Arne's non-Porsche projects - Now a 1969 Bronco

[cgfen]

VERY VERY nice.
Do you ever read EVO magazine?
One of their editors, John Barker?, races a Capri.
There is a photo in one of the mags of his car and it seems to have 18" wide tyres on the rear!!!!!

[Arne2]

Dropped the steering rack and lifted the engine for clearance, and then dropped the pan. No serious surprises. Found one of the water outlets was massively corroded, amazed that it wasn't already leaking. A replacement and a few additional gaskets are all on their way now, as well as new rack mount bushings and a new steering coupler. While I wait for parts, I've been reviewing what I'm going to need to make the A/C work.

I've included a new pic from the day before I started tearing it all apart. Looks pretty good with the exterior and now interior largely complete.

[911-Purist]

Dropped the steering rack and lifted the engine for clearance, and then dropped the pan....a few additional gaskets are all on their way now, as well as new rack mount bushings and a new steering coupler.

The memories!

The above takes me back to the late 70s when I replaced the oil pan gasket and rubber half-moons in an attempt to keep my rack mount bushing dry.

[Arne2]

The memories!

The above takes me back to the late 70s when I replaced the oil pan gasket and rubber half-moons in an attempt to keep my rack mount bushing dry.

Yeah, the new rack mount bushings will be poly. The old rubber ones are not much different than Silly Putty™ now.

[Arne2]

A whole lotta cleanin' goin' on...

[Arne2]

And I'm back. Took some time off for a long road trip in the Cayman into the Canadian Rockies—Banff and other nearby areas. Fantastic.

Now easing back into the Capri. I've got most everything I need to get the engine back together now, as the new timing gears arrived while I was away. Hope to have it sealed back up and running by this coming weekend.

Then on to the A/C, and final details. I think the end may be in sight.

[Tom]

Wow, the Capri has a gear-driven cam? I had no idea!

[996C438]

I still remember replacing the phenolic timing gear on mine back in the day . It was February in upstate NY and I did it outside in our driveway ! Froze my a$$ off but got it done . A good portion of the teeth were gone .

Supposedly Ford used that material to keep it quiet . But constant heat cycles especially very cold temps just tears them up . Loving your updates keep them coming .

[Arne2]

Timing gears are on. Front cover on. Oil pan on. Steering rack back in place with poly coupler and mount bushings. Engine dropped back down on its mounts. New water pump installed.

Later this weekend I'll re-install and hook up the cooling system, plus the heater. That should make it drivable again.

[Latitude48]

Just found this thread. Wow does this bring back memories. I owned a 1976 Capri II Ghia V-6. Everything about that car was highly modified. The engine ran a 2.9 crank and rods, so with the overbore was 3.0 liters. The cam was a pretty potent Isky with lots of overlap, so the idle was a bit "racy" ha, ha. The exhaust ran through hooker headers (still have them as a keepsake), dual CATs, and Borla mufflers. Carburation as shown was via a custom Inglese Inductions manifold adapter using Weber DCOEs, feeding an Offenhauser manifold. I still have the carb setup. Also shown is the remote Canton Mecca oil filter. Still have that too.

The throttle response with this setup was amazing and the engine would easily pull 7000 rpm and would probably go to 7500 if the tach went that high, LOL. MPG was pretty bad, maybe 15-18, but it was great fun.

Sadly, with all these engine mods the Capri had great difficulty passing WA smog, so it just sat outside, slowly deteriorating. After pulling off all the parts I wanted for keepsakes, it finally got towed away in 2008. Another keepsake I never got around to installing was a new aluminum waterpump; it's still in the box.

Regarding those cam gears... yes, they did have an issue with the early gears and many people, including me, changed to aluminum, but I eventually changed back to stock due to the recommendation of a Capri racing mechanic. It seems the aluminum gears are OK for normal street cars, but when used in racing, they can set up high rpm harmonics and also self-destruct.

Thanks for the memories, your Capri looks fantastic!