#xflow

25 days to be precise since my last blog post,  sorry about that, things got in the way like Christmas,  but that was OK because this happened as part of it :)  Thank you Abi my lovely other half <3 

Now equipped with a  full set of AF sockets I pressed on....

Plugs out! 

Good news,  a bit sooty  but generally in good order, nothing burnt and nothing oily  :)

Head off! Not so great,  everything is as furred up where it passes through the head gasket as I expected it to be...

Not so bad though is it does seem to be a layer of buildup rather than full right up with crud. 

Did manage to knock and scrape quite a lot of scale out of the head though,  I’m sure that will work much better now.  Other good news is the head itself looks pretty good,  no burnt valves or evident cracks or anything like that and the head gasket hadn’t blown either.

Took the sump off...

Nothing alarming in the pickup strainer although a fair bit of silicon around the sump gasket and everything on first inspection looks standard in there.

There was sludge in the bottom of the sump so I scoopped it out and had a good peer through it

More good news nothing sparkly or gritty in it at all it is just old oil.

Did a few other bits too  including taking off the old water pump which you may recall I said was a bit crunchy when i tried to turn it so I bought a new one.   Well for the record here’s the inside of the old one....

I think I should explain the plan here...

Ford 100e was made in 1960 with 1950s and 40s mechanicals.  The engine is a 1200 sidevalve engine, it won’t pull the skin off a rice pudding.

As it won’t pull the skin off a rice pudding, the gearbox and rear axle are made of something no stronger than cheese and putting more than about 40 bhp through any of it will cause bits to break very quickly.

Thus to put more power in the front, the whole drivetrain needs replacing.  There’s a number of ways of doing this  but I have some specific requirements most people don’t have.   The most important being I like the wheels that are already on it and don’t want to change them if I don’t have to.  Why is this important?   Well, the Ford 100e’s wheel fitment is 4 x 5.5″ pcd....  used only on the 100e and caravans and trailers up to the mid 1970s.  Nothing else used them, nothing....  nothing at all.

Commonly, modifiers want a choice of wheels and the easiest way to get this is to replace the rear axle with a later 105e Anglia axle.  This is an inch narrower and carries the very common Ford 4 x 108 pcd hubs.  Match this up with some Consul Capri or modified escort front suspension legs which also gives you a  front disc conversion.

What I need is a number of bits from a Ford 107e - which looks like a 4 door 100e Prefect but underneath has later 105e mechanicals.  It is a hybrid of the two cars.

107e rear axle is a 100e wheel fitment with the later, stronger 105e onwards English differential.  Bolts straight in.

107e front cross member bolts straight and with 105e engine mounts will take a Ford precrossflow or crossflow engine

Ford Crossfow engine  ideally 1600cc on a 711M block for plenty of power and easy fitment

3 rail 4 speed gearbox - will fit in transmission tunnel with very minimal cutting needed - there are two kinds,  earlier ones have a forward exiting gear stick,  the later ones have a more rearward stick which causes issues with the handbrake lever

Will need to custom shorten a prop shaft and I think a 105e bellhousing and clutch setup to connect it all together.