Pinto Cam Queries

[degz]

I have a 1981 2.0L pinto in my pet car, I have bought a 1600 pinto engine with the intention of swopping the heads, smaller valves, bit more torque I have been told. The exhaust and carb manifolds should just bolt straight on. Can I have some advice on the cam. should I leave the 1600 cam in it? dont know what type it is yet. or can I put the 2.0L cam in? again not sure which cam it is but was used in the 2.0L Capri. Anything else I should be aware off before starting the swop? I have twin Weber 45's fitted and the exhaust is modified 4-2-1. Recently swopped gearbox from 4 speed to T9 5 speed. Thanks in advance for any help/advice.

>> Edited by degz on Thursday 23 March 13:46

[Mikey G]

Not sure if the 1600 has smaller valves or not but for what its worth if so the 'torque' you mention may be further down the rev range and strangle the top end. Just leave the 2.0 head on IMO.

[ngr]

You would be better off getting a big valve head with a decent cam and gain more power and torque at the same time have a look at https://www.burtonpower.com (under tech support) they have lots of pinto info and cams for sale.

>> Edited by ngr on Thursday 23 March 19:29

[love machine]

My mate has an old freshly built rally/hillclimb pinto engine/box kicking around his unit if you're interested. He bought it in a never used Fisher Fury 99.99% finished and decided to fit a blade engine. It's running EFI at the moment but is quite hairy. Special gearbox as well.

[Deltafox]

The Pinto has excessively large ports especially on the intake side which is why the 1600 head is a deffoo performance upgrade on a 2.0 litre; The port velocity goes up.

Cam selection is largely dependent on your intended usage, but to get a much better idea of what you should go for, get yourself a book by David Vizard called :"How to Modify Ford SOHC Engines".
ISBN 0 86343 0856

That will give you all the necessary info youll need to get the best out of your engine.

[grahambell]

As deltafox says, the Pinto has overly large inlet ports, so you might as well make the best use of them by combining your twin 45s with a gas flowed big valve head and fast road cam. Have run similar engines in the past with both Piper 285 fast road and Burton BLF40/41 road/rally cams. Rather flat below 2,000rpm but then pick up noticeably and pull strongly right round to 7,000rpm.

[Zad]

Couldn't you use lower lift cams on the inlet valves? Not really a suggestion as such, just a Ford owner being nosey Does make me wonder what it would be like with a variable lift cam though.

Mike

[gefopsman]

Deltafox said:

The Pinto has excessively large ports especially on the intake side which is why the 1600 head is a deffoo performance upgrade on a 2.0 litre; The port velocity goes up. Cam selection is largely dependent on your intended usage, but to get a much better idea of what you should go for, get yourself a book by David Vizard called :"How to Modify Ford SOHC Engines". ISBN 0 86343 0856 That will give you all the necessary info you'll need to get the best out of your engine.

Des Hammil does an updated pinto book which is supposed to be very good.

The 1600 head has smaller ports which will improve port velocity but you would need to increase valve size as these will be too small for a 2ltr.

Valve hieght will also need to be checked as this is critical to the valve train geometry on a pinto. A valve which is too long detracts from lift by a fair amount. A valve which is too short may cause excessive wear if the lobe runs off the follower.