TOPIC:

Wowowoooo. The european mustang. After the german ford T6

Hi Caprinut,

That sounds pretty cool modifications. I'm sure that your Capri will look just perfect in the Kona Blue !

Just a tad more have append since last time, manly a bit more work in the engine bay.
Have not seen the car since January since I have been ME ill for most of the time and I mostly concentrated on my own health and working towards the disability benefits which now is closer than ever.

Anyway, over to more car related stuff.

My good mate Kai is needing a engine to pass his MOT, and they won't pass his BOA engine as it's way different in design than the orginal 2.3 v6 engine.
The modifcations on his x-pack car has never been approved by norwegian road authoritys since he never have sent a engineer applications for his mods.
And the new MOT rules here in Norway has got way strickter, car needs to be standard or have the mods approved.
Kai is a bizzy man, so he will apply for the mods during next winter.

So we laid a plan for him to lend the 2.3 engine from my car as it's allready out of my car.
But my engine is very dirty and has a layer of oil everwhere, due to leaky seals.
A month ago we lend our mates trailer to transport the engine to Kai's work place as they have a steam cleaner.
Very dirty indeed.

Yours truly doing the work
Looking better allready

A whole lot better and the old paint is lifting off thankfully.
Engine will change color, Darth Vader will be entering sooner or later

Heading home again

But something had to be done as my 2.3 has worn out valvetrain due some of the former owners never seem to know what a oil change is.
It's clacking like a old tracktor and even when using the correct feeler guide, the rocker arms have major valve clearance.
Baicly the rocker arm at valve side is worn concave so the middle bit hitting the valve is worn down.
I could have grinded them down yes, but the are covered in coaxing (think that's the word) oil, basicly harden oil build up after runnig very long oil intervalls or wrong oil grade, or a combo of both.

A "good" engine came up for cheap on a norwegian selling site and it was located about 170miles west of my home.
Borrowed a mates Berlingo and set off.
Seller was a real nice chap to deal with, but he had to little time to get the to meet me in person, so a couple of his mates was at the location when I arrived.
It warmed my heart that the chap was a Capri person with no less than 6 Capris!
This was one of them

After a quick guide and a nice chat it was time to pick up the engine.
It was missing the dizzy, carb, waterpump, clutch and alternator which I unbolted from the engine as the owner needed that himself.
The rest of the stuff I allready got on my old engine.
With a hoist there was no trouble of loading the engine into the back of the Berlingo.
It was getting a bit late so me and my mate headed home.
No one could help us that night when arriving home and the owner of the car needed it the very next day.
The owner had installed carpet in back of the van so we just fitted a rope around the engine and pulled it put.
Engine just slide off the car with the carpet and landed allmost perfectly with the transport tire still present at the bottom.
Perfect job
This was last month.

As the engine sat outside my house under a trarp, (no garage) I now and then took a look at the "good" engine.
Sadly two of the cylinders had rusted so at first I could only turn it 1/4 og a turn.
But with help of vinegar into the cylinders it came little by little til it could do a full turn, by a couple of teeth on the flywheel at the time. No luck turning the engine by crank end at first.

Sadly this ended my plan to use most of this engine and transfer the rest of the missing parts from my old engine.
But not all things were bad.
The valvetrain and valve covers on this new engine looked very clean.
So the new plan was now to clean the heads on my old engine and fit the valvetrain from the new one.
Most of my old engine is complete.

And this was yesterday.
Kai picked me and the new engine up after he took with him my old engine we cleaned a while back.
Then we travled up to his old folks where his Capri is parked.

My old engine is to the left and the "new" one to the right.
BTW my old engine is a 78' and the new one is 84'

For now the engine will only be complete and fitted to my mates car.
When it comes out again it will recive a lick of paint to both engine and gearbox.
In Kai's car it will be bolted to his T9 gearbox together with his clutch and flywheel.

One thing I'm tired of it leaking valve covers and on my old engine the bolts fitted seemed a tad too long.
Some of the threads was bad as well, former owner was moron that fitted some large wooden screws at the back of the valve covers.
Luckly those idiotic wooden screws were tapered so they did not distroy the threads on the bottom of the holes.
My solution??
Fitting M6X30 grub screws with a serated flange nut
I have corret washers somewhere but they have been misplaced in storage.
Valve covers are btw from the new engine and in much better shape than the others.

After converting the valvecover bolts to stud'n nut, the next task was to remove the badly serviced valvetrain on my old engine.
Both heads and valve cover was equally badly covered

After a hour of cleaning the head and swapping over the valvetrain from the new engine, it looked like this.
Much, much better

The other side still to be done
Not as bad as the first side..

And ready to go home...
The other side of the engine will be done this week when I'm fit for it and the weather is said to be very nice this week

Some progress at least.
If I had been well and had the money, I would have stipped down my old engine completly into bits. fitted new bearings, rings and all new seals.
For now, it will reapaired, cleaned and put together to get it running.
New front and rear crankseals will be fitted, same for the valve cover gasket which is already fitted to keep the moist out.
My old engine has also new spark wires, rotor and dizzy cap that were only used the first and last season i 2012 with my car.

To remove most of the internal gunk, I will use some engine flush and a oil change.
When fitting to my car the sump will then be pulled off, and the oil pickup will be cleaned, new gasket will then be added to make sure non of the gunk is ending up in the bottom end.

I do have a freshly built 2.9 engine in storage with 250hp, but I need a bit funds to convert my car to EFI setup (estimating £600 or so)

There have been progress

My mate and his brother is doing all the bodywork and painting.
This project is taken inbetween jobs, so it takes time.

This winter there has been less work so the team has been welding and sanding,
A month ago they did the last bit of welding and sealing before paint.

And finally they started to paint bits last week.

So far they have painted under the hood, engine bay, inside doors and tailgate and doorjambs.

And lets have a closer look at the color.
This is Ford Kona Blue Metallic and are very dark in low light.
Looks about this in normal daylight.

And it really pops in the sunlight

To say I look forward to see this painted is a understatement to put it mildly
It has a bin a long time coming and I took it off the road in end of 2012.
And finally I will have a Capri in a color I have always wanted

Next task after it have been painted is where to put it??
It needs to put under a roof and preferably in a enclosed garage.
Problem I have no garage at the moment, do not know anybody with a garage or a carport that are not in use.
I'm relocating this summer to a new flat that is being built as we speak, that my bestmate is putting up.
Location is brilliant as the flat is above a garage, but the garage is not finished either.
Atm the garage is without gates and my mate have a toddler that is all the time in the garage and touching all vehicles, so he will not take the risk of damage any of the freshly body.
And he needs to finish the flat before he can proceed with the garage build, like order the 5k gates (2x double car gates).
We may have a solution at hand, but it's not ideal.

But anyway, things are looking up for me after several hard years.
Capri is maybe roadworthy within this year, new flat, my best friend and his wife next door and other stuff is falling into place
Just hope my illness is not that bad this year.
Last year was horrendous regarding my health, and the year before that.

Need to order some Capri parts now, really want to spend them on rc's, but after 8 years I think I better spend them on my Capri lol

. This blue is awesome.

The capri is one of my favourite european ford. Before the escorte and fiesta. My dad had a Taunus and an orion

Really nice progress,
I went the other way round, i started with the mechanical part and will end doing the body works as a final step.
that capri will look awesome in that blue !

Well done and pretty nice work !

Thanks fellas!

Finally the Capri is painted!
Just received this picture from the painter.

Crazy blue. I love it.

Love it