Tappets.. Hydraulic or not?

[Ceejay73]

Ok since this question has come up a few times and I happened to be down at a mates garage today I decided to have a thumb through the autodata book to see if it shed any light.
Guess what.. IT DID!
It would appear from said book that you can tell if you have hydraulic tappets or not from the engine number.

• Note: this is information on the Ford 2.9 V6 engine and Ford data rather than anything from TVR (cos we all know how accurate that can be).

Right to start with you can tell whether the engine was destined to be a Sierra or Granada engine.

The Sierra 2.9 1st two digits of engine number were all B4.
Granada 2.9 were all BR.

Then the Third digit is where it gets interesting.
Sierra Engine B4Axxxx-xxx had solid lifters.
B4B(or)Cxxxx-xxx hydraulic lifters. (all made '89 to '93)
Granada Engine BRCxxxx-xxx had solid lifters. (made '86 to '93)
BRD(or)E(or)Fxxxx-xxx hydraulic lifters (made '86 to '94)
So basically unless your engine number starts with B4A or BRC it should have hydraulic lifters in.

• another note. The engine number on my car documentation from TVR is just Dxxxx-xxx. ie missing the first two letters but when I looked at the engine itself the BR prefix is there, making mine a BRD engine with hydraulic tappets.

Hope this helps some of you guys decide whether to start twiddling things or not but please note the disclaimer below.

Carl.

Disclaimer: I do not know this information to be 100% accurate as it is quoted straight from the autodata referance book and as such do not accept any responsibilty for any damage caused as a result of this information.

[Woody]

Great post Carl

Thanks for the info.

Although just checked mine and am now confused.........

Full engine number is: CVG629 D1199-7

So I have no idea what I've got

Chris

Edited by Woody on Tuesday 19th June 21:33

[doddze]

transit van????

[chrischat]

I can almost hear the click of umpteen bonnet catches as folk try to find their engine numbers.
Just for the record mines DO938 BR552 so I guess its a granny lump but the guy must have hit his thumb with the hammer and missed a digit out.

[Ceejay73]

Woody- Theres always one isn't there? There I was hoping I may have solved the identification problem and you drop a great fat fly in the ointment. Could your engine have been a full recon at anytime and had ID changed at that point? Just a thought.
Chris- the number stamped on mine is D0938/567 in a hap hazard fashion with the BR bit below (stamping the numbers was obviously the idiots job). But all the digits appear to be there in both cases.
If all the bonnet catches are going and people reply atleast we will then know if this info on the number scheme seems to be reliable and its just Woody thats odd!

Carl.

[Sweet Thunder]

Just to confuse you guys a bit more:

[enter mode]
According to the 'Ford Service Training' manual from 1986 there are three engine numbers:
- a three? digit engine code on the side of the block
- a five? digit serial number just below the engine code
- a three? digit day code, stating the day the engine was built, stamped just above the waterpump

Mine has a five- or six digit engine code (CVG62x), an eight digit serial number, and I can't read the day code.

According to the manual the first digit in the engine code states engine capacity (A:2.4, B:2.9).
The second digit states if the engine is built for catalysts or not. This is the interesting part, because the same manual states that the engines with catalysts have hydraulic tappets, engines without catalysts have solid lifters. (R: EFI, V: EFI with catalysts)
The third digit gives the vehicle type.

I've also noticed that most TVR V6 engines have blue valve covers. Sierra's and Scorpio's have plain metal valve covers. I've been told by someone who was into Ford's more than I am, that Ford's 'reconditioned' (likely new) engines have blue valve covers. Maybe these engines got their own engine codes?
Of course this was the state when the engine was introduced in 1996, so likely codes have been added later on.
[ mode off]

My serial number starts with DO938, the engine number starts with CVG. Would this be a special four liter trick engine, built for the Apollo spacecraft ?? At least the 'V' would indicate it has hydraulic tappets.

[Barkychoc]

Its much easier with a V8 !!

[Jed-S]

Woody said:

Full engine number is: CVG629 D1199-7

I think you need to clean the block up and find the 2 missing letters

Mine is CVG621 on the top row then D093x-xxx (x being the real numbers blanked out 'cos I don't want mine cloned) on the bottom row. The last 2 digits are hard to read though.

My 91 car has solid lifters fitted. No way of telling if someone else replaced them and the cam. Certainly not been done in the last 4 years. In the XR4/Ford power world it is common for them to replace the hydraulic cams and lifters with solid ones. Also an after market cam requires solid lifters and it is possible that during the cars previous 15 years someone has messed about with them.

And while we're thinking of the engines - did anyone else find that they have the 2.8 flywheel fitted? The 2.9 flywheel is quoted as being 11kg and the 2.8 as 8kg. Therefore I purchased a 2.8 flywheel and went to fit it only to find that the one I removed was 8kg. Again this is another common upgrade done by XR4 owners so I do wonder if a previous owner has tweaked my car.

[Sweet Thunder]

Jed-S said:

did anyone else find that they have the 2.8 flywheel fitted? The 2.9 flywheel is quoted as being 11kg and the 2.8 as 8kg. Therefore I purchased a 2.8 flywheel and went to fit it only to find that the one I removed was 8kg. Again this is another common upgrade done by XR4 owners so I do wonder if a previous owner has tweaked my car.

Apparently, fitting a 2.8 flywheel is the way to make a T9 gearbox fit a 2.9 without further modifications. (Ford coupled the 2.9 only to MT75 manuals and automatics). There seem to be different versions of the 2.8 flywheel, the XR4i being lighter than the XR4x4 one. I've just bought a Xr4i flywheel to use as a basis for an even lighter flywheel, but I haven't checked the existing one.

You seem to proove me wrong concerning the CVG engine code being hydraulic...

[Jed-S]

Sweet Thunder said:

You seem to proove me wrong concerning the CVG engine code being hydraulic...

That is why I wondered if someone has messed with my engine. However nothing in the service history has indicated a hands on owner until 2003 and that one didn't touch the cam/lifters.

[doddze]

Sweet Thunder said:

Jed-S said:

did anyone else find that they have the 2.8 flywheel fitted? The 2.9 flywheel is quoted as being 11kg and the 2.8 as 8kg. Therefore I purchased a 2.8 flywheel and went to fit it only to find that the one I removed was 8kg. Again this is another common upgrade done by XR4 owners so I do wonder if a previous owner has tweaked my car.

Apparently, fitting a 2.8 flywheel is the way to make a T9 gearbox fit a 2.9 without further modifications. (Ford coupled the 2.9 only to MT75 manuals and automatics). There seem to be different versions of the 2.8 flywheel, the XR4i being lighter than the XR4x4 one. I've just bought a Xr4i flywheel to use as a basis for an even lighter flywheel, but I haven't checked the existing one.

You seem to proove me wrong concerning the CVG engine code being hydraulic...

depending on which flywheel you fit will depend if you need to machine it to clear the rivets on the clutch plate...

[Ceejay73]

Hmmm. Nothing is ever straight forward is it? Guess I will have to have another look at mine to see if I can find this CVGxxx bit when I have time. Does seem odd that the autodata book stated that the engine types were as I said indicated by the BRD or BRC etc part of the number.
Hey-Ho,
Have a good day chaps,
Carl.