs fitting as does the prop and some gearbox oil would be nice too! Then it’s just mechanical handbrake and the final checks for MOT things that need to be done before I can drive it down to the MOT station to get a ticket. Can’t wait!

I’ve been putting it all together, it’s coming along!

Having now modified the subframe to clear the sump fittings (just!) I managed to get the engine back in, and looking a bit better too.

The exhaust manifold’s wrapping was looking a little past it’s best:

So I decided to wrap both manifolds again with some new wrap…

I also decided that the hose that interfered with the subframe was too risky to use and it had got a proper beating. So I decided to remake it with some new hose just to make sure:

I also remembered that I had bent a rose joint on one of the engine mounts when I took the engine out after Germany last year, and so I replaced it. I tested to see if it would bend back straight:

I refitted the exhaust manifolds. The manifolds had been blowing a bit at the manifold flanges, so I decided to give a bit more sealing with some assembly putty this time round and see if it made any difference:

Then it was time to get the engine back in place:

Et voila!

Now to start hooking everything back up and get her started up again. Can’t wait to get to drive it again! Woooooo!

Whilst trying to get the last bolt in the engine mounts and wondering why everything was a bit too solid to let me get it in, I noticed that the new JIC hose on the sump was interfering with the subframe:

So I had to remove the engine again to modify the subframe to clear the hose. But at least it’ll give me the chance to re-wrap the exhaust manifolds properly before I put it in again at the weekend.

Got the engine back in with the sump finally fitted. So hopefully everything else can be fitted back together pretty quickly and the car prepped for Germany.

I leak tested the sump with some screen wash. I mainly just wanted to leak test the hose fittings which are an O-Ring seal. They are the weakest point really.

The leak test was a go – no problems with the sump. In fact, nothing at all leaked, so hopefully this sump will actually be dry!!

No problems with leaking here! So after the leak test I made the hoses up. It surprising how much room JIC hoses can take as the minimum bend radius is quite large and the fittings are huge. But after a while I came up with this:

So long as the sump misses the cross member and steering rack, and the hoses miss the cross member, and engine mounts it should be good. They only way to find out is to fit everything onto the actual engine and get it in position to find out if anything interfere’s…

et Voila! Nothing appears to be interference fit. It is also pretty close though! I call it precision engineering, but other’s might refer to it as luck! Anyway, the engine mounts are fitted and it appears to all line up okay. Just got to fit the spherical joint spacers in the mounts and I can start fitted everything else that was removed for re-painting the engine bay. Seems like there is quite a lot left to get done before Germany!!! Got to get this thing MOT’d again soon.

Been doing some more work on the new dry sump pan. Namely, I welded on the scavenge channel, which went pretty well. It’s definitely sealed! The welding went really well

Machining

I machined the scavenge channel out of the flat plate:

Also changed the scavenge fittings from hose + jubilee fittings over to be -10 JIC/AN fittings:

The dry sump pan main section is now fully welded. All I need to do now is test for leaks in this part of the welding, and then I can weld the scavenge channel on and machine the pan so that the scavenge channel will actually receive oil!!