SlickV8 Posted May 22, 2020 Report Share Posted May 22, 2020 Hi all, I'm converting my MK3 1300 to EFi with coil pack so rather than reinventing the wheel I'm wondering if anyone has a distributor blanking plate/plug? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NonMember Posted May 22, 2020 Report Share Posted May 22, 2020 You don't want a "plate". You need to retain the bottom (hidden) part of the pedestal because it holds the drive gear in mesh and that's also where the oil pump is driven from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlickV8 Posted May 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted May 22, 2020 thanks for the heads up. I'll look into that further Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpitFire6 Posted May 23, 2020 Report Share Posted May 23, 2020 Hi, You are looking for the red plate? Cheers, Iain. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlickV8 Posted May 23, 2020 Author Report Share Posted May 23, 2020 Oh wow. That looks so nice!! Yes that plate is what I’d imagined. So have you simply removed the distributor and bolted a plate over the hole or is there some element of the distributor shaft still in there? thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Lewis Posted May 23, 2020 Report Share Posted May 23, 2020 you have to be careful with this idea the endfloat on the gear inside is critical, the base of the pedestal is also a bearing for the gear to run in the pedestal gaskets are used to/shim get the endfloat correct Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpitFire6 Posted May 23, 2020 Report Share Posted May 23, 2020 Hi, here is a clear one. Below it is just the single cam to oil-pump deal. The gear mesh & rotation causes the gear to pull down. I did wonder about the clearance thing as only have the standard paper gasket on it. Should I add or remove gaskets? There is a witness mark on the underside, but nothing I can feel with the fingernail. If I should be setting a correct clearance I would love to know-how? Cheers, Iain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted May 23, 2020 Report Share Posted May 23, 2020 I’m quite surprised you haven’t had problems with that Ian. The distributor pedestal should be left in place as it holds the oil pump drive gear down. Just don’t turn you engine backwards. On sons Spitty EFI I turned a stepped bung with an o-ring groove and it just pushes into the hole left by the distributor. Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpitFire6 Posted May 23, 2020 Report Share Posted May 23, 2020 Hi Nick, What problems might be possible? I can only control how far it rises & it doesn't appear to rise after ten years of use. It's been a few years since I painted it red and have not checked the underside since then. I will be checking it in the near future as I want to fit a prox sensor so I can run sequential injection. Should I be concerned? What should I be concerned about? Mines a 6 cyl CP block. Thanks, Iain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Lewis Posted May 24, 2020 Report Share Posted May 24, 2020 to stop a lot of tappet type noise the gear endfloat/lift is controlled at 0.003" to 0.007" the basic idea is you fit the orig pedestal without any joint, measure the face gap with feelers, add joints/shim to achieve gap + 003/007" how you do that with a flat plate ....not easy and im sure without one in front of me the pedestal has a bearing bore at its lowest point to support the skew gear if thats not fitted what controls the gear ???? Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted May 24, 2020 Report Share Posted May 24, 2020 The original extends downwards 20 - 25mm and has a machined ring to act as an “up-stop”. Tolerance set as Pete describes above. With the flat plate there is nothing to stop the gear climbing out. I take the point that the direction of gear cut pulls the gear down in the normal direction of rotation, but given that both cam and oil pump are oscillating loads, some gear chatter is likely. Also, should the engine get turned backwards for any reason (not very common I know.... but...) the gear will tend to climb out of mesh and disengage from the oil pump drive. It won’t necessarily re-engage when engine turns the correct way again. Bad things will happen. So, though clearly a low probability event (Ian has run for 10 years like this), it would be a high consequence event. I wouldn’t do it like that, I’d leave the pedestal undisturbed and simply plug the hole leaving the engine mechanically unchanged. Nick 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted May 24, 2020 Report Share Posted May 24, 2020 Pic of the plug in my son's Spit I have also seen people use a standard core plug (freeze plug in US). Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Lindsay Posted May 25, 2020 Report Share Posted May 25, 2020 12 hours ago, Nick Jones said: Pic of the plug in my son's Spit I have also seen people use a standard core plug (freeze plug in US). Nick Simple solution, when you think of it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mjit Posted May 25, 2020 Report Share Posted May 25, 2020 I went for an even simpler approach - I left the dizzy sat there. Sure it probably saps a little bit of engine power but does help confuse people when I open the bonnet, as "no dizzy" is easy for the brain to spot but the fact the plug leads don't actually connect to it, less so. Also means swapping back to coil/points can be done at the road side if things go wrong...but not had any issues in getting on for 10 years and don't even know if there's still a coil/points in the boot any more! This does get the lockdown 'tinker' devil going though - could strip out the mechanical advance mechanism and save maybe 0.001BHP! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Posted May 25, 2020 Report Share Posted May 25, 2020 On our mk3 we have megajolt, and there was no dizzy (but I can't remember how it was blanked off, probably a plain flat plate) However, the car had an electronic tacho, which didn't suit. So chopped a (very worn) delco dizzy to keep the cable drive, araldited a 10p piece on the top and fitted that to drive the correct tacho. Bonus is it correctly locates all the engine gubbins. And confuses people.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted May 25, 2020 Report Share Posted May 25, 2020 You could also use it as an extra breather take-off point. Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpitFire6 Posted May 25, 2020 Report Share Posted May 25, 2020 Hi, I am a little concerned now about my red cover. The gear inside might have been modified. Five or so years ago I can remember removing it and posting a picture of it on Sideways with some questions. I do remember not being concerned. I remember no more.. I have just ordered a 1.5MM sheet of PTFE that I will fit under the plate & monitor. I will also now positively lock the two screws as I can see if they unscrew, the engine is toast. The car is not with me and stuck at a garage until it’s safe to pick it up. So I can’t check or measure anything unfortunately. The possible chatter concerns me as I planned on fitting an 8mm inductive sensor for sequential injection. No good if the 1mm clearance becomes -0.1mm & the sensor is decapitated. Under the plate is crankcase pressure? I could certainly use another path. Velocity is too high through the ½” one on the fuel-pump plate. Cheers, Iain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpitFire6 Posted June 5, 2020 Report Share Posted June 5, 2020 Hi, I have found a picture of what is under the red cover plate. What do you think? Cheers, Iain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpitFire6 Posted June 5, 2020 Report Share Posted June 5, 2020 Hi, Picture off EBay. I can understand the concern about the gear moving! Obviously mine is modded to stop it bouncing. Cheers, Iain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahebron Posted June 7, 2020 Report Share Posted June 7, 2020 On 23/05/2020 at 21:22, SpitFire6 said: Hi, You are looking for the red plate? Cheers, Iain. Hi Iain Bit of a thread hijack but where did you get your HT leads from? I have an Edis 6 to go onto my Vitesse 6 but as yet do not have any leads. Coil caps look the same as yours. Adrian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Posted June 7, 2020 Report Share Posted June 7, 2020 On 05/06/2020 at 18:57, SpitFire6 said: Hi, I have found a picture of what is under the red cover plate. What do you think? Cheers, Iain. That should do the trick. Iexpect there is a small gap, and the spacer will virtually never be in contact with the plate. So all looks fine.(to me at least) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Posted June 7, 2020 Report Share Posted June 7, 2020 12 minutes ago, ahebron said: Hi Iain Bit of a thread hijack but where did you get your HT leads from? I have an Edis 6 to go onto my Vitesse 6 but as yet do not have any leads. Coil caps look the same as yours. Adrian Sorry to interrupt. There are 2 generations of ford coilpack, at least with te 4 cylinder cars so I fully expect the same with the six. On my spitfire, I used original ford leads, but removed the huge spark plug rubber boot thing and replaced with angled plug ends. Plug ends are available all sorts of places. (mine from Mr Retro leads) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahebron Posted June 7, 2020 Report Share Posted June 7, 2020 Yep same on the six and I see that Iain has the big clumsy type that I have on my coil pack. Adrian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave2500 Posted June 7, 2020 Report Share Posted June 7, 2020 Chris Witor sells the blanking plug. Part number 126784A https://www.chriswitor.com/proddetail.php?prod=126784A Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpitFire6 Posted June 7, 2020 Report Share Posted June 7, 2020 6 hours ago, ahebron said: Hi Iain Bit of a thread hijack but where did you get your HT leads from? I have an Edis 6 to go onto my Vitesse 6 but as yet do not have any leads. Coil caps look the same as yours. Adrian Hi Adrian, They are from http://www.magnecor.co.uk/ . I told them end to end lengths I wanted and what style plug end I wanted. The coil ends were the requested Ford Gen1 ends. Originally I purchased a couple of sets 90's Mazda carbon leads with Ford Gen1 Ends. They were mostly too long , so I cut the plug ends & fitted NGK Type R screw-on plug ends. Periodically the carbon leads would fracture/breakdown internally. I wanted a set that would never breakdown & has low EMI/EMR because of my ECU. Hence the Magnecor KV85's. I have used the lifetime guarantee once. If I have to request a warranty again I will not waste my time, but just purchase a new lead. Cheers, Iain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now