I have an engine!

Yes, the big news over the weekend is that the engine is back from the workshop, with the head ported and polished, the crank keyed, and the pistons flycut.....

So, what does that all mean? Well, porting the head means cutting away additional material from the part where the air gets into and out of the engine - again, one of the most important things for an engine to develop peak power is it's ability to breath, so removing any barriers or inefficiencies (such as rough patches, edges etc) will always yield results. The thing with the Duratec head is that it's pretty perfect as it stands. So, unlike the Zetec which was also cut for another Birkin (where a huge amount of material was removed), the Duratec is more of a polish. The key element is that the ports allow the right volume of air to flow based on the size of the valves, so there's no restriction in the head. Also, the split between the two chambers has been cut to a knife edge to reduce turbulence.

Keying the crank has been discussed before, and as you can see in the photo, it's a simple matter of notching the gear and putting a small key in the crank itself. Now, the gear cannot move on the shaft. Given the revs and power I have, I've read that it's probably overkill, but what the hell....

The pistons were apparently the hardest part. As you can see in the photo's, not a great deal of material was removed, which is what you're aiming for, as wholesale shredding of the piston heads is to be avoided. So you can see that there are now four small scallops taken out of each piston, which will allow the clearance required by the new, more aggresive cams.

All in all some nice work that will allow the engine to reach it's peak performance once it's all back together.