Smokey Ford Sabre 250 - Page 5

Rokraider · 30 October 2012, 22:08

It is tempting to start with something less archaic, but the challenge is to try and improve things with a blend of a good solid engine with a few modern tweaks. I believe that the basic mechanics are solid and well made and as such if set up and maintained properly should give good reliable uncomplicated service. Well I live in hope!

doggypaddle · 31 October 2012, 09:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rokraider

It is tempting to start with something less archaic, but the challenge is to try and improve things with a blend of a good solid engine with a few modern tweaks. I believe that the basic mechanics are solid and well made and as such if set up and maintained properly should give good reliable uncomplicated service. Well I live in hope!

It should be good and reliable when its all done. when I was in college we had one in a fordson major. it had an injector pump off a 14 litre turbo engine, in addition to a Major-mec pump and extra injectors, no intercooler and about 100PSI boost pressure, that sort of held together!! the clutch usually didn't

Rokraider · 01 November 2012, 13:53

Block may be buggered, but at least the new updated pump is back and ready to. It has had a smoke box / boost capsule fitted and has been rebuilt and set for 250 BHP.
Replacement block is having head face skimmed new liners installed and main bearings line honed. Hope to collect that next week.
Have sourced a good secondhand standard crank that is ready to go and having new pistons machined to get the compression ratio correct.
Slow progress, but at least i am starting to go forward.

Rokraider · 26 November 2012, 14:54

Collected the scrap block today. The block has a crack between the liner and the cooing jacket on N05 cylinder. They gave all the liners a light hone and it was obvious that there was something wrong visually as there was an area on the liner that the hone wasn't cleaning up (you can see the area in the picture inside the liner). When it was measured it had a 5 thou distortion in the side wall. They pushed the liner out and found a crack in the block. You can see the witness mark left on the outside of the liner in the other picture. we are not sure whether the block cracked from freezing or getting hot. Probably not caused as originally thought by a bad installation of the liner. Anyway the block is scrap!
Collecting the new one this week that has had the head face skimmed, new liners fitted and new pistons with the higher 14.7:1 compression ratio that should help with smoke at idle. Hope to start re assembly shortly. Have been busy stripping, cleaning and painting all the bits that will be going back on. Still got a lot to do.

Rokraider · 16 December 2012, 16:43

Finally making some headway. Have got another block which has been faced and had new liners fitted. Cleaned and painted, replacing all the core plugs, but so far it looks very clean inside the water jacket and nothing much came out when I steam cleaned, so hopefully this be a good one. Fitted the crankwith new shells and the cam and followers. Cam bushes look almost new, so no need to change them.
Have now got all the head work done, had all new valve seat inserts fitted as the old ones had been cut so deep that there was hardly any seat left for the valve. Once the new springs arrive, I will get the head assembled. All the othe ancillary parts have been stripped and some are now back together and ready to fit back on. Having new small end bearings pushed into the con rods and honed to the correct tolerance and then it can have the pistons installed in the block. Hopefully going to have an un interrupted week over christmas to finish assembling the lump and then plan to let it run on the stand for a few days before fitting it back in the RIB, to check for leaks etc.

Rokraider · 30 January 2013, 09:30

Finally made some more progress. Engine is back together (minus ancillaries) and has now been run up for a short period. Ended up having a new custom turbo as well. It has taken a long time to get all the correct parts organised, there were lots of variations of this engine it turned out.
Fired it up and watched my yard, workshops and most of the village disappear under a thick cloud of acrid smoke. I used lots of oil everywhere when I assembled it, so I was expecting it to smoke a bit. Once I have rigged up a radiator, the plan is to leave it running outside for around 40 hours and just let everything settle down. Then onto a dyno before being put back in the RIB. Looking to set it up for 250 -275 BHP. They will apparently go up to 320.
Now need to track down a new or good secondhand tail section for the Hamilton 273 jet drive.

Rokraider · 30 January 2013, 10:42

Not sure what happened to the sound?

captnjack · 30 January 2013, 19:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rokraider

Not sure what happened to the sound?

I got sound. I thought this rebuild was supposed to fix your smoke problem? :P

Rokraider · 14 March 2013, 16:17

Well I have come to an impasse. The engine has got approx 20 hours running on it on the test bed. It struggles to get up to temperature with no load being able to be put on it. It runs sweetly enough, but the fumes are a killer. I think it will be fine under load, but most of my time will be spent pottering around dinghies as a Safety Boat. I don't want to be permanently engulfed in the fumes and I do not want to inflict them on the sailors either. The engine would be great in a displacement hull where it has to work, but it is not going to work for me in the Pacific. So I have made the decision to sell this engine on and am now considering a Perkins Sabre M265 or 300. I help maintain Hayling Rescues RIB and that is fitted with one of these. Nice and quiet and no fumes to talk of. It is quite a bit bigger overall, but should fit.
So if anyone is looking for a Ford Sabre 250 for their boat, I will have a nice freshly rebuilt one for sale shortly.

doggypaddle · 14 March 2013, 17:35

20 hours off load wont do it any good. it needs a good run under a decent load.

DJS · 14 March 2013, 18:09

You must load it or you will wash the bores and you'll have oil everywhere, load it up- work it hard and all you need to is keep your eye on the temperature!

Rokraider · 14 March 2013, 18:19

Agreed, but it will spend a lot of its time idling off load in the RIB. It will be fine under load, but that is not what I will be doing most of the time.

DJS · 14 March 2013, 19:40

There is a distinction to be made between intended use and what you need to do after a rebuild. In essence you must ensure the liners do not become glazed. Put her to work now!

Rokraider · 15 March 2013, 17:26

I appreciate that the bores can glaze etc, but when the Ford Sabre technician / specialist advises me that it will always be smokey when pottering about, I feel I am wasting my time with this engine. So it is going.