Ford 1.6

[DownWest]

Comments welcome on the following:
The engine is a Ford 1.6 Endura DE, marinised by Lancing. Box is a PRM. All fitted new in 2001. It has broken several drive plates and the when the last one was changed, the owner experienced some difficulty in getting the engine/g/box together and then found that oil was leaking from the rear seal. We have removed the flywheel and seal, but the seal does not look in bad condition. Now waiting on new bolts and a seal. The drive plate slides easily on the splines of the box input shaft.
The owner will reduce the idle, as he recons it is too fast (900rpm) and the hefty clunk on engagement might be shortening the life of the plates.
Anybody any experience with this combo?
DW

 

[Jcorstorphine]

Yes. I have the same engine and when I first marinised it, I had problems (or I had perceived problems) when I engaged gear with clunks and rattles on a new gearbox.

These engines tickover is on the high side and from what I can see, many gearboxes do not like being engaged at high revs (mine is a Hurth)

I solved the problem by fitting a mass ring onto the flywheel. The ring was about 20 mm thick and about the same diameter as the drive plate. I fitted the mass ring on top of the drive plate and my engine now ticks over at about 650 rpm. When I engage gear there still is a slight “thunk” but nothing like it was and the boat can be left in gear right up to the berth as the prop revs are nice and low.

One minor point about these engines is that many of the bolts including the flywheel are TTY (Torque to Yield) or angle tighten and I had a devil of a job getting these about three years ago when I did a complete rebuild. If you have a source of these type of TTY UNC and UNF bolts it would be grateful for the name of the supplier.

 

[Jcorstorphine]

Yes. I have the same engine and when I first marinised it, I had problems (or I had perceived problems) when I engaged gear with clunks and rattles on a new gearbox.

These engines tickover is on the high side and from what I can see, many gearboxes do not like being engaged at high revs (mine is a Hurth)

I solved the problem by fitting a mass ring onto the flywheel. The ring was about 20 mm thick and about the same diameter as the drive plate. I fitted the mass ring on top of the drive plate and my engine now ticks over at about 650 rpm. When I engage gear there still is a slight “thunk” but nothing like it was and the boat can be left in gear right up to the berth as the prop revs are nice and low.

One minor point about these engines is that many of the bolts including the flywheel are TTY (Torque to Yield) or angle tighten and I had a devil of a job getting these about three years ago when I did a complete rebuild. If you have a source of these type of TTY UNC and UNF bolts it would be grateful for the name of the supplier.

Just remembered something else is that these engine at low RPM suffer from Torsional Vibration which can wreck spline and drive shafts hence the fitting of the mass plate. I am surprised that lancing did not fit one so there may be one and the problem is that the owner has not had the rpm lowered.

 

[DownWest]

Thanks for that Jcorstorphine ( and your PM alert), No extra ring fitted to this engine and the flywheel is considerably lighter than my 1.8 TD. We are expecting the bolts from Lancing early next week. I wiil get back to you. Foods for thought on lowering the RPM without the ring, where did you find yours?
DW

 

[DownWest]

Update: We fitted the new rear seal and replaced the flywheel with new bolts from Lancing Marine. The new driveplate has a completly different flex system and also we had to use washers to space it out, as the rivitted studs projected onto the flywheel and kept it off the face. Seems that the PRM box is a bit short of room for the mass ring. But when we fired it up today, Even at the elevated idle RPM, the engagement was quite smooth, rather than a bang. So, owners happy and considerably relieved. Wiring on the engine was not very close to the supplied diags. Caldwell would have choked on his coffee..
DW
Interestingly, due to the 17 deg tilt of the engine, the rear seal is actually under the oil level in the the sump. But, cross fingers, the new one is tight.