2.9 V6 Engine Rebuild - A few questions

[King Fisher]

My son is rebuilding his 2.9 V6 Cologne engine. His list so far is:

Full top and bottom end gasket kit; piston rings; bearings, dizzy, leads, ignition coil, and perhaps a new starter. However, he's having real trouble finding a steel timing gear for the 2.9? He can find one for the 2.8, priced at just over £160, but nowhere does one that will fit the 2.9 it seems. Any advice is much appreciated, as he'll be cracking on with his rebuild in the next week,

Thanks,

Tony

[Barkychoc]

He'll have a hell of a job finding one as its a timing chain on the 2.9

[King Fisher]

Barkychoc said:

He'll have a hell of a job finding one as its a timing chain on the 2.9

Hi Barkychoc,

Does it not have a timing gear at all then? He's been told that it's a fibre/nylon one as standard, and that it has a habit of breaking off teeth?

[phillpot]

King Fisher said:

My son is rebuilding his 2.9 V6 Cologne engine. His list so far is:

Top of my list would be a Haynes Ford Granada manual,(plenty on Ebay usually) this will give him a wealth of information, torque settings, clearances etc etc.and show difference between 2.8 with timing gears and the 2.9 with timing chain.
Will also explain how to tighten head bolts correctly, they should not be re-used, buy new ones and personnally I'd not re-use old big end bolts either.


Why not post over on the S forum, may get bigger response ?

[Barkychoc]

As Mike says post on the S forum - you'll get a much better response.
The 2.9 was only fitted to the S as far as I know.

2.8 had gears, 2.9 has timing chain.
I think the gear failures occured more in the older 3 litre essex than the 2.8 but am happy to be corrected if I'm talking garbage.

[NTEL]

Anything you need for the 2.9 can be obtained from Toovey Race and Road in Cannock. John Toovey looks after my race engine and is highly recommended. He can also give you advice on cams, timing, rings, baffled sumps etc etc. Give him go for all the bits you need.

[mep12345]

Having just sold my spare engine timing set (cogs only) to Steve j I can confirm that the 2.9 has two cogs, a chain and a tensioner. They are all steel (ex the tensioner where it runs on the chain), but there are differences in the retaining arrangement between a sierra and a granada based 2.9 engine (it is how it all locates on the cam and crankshafts).

Basically he'll need to match what he currently has.

Steve should has posted photos of the arrangement on here before, I suggest you contact him as he also tried to source and then bought mine.

If you find the cogs but not the chain and tensioner I still have those - contact me if you want them

HTH

Mark

Edited by mep12345 on Tuesday 14th December 18:51

[King Fisher]

Hi all, he's spoken to John Wade of JW Developments, who basically told him to compression test it before he decides to spend £600+ rebuilding it. John also said that the ECU is pretty much set to only run with the Ford settings for the air and fuelling, meaning it can't be remapped, so special cams, valves, etc are a waste of time unless changing to a custom ECU?

Also, my son had no idea that the sierra and granada engines were different in any way?

[phillpot]

King Fisher said:

so special cams, valves, etc

If your son is the young man I think he is (TVR***X) I suspect his insurance is astronomical on a standard TVR ?
Modified I doubt most insurers will even look at him ?

Bit of a de-coke and some bearings shouldn't cost £600 if he's doing it himself (or at college) not sure why he'd want a new distributor ? Big expense unless definate fault with old one ?


Austec Racing made a damn fine job of setting up my ECU to run with a mildly modified cam.

[grahamw48]

I've already suggested just having a compression test done first and then taking things from there.

'Blueprinting' the engine will bring very worthwhile gains without compromising Nick's insurance, especially since the current engine is likely to be down on power at that mileage.

[Ribol]

Barkychoc said:

2.8 had gears, 2.9 has timing chain.
I think the gear failures occured more in the older 3 litre essex than the 2.8 but am happy to be corrected if I'm talking garbage.

The Cologne unit did far more fibre gears than the Essex one.

The fibre gear was not a great idea, hence why they stopped it.

[TvrJohn]

I had one of those tufnol fibre gear rings explode on my old 3000m !

[King Fisher]

Hi,

Phillpot - Yes you are correct. I don't think he's modifying it, just returning it back to its original state. Surely insurers quote on the original 168bhp figure TVR quoted, whereas most cars will have lost 20+bhp over the years? So in a way, it's a modification, without the insurance going up?

Graham - He's compression testing it today with Rob.

As for the bearings and rings, here's an idea of the costs:

http://www.burtonpower.com/vp91201-std.html

http://www.burtonpower.com/vp91235-020.html

http://www.burtonpower.com/tv1270-std.html

Then a full gasket set is £190. A new oil pump has been advised too if rebuilding the entire thing. It'd soon be into the £500-£600 range without too much trouble. Pointless spending money if it's not needed!

[phillpot]

Nothing against Burton but maybe get a better deal at a reputable local Motor Factor (it is just an old Granada engine)

Or www.gasketsforclassics.co.uk ,
top end set £39
bottom end £19
head bolts £20

[King Fisher]

phillpot said:

Nothing against Burton but maybe get a better deal at a reputable local Motor Factor (it is just an old Granada engine)

Or www.gasketsforclassics.co.uk ,
top end set £39
bottom end £19
head bolts £20

wow, that is quite a difference! How come there is such a massive difference in price between the website and a motorfactors?

[grahamw48]

Make sure you get good quality head gaskets.