Tuesday 20th October 2015

Ford Capri 3.0 S: £15K Competition Update

The rebuild progress has been a little slow...

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It's been a long time since we've heard about competition winner Matt Purdon and his Capri but, as you will read below, it's been rather complicated! It hopefully won't be so long again as progress kicks on; he wants it ready for this year's MoT... So here's the story of the past year or so, with all the updates from beforehand listed at the end. We last heard from fellow winner John Crook and his Lancia Delta Integrale back in the summer and there's more from him coming very soon.

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It's been 15 months since the Capri came to a clattering halt in a bus stop, and we're not far off a year since the last published update. With that said, someone needs to hold the phone; there has been genuine progress.

It lives! Sort of...

Let's start at the beginning, or at least when I last checked in. If anyone's memory stretches back far enough, you might recall that my stock of broken engines doubled when an eBay special ex-Super Rod engine turned up. While it was a seriously cool proposition and included the ultimate in old Ford bragging rights - "Mine's a 3.1 don't you know" - it arrived at completely the wrong time.

Blinded by man maths, my plans were rapidly scuppered by the fact I was deep in the third and final year of my degree and suffering the financial strain that entailed; before long, the majority of the engine disappeared almost as quickly as it arrived. Despite losing just shy of 100cc of displacement, a touch of compression and some pride, I did manage to keep my room paid for and tuck a few choice parts away, namely a flowed inlet manifold matched to a pair of Stage 3 cylinder heads in addition to the V63 cam I already had.

Waving goodbye to what could've been my perfect powerplant was hard. No matter how many times I reminded myself it was for the best (price up yet another block, rebore, rings, bearings, reground crank, full balance as it had no flywheel and so on) I couldn't shake the thought of how pathetic my budget was for even the most minimalistic rebuild on the original engine. It turns out student living isn't too conducive to building a notoriously expensive to tune engine. Who knew? Needless to say, it was all automotive doom and gloom as any progress rapidly stopped.

Sadly looking a little worse for wear now

From college through to the first summer holiday of uni, I worked at the local Co-Op. Not much of a point of interest, but it's relevant. During my time there, I made the acquaintance of Keith Turner, Operations Manager of Burton Power. If my memory is correct, it wasn't long after I'd first acquired the Capri, but regardless of details the main point to take from a thoroughly boring anecdote is that Keith mentioned he lived locally and kindly offered to bring parts home with him, should I need them. If anyone reading this meets me in the future, think carefully before you say things like this. Be it two weeks or two years later, I will take you up on it.

It was after 'that' burnout picture from the new tyres installment that I first gave him a call. Publicly I'd got a pretty cool shot for the story and hopefully provided a few smiles, but privately I ended up driving a car that wouldn't turn left because the diff had locked up. Still, with a quick strip down and rebuild I was (miraculously) back on the road, and had a new mate to boot. Naturally, we got chatting about the car's future but neither of us were aware of just how soon I'd be back round, sat on the living room floor playing with the dog and talking about what to do with my broken engine.

Defending the faith

Speaking at length with Keith was testament to how much knowledge lies within the company. Amongst the many 'been there, done that, got the T-shirt and a funny story about it' tales was an encyclopedia of all things Ford. Everything that should or could be tweaked or worked over, the best places to make improvements, the unnecessary money pits best avoided, part numbers, things to look out for and history lessons from the production line. No matter how many times I called round, there was something new and an immediate answer to my barrage of questions. For a relative newbie to the world of 'proper' tuning, in the days when men were men and remapping was still in the realms of sci-fi, there was a serious amount to take in and consider. One thing's for sure though, I was grateful to have people like this on hand and so willing to help out.

Without this outside encouragement, I'm not too sure what would have happened to the Capri or if it'd have ever seen the light of day again. With a renewed enthusiasm and a belief that there actually could be an end to the resurrection, many runs to and from the south coast via Ilford were made, as and when the pennies were spare, until eventually I had a big enough pile of parts and red bags to consider dusting off my old pal in the lean-to.

Rapidly becoming Matt's second home!

Fast becoming an ode to patience, as soon as I've had an offset woodruff key made to correct the cam timing by two degrees, it'll be time for final assembly before hitting the road just in time for a nice salty winter. The majority of the engine has come together, or at least is there in its component parts, but one question remains - fuelling. With some trick parts going into the build, I'd not be too surprised if this engine was approaching the standard Weber's circa 170hp ceiling, so I put that question to you in the Gassing Station; any recommendations for the next step? Holley 390? Edelbrock 500? Bored out 38dgas? Answers on a postcard please.

While timekeeping may not be my forte, I cannot wait to be back in this car - check in next time for all the oily bits, and hopefully a cruise out for an MoT... Huge thanks again to Burton Power for making the rebuild possible.

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Previous updates:
Matt explains why it had to be a Capri and how he found his dream car
The Capri project starts in earnest
Matt reports in after a summer of fun in his Capri
Burning the midnight oil
Capri goes well; stopping it is more of an issue
MoT reveals some rust ... quite a lot of rust
And it was all going so nicely too...
Engine out, time to begin hunt for a new one
The rebuild begins!

[Dr G]

If it makes you feel any better I remember as a student having to sell a really good standard 1275 and a played with 1380 (each at one point destined for my own Mini) simply because I couldn't afford the rest of the bits to bolt them in or the increase in insurance at the tender age of 19

Keep us updated, I';ve enjoyed reading so far.