1966 Mk1 Cortina GT

6 minute(s) of a 210 minute read

I wish I found that link a few months ago - I had sparks going everywhere trying to work out each point!

Desperation and boredom lead me to clean the underside of the Cortina, I'm glad I painted her white underneath but also rue that decision as it will always look dirty - but then I would have regretted not doing it.

Armed with some meguairs, a few brushes and good intentions had it looking much cleaner - ready for getting dirty/ oily again!

It's been a busy few works outside the garage so this update is a tad belated. I have collected my cylinder head which now has new threads. The intention was to replace them for 5/16" UNC as they had been originally but once drilled for a helical insert it wasn't enough for the insert to work effectively so they're actually M8. I know it's metric but let's keep it a secret...

Before fitting the head I thought I would check the flatness of the inlet/ exhaust face as I wanted to make sure I was the best it could be, I thought this had been done when the head was being refurbished years ago but it turns out that wasn't the case...

After an hour of carefully passing some toughened glass along with some 240 grit I had the mating surface much flatter.

Whilst I was at it I also did the same for the thermostat and the rocker cover mating faces

The head was then stripped, cleaned and repainted (the photos were taken after the painting though).

Whilst the head was off I spent some time dialling the ignition timing and I'm glad I did as the pulley appears to be 2 degrees off which I've tried to compensate for this.

A chance search on eBay lead me to another weber 28/36 DCD that was far too cheap to pass up, a cautionary strip down and clean found that the carburettor had been rebuilt but never used and my original carburettor has had the jets drilled out which explains the rich running. I couldn't get a decent photo of it but it's practically 50% larger!

A day in the garage had the engine put back together and running - I shouldn't be able to do this that fast but necessity has lead me to be quite efficient at putting her back together!

The next day I decided to go for a solo tour of about 30 miles and generally she behaved well, the ignition needs retarding slightly as high load lead to a bit of pinking and I think the carburettor needs some tweaking but I think I'lll get some miles on her before seeing someone who knows more than I do.

I have a few jobs to do and some filming for the YouTubes but I have booked tickets to the Late Brake show tour in August which is a good deadline to get some of these jobs finished

6-21-2022

It's been a month since I updated this thread and in the last month I have driven nearly 400 miles which is almost as many as I did last year! Since fixing the head and changing the carburettor the Cortina has driven like a totally different car, it actually idles and doesn't turn the plugs black in seconds!

After posting last month I had a run to Tamworth for a breakfast meet which was mainly a motorway run which was a good test with no issues, I had a great time there looking at some hot rods and talking to a chap with a Lotus - no spare heads unfortunately!

With the Cortina running I have finally been able to start looking at some other projects to work on, firstly was the Desmo roof rack that I bought years ago but the plastics on it looked awful. They were either tobacco yellow or just disintegrated, some careful measuring and I have printed a new set of plastics and replaced the tired screws with stainless alternatives.

The actual fitting of the roof rack was a nerve racking (not an intentional pun) experience, having never fitted this before and cautious of crushing trim or damaging paint I took my time but it as relatively easy.

This has actually made the Cortina the most practical car that I own!

The ST has been laid up recently due to a chap pulling out on me meaning the Cortina has been performing daily duties which has been great fun and giving mid 30's to the gallon which is great considering I was lucky to get mid 20's last year. I'm now considering selling the ST and just getting something to get me around over winter.