Engine Builds

Nigel has many years of Engine building and development experience, specialising in BMW, Jaguar, Porsche, Ferrari and British Leyland.

Measuring the liners in a V12 Jaguar Engine
Measuring the liners in a V12 Jaguar Engine

Attention to detail is paramount; we strive to improve our practices, methods and live by results.

All our engines – be it a standard road engine or a full race Jaguar V12 – have their own engine build record. All sizes, parts and components are fully recorded and notes on set up and installation requirements are included. This helps us service and maintain the engine in the future, supply parts and or develop future engines.

Dolomite Sprint

Group 2 Dolomite Sprint Engine in build
Group 2 Dolomite Sprint Engine in build

The Dolomite Sprint was an interesting task; an engine that was prone to overheating, suffered from harmonic imbalance which caused catastrophic block failure.

We took each problem in turn: for the harmonic issue a new crankshaft, piston and con rod set was designed with the help of a specialist and then produced – this set of parts have proved reliable and may be found in numerous engines worldwide.

The cylinder head gasket issues are an age old problem; the stud pattern and head location is just not able to cope with the increase in heat, cylinder pressure, rpm and the general stresses of a race engine. The head starts to shuffle on the block, lifting around the water ways and destroying the gasket seal. We wanted to retain the standard water pump and stick with the standard stud pattern. The aim was to retain a constant head clamping force whilst holding the gasket in position. Two components have been introduced, firstly; competition cylinder head studs made from special steel and machined accurately with the original UNC thread in the block and UNF thread with high quality ARP nuts. Secondly; the gasket is retained by a shoulder on the studs and a wire ring machined into the block face, this grips the fire ring of the gasket adding to the seal.

Group 2 Dolomite Sprint Engine installed
Group 2 Dolomite Sprint Engine installed

Rolling Road

We test all installations prior to race use, either on an engine dyno, or if we install, on a state of the art Rolling Road.

Dolomite Sprint Group 2 testing the engine on the rolling road
Dolomite Sprint Group 2 testing the engine on the rolling road

 

Dolomite Sprint fast road engine installation
Dolomite Sprint fast road engine installation

BMW FIA Engines

Our BMW FIA engines are something that we are constantly improving; new products, methods, design of inlet and exhaust systems.

FIA BMW 1800 tisa engine
FIA BMW 1800 tisa engine

BMW M88 Engine

A wonderful engine; based on the M30 3.5 litre block with a 24 valve twin cam cylinder head. The engine suffers from a few major issues, however – harmonics being one of them. We have had a set of rotating parts designed that alleviate the harmonic destruction that bugged these engines in period. Heini Mader told me (some years ago) that there are more harmonic dampers lying in the forests around Nurburgring than anywhere else in the world!

BMW M88 engine
BMW M88 engine