Thursday 21st November - Oil problem cured. Hopefully!

 Due to my recent new problem of my engine oil splashing out of the dipstick tube having me perplexed, I decided to ask for reasons of a possible cause on a couple of Cortina Mk1 and Ford Crossflow engine facebook pages. I don't normally ask technical questions on social media pages, because you tend to get about 20 different answers (and some totally irrelevant) and you still don't know what the right answer is at the end of it all. 

The main answers I received were what I expected and mainly all doom and gloom i.e blown piston rings, cracked block, cracked head etc, however, my engine is in fine fettle. It doesn't rattle, it doesn't produce fumes and it doesn't burn oil, has good oil pressure and good compression, so I discounted all of these. 

One of the questions fired back at me was 'Have you fitted an electric fuel pump and removed the manual fuel pump recently?' Which, of course, I had, so this question piqued my interest. Once engaged in conversation with the person who had asked, I discovered that the flat blanking plate I had fitted to cover the hole in the block left by the manual pump could be causing the issue. Apparently, Burton Power products manufacture one with a 'deflector' plate on which stops the oil splashing up past where the manual fuel pump used to be fitted. 

I have to admit, I was a little bit doubtful at first, as my dipstick is on the nearside of the engine and this plate would be fitted to the offside rear of the engine where the manual fuel pump was originally mounted, so I couldn't see how this would affect things. However, I then had to concede that I had only had this problem since converting to an electric fuel pump, so it was very possible. Anyway, to cut a long story short, this does indeed seemed to have cured the problem! I no longer have engine oil splashing up the dipstick tube and covering the inner wing, alternator, front axle and starter motor! A very good result, and well done to Burton Power Products! Such a simple design, but very effective. 

Sunday 17th November - North Weald Breakfast Meet.

 The weather wasn't looking too bad today, so Gavin and I decided to give this breakfast meet a go. I'd been here once before about two years ago and suffered a broken ball joint on the way home, so hopefully I wouldn't suffer the same fate this time. 

We met up at half eight and took the old A130 to Chelmsford, then the A414 towards Harlow. It was a good drive and didn't take long. I think it took nearly as long to drive all the way round the outside of North Weald airfield it's so bloody big! 

We parked up and grabbed a coffee and a bacon bap before the queues got too big. There were some interesting cars there including not one, but two Vauxhall Carlton Lotus's. 

There were some other 60's cars there as well, but not many as this is just a 'car meet' rather than a 'classic car meet'. It was a morning out though and good to get out of the house. 

We left around lunch time and had a good drive home. However, on arrival at my place I was disappointed to discover that once again, my car was leaking oil. It appeared to be coming out from around the dipstick area. Removing the dipstick with the engine running found that the oil was spraying up the dipstick tube like a fountain! Obviously something not right here then, so some investigations need to be carried out. Bloody old cars eh? 😟

Saturday 9th November - Billericay breakfast meet and Burton Engineering.

 Good friend David Harvey was visiting from Derby this weekend. When Dave visits it's normally to help work on one of my cars, but there was nothing much to do this weekend, so we were just having a chilled out time. 

We were both up and about early Saturday morning, so we decided to visit the breakfast meet at Billericay. I decided to take my Green Cortina today to make sure the electric fuel pump upgrade that I had done the day before was all in order. 

Our other friend Gavin was there in his Triumph, Keith was also there in his Mk1 Lotus Cortina and Martin was there in his Mk1 Cortina GT. There was a good selection of cars there and we sampled the breakfast there too, which was, I have to say, very good. This will be a good meet in the summer. 

Around lunch time we made a move, but instead of going home, we decided to pay a visit to Burton Engineering in Gants Hill. (Or Burton Power Products as they're known now) Dave had never been there before and I had other business with them.

 When I had purchased a set of Magnecor plug leads from them a few weeks previous, they arrived when they should have done and I had fitted them to the car. However, a few weeks later, another set arrived through the post which I hadn't ordered. Obviously an error has been made somewhere and these are not cheap, (£140) so being the decent and honest chappie that I am, I returned them to them. Now, a few people may think I'm daft giving them back, but Burton's have always been very helpful to me whenever I've been there, so I could see no reason to take advantage of their mistake. 

They were very grateful and appreciated my honesty. In fact they were so grateful that when I bought a new set of windscreen wipers for my Cortina, they gave me them for nothing. 

So, all in all, it was a very good day out and included a bit of a feel good factor by doing, and receiving a good deed. ☺

Friday 8th November - Electric fuel pump upgrade for the Cortina

 A little while ago I decided that I would replace the old manual fuel pump on the Green Cortina. There is nothing wrong with it, other than it being in a really awkward place to get to and would be a nightmare to access if you had to replace it at the side of the road. 

I had in stock a Facet electric fuel pump and a filter king pressure regulator that would be a perfect upgrade. I decided to mount the pump on the redundant battery tray under the bonnet. (The battery is located in the boot) I had already used this space for the ignition coil though, so the first job was to relocate the coil to underneath the battery tray where it was originally. 

With this done I then mounted the fuel pump onto the battery tray. Luckily, the two holes that I was left with from removing the coil were an exact fit for the fuel pump mounts, so no drilling was required. With the pump in place, I then mounted the pressure regulator/filter on the inner wing for easy access for if ever I need to change the filter.

Once satisfied that everything was in place and looked good, I then removed the old manual fuel pump. This leaves a rather large hole in the side of the engine, so I fitted a blanking plate to cover said hole and therefore not spray engine oil everywhere. 

After that it was just connecting fuel lines and wiring up the pump to an ignition live and I was done. An electric fuel pump is always a good upgrade because as soon as you turn the ignition on it will pump away and fill the carburettor up in readiness for starting, whereas with the old manual pump, the engine will be cranking away on starting for as long as it takes for the fuel to get from the pump to the float chamber on the carburettor. 

I was pleased with my days work and a few people that have seen it since have said its a tidy job. Nice compliments to receive. ☺

Sunday 3rd November - Test drive!

Not much going on this weekend, so Gavin and I decided to have a run out to Latchingdon and have breakfast at the 'On the Latch' cafe. 

I hadn't test driven the Green Cortina since putting the engine back in and having all the issues with the ignition system, so this would be a good run out for it and to make sure it was on point.

We met up at around 9am and had a lovely traffic free drive through the country lanes over to our destination. The weather was quite mild as well, so it was a good day for a leisurely drive. 

I have to say, I was really pleased with how the Cortina drove. The power is good for a 1600cc engine and it runs nice and smooth as well. I might even take it to the Billericay meet next Saturday! ☺