I've been going to Glamis for years, First on an ATC, then a Quad, and then I got the idea that a sandrail might be fun.  Got a great deal on a beat-up sandrail and took it to the dunes to see if driving a rail was as much fun as it looked.  It was, and I was hooked.  I spent a year driving the "Blue Turd,"  fixed it up and sold it to finance a better car.   After much consideration and research, I chose to have a frame made by Tatum Motorsports and to power the car with a Ford 2.3 liter overhead cam engine. Okay, the engine might sound a bit exotic, but it was yanked out of a 1979 pinto and purchased for $75.

Click on the thumbnail for a larger image

The old sandrail when it was purchased:

The old rail as it looked when I sold it:

(quite an improvement, no?)

A picture of a Tatum Motorsports car.

The Tatum car shown is a 4 seat, the one that I am having built is 2 seat, 113 inch wheelbase, rear engine, long travel frame.

The 2.3 liter engine was used for many years; beginning in the pinto and continuing in the mustang, turbo mustang, thunderbird, turbo thunderbird and ranger pickup. The engine is used extensively in dirt track racing and there are three major manufacturers of aftermarket parts for racing applications. Using off-the-shelf parts, I hope to get nearly 180 normally aspirated horsepower. The three companies that I have used as parts sources are: Racer Walsh, Esslinger Engineering and Race Engineering.

Tatum motorsports is will begin construction of the frame and suspension this month, so while I wait, I will begin the engine buildup.

My friend Mike and I picked up the motor a few months ago at a local junkyard and quickly tore into it to check the innards. The bore measured stock, the block, head and bearings showed no obvious signs of abuse or overheating so I took the block to a local machine shop to be bored, honed and checked.  If you are in Phoenix and looking for a great machine shop, check R'n'R Machine, 602-861-3399, they build engines for local circle track racers and can build anything from BMC 'A' series engine to Hemis.

It checked out okay, so the block was bored .030" over and honed for wiseco forged pistons.

This is how the block looked back from the machine shop:

The block was thoroughly cleaned with lots of soap and water, using a long brush to get into all the oil passages.

The engine was painted a nice black, and the freezeplugs and oil passage plugs installed.

Next were the auxillary shaft bearings. The auxillary shaft is turned by the toothed belt that turns the camshaft. It runs the fuel pump, the oil pump and distributor. These bearings are full-circle and must be pressed into the block exactly straight without marking or scratching them. Automotive tool manufacturers sell bearing installation tools, but they are very expensive and I should only need to do this once, so I decided to make my own tool.

I started by measuring the bore of the bearing hole in the block, measuring the inside bore of the bearing, and began turning a stepped cylinder on the lathe:

I drilled and tapped a hole in the center to insert a long bolt on which to hammer the bearings into place:

The completed tool and bearing:

Hammering the bearing into place, making sure the oil hole in the bearing lines up with the oil passage in the block:

Now I wait for crankshaft, flywheel and pressure plate to return from the balancing shop. When they arrive, I will begin the buildup of the rest of the engine.

Check back in a week or so for part 1.2