Restoring #151489 - building a faux cam carrera

[Justin Rio]

Best of luck on your adventure Bill! I was very tempted to take you up on that offer of filling That empty seat going down to Santa Fe. Have a great time! Justin

[Bill Sargent]

You should come to the Holiday Justin! I believe there are still a few registration slots available. Even though I think I have the seat filled for the ride from Seattle, a Southwest ticket from Las Vegas to Albuquerque can not be much. And the will be plenty of folks to ride with.

Back on the Faux Cam project, I have been working with a European friend on a cool way to mount the coil packs and a better crank pulley/trigger wheel set up than the attempt shown on page 18. Hope to post some photos soon. I am also making progress on obtaining various parts needed for the cosmetic phase (metal, paint and reassembly) and will post some photos of them as well.

[Bill Sargent]

Before I left Alaska for the gig China I got the long block for the faux cam motor built by my friend Ralfy in Anchorage. I had already decided to go with a crank fire ignition using Electromotive components. This decision was driven in part by the fact that with Ibrahim's 4 cam fan shroud mounted on a pushrod motor there is not enough room for a twin plug distributor - the cap is too large a diameter and fouls the shroud. Not enough room for the Precision Matters twin distributor unit either.

You can see the problem in installing a twin plug distributor in this photo.

I spoke with Richard Clewett and Clewett Engineering and learned that they have used the Electromotive ECU with the small 4 tower coil packs in the Ford Focus racing series. He said the coil packs saturate at about 7,000 RPM, which was is more than enough for my application.

Ford Ztech coil 4 tower coil pack. Roughly the same size as a 356 single ignition distributor cap.

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Next problem was how to mount the coil packs. On the firewall would be easy, but was not in keeping with the faux cam theme, so I started thinking about some sort of bracket to mount the coil packs in about the same location as a Carrera V drive.

Later Carrera 90 degree V drive. I wanted to find a way to mount the coil packs in about the same relative location, or maybe like the earlier narrow V type drive.

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One of the great things about the Registry and 356 talk is the ability to "meet" and collaborate with people that, in pre internet days, you might not otherwise be able to make contact with. As with so many other things, I was not the only one thinking about this issue. Turns out Nigel Cousins, a Registry member in the UK, is also building a faux cam motor and was pondering how to mount coil packs. He had the idea to fabricate a faux narrow V drive set up complete with distributor bodies that would provide a place to mount the coil packs.

Nigel goes well beyond most of us with his prototyping and fabrication skills as you will see in this post and several to follow. He has cast his own version of the 4 cam gen stand for pushrod motors that mounts to 3rd piece where the generator stand and distributor would normally sit. A photo will be included later. The collaboration started out with drawings.

Drawing of the V drive, dummy distributors and coil packs done to check clearances.

Drawing of V drive mount bracket for the pushrod 3rd piece. Longer studs are used in 3 locations with threaded stand offs to mount a plate behind the crank pulley that the faux V drive mounts on. Although it came later in the process, you can also see the trigger wheel integrated onto the front of the crank pulley and the sensor mount bracket that will also be on the V drive mount bracket.

The bracket to mount the V drive is shown in the photo below. You can clearly see how Nigel's 4 cam gen stand mounts to the 3rd piece. The dimension call out on the photo was to see if the V Drive mount bracket would clear the dry sump oil pump I am using on my motor (see photos several pages back). I am using a 4" diameter crank pulley since the 4 cam fan needs to turn at a slower speed.

The V drive bracket in fact does clear the dry sump oil pump by more than enough to allow the fan belt to be changed.

Another view of the V drive mount bracket that also offers a view of how Nigel's 4 cam gen stand mounts to a push rod motor. His gen stand is pushrod motor specific and will not fit on a normal 4 cam motor like Ibrahim's will. Nigel is using a stock pushrod fan in his shroud, hence the standard size crank pulley with integrated trigger wheel.

The V drive body was made using a mold Nigel fabricated from scratch and had cast. He then did the machining.

Here you can see a partially machined V drive body mounted for a check.

Machining the V Drive Body

In the next post I will show more photos of the development process. Thanks for following along!

[Bill Sargent]

Some of the parts Nigel has cast like the V drive body while others are water cut and then machined. Below are photos of some of the raw unmachined parts.

Raw V drive casting, raw blanks for the distributor bodies, distributor clamps and the water cut mount plates that will secure the coil packs to the top of the distributor bodies

A light weight version of the V drive mount bracket

Hardware following blackening treatment

A little further along in the fabrication and macnining process. Note the braided metal oil lines that will go to/from the V drive body. Not functional, but all part of the look.

The faux distributor bodies are machined to the same diameter/specs as an original and then the height of the distributor body is set to place the plug wires coming off the coil packs at the same height as on a 4 cam motor. For those fortunate to own a 4 cam motor with the narrow V drive, Nigel's faux distributor bodies can be secured in the original V drive to allow an easy conversion to a crank fire set up. Just disconnect the T drive, remove the real distributors and install the faux distributor bodies with coil packs. Install electronics and you have a modern ignition that maintains the vintage look.

Here you see the main components with the machined distributor bodies

And here with the distributor bodies in the V drives. All the sets here are already spoken for by the small "development consortium"

And here are the V drives with the coil pack mounts installed on the distributor bodies.

Assembled V drives prior to fitting on a motor

So far this looks fairly quick and easy but countless hours were spent by Nigel both in making drawings and molds etc and also in consultation with me and Ralfy Quepons in Anchorage, the third member of the development team. Below you can see some close up details of how the unit looks on a motor.

Unit mounted on a test motor

Close up showing the oil lines and distributor clamp

The next post will cover mods to the rear engine tray sheet metal and other fit details. Thanks for following along.

[Bill Sargent]

Before we move to the sheet metal, a few more photos of the V drive on a motor.

View from the top of how the coil packs sit on the V drive

Another view of the coil pack position

Once the V drive set up was basically finished fit of the rear engine tray sheet metal had to be addressed.

Here you can clearly see how the rear engine tray sheet metal "bowl" behind the crank pulley has been cut and moved rearward by about 2 cm. New metal added in. For motors like mine that use the large external dry sump pump a smaller 4 inch crank pulley will be used and the bottom of the "bowl" will be cut off and a new section fitted to clear the dry sump oil pump.

View of my motor with the dry sump oil pump and 4 inch crank pulley. You can see why the lower part of the rear engine tray sheet metal needs to be modified.

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Another view of the installed V drives with rear engine tray

One of the small side projects undertaken was a small new sheet metal part to cover the crank pulley. Crank pulley will have the trigger wheel teeth on the side facing the rear of the car, so the thought was that a cover might prevent a nasty mishap.

Here you can clearly see the crank pulley cover sheet metal.

And a view of the crank pulley cover sheet metal without the V drive body in place

Next post will cover development of an integrated crank pulley with trigger wheel and the crank fire sensor integration with the V drive mount bracket. Thanks for following along.

[Bill Sargent]

Those of you that have followed this thread will remember several pages back a photo of the crank pulley with trigger wheel I had assembled.

My original crank pulley/trigger wheel idea was to have the trigger wheel on the back side of the crank pulley and then mount the sensor on the engine case.

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While this set up would work, it did have one problem that I learned of later during discussions with Richard at Clewett Engineering. There can be no ferrous metal parts rotating within about 1 cm of the trigger sensor. The allen bolts used to hold the trigger wheel to the pulley would need to be replaced with aluminum or titanium for this design to work. It also looked pretty "clunky". Once we got the main V drive set up complete discussion turned to where to mount the crank sensor and it became apparent that a custom crank pulley with integrated trigger wheel was the way to go. Pulleys will be 4 inch diameter made from aluminum with a steel trigger wheel mounted to the front (rear of the car) face of the pulley. Design drawing shown and parts fabrication shown below.

Crank pulley drawing. Modeled after 4 cam crank pulley but with trigger wheel integrated

Detail of trigger wheel drawing

First try at trigger wheel was a water cut version. Problem was that the teeth were not exactly square.

The solution was to change to laser cutting to get the required accuracy. Freshly laser cut parts that require only plating.

Once we had the crank pulley design complete thought turned to mounting the crank sensor. Having the trigger wheel teeth on the front of the crank pulley allows the trigger to be mounted on the V drive mount bracket.

V drive mount bracket showing location of crank sensor

And a drawing of the sensor bracket. A 1/2 inch diameter magnetic sensor from Electromotive will be used.

At this stage we are awaiting the delivery of the machined crank pulley bodies. The trigger wheels will then be fitted to the crank pulley with small inset 3mm titanium set screws (remember no rotating ferrous metal within 1/2 inch of the sensor).

Ralfy and I will be attending the Registry West Coast Holiday in Santa Fe in a couple of weeks and will have one of the completed V drive units with us for inspection. Next post will cover more on the crank pulley, trigger wheel and sensor mounting. Thanks for following along.

[Greg Bryan]

Beautiful work and very ambitious!

[Bill Sargent]

Nigel got the partially machined crank pulleys back today as well as the machined trigger wheels. May be had to see on the drawing, but the raw laser cut trigger wheels have a bevel machined on the inside edge and fit into a machined recess on the 4 inch crank pulley.

Note bevel on trigger wheel inner edge and how it sits in a recess on the crank pulley

Bevel on the inner edge of the trigger wheels is visible in this photo. Crank pulleys still need the V belt groove and the holes around the center machined in them as well as the slot for the woodruff key in the crank. 3mm Titanium machine screws with some Loctite will secure the trigger wheel to the crank pulley. Trigger wheels will be zinc or cad plated. Crank pulley will be clear anodized.

The original design for the V drive mount bracket had to be modified when we decided to make the custom crank pulley and trigger wheel set up, so the work to make them and the sensor brackets is ongoing. Once complete it will be a nicely integrated bolt on system that will maintain a vintage look for a very modern ignition system.

I Hope to see many of you in Santa Fe in a couple of weeks. I will be driving the Faux Cam out from Seattle with a group and Ralfy will fly in from Alaska. He will bring one of the faux V Drives for inspection. Thanks for following along.

[Bill Sargent]

It has been a while since my last post. During that time I had a great time at the West Coast holiday in Santa Fe, made it back to Beijing and had Christmas in Thailand. And now I am back in cold, polluted Beijing. The car ran great on the 3400 mile round trip from Seattle to Santa Fe and back. My friend Ralfy from Anchorage flew down and made the drive back with me.

Taken near Shiprock, NM on the return drive

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Ralfy and me near Moab, Utah on the return drive.

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Work continues on the V drive front. The drawing below is of the Aluminum pulley. After having the alloy pulleys machined we became concerned about the thickness of material at the bottom of the V belt groove. As the drawing below shows, we had only 2mm of material at the base of the groove. We were concerned that the stress of the belt might lead to a crack at the base of the groove, which ultimately could allow the back half of the pulley to come off. Not good on a one off part.

Alloy pulley design with chamfer to clear webbing around nose of crank area on 3rd piece.

The solution was a redesign with a DIN profile for the belt groove. The bottom is now flat with small radiuses in the corner. In addition we are changing the material to non magnetic stainless steel. The new design has a minimum thickness of 4 mm which should be good.

Stainless crank pulley design. Thickness at the minimum point noted is now a little over 4mm.

Nigel also is building in a little adjustment mechanism for the crank trigger sensor. The design below has 4 degrees of adjustment, but this is less than one tooth on the 60 tooth Electromotive trigger wheel, so we are probably going to shoot for 6 degrees. This will allow 1/2 tooth each way, which should be enough.

V drive mount plate with window and slots for the trigger sensor mount bolts to allow some fine adjustment.

Machining is in progress on the new crank pulleys at the moment. The crank pulley is the last part needed to complete the crank fire V drive set up. We also decided to do one further test. Ralfy took the V drive set up that we had on display a the WCH back to Anchorage with him and mounted it on his 55 Continental coupe so that we could do some vibration checks on a running motor at various RPMs. Nigel's design passed with flying colors - no problematic harmonic vibrations of the V drive and mount system that could impact the timing. If things work out, Ralfy may have motor at the LA Lit meet with the entire system mounted.

[Bill Sargent]

For those checking in on the thread, this post and the one immediately above are both new on 4 January 2014. While work is finishing up on the crank fire V drive units, Nigel has decided to undertake a project to make an integrated upper 4 cam cam box and intake manifold. He is working with Jenvey in the UK on the design of the intake manifold to ensure it flows properly.

This is not all about looks, the cam box and manifold are being designed to allow a fuel injection rail and injectors to be housed under the cam cover. The intake manifolds also position the carbs in the same position as on a 4 cam motor (they are further apart and higher on a push rod motor) to simplify the throttle linkage.
The series of photos below shows the mold development process. Intakes will be cast aluminum.

First version

Current version showing cam box area that will be able to house injectors and fuel rail for fuel injection.

Current version - almost vertical. Since we are using a 4 Cam fan shroud on the pushrod motor we will need to make custom sheet metal to connect the shroud to the carb area.

Current version with carb and original cam cover

Current version on a motor. You can see the difference between the pushrod intake manifolds on the left and the current "Faux Cam" design on the right.

Also in progress is the throttle linkage. Nigel is making some of the parts and Ralfy is working with Jacques LeFriant, who reproduces the majority of the 4 cam throttle linkage parts, to get the whole assembly made to fit the motors we are building.

Carb linkage parts

Thanks for following along!

[Brian R Adams]

Bill,

Could you fabricate an intake to mate a Weber 40-IDF with a '59 Super head which originally took Zeniths? (The common aftermarket "Weber" intake does not match the intake ports on the OEM heads - too large, forming a step.)

Brian

[Peter Taplin]

Hi Bill,
I have been following this thread for a long time and have to say, I love where it is going, the work you are doing and parts you are making are amazing, cant wait to see the finished products....
Not that you seem to need any further motivation.... but keep it rollin !!!
Best regards,
Pete

[Tom Tate]

Great work Bill, looks like you have everything well thought out. I was looking at that shot from the front showing the spark plug in place. Will a spark plug socket clear that casting allowing removal? Looks mighty close in that photo. You've probably already tried it, right?

[Bill Sargent]

Brian - the short answer is yes, a weber for super 90 intake manifold could be made, but the cost would be high. Jenvey's design work and the mold making run about 1500 pounds sterling. Each set of cast manifolds (not including cam covers ) will be 500 pounds with machining. We are spreading development costs over at least 5 sets, but even then it is not cheap. We do not plan to make any other kind of manifold at this time.

Peter - thanks for the compliment, but 95% should go to Nigel. All I do is supply some engineering advice and provide funds.

Tom - yes, spark plugs clear although it is hard to see in most of the photos. Best view is the photo of the motor with the pushrod manifold on the left and the prototype on the right. Blow it up some and you can see the angle of the spark plug relative to the manifold and cam box.

On the "ain't technology great front" - I am typing this on an iPhone as my driver negotiates Beijing evening traffic! And no I would not drive a 356 in Beijing evening traffic!

Thanks for following along!

[Phil Planck]

Bill
I have not been following this thread, as the title mislead me to assume it was about a Carrera engine. Just went through several years of your posts. Besides the great work and dedication to this project, you have archived a lot of good info for anyone restoring a 356. Thanks, sorry I missed you at Santa Fe. Did see your car though.