Dave A

Well if you have a classic car and break the engine in on these oils and stick to them and change it often enough they will work okay however if your engine has had newer formulations of mineral oil used in it with the latest API SJ-SM or ACEA service ratings then you will want to stick with it and are mandatory on modern engines. To jump back to an oil without the newer service ratings can cause a breakdown of the protective film that is already on the moving parts which will create alot of wear before another film is established. Over time engineers have improved the make up of engine oil which can only benefit any engine that it's used in. The make up of the oil help to clean the engine, reduce sludge (Black Death), wear etc. These oils have either the ACEA A1 (fuel economy) A2 (standard performance) A3 (high performance) or API service rating on the jug with the latest rating being SM. (SL and SJ are also still in use currently however SH back to SA are now obsolete.)

Wow! What a find. Another one comes out of the woodwork.

They might not have set the toe in after doing the rod ends and maybe it is toed in however that should affect both front tyres. You turn the screw clockwise (in) to lean it out. Have the engine at a warm idle with the choke off and slowly turn it in until it starts to run rough and then out to where you get a smooth enough idle.

Looks like it has lots of potential Bortaf. That interior looks to be in good condition. Like you said, the later ones had the black on the doors with black interior and was painted over top of the exterior colour.

So how did it go? I sometimes find it easier to turn the inside of the lighter socket (get it started with a flat blade screwdriver into one of the slots) as the piece on the rear bites into the housing too hard to get turning.

So how did it go?

Do you have a decent 1600e steering wheel?

If it is worse after a 15 minute hot soak then it is probably fuel vapourization. An insulating block may help however this can also be due to the engine running too hot or carb is just leaking fuel into engine after shutdown for some reason.

Yes the Lotus and 1600e have a different strut housing, shock shaft and spring from that of a GT. I just checked the parts book to make sure. From what I have read the Lotus and E are a bit shorter.

I didnt see anything wrong with the way you had the engine mounted to the crossmember. What seemed to be the problem with the clutch. You need to upgrade the rear brakes to GT or Capri spec.

The parts book lists a different number for 1600E.

Yup, a worn cam alone wont cause the oil smoke and it does come out the back as scary says. You mentioned it had been sitting and doesnt smoke as much as before and not using as much oil so maybe the rings were stuck and and are starting to free up. You could add an engine flush agent to the oil and run it for for 15 minutes at 1200 rpm's then change the oil. If this or the PCV valve or a new oil cap does not take care of the smoke at the valve cover and oil coming out of the valve cover at higher speeds I think the best route would be to overhaul or replace the engine. You might want to give it a bit of time to see how it is before making your decision. You mentioned a worn oil pump....a worn oil pump wont directly cause oil consumption...it will just cause poor oil pressure which if anything will cause extra wear on engine internals which I guess over time would cause oil consumption amongst other things, however, usually not the case as when oil pressure is low on an older engine the cause is usually that the bearings are so worn that the pump cannot build up pressure.

You should be well chuffed with that Steve and no you haven't taken on too much...you are doing just fine. Very nice..you will have to be careful not get any overspray in there when you paint the outside of the car. Your picture quality is very good as well.

I wouldnt bin them just yet as they will help keep the spring from snapping when turning the front wheels as was a problem on mine. Removing them alone is not going to be enough to get the proper ride height if in fact there is going to be a ride height problem. I have a couple sets of Capri srings here which arent any longer than Cortina ones-actually shorter than some of the Cortina ones but presumeably stiffer which makes sense since Capri struts are a couple inches shorter.

GB' s okay but prefer the deeper look of minilites. In this case I would go with the Lotus steelies first, GB's second, Rostyles third. The car is stunning G.O

Nice looking car Steve!

Well if she smokes after start-up after been turned off for awhile, alot of it is probably from the valve seals. What happens is that when the valve seals are bad and the engine is not running there is sufficient time for a bit of oil to run down the valve stems and into the cylinders where it is burned on start-up. As well these OHC cam engines have alot of oil splash in the top of the motor compared to a non OHC motor due to the camshaft itself throwing alot of oil around. Signs of valve seals are oil smoke after start-up, drive away, extended idle or on immediate acceleration after a long deceleration or puffs between shifts. Oil smoke that wont clear on heavy acceleration or that is worse on a long hard accel is probably rings. As mentioned before a compression test would be a good indicator to the engine condition. If you run into cylinders around 90 to 120 psi or less you know right there that the engine is getting worn out. A good one will have 130-150 psi.

To help clarify what pauln and cortinawx are saying; The wires in the picture from left to right are as follows; Heavy Brown wire goes to the ignition switch and is the charge wire to the vehicle. Brown with green stripe goes directly to generator "F" terminal Brown with yellow stripe goes to the generator light Heavy Brown with yellow stripe goes directly to the generator "D" terminal Black wire goes to earth and not needed I take it the Pinto has a Lucas or Bosch alternator. If so you will find two wide terminals on the back of the alternator and one smaller terminal. The wide terminals are the output ones and go to the heavy brown/yellow wire with it in turn joined to the heavy brown wire . It would not hurt as pauln says to run an additional wire on the other wide terminal directly to the battery-this will take some of the load off of that single brown wire. The smaller brown/green can be connected to the small terminal at the alternator with it in turn joined to the smaller brown/yellow wire. The green wire is nothing to do with the charge system as it goes to the temperature sending unit. I myself would prefer to get the electrical connector that goes onto the back of the alternator with as much wire as possible and join my wires to this. If you can get one with a long enough chunk of wires you could delete the section between the old regulator and generator and go directly to the heavy Brown wire and the smaller Brown/Yellow wire.

So it's not just a bad sealing oil cap is it? Well a better sealing oil cap with a breather tube to an oil jug hung on the inner wing as Bortaf mentioned would work for a bit.

Yup, I know what you are talking about with pulling steering in lorry tracks with too wide of tyres on these cars. I have had em all as wide as 205's or 215's over the years which were terrible. I recently bought a set of 185/70/13 which steer great and as wide as I would go. As original equipment the GT Cortina came with 165/80/13 radials in our country. As you've probably already figured out, an easy way to determine your tyre circumference when buying tyres is to multiply the width (165) by the aspect ratio (80) and you get a figure (13200) which can be compared to the figure you get when changing aspect ratios and tyre widths. 185 X 70=12950 which would be slightly smaller around...you get the idea.

:winner: :winner:

If you are still getting alot of smoke from the oil cap even with the PCV valve refitted and sucking, you may have excessive blow-by in the engine which isnt good. Blow-by means that compression in the cylinder is blowing past the piston rings into the crankcase where it escapes wherever it can, through seals etc but mainly through the oil filler cap or dipstick tube. A compression test will help determine the condition of the piston rings however if you are getting a knocking from the engine that is something else and may require tracing down with the help of a stethescope or the trained ear of a mechanic friend.

She looks alot like mine.

Did you locate the PCV valve and is it in place? If it is, is it sucking okay? Make sure the hose between the PCV valve and the intake manifold is not collapsed etc. Not sure which engine you have but if there is a hose to the top of the oil cap it is a breather tube and should be connected to something, usually the air cleaner. If this tube becomes plugged or whatever it goes to (like a little filter) is plugged, the engine will push the oil out wherever it can. If it is a venting type oil cap, make sure it is not plugged and that you can blow through the bottom of the cap.

No there is no spring to the bell housing or clutch fork. How it works is the spring inside the slave cylinder holds the rod in place against the clutch fork. If you are having problems with the clutch not releasing all the way try bleeding the system backwards by removing the master cyl cap and pulling the clutch fork all the way forewards thus pushing the air up and out of the master. Do this a few times and recheck the operation. It is much easier to force air bubbles uphill than down and out of the bleeder screw. These are self adjusting systems so no matter if the flywheel is skimmed or if you change the length of the rod it will still release the same amount as the slave cylinder adjusts to the new zero point. Actual travel in the system is determined by the bore and stroke of the master cylinder and bore of the slave. eg; a bigger slave requires a bigger master to get the same movement. This is not theoretical, it is what I have learned after screwing around with these cars for the past 30 years.