10 days til brands and counting !

ok latest news… and the plan after a huge disappointment on monday being told that the existing block could not be relinered with the liner I supplied. After ringing all and sundry, the only option was to order a new liner from darton in the US but that would take 20 days min. Not an option.

Also contemplated boring out to 101mm and getting some custom pistons – again not an option in the timescales.

Also contemplated running 2.1 stroker in a CDB block or even just nailing a std ej257 casing in there and hoping for the best but neither of these engines are what I want in the car so were dismissed on the basis I didnt want to spend money on something just to get me through Brands.

So.. Mark at Lateral to the rescue with a damaged EJ257 set of block halves and Paul at Zen with some darton liners that I could then get to the machine shop for them to mate the two together. Thanks guys :thumb:

I picked up the block yesterday from mark and dropped the block and liners over at the machine shop this morning and they will be machining the block to take the ductile steel liners, then flatting the tops of the bores to be ready for the rebuild.

I will pick it up from them on wednesday next week and then go to zen to hone to block to take the new cosworth forged pistons (standard size) and bring all back to mine wed evening to start cleaning it all up (sorry in advance for the mis-use of the dishwasher rachel ) Also picking up the new dry sump pump, bits and custom tank.

Thursday – build starts. This will take all day (and probs late into evening too or maybe next day gulp)

Friday – Test fit dry sump tank into empty engine bay then slot new engine in and bolt everything up ready to fire up late friday.

Saturday – run it in and map it on the new fuel (probably while driving it down to brands in the late afternoon)

Fingers crossed there are no gotchas cos there is no room for movement in timescales

Anyway, it will end up a very strong engine with Lateral internals, ARC race shells and will be good for 700bhp + should I need it. I will continue to run on the MD321V though for this round at least as I think it is very well suited to Brands.

The other block will wait for the custom darton sleeve and will get readied for selling on as a 700bhp capable 2.5 engine.