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white block dimensions

J

john-v6tt

New member
Joined
Nov 30, 2009
could some one please help me out with the dimensions of the 5 cylinder white block. i'm looking for the lenth, hight, width, also the mesurment from the front to the engine mount (if mounted rwd). also the width from one mounting point on the engine mount to the other side.

would be a great help if any one knows any of these

cheers john
 
I didn't realise how difficult this would be to answer until I began to measure up an engine.


The 5-cylinder whiteblock is approximately 25" tall from sump to cam cover.


It is approximately 25" long at the crankshaft and 23" at the head, but roughly 27" allowing for the distributor.


Now it gets trickier..... it is around 14" wide at the flywheel end (not allowing for starter or exhaust) but 20"+ at the front allowing for water pump and alternator etc, but there is scope for reducing this dimension a little.

No stock mounts were fitted to the engine I measured, but the block itself is roughly 10" wide between the mount fixings, and these are positioned between 3.5" and 11" from the front face of the block. If you're mounting it for RWD you should have plenty of options for making your own mounts to suit to pick up on these fixings.

Out of curiosity I measured it up against a 6-cylinder whiteblock and this proved to be only 3.5" longer than the 5-cylinder, and obviously no distributor to have to allow for either.

Hope this helps a little.
 
Thats great. Exactly what I was looking for. Will get the engine bay all messured up now and see if it fits.

I'm planing to put the volvo engine into a 3 door ford sierra cosworth rep that I use on track and drag strip in Scotland. Will start a thread on it if any one would be intrested in following it along.
 
john-v6tt said:
Thats great. Exactly what I was looking for. Will get the engine bay all messured up now and see if it fits.

I'm planing to put the volvo engine into a 3 door ford sierra cosworth rep that I use on track and drag strip in Scotland. Will start a thread on it if any one would be intrested in following it along.
Click to expand...

Sounds interesting. Are you planning to use an early motor or a later distributorless one for bulkhead clearance?

The other area of potential clash is of course the long 5-cylinder sump with the engine crossmember and steering rack. I can't remember if the original Sierra engine used a front or rear sump pan?

Where about in Scotland are you? I'm just west of Glasgow and have some spare 5 and 6 cylinder whiteblocks in my workshop which you could measure up or borrow to dummy fit if you like.

I'd like to see a build thread of this,


Jim
 
thanks that would be great. if i could borrow one from you. i stay in riddrie glasgow, so you can't be that far away from me. where are you? would love to use the distributorless one, but all depends on how hard it is to wire in. i want to use the volvo ecu to try keep the costs down.

will start the thread soon. would people rather see it from the start. full resto of the car (lots of bodywork) or just the install of the volvo engine.

can't wait to get it up to the track, show them all there's more engines out there than a cosworth, zetec, vaxhall xe or jap crap. :oogle:

they all laughed when i told them what engine i was using. can't wait to see there faces as i pass them :)

john ;-)
 
congrats , use the 6 cylinder , easier to use Aftermarket ecus / sump issues .

engine/gearbox should go something like this for a 5 cyl .

Image0049-2.jpg



is this the first FORD with a volvo engine the right way round ?

nope , but it sounds funny when you say its going in a sierra cosworth !!

has it still got a t5 box ?
 
volvorsport said:
congrats , use the 6 cylinder , easier to use Aftermarket ecus / sump issues .

engine/gearbox should go something like this for a 5 cyl .

Image0049-2.jpg



is this the first FORD with a volvo engine the right way round ?

nope , but it sounds funny when you say its going in a sierra cosworth !!

has it still got a t5 box ?
Click to expand...

thanks that pic will be helpfull.

it isn't a real cosworth, only a 3 door rep. was running the 2.9 v6 from a xr4x4 with twin turbos fitted. with all the 4x4 running gear.

didn't have the t5. because it was 4wd, i was using a mt75.

john ;-)
 
This project keeps getting more interesting!


If I remember correctly the 2.9 Cologne has a rear sump in the Sierra, but with differences to allow mounting of the front diff and cross shaft. If that is the case it should be easier, but by the time you source a 960 sump pan to alter to fit anyway, I'd be tempted to agree with Volvorsport and say go with the six if it will fit for space at the front of the bay.


The biggest advantage of using a 5-cylinder is that they are MUCH more common and easier to find second hand, and are slightly better catered for in the way of aftermarket parts. There might be an advantage to cutting and shutting a 5-cylinder sump to carry the front 4WD parts if you are staying with the 5 and 4WD MT75 rather than shortening a 6-cylinder sump?

The 6 will be closer to being drop-in ready though. I was originally planning on installing a 5-cylinder engine in my car too, but the 6 just began to make more sense.

I'm assuming you are planning a turbo installation? Is the car for road use as well, or is there possibility of altering it to move the drivetrain a little further rearwards if necessary?

I've seriously been considering a whiteblock-to- 4WD MT75 conversion on one of my cars where most of the front floorpan is rotten anyway, so I'll be very interested to see how this project develops if you are keeping the existing drivetrain.

You should have a lot more room to play with in a Sierra than I did!

You can borrow an engine no problem. I have spare 960 RWD engine mountings and other parts as well that might be useful for trial fitting.

I'm in Paisley, so only about 20 minutes drive away if the roads are clear. My dad came from Riddrie so I know the area fairly well. I could even deliver an engine to you if you like.


Jim
 
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you're right the 2.9 does have the sump like that. hadn't realy thought about keeping it 4wd, was going to try and get the m90 gearbox.

was looking at the t5 engine, just because of how easy they are to get hold of and will have to be a turbo. the car is just for track this time. had it as a track and road car before. not the same at the track when you know you have to drive it home.

when i borrow the engine i'll have a wee look at how far off the mt75 is from mounting to it. the only problem is, the mt75 isn't realy strong enought with 4wd for the track with much more than standard power and it's big money for a gear kit for it. will also have a look see how far off the ford 4x4 sump is. i've got a couple of these.

could be good to bounce ideas of each other, i've built quite a few mt75s rwd and 4wd.

hope to have the car back on her feet in the next couple of weeks. then that would be great if i could come borrow the engine.

also want to try and use the volvo ecu to keep costs down. don't know if that will be possible.

cheers john
 
a couple of pics of the car.

how it looked acouple of years ago
drag.jpg


cossietrackfront.jpg


cossietrackside.jpg


then found the front rotten
cossienoeyes.jpg


img40816b7b33462.jpg


fitted a new front end along with lots of other welding
img4097fc7e7ef58.jpg


currently modding the body to fit this
cossiewide.jpg


engine that was removed from the car
oldengine.jpg


was going to fit this
DSC00310.jpg


but i've finally decided on the volvo engine. :oogle:

cheers john
 
Yes, the T5 engines are now quite cheap and plentiful. If it had been a 2WD Sierra Cosworth the whole conversion would have been more straight forward with a T5 into a T5!

An M90 should be up to the job, but only being fitted to the (rarer) manual versions of the 960 they aren't really all that common. If you find a 960 Auto in a yard in the meantime (most likely with a knackered 'box), have the bellhousing off of it as it will give you other options.

Good strong cheap manual RWD gearboxes is the area we seem to fall down on here. I'm thinking that a mild 5-cylinder turbo driving into an MT75 in a 4WD version of my current car would be good in wet conditions where traction is more important than power, and use my current car with its 6-cylinder and RWD where it is drier and I can put the power down better. In the wet my car feels like I'm driving on ice, and less power +4WD would be more usable.

I would have thought that you would be needing a bigger turbo, probably a manifold, and a change of engine management to get what you are after out of the engine.

Just let me know when you are ready for the engine.

Jim
 
want to run it with standard power first. to get used to doing the track again. don't want to stuff it on the first track day. :oops:

what car are you running the 6 cylinder engine in? what box are you using with it?

mt75 is ok if not launched hard. my sapphire cosworth has 330bhp and it takes that ok for normal driving. had it up to crail at the start of the year and after 4 launches it started to whine, so that will stay a road car. can't afford to break it. :omg:

john ;-)
 
I'm currently using a Volvo M47 gearbox, but I broke the output shaft off of one last year in practice for an event and the one that is fitted now is also starting to complain audibly and is becoming reluctant to go into gear reliably now as well after some use. I've got a third waiting in the wings, but I need a better solution really.

I had hoped to swap it for either a T5 or a Getrag over this winter, but for unforeseen reasons this might not happen as soon as I had hoped. I've got up until the end of March to get it sorted out.

I'm running the 6 in a 1978 Chrysler Sunbeam in loose works Group 4 colours. The car and its history is featured in the January issue of Retro Car magazine which is on general sale from the end of this week if you are interested.


Out of curiosity, what put you off of the idea of using the V6 Cosworth... maybe even TT it? ....weight?
 
will have to get it and have a wee look.

all those engines have been done before. just wanted something a wee bit differant. like to give my self a wee challenge, using a ford engine would just be to easy. :roll:

have you had a look at the bolt patern on the mt75? could be intresting to try see how much work it would be to use it. have a v6 one here and hope to be getting a 2.0l one soon that i've to convert to rwd v6. i wonder what front casing would be best. easy box to get if its the 2.0l one.

john;-)
 
ps have you ever been to a west of scotland rsoc meet night with you're car and an avenger tiger

john;-)
 
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