ADE SAPPHIRE COSWORTH

All the parts are coming together for the Cossie’s engine build, and Ade is keen to have the Saph back in action again very soon…

It's running! No, not really... But Ade tells us it wont be long, as all the pieces are coming together ready for the rebuild.

It’s been a frustratingly long wait over that past year since I got a replacement head for the Saph. But all is back on track now as it has finally been returned to MJ Racing from the machine shop. Next up will be some porting so it matches the previous head which was sadly beyond repair. I actually hadn’t ever compared a standard head beside my own previously, so I was quite taken aback at just how much bigger the ports were. No

wonder it made such good power! Although it’s currently sitting pretty after being blasted, given a fresh skim and new guides, soon the die grinder will be attacking it! The port-work will be replicated as closely as possible on the new head, as the previous results of 460bhp more than proved how good the work was.

While I was waiting I was also on a shopping spree. Previously I ran a regular style head gasket, but with two years of hard use that was shown up as a weak point, so I was advised to go for a WRC style replacement. Cheap unbranded WRC style gaskets are available online, but I couldn’t bear the thought of an early failure for the sake of a two figure saving, so Burton Power had to be called. Nobody wants inferior, or heaven forbid counterfeit parts (been tricked before!), so the mainstay of Ford tuning parts is without doubt the place to go for peace of mind. A Victor Reinz WRC gasket was ordered along with Burton’s own extensive head set and a quality Gates timing belt. These are the main parts required for the re-assembly, so there’s no good reason to scrimp!

Looking ahead there’s a deadline I really would like to make; Driftland’s ‘Ultimate Scottish Ford Show’. Always a great day out, and this year their Ford day isn’t clashing with two other huge events, so is bound to be a top-notch season closer. My car is even on the flyer doing a burnout from 2017’s huge ‘legal cruise night’ event, so fingers crossed that come Sunday the 11th of August it’ll be back doing exactly that once again! We can only hope!

The Saph is currently sat under an inch of dust in the background, but not for much longer as Ade is keen to get the Cossie road-worthy once more QUICK SPEC MSD live map ■ Wasted Spark, closed loop L8 & grey injectors ■ Autodynamix loom ■ T38 turbo ■ Gizzmo electronic boost controller ■ GAZ Gold Coilovers ■ MC Fabrication Six degree beam ■ Fifteen52 Tarmac alloys Bits are ready for the YB rebuild Stock head v ported head .... Hmm, only a slight difference!