I brought a 3 door Cossie new in 87. Tuned and rebuilt endless YB engines. Never had a GP A head gasket fail. Probably because I paid a lot of attention to detail and had a good head skimmer 👍
Used to send a lot of stuff to Oscelli Oxford 40 years ago. Those old workshop boys are long gone now, really knew their stuff. Some were old aircraft piston boys. Top technicians.
They are reliable if the old ways when they were current are still used, 205 blocks 350 hp only with long studs, ' o' ring block to clamp fire ring better. 200 blocks and heads were better. If you wanted more hp you bored and stroke grind crank to take it to 2.4 litre, fully balance with forged pistons rods and crank. Even if head been cut open out combustion chambers to give correct compression ratio. These would give 500hp reliably, without crazy boost. The best ways to stop gasket failure was to 'o' ring block with .8 wire no matter which block it was. Plus no crazy boost. Valve issues could be overcome with changing followers for solid shimmed from audi if memory serves, and engines that were going to be revved hard 7500+ leave off stem seals lubricated stem better. Worked and tuned many of them when they current. It appears these days 'tuning' involves wind up boost increase fuel slope by a remap with no internal work. Hence they are fun for a while then boom. The old adage applies 'speed is just a question of money how fast can you go?' Too many people go cheap and it breaks. But again if you doing these, 'o' ring blocks (and heads to if big hp) it takes no time and will stop most head gasket blowing issues.
I agree fully I was in the engine machining game for over 30 years and did all the machining for Turbo Systems Castle Performance Engineering and Collins Performance Engineering, the engines themselves are pretty much bullet proof , it's the mapping that's the problem, I did my hatchback motor back in 1996, 450hp. 100 000 miles dozen track days and never missed a beat, here is a short clip of it 'on song' at Donington Park.. ua-cam.com/video/jPoqmYPUZsM/v-deo.html
@@2strokesteve yup if they built properly they are reliable. Nice vid she sounds sweet and on song, reminds me of running a BOA 400hp cosworth v6 capri in the slick 50 series many many moons ago. I really feel tuners have forgotten the basics i listed and think more boost and fuel is the way. Can still smell cutting fluid and grinding stones 20yrs after retiring!
@@chrisclarke6344 ah yes the smell of grinding suds in the morning one of those smells you will never forget 😆, my motor had pretty much everything you listed, wire ringing all balanced, group A spec cylinder head , cosworth low comp pistons 6.8:1 etc , etc ......yep you can't get the power without the fuel......👍👍
@@2strokesteve its a distinctive smell! Takes forever to get out of your skin! I feel barum would have less problems if he incorporated these things into his cosworth builds. But at a very least ring the blocks thats a must. I do wonder if they even know how to stroke grind a crank or give a cam more lift by grinding base circle Let alone checking lobes for angle lift and polydine correction in this day and age. Checking combustion chambers volumes etc etc. I currently have a jaguar xfr with 600hp before pulley and map i pulled motor stripped and rebuilt with new every thing. OCD? Probably but felt i needed to for peace of mind,ten years now and she still runs like new!
As a basic performance motor (in it's) day.they were fine,then "enthusiasts" found that they could readily wind the boost up to the extent that the Head was doing its best to pull the Head studs out of the block. They seem to forget that it wasn't far off of a standard Sierra and even back to the last of the Cortinas.
The engine block can be traced back to early 70s so technically old when cosworth got hold of it it early 80s, but still effective if built right. As you say people with no sympathy boosted the hell out of them and wondered why they grenaded themselves.
Hi. Old guy here. I remember stage 2 pinto's. Basic clearances for cylinders were close to worn out to reduce friction, give a few extra hp etc, and they were never ever expected to last 40 years and you can't just run them until they have an issue. They need regular rebuilds. Most have been ragged to hell, tuned well above their designs as you very politely stated. And no one runs in engines properly any more! I also wonder about ali heads on older cars? Lot of electrolytic stuff going on in there that can block a small 80's port. My current baby has an LT1, I am using OAT but the scum that come out of her. She's quick and noisy though ;-)
As a retired mechanic with over 50 yrs in the motor trade, brought up on Standard, Humber and BMC stuff, I didn't think that this channel would be of much interest to me. But it kept popping up as I wandered around the online workshops, I was wrong again, it is really interesting, if a bit irrelevant at my age. Have subscribed.
From what I understand that little unworn area near the parting line on the big end bearings is clearance designed into the bearing to allow for detonation, because when a bearing is exposed to the hammering of detonation they will close in, that bit of clearance lets them handle a bit of detonation before the bearing scrapes the oil off the crank and spins a bearing. Detonation is probably why you also find some rods smaller near the parting line.
Considering what power you can get out these engines at that time was unreal for a 2.0 litre turbo! Very good video on engine rebuilders for the things that go wrong after time but credit is due to cosworth at that time for a guy that could jump into an old sierra and compete with the likes of Porsche or Ferrari at that time that’s a pretty big deal!
Absolutely Chris, I remember having a ride in a 3 door upto Silverstone in the early 90s for some car show my friend had got tickes for, I'm not sure of the spec of the Cosworth and I remember the owner saying it had been to a tuner of the time, saying it had had loads done to it but we blew a TVR 420 away and a 911 of some sorts, very fast in the 80s and 90s.
@@EugVR6sounds like the journey was a blast! Weused to tune them back when current, 350 out of 205 block, up to 500 with 200 block. See my post elswhere.
@@chrisclarke6344 I text my friend about that ride, he said his mates car was tuned at Collins!( apparently the tuner is a woman now?) He said it was putting out 380hp, very quick at that time, very memorable for me because I hadn't been in anything so fast.
@@EugVR6 ah collins performance engineering, they did good jobs on them reliable hp not crazy boost that caused issues. As i said we wouldn't go above 350 on 205 blocks even then they were long studded and 'o' ringed blocks. Good engine with reliable hp if built correctly. Very quick in their day, back then i had two capris on with a 2.9BOA in for racing, and a 2.8 cologne heavily modified with 300hp for road use. Good days when tuning was hands on not just a remap. Has he still got cossie?
These engines were hammered during development and came up as reliable. The competition versions worked but had a limited lifetime. Then a tuning firm says we can do that for your daily driver which may last a fair length of time as it's not driven like a competion car on the road but start hammering it and issues will arise. Tuning firm .." Done loads of these , never had a problem ". I remember back in the day a friend telling me about having Lotus press cars having different cams rev limiter tweaked or removed, those engines were shagged when they came off the press fleet.. they were however he said immense fun ..when you're not picking up the bill.....
Very interesting video, I'm just a general diy guy with some experience and it was an eye opener that the head bolts pull so hard as to distort the block! Wow.
There were ways round that, long studding and using torque plates to bore and hone thus allowing for distortion. O ringed blocks stopped the gasket failures and finally 205 blocks no more than 350hp. Keep boost to sensible levels they will be fine. The block was early 70s tech and was an improvement on the T88 blocks. For reliable big hp the stronget 200 blocks were used with all things listed above but bored and stroked to 2.4l then you could get 500hp reliably without stupid boost pressures.
From across the Atlantic. The best engine I saw from your side was a 74 Mercury Capri - 6 cyl and 5 sp manual. I know nothing of your issues. However - who here has deleted the waste gate, and let her breath. I raise my hand. Not a gas engine - but diesels. Had a herd of them from 1500 cc-79 to a 2002. The 2002 is still running. Oil - the life blood - needs to be a religious experience - and changed every time. Or the engine meets its rebuilder, where angels fix all the bad things we did. Most are not honest about the story! Cheers all!
This was due to the ‘pig’ iron blocks. Generally, when these engine blocks were cast, zinc, & phosphorus were used to ‘ignite’ the iron, pre the lafting process. The lafting process is undeniably the most important process in casting. German/Japanese lafting processes in the same era, formed iron with a much higher renderform atom bonding composition, proving how superior their process was.
Ford should have redesigned the block when the 200 came out not just add more block thickness in the bottom of block to aid 4x4 , knowing the weakness they could have designed it so the metal at top of block was deeper for further stud or bolt inserts and made the stud holes like the center stud holes , the 2 in middle of block have towers to bottom of block and they never crack through them .... ford's fault really
Imran don’t talk utter nonsense , I am a die toolmaker and in the die casting industry for 20 years , in the older times engine blocks are low pressure gravity cast allowing more porosity in the casting , modern times are more high pressure injection decreasing porosity within the casting and we now have X-ray scanners to check for default casting as opposed to olden times was cast and it was good to go 👍
I had an argument with someone about Subaru engine reliability, I kept telling him it was because people put wrong fuel, raised boost, didn't service them regularly and thrashed them, as well as most unreliable ones are the earlier 90's models as the are really old now. Still couldn't convince him.
100k on my ej207, still runs sweet and is standard apart from prodrive package from delivery. Suppose reliability depends on how far you go from oem spec
If people treated subarus like YB’s they’d be even more unreliable, people map subarus but with cossies they just buy generic chips, run 2.5 bar of boost through a badly worn engine and often run over double the factory bhp on standard engines
in fairness ive seen subaru engines throw big end bearings at a little over 40k miles in a car that was dealer serviced with the correct oil by time as it never got to be due a service on mileage terms, and driven like it was the owners baby, by a guy in his late 40s. teh car was BONE stock. not even the seemingly obligatory 'dustbin sized noise generator' exhaust rear section
I think the Subaru engines at least the 2.5 in the WRX and STI were junk for the most part. Even brand new ones had head-gasket sealing problems. God help you if you oil starved them a little with enough cornering. They'd start rod knocking fairly easily. They were on the edge reliability wise from the factory. The 2.0's were better somewhat. In the US they later '00's 2.5's had EPA mandated mapping problems where they'd stay closed loop too long when entering boost. It was the primary cause of the broken ring-lands. All that said, my WRX is one of the very few cars I regret selling. It was the most fun of any car I've owned. I completely swapped the entire drivetrain with a wrecked STI. If you have a laptop, you can reflash these '00's subaru with open source tools.
If its done correctly they will still be reliable, problem is the techniques developed when they were current that let them hold together have all but been forgotten.
I love watching videos about old cosworth engines, as they were one of the modern turbocharged engines which set the bhp standard, fast forward to the 2000's and we have audi tt's 1.8T's running 270 bhp with 140k miles on them, engineering has come along way..
Having owned a Cosworth 3 door for 17 years i can tell you the strongest part of the car is the bonnet hinges, they are the only bit that never fail and also the most used. Those blocks should have been left in the Cortina where they belong!
@twinscroll turbo nobody but theres a lot of them out there who would fit an 800hp barra and then whinge it destroyed box and axle! They forget about cause and effect. Them barras are very good strong motors. Would have been fun to have barras back when we were tuning YBs and BOA/BOB cosworths!
The Capri is basically the UK version of the Mustang?... was this a diesel run ?? Seems like the EU loves the diesel over the petrol engine. I am actually looking for Mercedes Wagon Diesel which isnt readily avaklable in the US. Will be in the EU for 2 months this summer and want to buy, drive then ship it back to US. Also looking for a rt side drive G35..
Dick Johnson in the late 80s raced them Cosworth Sierras. Once his team figured out how to in house tune them motors, them cars would stomp out crazy power for the time. Run in was 90 hp on the dyno turbo disconnected, turbo on with 2.4 bar of boost, 680. You tube vid on that some where. I just punched in Dick Johnson, Sierra and interview and up it came.
Remember watching a documentary in the 80s, Cosworth trying to develop 4 cylinder turbo F1 engine. Used a standard Ford iron block. Built 2 engines and were then testing - 18k revs. First engine just stopped in it's tracks - 18k to 0 instantly. Rolled in second engine - same thing happened. Diagnosis of problem showed the blocks twisted, seizing the engines, they had to go back to the drawing board. FIAT 4 cylinder engines at the time in race trim were easily producing (reliably) more power than Cosworth got to on those development engines. And Cosworth had a tech logging analog data on a clipboard - at the time Toyota was using computer data logging just for engine QA - BMW using same tech as Toyota for engine development - Japanese instrumentation.
I worked for a Ford tractor dealership in the early 90’s, when the tractors arrived from the factory?we had to dyno them for hours because they had a big case of failing porous bocks, we swapped out quite a few brand new engines on tractors with as little as 10 hours.
Size distortion outside the standard thrust axis is usually due to knock or det. Those uncontrolled pressure spikes end up placing more compressive load on non standard thrust areas of the big end. Given the rudimentary knock control in the later engines (and non existent in earlier) then knock is often left uncontrolled, especially with tuned motors.
I remember the Cosworth Vegas (Chevrolet) from the mid '70s! My memory may be kinda hazy after all this time but IIRC the blocks were Aluminum with Silicon Carbide (I think) in it. No sleeves. Theory was the pistons and rings would run on the Silicon. In reality they started burning oil almost on the way home from the dealership! I remember that someone figured out a way to sleeve the cylinders. Probably made a killing!
The wear on the older Cosworths is due to Bore wash, the fuelling can’t be controlled as accurately as modern ECU’s, too much fuel is added washing the oil off the bores.
Our Donkervoort Cosi from 1991 has the first engine and never been overhaul. Imported is to drive min. 15 min. to warm the oil. We use Mobil 1 on drysump.
There's a big difference between building an engine and assembling an engine, as shown by the conrod. PEOPLE -if you don't have an engine SHOP with EVERY necessary tool, LEAVE THEM ALONE! You're not saving $$, you're just chewing up a finite resource of blocks and heads
@@davidoldboy5425 not sure about that strip all the junk off a modern engine the components are just the same as an old engine but more refined. A competant machinist with a head shop, lathe, crank and cam grinder, line hone, boring bar and honer plus a mill can do anything needed. Any engine shop will have these.
Great channel, so much info given especially to none mechanical folks such as me. These Cosworth engines seem from what we learn on the internet to be or can be quite troublesome when older OR when altered to go faster, possibly. With parts availability and cost's and labour times rising, is there any other engine out there that does what the Cosworth was made to achieve, or could be made to do, such as possibly a small block American engine at all. Just a thought.
Most reliable you're probably looking at the RB and DE series, JZ series are pretty solid and Duratec from Ford were tough donkeys too. That said, anything is reliable if you run it as intended and keep it maintained well.
In the day that's what we did, replace the gasket and them on their way. Most of the time these were V-8 cast iron blocks and heads so it wasn't very common problem.
I was at Ford Dunton test ops during the development in the 80’s it was touch and go and had head bolt issues blowing degas bottles at Nardo and cylinder wear it in reality could not complete a FMC production sign off but was OK under then SVE testing regimes remember the basis was the Pinto block over engineered at the time, still a good engine and very impressive to drive back in the 80’s - we had a whale tale on the vehicle fleet
My neighbour worked at dunton in the 80's, was telling me that until he retired in the early 00's that they ran engines for a minimum of 600 hrs flat out.....we have a 86 mk1 xr4x4 with the cologne v6, had it since 93 and at 117k miles it's still on its original water pump and engine hoses, never even had the heads off, all cylinder compressions are between 155 and 160psi....thats had its oil changed every 3k miles with fully synthetic! 5w/30
Friend of mine brought his in H reg sapphire 4x4 in 94 for £5000 and he's only ever had a misfire problem but his car has never been modified or hammered to death, It now has 81000 miles with full Ford RS service centre history. Abuse them with huge boost and I'd say engine life would be shortened drastically, as it would for most other engines.
precisely. the number of people that really believe a guy in a shed on an industrial estate knows more and spent more on R&D to make the engine reliable than the manufacturer who spend millions per DAY on R&D is laughable. if you want more power, you always sacrifice reliability in some form or other. if you want reliability, dont use it as a trailer/garage queen, dont thrash it constantly, and leave it the f*ck alone as the manufacturer intended
@@petelattimer6808 I see where you're coming from Pete but I've met some real geniuses over the year's, who work out of sheds and industrial estates, try not to tar them all with the same brush because theres a wealth of knowledge out there from some of these guys, which is very unique to this great country of ours.👍🏼🇬🇧
Because most engines when designed for 'sport' or 'power' reasons were not built for high end cars where cost wasn't a problem (not always the case). Thus they were working on a budget, materials weren't the best and they were sold at 'relatively' cheap prices, not a great combination. Once you start overstressing standard parts you have to take non standard rectification, this should not come as a surprise to you as you make a living from this? It is EASY to make an engine reliable and run many miles, diesel, change the oil, low compression, non turbo, chain driven cam, engine configuration (i.e. straight six) etc etc etc we have all learnt these lessons years ago haven't we?
I've had my saph cossie 4x4 for over 16 years and it's been reliable. It was my daily driver for the first 4 years of ownership and I was doing 40 miles a day to and from work.
My 2 litre works very hard. It is basically pulling two cars around all the while because it is in a 190 twin wheel transit van at 2400 kg empty (bt). 70 hp though, so it can stand being worked with the throttle pedal on the mat for minuets at a time just fine. My 1958 landy is 40 hp. The more you screw up the power the less time they last :o)
I can show you a pic of a transit 190 lwb semi high roof twin wheeler pulling a car trailer with Jerry vans full and a works spec escort mk2 rally car , the van had driver plus 4 passengers usually plus all tools, spares and 40 wheels on the roof and the total weight for all that was 6-7 tonnes so the v6 svo or 2.0 pinto couldn’t hack it so a big American v8 got dropped in and I mean biggggg
Had a 360 bhp RS500 Cosworth for 13 years, never gave me any problems. Drove it hard & had fun ... wouldn't have another, a lot better out there to choose from.
Get a 205 block and put the Warrior DOHC on it. Remember as an 18 year old with my Mk4 Cortina 20GL and spotting the Warrior DOHC KIT for 20 OHC. £2000 just for the head kit, oh well i just had to dream back then in 1988
I did complete disassembly of Ford ECM used in European Escorts (Mondeos and such..) years ago when i got my Ford Escort and as car nerd wanted to bust open the ECM and shared definitions on TunerPRO forums of it and i love that ECM design as its so flexible and lots of functions made me think why bother with aftermarket ECM when this does so much without people really knowing it. Anyway personally i never got to fill my dream with Cosworth one and i will not due how my life going. Anyway my one favorite car ever. Kinda surprising issue with hear bolts even ripping when they advertised how bolts are arranged in angle to prevent anything head problems when they were developing it.. maybe they went too far.. or too short. Hehe. Wanted still share i think Cosworths were one most stolen car in Finland in ratio of.. How many they have been in Finland : How many has got stolen. I heard this more than one source locally.
Good call..They are short at 128,5 m c-c...pistons are about 40,5 comp height....Ford could have done some nice 139 rods and pistons at around 30,5 compression distance but seems they had some dogmatic belief in rod/stroke ratios of around 1,62.... The longer 139 or 139,5 would have been a much lighter piston--around 310-320g, and a nicer 1.82 rod/stroke ratio. less side thrust and lighter more stable piston.
When you take an engine that was designed to be a N A 2,0 with 97 BHP then strap a cosworth 16 valve head with uprated internals bolt on a turbo you are have built in failure I worked for and on lancia cars with the 2,0 8 valve and 16 valve engines in the intergrale and the Croma I E turbo fiat and the lancia thema 16 v turbo and they would get the same problems as the cosworth due to people turning up the boost remaping with big horse power then cry when you say it's fucked and ran out of newness .
brilliant and very informative video thank you. If i could afford it i would bring my mk2 golf gti to you for a full engine rebuild 👍. I watch alot of the paul linfoot videos with adam smith on his channel, talking extensively about the cosworth cars, so your video is extremely insightful aswell 👍👍👍👍
Because people try to get insane levels of power from them and then expect them to last as long as a road engine? Same for Subaru, bulletproof until people start putting daft levels of boost through them.
I’ve heard a lot of tuners replace the lifters for larger versions, but if this is not known by the new owner it can cause serious problems that could be easily avoided?
Thanks for another a we some video! I can't believe anybody would take connecting rods apart and not resize them. I've heard some say u don't. But I say why chance it.
On the Rover K series they use through bolts and sandwich all together... can you not do that to make it more reliable or stop the stress on the block..
40 years ago I would have said not always.. In the last 20-25 years I'm not building near the numbers of engines as I was in the 80s and 90s but since 2001 only 42 engines..All 4 cylinder inline Fords (YBs, and Lima turbos, one BDG) several Cologne V4s and V6s, a bunch of Redblock Volvos, several Mitsubishi 4G62s --all known reliable engines..EVERY single one needed the blocks re-surfaces..All around .003" low in cylinders 2/3 >I do the set-ups at the machine shop and watch every one..ALL low and needed it. All these engines are 30 to 50 years old and god knows how many times they've blown headgaskets and "I just limped home (cough--17 miles with the temp needle pegged).. So like in the vid I think its owners cheaping out and getting "advice" off the intra-webz from people who have never built a single engine and think a micrometer is a welding clamp that leads to so many problems..
Yes ppl will just turn the boost up and forget that bolts stretch as well. You hit 40 to 45 pounds of boost you need studs that most likely a 1 inch in diameter to hold down that head. If you hit 40 pounds of boost I sure hope the customer has an excellent bottom end that type of boost will kill it in a hurry. Be safe.
Couldn't it just be bad engineering??? As an old American Hot Rodder, I pretty much disapprove of the over use of the Chevy LS engines, I know they have solid engineering that allows you to bolt up a huge turbo and make a reliable 1,000 horsepower from a basically stock block. I also know my limited experience with Triumph and MG engines they are pretty much made of hot cheese and wax paper.
@@petergordon4525 indeed mind you grub about in a scrapyard find a transit and get the motor the block will do the job. But i suspect they are wise to it now.
A reliable engine from the same era, which makes comparison on a level playing field, is the Toyota 3S GTE, a 2 litre toubo which isn't plagued with problems.
It's not that those engines were inherently unreliable, it's that they were & still are, so easy to over tune by just banging in a 'fast road' chip & waste-gate and then wind the boost up. Then every things great, until it's not! Hardly the fault of Ford or Cosworth that people tried to double the horsepower on the cheap and that's how they earned a 'reputation'
Me again just been watching a video on Car Trials you know them old buggers with flat caps on that bounce the cars with max revs going up hills trying to complete the sections. Just watched this one where the first comment said well done for finishing the cambelt and chain stretcher section !! You what they joke about the abuse they give them stretches the belts and chains 🤣to which I thought yeah and barum engines fixes them under warranty when they really go wrong 😂
The honda 90 and toyota diesel got their reliability through not having enough horsepower to hurt themselves. The toyota 22r has a excellent reputation and i ran mine over 500,000km but willingly admit it got there by not having enough power to pull the skin off a cold bowl of custard. If you boosted a 22r to the same level as these cosworths they would be exploding all over the place.
I love spray on hylomar. Ive used that stuff on air cooled dirtbike headgaskets that run super hot over here in Australia. Pulled heads back off after years of use to find the hylomar still tacky.
Early mk.1 950/1100 Fiestas blowing up their clutches. Vauxhall's snapping their cambelts after 20,000 miles. Head gaskets on Rover-MG k-series engines blowing after no time. All cack engines.
I going to stick up for the rover k series. Had a few of them over the years. All had a head gasket go but as a result of water pump going, hoses and a leaking rad. My last one was a MG ZT 1.8t. No probs with that one. Fuel V power ended that one for me.
Apparently the rover k series has one of the best designed 16v heads...flows very good...competition head gasket and ARP studs is the way to go...it is a good engine when put together with the right gear...
Back then tolerances were far different. Today's engines are built with CNC accuracy. A Chevy LS engine can go straight to the track without "race prep"
@@janvanv Have you not heard of blueprinting? That's what the CNC machining & other quality control methods are doing these days. Lasers looking for the slightly off stuff, things like that. Check out a video on how engines are now built, like the Corvette or Mercedes. It's a long, long ways from the old days.
theyre not unreliable. theyre one of the most reliable engines out there. the problem is when people start f*cking about with them with stupid modifications. car companies spend literally MILLIONS per DAY in R&D on ALL parts of the car. do you really think someone in a shed on an industrial estate knows better than the manufacturer? more power ALWAYS comes at a cost of reliability. a bone stock engine will probably take an instant shot of 100psi boost. for about 1/10th of a second before it grenades, does that mean that everyone should aim at that level because 'its been done' even if it blew the engine to bits? if you want it reliable, leave it STOCK and use it as intended, not just as a trailer/garage queen that only gets started to move it outside to wash/polish or drive onto the trailer, or to have the daylights thrashed out of it non stop at a trackday. Andy Rouse got 550bhp out of these engines in the 1980s BUT im fairly certain that the engine in his car didnt stay in 1 piece after every race meet, and certainly not for 100,000 miles+ like pretty much all Cosworths have done now, despite what their owners tell you. if they genuinely have low miles then theyre probably a ticking timebomb due to lack of use/short runs.
Well said see my post above, used to tune them back in the day, all mods were tested with hrs of dyno testing before even being offered to customers. We found 205s were goid for approx 350hp, 200s done correctly with bore and stroke to 2.4 would give 500hp reliably without stupid boost pressures. See my post above.
Cosworth engines are not at all unreliable Bad engine tuners, over fuelling over timing and thrashed , the bottom End is very strong I’ve had a few of them and none we’re ever unreliable
@@jasonharryphotog oil change is key, but never liked just chipping a motor without a delve into its internals to check their condition. I might be OCD but tuning motors for a living made you that way didnt want them coming back.
Its possible would need a girdle that incorporated main caps, cannot remember if bolts were aligned with main caps. Its doable but the cost would be large, but would stop pulling of threads.
@@chrisclarke6344 I don’t think you read my post properly :D But, best fix is studs are threaded in the middle and glued solid in the block. They go up to the head and down to the mains. The mains have side bolts and threaded holes to lock into the girdle sump. Then you can still line bore it easily at any time. And a head overheating doesn’t make the mains come loose.
Really, in my 39 years in this trade I've yet to see a good Saab engine, good performance yes but most if not all the ones I've seen either burn oil (blue smoke) or they're noisy (in the wrong way).
Best engine I had was a vauxhall 1.6 SOHC injection 8v. Lasted 142k with only a timing belt and oil pipe replacement. Still had the original starter and alternator 😀. It did drink a bit of oil tho and had the mayo problem (not head gasket just cold) and the thermostat was always open for some reason.
@@johnathanpearson3203 what about the non-turbo 1.8/1.9 Litre Peugeot xud diesel engines of the mid to late 1980's onwards? Now they were virtually indestructible, I had a Peugeot 205 with a 1.8l diesel that I sold and bought back several times over many years and I had its full service history from new, it only had 8 oil and filters changes and 3 cam belts in its life (nothing else on the engine at all) and was still going at nearly 486k miles when it was scraped because the body shell rusted out.
I’ve watched the videos and they seem to focus on problems with jobs, with customers and then problems when jobs are installed in cars. I’d prefer to see examples of satisfactory work, overcoming difficulties and satisfactory applications of the work.
Look at the views, this channel gets massive viewer numbers and comments on the rants about customer warranty claims and problems with jobs and comparatively small number of views for those far more interesting videos about actually building engines... which kind of video do you think they are gonna keep making?
@@HexyTech Were you elected by the those viewing the videos to whom you refer or are you their proxy or are you representing your own ideas in the guise of the ideas of others? I represented my own views so I’m on very firm ground.
@@holdencaulfield1001 Pardon? I'm merely looking at the viewer numbers on the videos these are available for all to see? The videos focusing on problem jobs are performing better based on the viewership and interaction statistics.. i expect this is why the channel owner produces more of this type of video, rather than the examples of satisfactory work which you and I would actually prefer to watch
I owned a 2wd sapphire 15 years ago, I remember it used a bit of oil, I think the most sensible thing to do today would be a full rebuild and no more than a stage 1 tune⚡😁👍
They're still far more reliable than Vauxhalls 2l turbo of the time that's for sure, those struggled running standard power.....but there's no replacement for displacement imo and I'll never part with my E55 M113k engined beast.
@@chrisclarke6344 yes i believe its 2.4 or there abouts , 38psi boost at near 8000rpm , has some nice parts fitted , they have there own facebook page..well worth a peek
I can't wait to pull my head off my 2wd cosworth engine now to see if its been played with over the yrs I know its had head work as had figures wrighten on the head when I pointed the block . It's been parked in the garage for 16 half years now so plan is to pull engine out and apart and give it a top to bottom going over 👍 May have to give you guys a call to do the work but it's not going to be looked over for awhile lol 😆 Got Kids and other toys atm buy my saph cossie not going anywhere she's my first baby 😉
and THIS is precicely WHY they give problems. theyre either modded OR they sit around not being driven all the time. that means every start up the oil has drained from EVERYTHING.
The main part of the unreliability comes from the number of people who think they can do their own work when they have no business putting their dick-beaters on ANY engine, let alone a highly tuned one.
They were based on the pinto block, the "pintosaurs " was a poor engine to begin with ,while the head flowed well it just was not terribly robust so when people start dialing more power into them a lot of work and better quality parts are needed to hold them together.
I brought a 3 door Cossie new in 87. Tuned and rebuilt endless YB engines. Never had a GP A head gasket fail. Probably because I paid a lot of attention to detail and had a good head skimmer 👍
good job.
Used to send a lot of stuff to Oscelli Oxford 40 years ago. Those old workshop boys are long gone now, really knew their stuff. Some were old aircraft piston boys. Top technicians.
The problem with the cosworth YB engine is the owners, ( from a old engine builder)
They are reliable if the old ways when they were current are still used, 205 blocks 350 hp only with long studs, ' o' ring block to clamp fire ring better. 200 blocks and heads were better. If you wanted more hp you bored and stroke grind crank to take it to 2.4 litre, fully balance with forged pistons rods and crank. Even if head been cut open out combustion chambers to give correct compression ratio. These would give 500hp reliably, without crazy boost. The best ways to stop gasket failure was to 'o' ring block with .8 wire no matter which block it was. Plus no crazy boost. Valve issues could be overcome with changing followers for solid shimmed from audi if memory serves, and engines that were going to be revved hard 7500+ leave off stem seals lubricated stem better. Worked and tuned many of them when they current. It appears these days 'tuning' involves wind up boost increase fuel slope by a remap with no internal work. Hence they are fun for a while then boom. The old adage applies 'speed is just a question of money how fast can you go?' Too many people go cheap and it breaks. But again if you doing these, 'o' ring blocks (and heads to if big hp) it takes no time and will stop most head gasket blowing issues.
I agree fully I was in the engine machining game for over 30 years and did all the machining for Turbo Systems Castle Performance Engineering and Collins Performance Engineering, the engines themselves are pretty much bullet proof , it's the mapping that's the problem, I did my hatchback motor back in 1996, 450hp. 100 000 miles dozen track days and never missed a beat, here is a short clip of it 'on song' at Donington Park..
ua-cam.com/video/jPoqmYPUZsM/v-deo.html
@@2strokesteve yup if they built properly they are reliable. Nice vid she sounds sweet and on song, reminds me of running a BOA 400hp cosworth v6 capri in the slick 50 series many many moons ago. I really feel tuners have forgotten the basics i listed and think more boost and fuel is the way. Can still smell cutting fluid and grinding stones 20yrs after retiring!
@@chrisclarke6344 ah yes the smell of grinding suds in the morning one of those smells you will never forget 😆, my motor had pretty much everything you listed, wire ringing all balanced, group A spec cylinder head , cosworth low comp pistons 6.8:1 etc , etc ......yep you can't get the power without the fuel......👍👍
@@2strokesteve its a distinctive smell! Takes forever to get out of your skin! I feel barum would have less problems if he incorporated these things into his cosworth builds. But at a very least ring the blocks thats a must. I do wonder if they even know how to stroke grind a crank or give a cam more lift by grinding base circle Let alone checking lobes for angle lift and polydine correction in this day and age. Checking combustion chambers volumes etc etc. I currently have a jaguar xfr with 600hp before pulley and map i pulled motor stripped and rebuilt with new every thing. OCD? Probably but felt i needed to for peace of mind,ten years now and she still runs like new!
@@2strokesteve i also wonder what the reaction would be to 'dry decking' with no gasket problem engines that dont want to stop blowing gaskets?
As a basic performance motor (in it's) day.they were fine,then "enthusiasts" found that they could readily wind the boost up to the extent that the Head was doing its best to pull the Head studs out of the block. They seem to forget that it wasn't far off of a standard Sierra and even back to the last of the Cortinas.
The engine block can be traced back to early 70s so technically old when cosworth got hold of it it early 80s, but still effective if built right. As you say people with no sympathy boosted the hell out of them and wondered why they grenaded themselves.
Hi. Old guy here. I remember stage 2 pinto's. Basic clearances for cylinders were close to worn out to reduce friction, give a few extra hp etc, and they were never ever expected to last 40 years and you can't just run them until they have an issue. They need regular rebuilds. Most have been ragged to hell, tuned well above their designs as you very politely stated. And no one runs in engines properly any more! I also wonder about ali heads on older cars? Lot of electrolytic stuff going on in there that can block a small 80's port. My current baby has an LT1, I am using OAT but the scum that come out of her. She's quick and noisy though ;-)
As a retired mechanic with over 50 yrs in the motor trade, brought up on Standard, Humber and BMC stuff, I didn't think that this channel would be of much interest to me. But it kept popping up as I wandered around the online workshops, I was wrong again, it is really interesting, if a bit irrelevant at my age. Have subscribed.
From what I understand that little unworn area near the parting line on the big end bearings is clearance designed into the bearing to allow for detonation, because when a bearing is exposed to the hammering of detonation they will close in, that bit of clearance lets them handle a bit of detonation before the bearing scrapes the oil off the crank and spins a bearing. Detonation is probably why you also find some rods smaller near the parting line.
Considering what power you can get out these engines at that time was unreal for a 2.0 litre turbo! Very good video on engine rebuilders for the things that go wrong after time but credit is due to cosworth at that time for a guy that could jump into an old sierra and compete with the likes of Porsche or Ferrari at that time that’s a pretty big deal!
With proper preparation you could have a sierra that would walk porsches and ferraris of the time.
Absolutely Chris, I remember having a ride in a 3 door upto Silverstone in the early 90s for some car show my friend had got tickes for, I'm not sure of the spec of the Cosworth and I remember the owner saying it had been to a tuner of the time, saying it had had loads done to it but we blew a TVR 420 away and a 911 of some sorts, very fast in the 80s and 90s.
@@EugVR6sounds like the journey was a blast! Weused to tune them back when current, 350 out of 205 block, up to 500 with 200 block. See my post elswhere.
@@chrisclarke6344 I text my friend about that ride, he said his mates car was tuned at Collins!( apparently the tuner is a woman now?) He said it was putting out 380hp, very quick at that time, very memorable for me because I hadn't been in anything so fast.
@@EugVR6 ah collins performance engineering, they did good jobs on them reliable hp not crazy boost that caused issues. As i said we wouldn't go above 350 on 205 blocks even then they were long studded and 'o' ringed blocks. Good engine with reliable hp if built correctly. Very quick in their day, back then i had two capris on with a 2.9BOA in for racing, and a 2.8 cologne heavily modified with 300hp for road use. Good days when tuning was hands on not just a remap. Has he still got cossie?
These engines were hammered during development and came up as reliable. The competition versions worked but had a limited lifetime. Then a tuning firm says we can do that for your daily driver which may last a fair length of time as it's not driven like a competion car on the road but start hammering it and issues will arise.
Tuning firm .." Done loads of these , never had a problem ". I remember back in the day a friend telling me about having Lotus press cars having different cams rev limiter tweaked or removed, those engines were shagged when they came off the press fleet.. they were however he said immense fun ..when you're not picking up the bill.....
75hp per pot maximum output or no warrenty. Competition engine lifespans are measured in hours, you'd be crazy to expect even a 3 month guarantee.
Very interesting video, I'm just a general diy guy with some experience and it was an eye opener that the head bolts pull so hard as to distort the block! Wow.
There were ways round that, long studding and using torque plates to bore and hone thus allowing for distortion. O ringed blocks stopped the gasket failures and finally 205 blocks no more than 350hp. Keep boost to sensible levels they will be fine. The block was early 70s tech and was an improvement on the T88 blocks. For reliable big hp the stronget 200 blocks were used with all things listed above but bored and stroked to 2.4l then you could get 500hp reliably without stupid boost pressures.
Why do you think the Rover K series engine had bolts that went from the top to the bottom, to address this issue, perhaps?!
From across the Atlantic. The best engine I saw from your side was a 74 Mercury Capri - 6 cyl and 5 sp manual. I know nothing of your issues. However - who here has deleted the waste gate, and let her breath. I raise my hand. Not a gas engine - but diesels. Had a herd of them from 1500 cc-79 to a 2002. The 2002 is still running. Oil - the life blood - needs to be a religious experience - and changed every time. Or the engine meets its rebuilder, where angels fix all the bad things we did. Most are not honest about the story! Cheers all!
👍🏻
This was due to the ‘pig’ iron blocks. Generally, when these engine blocks were cast, zinc, & phosphorus were used to ‘ignite’ the iron, pre the lafting process. The lafting process is undeniably the most important process in casting. German/Japanese lafting processes in the same era, formed iron with a much higher renderform atom bonding composition, proving how superior their process was.
Ford should have redesigned the block when the 200 came out not just add more block thickness in the bottom of block to aid 4x4 , knowing the weakness they could have designed it so the metal at top of block was deeper for further stud or bolt inserts and made the stud holes like the center stud holes , the 2 in middle of block have towers to bottom of block and they never crack through them .... ford's fault really
And if you check the ford Europe blocks we're possibly made in Germany so it's not what you think m8 ... its bad design
Imran don’t talk utter nonsense , I am a die toolmaker and in the die casting industry for 20 years , in the older times engine blocks are low pressure gravity cast allowing more porosity in the casting , modern times are more high pressure injection decreasing porosity within the casting and we now have X-ray scanners to check for default casting as opposed to olden times was cast and it was good to go 👍
I had an argument with someone about Subaru engine reliability, I kept telling him it was because people put wrong fuel, raised boost, didn't service them regularly and thrashed them, as well as most unreliable ones are the earlier 90's models as the are really old now. Still couldn't convince him.
100k on my ej207, still runs sweet and is standard apart from prodrive package from delivery. Suppose reliability depends on how far you go from oem spec
If people treated subarus like YB’s they’d be even more unreliable, people map subarus but with cossies they just buy generic chips, run 2.5 bar of boost through a badly worn engine and often run over double the factory bhp on standard engines
in fairness ive seen subaru engines throw big end bearings at a little over 40k miles in a car that was dealer serviced with the correct oil by time as it never got to be due a service on mileage terms, and driven like it was the owners baby, by a guy in his late 40s. teh car was BONE stock. not even the seemingly obligatory 'dustbin sized noise generator' exhaust rear section
I think the Subaru engines at least the 2.5 in the WRX and STI were junk for the most part. Even brand new ones had head-gasket sealing problems. God help you if you oil starved them a little with enough cornering. They'd start rod knocking fairly easily. They were on the edge reliability wise from the factory. The 2.0's were better somewhat.
In the US they later '00's 2.5's had EPA mandated mapping problems where they'd stay closed loop too long when entering boost. It was the primary cause of the broken ring-lands.
All that said, my WRX is one of the very few cars I regret selling. It was the most fun of any car I've owned. I completely swapped the entire drivetrain with a wrecked STI. If you have a laptop, you can reflash these '00's subaru with open source tools.
Old engines, refurbished umpteen times and pushed way beyond their original power outputs.
If its done correctly they will still be reliable, problem is the techniques developed when they were current that let them hold together have all but been forgotten.
I love watching videos about old cosworth engines, as they were one of the modern turbocharged engines which set the bhp standard, fast forward to the 2000's and we have audi tt's 1.8T's running 270 bhp with 140k miles on them, engineering has come along way..
Having owned a Cosworth 3 door for 17 years i can tell you the strongest part of the car is the bonnet hinges, they are the only bit that never fail and also the most used. Those blocks should have been left in the Cortina where they belong!
🤣🤣🤣🤣
@twinscroll turbo that would smash the t5 gearbox to bits!
@twinscroll turbo nobody but theres a lot of them out there who would fit an 800hp barra and then whinge it destroyed box and axle! They forget about cause and effect. Them barras are very good strong motors. Would have been fun to have barras back when we were tuning YBs and BOA/BOB cosworths!
@twinscroll turbo The 4x4 Cosworth Capri would still lick it. That thing liked Brabus an Holden V8s for Breakfast 🌪
The Capri is basically the UK version of the Mustang?... was this a diesel run ?? Seems like the EU loves the diesel over the petrol engine. I am actually looking for Mercedes Wagon Diesel which isnt readily avaklable in the US. Will be in the EU for 2 months this summer and want to buy, drive then ship it back to US. Also looking for a rt side drive G35..
Dick Johnson in the late 80s raced them Cosworth Sierras. Once his team figured out how to in house tune them motors, them cars would stomp out crazy power for the time. Run in was 90 hp on the dyno turbo disconnected, turbo on with 2.4 bar of boost, 680. You tube vid on that some where. I just punched in Dick Johnson, Sierra and interview and up it came.
Probably because they are in collectable cars and sit around for long periods doing nothing and when they are used they get the boot put in
Remember watching a documentary in the 80s, Cosworth trying to develop 4 cylinder turbo F1 engine. Used a standard Ford iron block. Built 2 engines and were then testing - 18k revs. First engine just stopped in it's tracks - 18k to 0 instantly. Rolled in second engine - same thing happened. Diagnosis of problem showed the blocks twisted, seizing the engines, they had to go back to the drawing board. FIAT 4 cylinder engines at the time in race trim were easily producing (reliably) more power than Cosworth got to on those development engines. And Cosworth had a tech logging analog data on a clipboard - at the time Toyota was using computer data logging just for engine QA - BMW using same tech as Toyota for engine development - Japanese instrumentation.
I worked for a Ford tractor dealership in the early 90’s, when the tractors arrived from the factory?we had to dyno them for hours because they had a big case of failing porous bocks, we swapped out quite a few brand new engines on tractors with as little as 10 hours.
Size distortion outside the standard thrust axis is usually due to knock or det. Those uncontrolled pressure spikes end up placing more compressive load on non standard thrust areas of the big end. Given the rudimentary knock control in the later engines (and non existent in earlier) then knock is often left uncontrolled, especially with tuned motors.
Gudgeon pin is offset on the 4x4 piston
I remember the Cosworth Vegas (Chevrolet) from the mid '70s! My memory may be kinda hazy after all this time but IIRC the blocks were Aluminum with Silicon Carbide (I think) in it. No sleeves. Theory was the pistons and rings would run on the Silicon. In reality they started burning oil almost on the way home from the dealership! I remember that someone figured out a way to sleeve the cylinders. Probably made a killing!
Then both Mercedes and Porsche adopted the same block material.
Oh Cool! Its Peters Cousin at PS Sound! 😉 Love the voice man! And good insight on these engines!
Just swap in a k24 Honda! These old Cosworths are beat to death, I see you like them as the are a good source of steady income.
Even a k20 would be better than the YB
@@Missed_Apex_GT a B16 would be
It was developed for racing so in road car rebuilds will be frequent especially if modified
I guess this is why the U.S. Ford used the 2.3 lima engine to turbo?
Great video, a real eye opener, particularly the partially faced block! 👍🏼👍🏼😀
Really enjoyed that,nicely and simply explained 👍🏼
The wear on the older Cosworths is due to Bore wash, the fuelling can’t be controlled as accurately as modern ECU’s, too much fuel is added washing the oil off the bores.
Our Donkervoort Cosi from 1991 has the first engine and never been overhaul. Imported is to drive min. 15 min. to warm the oil. We use Mobil 1 on drysump.
There's a big difference between building an engine and assembling an engine, as shown by the conrod.
PEOPLE -if you don't have an engine SHOP with EVERY necessary tool, LEAVE THEM ALONE! You're not saving $$, you're just chewing up a finite resource of blocks and heads
Very true, not quite so critical on older engines but a lot of specialist tools, and more importantly skill and experience required on modern ones.
@@davidoldboy5425 not sure about that strip all the junk off a modern engine the components are just the same as an old engine but more refined. A competant machinist with a head shop, lathe, crank and cam grinder, line hone, boring bar and honer plus a mill can do anything needed. Any engine shop will have these.
Great channel, so much info given especially to none mechanical folks such as me.
These Cosworth engines seem from what we learn on the internet to be or can be quite troublesome when older OR when altered to go faster, possibly.
With parts availability and cost's and labour times rising, is there any other engine out there that does what the Cosworth was made to achieve, or could be made to do, such as possibly a small block American engine at all. Just a thought.
Could you do a vid on the most reliable and robust common production engines.
Saab 2.0 or 2.3 Turbo. Gearboxes less reliable under extreme power. Engines very strong.
X-flow. Best Ford engine. Rock solid.
Most reliable you're probably looking at the RB and DE series, JZ series are pretty solid and Duratec from Ford were tough donkeys too.
That said, anything is reliable if you run it as intended and keep it maintained well.
Honda K-series
General day to day - Honda, by a absolute mile. Out of the thousand odd "normal" engines I've built (not modified ones basically) there are 0 Honda's.
Ive only seen seized engines and turbos on the 2L. Ford has the manifold and turbo seperate, while Land Rover is Manifold and turbo in one cast piece.
does the yb engine in the sierra RS500 have the same problems? i believe those are forged as standard?
In the day that's what we did, replace the gasket and them on their way. Most of the time these were V-8 cast iron blocks and heads so it wasn't very common problem.
I was at Ford Dunton test ops during the development in the 80’s it was touch and go and had head bolt issues blowing degas bottles at Nardo and cylinder wear it in reality could not complete a FMC production sign off but was OK under then SVE testing regimes remember the basis was the Pinto block over engineered at the time, still a good engine and very impressive to drive back in the 80’s - we had a whale tale on the vehicle fleet
My neighbour worked at dunton in the 80's, was telling me that until he retired in the early 00's that they ran engines for a minimum of 600 hrs flat out.....we have a 86 mk1 xr4x4 with the cologne v6, had it since 93 and at 117k miles it's still on its original water pump and engine hoses, never even had the heads off, all cylinder compressions are between 155 and 160psi....thats had its oil changed every 3k miles with fully synthetic! 5w/30
That’s something I didn’t know about cosworth big ends
Friend of mine brought his in H reg sapphire 4x4 in 94 for £5000 and he's only ever had a misfire problem but his car has never been modified or hammered to death, It now has 81000 miles with full Ford RS service centre history.
Abuse them with huge boost and I'd say engine life would be shortened drastically, as it would for most other engines.
precisely. the number of people that really believe a guy in a shed on an industrial estate knows more and spent more on R&D to make the engine reliable than the manufacturer who spend millions per DAY on R&D is laughable. if you want more power, you always sacrifice reliability in some form or other. if you want reliability, dont use it as a trailer/garage queen, dont thrash it constantly, and leave it the f*ck alone as the manufacturer intended
@@petelattimer6808 I see where you're coming from Pete but I've met some real geniuses over the year's, who work out of sheds and industrial estates, try not to tar them all with the same brush because theres a wealth of knowledge out there from some of these guys, which is very unique to this great country of ours.👍🏼🇬🇧
@@EugVR6 Agreed, Julien Godfrey is one man who has tried everything there is to try on these engines.
Because most engines when designed for 'sport' or 'power' reasons were not built for high end cars where cost wasn't a problem (not always the case). Thus they were working on a budget, materials weren't the best and they were sold at 'relatively' cheap prices, not a great combination. Once you start overstressing standard parts you have to take non standard rectification, this should not come as a surprise to you as you make a living from this? It is EASY to make an engine reliable and run many miles, diesel, change the oil, low compression, non turbo, chain driven cam, engine configuration (i.e. straight six) etc etc etc we have all learnt these lessons years ago haven't we?
Dont forget the best thing for a long lived engine capacity.
@@chrisclarke6344 I forgot slow running too, probably the most important
@@davidoldboy5425 👍
I believe why all engines are build poor because of the metal that is being used today, They just don't make motors like they use too. Subbed.
I've had my saph cossie 4x4 for over 16 years and it's been reliable. It was my daily driver for the first 4 years of ownership and I was doing 40 miles a day to and from work.
My 2 litre works very hard. It is basically pulling two cars around all the while because it is in a 190 twin wheel transit van at 2400 kg empty (bt). 70 hp though, so it can stand being worked with the throttle pedal on the mat for minuets at a time just fine. My 1958 landy is 40 hp. The more you screw up the power the less time they last :o)
I can show you a pic of a transit 190 lwb semi high roof twin wheeler pulling a car trailer with Jerry vans full and a works spec escort mk2 rally car , the van had driver plus 4 passengers usually plus all tools, spares and 40 wheels on the roof and the total weight for all that was 6-7 tonnes so the v6 svo or 2.0 pinto couldn’t hack it so a big American v8 got dropped in and I mean biggggg
@@chiefrocka8604 :o) how was the rear axle? 5300kg is the most I have gone, but in Shropshire that’s a lot :D
Had a 360 bhp RS500 Cosworth for 13 years, never gave me any problems. Drove it hard & had fun ... wouldn't have another, a lot better out there to choose from.
Get a 205 block and put the Warrior DOHC on it. Remember as an 18 year old with my Mk4 Cortina 20GL and spotting the Warrior DOHC KIT for 20 OHC. £2000 just for the head kit, oh well i just had to dream back then in 1988
Alloy heads on cast iron blocks, different heat expansion rates, recipe for disaster, especially if you are going to blow it.
Why doesn't the 4G63T have that problem then?
Lee, your cupboard behind you is 2thou out at 280degrees behind you lol 😆😄😂🤣
any chance of doing a video on the mk3 Focus RS engine issues 🙏
I did complete disassembly of Ford ECM used in European Escorts (Mondeos and such..) years ago when i got my Ford Escort and as car nerd wanted to bust open the ECM and shared definitions on TunerPRO forums of it and i love that ECM design as its so flexible and lots of functions made me think why bother with aftermarket ECM when this does so much without people really knowing it.
Anyway personally i never got to fill my dream with Cosworth one and i will not due how my life going. Anyway my one favorite car ever. Kinda surprising issue with hear bolts even ripping when they advertised how bolts are arranged in angle to prevent anything head problems when they were developing it.. maybe they went too far.. or too short. Hehe.
Wanted still share i think Cosworths were one most stolen car in Finland in ratio of.. How many they have been in Finland : How many has got stolen. I heard this more than one source locally.
To answer the question, shoddy builders and tuner.
Same rules apply to rotary engines.
Seems like a super short rod. That would produce a lot of pressure on the piston skirt and weird wear on the big end. How long are those rods?
They are 128,3mm
Good call..They are short at 128,5 m c-c...pistons are about 40,5 comp height....Ford could have done some nice 139 rods and pistons at around 30,5 compression distance but seems they had some dogmatic belief in rod/stroke ratios of around 1,62.... The longer 139 or 139,5 would have been a much lighter piston--around 310-320g, and a nicer 1.82 rod/stroke ratio.
less side thrust and lighter more stable piston.
Totally agree with what you have said do half a job and pay twice.
Had my 3 door for 9 years, only one head gasket ! Other than that, never let me down and it was my daily ! Maybe I got lucky ! Still great cars !!!
When you take an engine that was designed to be a N A 2,0 with 97 BHP then strap a cosworth 16 valve head with uprated internals bolt on a turbo you are have built in failure I worked for and on lancia cars with the 2,0 8 valve and 16 valve engines in the intergrale and the Croma I E turbo fiat and the lancia thema 16 v turbo and they would get the same problems as the cosworth due to people turning up the boost remaping with big horse power then cry when you say it's fucked and ran out of newness .
brilliant and very informative video thank you. If i could afford it i would bring my mk2 golf gti to you for a full engine rebuild 👍. I watch alot of the paul linfoot videos with adam smith on his channel, talking extensively about the cosworth cars, so your video is extremely insightful aswell 👍👍👍👍
Hillman Imp engines and their head gaskets. Water level not looked after, drops, phut, blown head gasket, warped head and all.
Because people try to get insane levels of power from them and then expect them to last as long as a road engine?
Same for Subaru, bulletproof until people start putting daft levels of boost through them.
I’ve heard a lot of tuners replace the lifters for larger versions, but if this is not known by the new owner it can cause serious problems that could be easily avoided?
Thanks for another a we some video! I can't believe anybody would take connecting rods apart and not resize them. I've heard some say u don't. But I say why chance it.
Exactly John 👍
Question Barum ? How you feel about Grey Cast Iron, or Compacted Graphite Iron blocks and pistons ect are better than Aluminum blocks and pistons ect?
On the Rover K series they use through bolts and sandwich all together... can you not do that to make it more reliable or stop the stress on the block..
Would love to hear your thoughts on the early c20xe (coscast head) came in the astra gte. Great vid
Very interesting vid it would be great if you could do more similar 👍🏼👍🏼
Is it always necessary to skim the block after a head gasket problem??
40 years ago I would have said not always.. In the last 20-25 years I'm not building near the numbers of engines as I was in the 80s and 90s but since 2001 only 42 engines..All 4 cylinder inline Fords (YBs, and Lima turbos, one BDG) several Cologne V4s and V6s, a bunch of Redblock Volvos, several Mitsubishi 4G62s --all known reliable engines..EVERY single one needed the blocks re-surfaces..All around .003" low in cylinders 2/3 >I do the set-ups at the machine shop and watch every one..ALL low and needed it.
All these engines are 30 to 50 years old and god knows how many times they've blown headgaskets and "I just limped home (cough--17 miles with the temp needle pegged)..
So like in the vid I think its owners cheaping out and getting "advice" off the intra-webz from people who have never built a single engine and think a micrometer is a welding clamp that leads to so many problems..
@@janvanv Thanks very much. cheers 🍺
Yes ppl will just turn the boost up and forget that bolts stretch as well.
You hit 40 to 45 pounds of boost you need studs that most likely a 1 inch in diameter to hold down that head. If you hit 40 pounds of boost I sure hope the customer has an excellent bottom end that type of boost will kill it in a hurry.
Be safe.
2 bar used to be the most over that you had self destruct issues!
Couldn't it just be bad engineering??? As an old American Hot Rodder, I pretty much disapprove of the over use of the Chevy LS engines, I know they have solid engineering that allows you to bolt up a huge turbo and make a reliable 1,000 horsepower from a basically stock block. I also know my limited experience with Triumph and MG engines they are pretty much made of hot cheese and wax paper.
When you take a block originally designed for maybe 200hp, and start making over 500hp with it....
Can be traced back to the T88 block from early 70s designed for approx 100hp!
A company called Smith and Jones I think they're called are producing new alloy blocks for the YB. Not cheap though!
@@petergordon4525 theres one or two doing it they also do them for BDA motors. It appears no one with less than 6.5k need apply.
@@chrisclarke6344 aye, not cheap, but that's apparently the price of a second hand YB motor now!
@@petergordon4525 indeed mind you grub about in a scrapyard find a transit and get the motor the block will do the job. But i suspect they are wise to it now.
A reliable engine from the same era, which makes comparison on a level playing field, is the Toyota 3S GTE, a 2 litre toubo which isn't plagued with problems.
It's not that those engines were inherently unreliable, it's that they were & still are, so easy to over tune by just banging in a 'fast road' chip & waste-gate and then wind the boost up. Then every things great, until it's not! Hardly the fault of Ford or Cosworth that people tried to double the horsepower on the cheap and that's how they earned a 'reputation'
Me again just been watching a video on Car Trials you know them old buggers with flat caps on that bounce the cars with max revs going up hills trying to complete the sections.
Just watched this one where the first comment said well done for finishing the cambelt and chain stretcher section !! You what they joke about the abuse they give them stretches the belts and chains 🤣to which I thought yeah and barum engines fixes them under warranty when they really go wrong 😂
Old Japanese engines are bullet proof reliable and you could put your life on them , from honda 50 bike to Toyota 1c diesel.
The honda 90 and toyota diesel got their reliability through not having enough horsepower to hurt themselves. The toyota 22r has a excellent reputation and i ran mine over 500,000km but willingly admit it got there by not having enough power to pull the skin off a cold bowl of custard. If you boosted a 22r to the same level as these cosworths they would be exploding all over the place.
Yeah, just like rotary or flat fours
If its pulling the bolt holes wouldnt that also throw the cylinder out of round?. Also whats your thought on holymer spray for mls gasket?.
I love spray on hylomar. Ive used that stuff on air cooled dirtbike headgaskets that run super hot over here in Australia. Pulled heads back off after years of use to find the hylomar still tacky.
i swear buy it, just want to see other opinions cause its rarely mentioned. Since using it ive had 0 headgasket failures
@@motomenace86 same here, used it on my racebikes and have regularly reused SLS style gaskets with a thin pass of hylomar. Zero issues.
Early mk.1 950/1100 Fiestas blowing up their clutches.
Vauxhall's snapping their cambelts after 20,000 miles.
Head gaskets on Rover-MG k-series engines blowing after no time.
All cack engines.
I going to stick up for the rover k series. Had a few of them over the years. All had a head gasket go but as a result of water pump going, hoses and a leaking rad. My last one was a MG ZT 1.8t. No probs with that one. Fuel V power ended that one for me.
Apparently the rover k series has one of the best designed 16v heads...flows very good...competition head gasket and ARP studs is the way to go...it is a good engine when put together with the right gear...
Back then tolerances were far different. Today's engines are built with CNC accuracy. A Chevy LS engine can go straight to the track without "race prep"
Nonsense.
@@janvanv Welcome to new realities.
@@wymple09 I am guess you have built ebgines then or now to see that tolerances are tolerances. And they all depend on end usage..
@@janvanv Have you not heard of blueprinting? That's what the CNC machining & other quality control methods are doing these days. Lasers looking for the slightly off stuff, things like that. Check out a video on how engines are now built, like the Corvette or Mercedes. It's a long, long ways from the old days.
theyre not unreliable. theyre one of the most reliable engines out there. the problem is when people start f*cking about with them with stupid modifications. car companies spend literally MILLIONS per DAY in R&D on ALL parts of the car. do you really think someone in a shed on an industrial estate knows better than the manufacturer? more power ALWAYS comes at a cost of reliability. a bone stock engine will probably take an instant shot of 100psi boost. for about 1/10th of a second before it grenades, does that mean that everyone should aim at that level because 'its been done' even if it blew the engine to bits? if you want it reliable, leave it STOCK and use it as intended, not just as a trailer/garage queen that only gets started to move it outside to wash/polish or drive onto the trailer, or to have the daylights thrashed out of it non stop at a trackday. Andy Rouse got 550bhp out of these engines in the 1980s BUT im fairly certain that the engine in his car didnt stay in 1 piece after every race meet, and certainly not for 100,000 miles+ like pretty much all Cosworths have done now, despite what their owners tell you. if they genuinely have low miles then theyre probably a ticking timebomb due to lack of use/short runs.
Well said see my post above, used to tune them back in the day, all mods were tested with hrs of dyno testing before even being offered to customers. We found 205s were goid for approx 350hp, 200s done correctly with bore and stroke to 2.4 would give 500hp reliably without stupid boost pressures. See my post above.
Cosworth engines are not at all unreliable
Bad engine tuners, over fuelling over timing and thrashed , the bottom
End is very strong
I’ve had a few of them and none we’re ever unreliable
Absolutely the ways to keep them together and make hp have been forgotten see my post above.
@@chrisclarke6344 change the oil and a stage one chip is plenty , then let them cool down after a good thrashing, don’t run in cheap fuel :))
@@jasonharryphotog oil change is key, but never liked just chipping a motor without a delve into its internals to check their condition. I might be OCD but tuning motors for a living made you that way didnt want them coming back.
It would be better if the head studs were really long and they went right through the block, through the mains and held the big end caps on?
Its possible would need a girdle that incorporated main caps, cannot remember if bolts were aligned with main caps. Its doable but the cost would be large, but would stop pulling of threads.
@@chrisclarke6344 I don’t think you read my post properly :D But, best fix is studs are threaded in the middle and glued solid in the block. They go up to the head and down to the mains. The mains have side bolts and threaded holes to lock into the girdle sump. Then you can still line bore it easily at any time. And a head overheating doesn’t make the mains come loose.
@@teamidris 👍the cost would scare most off! Also not sure if it would totally eliminate block distortions with studs still attached to block.
Thanks you a great, informative video
What have you said ? its going to go off now
Should have bought a Saab Turbo 🙂 Like Captain Scarlet, Indestructable.
Really, in my 39 years in this trade I've yet to see a good Saab engine, good performance yes but most if not all the ones I've seen either burn oil (blue smoke) or they're noisy (in the wrong way).
They have their issues too, speaking from experience. 🤦♂️
Best engine I had was a vauxhall 1.6 SOHC injection 8v. Lasted 142k with only a timing belt and oil pipe replacement. Still had the original starter and alternator 😀. It did drink a bit of oil tho and had the mayo problem (not head gasket just cold) and the thermostat was always open for some reason.
@@ukmechanic8923 B204/B234
@@johnathanpearson3203 what about the non-turbo 1.8/1.9 Litre Peugeot xud diesel engines of the mid to late 1980's onwards? Now they were virtually indestructible, I had a Peugeot 205 with a 1.8l diesel that I sold and bought back several times over many years and I had its full service history from new, it only had 8 oil and filters changes and 3 cam belts in its life (nothing else on the engine at all) and was still going at nearly 486k miles when it was scraped because the body shell rusted out.
I’ve watched the videos and they seem to focus on problems with jobs, with customers and then problems when jobs are installed in cars. I’d prefer to see examples of satisfactory work, overcoming difficulties and satisfactory applications of the work.
Look at the views, this channel gets massive viewer numbers and comments on the rants about customer warranty claims and problems with jobs and comparatively small number of views for those far more interesting videos about actually building engines... which kind of video do you think they are gonna keep making?
@@HexyTech Were you elected by the those viewing the videos to whom you refer or are you their proxy or are you representing your own ideas in the guise of the ideas of others?
I represented my own views so I’m on very firm ground.
@@holdencaulfield1001 Pardon? I'm merely looking at the viewer numbers on the videos these are available for all to see? The videos focusing on problem jobs are performing better based on the viewership and interaction statistics.. i expect this is why the channel owner produces more of this type of video, rather than the examples of satisfactory work which you and I would actually prefer to watch
I owned a 2wd sapphire 15 years ago, I remember it used a bit of oil, I think the most sensible thing to do today would be a full rebuild and no more than a stage 1 tune⚡😁👍
75% of this could be in a Subaru EJ20 video and be bang on accurate also 🤣
They're still far more reliable than Vauxhalls 2l turbo of the time that's for sure, those struggled running standard power.....but there's no replacement for displacement imo and I'll never part with my E55 M113k engined beast.
No substitute for cubic inches, had my xfr with 600hp for ten years now no issues like you never part with it, v8 rumble rules!
Im an american an have watched a few of ur vids... love the content, no clue what this motor / car is
I believe supreme car services have just built a yb that made just over 1000hp on there engine dyno
Wow thats a lot from a yb standard displacement or 2.4 stroker?
@@chrisclarke6344 yes i believe its 2.4 or there abouts , 38psi boost at near 8000rpm , has some nice parts fitted , they have there own facebook page..well worth a peek
@@DanA-zx8jc used to build them at 2.4 when they were current would give 500hp reliably for road use. Will give it a look.
First 100bhp per litre for a production car if memory serves me right 🥴
Im running a Cosworth on 3bar and im loosing water? Where is it going 👀lol
I can't wait to pull my head off my 2wd cosworth engine now to see if its been played with over the yrs I know its had head work as had figures wrighten on the head when I pointed the block .
It's been parked in the garage for 16 half years now so plan is to pull engine out and apart and give it a top to bottom going over 👍
May have to give you guys a call to do the work but it's not going to be looked over for awhile lol 😆
Got Kids and other toys atm buy my saph cossie not going anywhere she's my first baby 😉
and THIS is precicely WHY they give problems. theyre either modded OR they sit around not being driven all the time. that means every start up the oil has drained from EVERYTHING.
Volvo redblock bulletproof.
I wonder if a stud could go through to the main caps to continue on to a girdle or truss. Obviously a lot of work but now I'm curious.
They can do that ,julian godfrey talks about it
The main part of the unreliability comes from the number of people who think they can do their own work when they have no business putting their dick-beaters on ANY engine, let alone a highly tuned one.
Let us see how the modern engines are in 40 or50 years
love the video, nice information.
Thought you was on about an sr20 haha
They were based on the pinto block, the "pintosaurs " was a poor engine to begin with ,while the head flowed well it just was not terribly robust so when people start dialing more power into them a lot of work and better quality parts are needed to hold them together.
Those cosworth engines sure aint toyotas.
As in the full engine c20xe