Zetec BDA Cam Cover

[Elanintheforest]

This cover looks the part! Just browsing through this company?s bits and pieces to modify Zetec and Duratec for RWD Fords....looks like good kit and really good prices.

http://www.retro-ford.co.uk/shop/retro-ford

Mark

[c42]

Mark
I have to say that I will be very tempted at the end of my rebuild, it looks a well made part.
Regards
John

[CBUEB1771]

This is quite entertaining. Take one modern engine that does not belong in an Elan and tart it up to look like a less modern engine that also does not belong in an Elan. I hope to circumvent a long discussion by admitting that I can accept both Zetec/Duratec and belt drive conversions that offer better performance and can be traced through a common historical thread, not to mention that Mark's posts are quite useful. Just vaguely amusing. How about a digital LED encrusted Zetec cam cover that can be programmed to look like a Climax FWA, FPF, Cosworth 1500, SCA or just about anything else?

[Elanintheforest]

Well, folks have put fancy rocker and cam covers on cars forever, Russ. There are quite a few alternatives for the Lotus Twincam!

But I don't think that this cover is aimed at the Elan market. There is a huge market here for modifying the older 4 cylinder Fords, the Escorts, Anglias, Cortinas, Capris, with the Zetec and Duratec engines, and it's very often done by young lads who have more enthusiasm than money. They have Ford blue blood running through their veins, and the ultimate car for them is often the RS1600 / RS1800 Escorts, which sported the BDA / BDG engine. They usually can't afford the ?25,000 price tag for such an engine, let alone ?50,000 upwards for an original car.

A 16 valve twincam Zetec can be popped in with the same power as quite a tweeked up BD engine, and now can look similar, all for under ?5k.

As for a BDA not belonging in an Elan, mine has had one in there for 41 years; it was a period modification completed on a few Elans, and one or two Sevens. Not common, but seen as highly desirable in the day. Period enhancements to cars of course are still seen by some as not belonging!

My 2.1 BDG build has just been completed, apart from popping on the head and being set up on a Dyno. To me, it's automotive art, and I can very easily understand why someone would want to make their Zetec look this good!

Eamonn, he chap I bought the engine from and who subsequently built it, used to run it with a twincam head in his Plus 2. Folks would wonder why his car was so much faster than theirs....but he did build race engines!

Mark

[CBUEB1771]

Well, folks have put fancy rocker and cam covers on cars forever, Russ.

Mark,
Everything you say is true, more than anything else I was pulling your leg! I am curious about your 2.1 BDA. Which block did you use? Clearly it is light alloy with liners but you have a wet sump and conventional oil pump. Most alloy blocks I have seen are not set up for the wet sump oil pickup or pressure relief discharge, and also require an external oil feed to the exhaust side main oil gallery.
Russ

[Elanintheforest]

The block is a standard ally block from an RS1800 Mk 2 Escort, bored out to 2.1. The standard iron block BDA and ally block BDG were wet sump in their respective RS1600 and RS1800, and very modest power...around 120bhp and 130bhp from memory. Most were subsequently used for competition, hence the dry sump being the norm I guess.

I believe that all BDGs have the external oil feed, although I don't know why! Mine certainly has it, although it was a race engine in a former life. Here's a couple of press photos from 1972, when the BDG was announced, clearly showing the external oil feed (and big-wing Escort sump).

Don't worry, the issues around originality / modifications etc. don't wind me up at all, but I do enjoy a good debate around the subject!! !!

Mark

[ardee_selby]

Aha...just the excuse I was looking for to upload this old scan!

Cheers - Richard

[CBUEB1771]

I believe that all BDGs have the external oil feed, although I don't know why! Mine certainly has it

Thanks for the press release photos, the routing of the external feed is good to see. I presume you will be doing something close to this. If your alloy block had the cross-block drilling for oil feed to the main gallery I should think you would have broken into it when boring for the big liners.

[Elanintheforest]

You'll see the big braded pipe behind the carbs in the first photo of my engine...it has the same setup as those press photos.

I guess that the size of the bores dictated the need for this external oil feed, as essentially it is still a 'Kent' block?

Mark

[CBUEB1771]

I guess that the size of the bores dictated the need for this external oil feed, as essentially it is still a 'Kent' block?

Mark,
I saw the braided hose but did not make the connection (excuse the pun). With the hose near the carbs I assumed fuel delivery without checking details. At the beginning I should have noticed the forward external drilling into the inlet side oil gallery. On second view this port is now opened up to a good BSP size for external feed to the other side. All clear to me now, thanks for your patience. Let us know how the 2.1 works out. (I would still not put a BDA replica cam cover on a Zetec in an Elan, I am from the States so I am obliged to put two of them on a small block Chevy and claim it is a DFWhatever, oh no, I must meant Ilmor!).

[Spyder fan]

Mark,
Wow! that BDG must have burned a hole in your wallet. Is that going into Bumpy or do you have another project in mind?

I like the Zetec BDA cam cover, I'm wondering if you fit one of these and remove the plastic cam belt cover will make it look more of a dead ringer or not, I suppose I will have to buy one and experiment.


Regards

[Elanintheforest]

Give it a go, Alan, I'm sure it will look stunning! Bumpy has an iron block (AX) BDA, which was only rebuilt about 3000 miles ago, so that's staying in the car. It's a georgeous engine, very free reving and not at all moody, as some BDAs can be! Its specification changed considerably since it was built in 1971, from standard to full-on maximum bhp to something a little more tractable, and the owner used to commute around London in the car, and tour Europe in it, all without drama. He did about 50,000 miles with the engine before the car was laid up for 20 years, then it was rebuilt into the AX block when the car had a body restoration.

I bought the BDG from Eamonn, from whom I also bought Bumpy the Plus 2. I was so impressed with the BDA, and saw that Eamonn had this aluminium block under his bench, with a twincam on top, and I kept pestering!

I bought an Escort Mexico to put the BDG in, but that turned out to be super-original, unwelded, and too good to pull apart. So now it's either going into an S4 dhc Elan, or a 2 door Mk 2 1600E Cortina (bet you didn't know they made those!). To be honest, I had lost a bit of interest in the project and was going to sell it on. But when I saw and collected the engine last week, and talked through the spec with Eamonn, I just want to hear it at 9500rpm breathing through those old Type 48 Webers!

Mark

[Robbie693]

a 2 door Mk 2 1600E Cortina (bet you didn't know they made those!).

I Didn't - I thought all 1600E's were 4 door..?

Robbie

[Spyder fan]

a 2 door Mk 2 1600E Cortina (bet you didn't know they made those!).

I Didn't - I thought all 1600E's were 4 door..?

Robbie

I didn't know either! Could I cheekily suggest that they were de-tuned and poshed up Lo-Corts? Mark has a wealth of knowledge on the Dagenham cars, I remember the 1600E's as being very classy and well thought of as mainstream cars well into the late 70's and 80's when the Mk3 & Mk4 Cortinas were in production.

[Elanintheforest]

2700 2 door left hand drive made for the European market Robbie, and 56,000 4 door cars produced. I went to have a look at one a couple of years ago only to study how close it was to a Lotus Cortina bodyshell...it is identical in all the important places (where the shell is strengthened), so I had to buy it! De-tuned and poshed up LoCorts...exactly what they are!

I learnt to drive and passed my test in my Dad's 1600E, and Ford did try a 1600E with a BDA to see what happened.....hence my other interest.

Here are a couple of press photos of the 2 door.

Mark