Capri - Jimboomba Auto Extravaganza, Sunday 25 August

This event was sponsored by the Early Ford V8 Club and was held at Maclean Bridge in Tully Park, Jimboomba. As well as the swap meet, you can either display your car or enter it into the judging competition. I decided that it was time my white 1972 Capri XL had a run so I cleaned it up and took it out on what was a great Sunday morning.

The swap meet had many stalls but, as usual, I didn’t see any Capri or small Ford parts. It looked like many of the stall holders had cleared out their sheds and brought the junk along to try and sell it. I didn’t buy anything.  There weren’t a huge number of cars on display but there were some really nice early Fords, including several Customlines.  Some really nice Ford Hot Rods were lined up with one done out like an American sprint car. Also, the usual nice Falcon GTs and Mustangs were present. The English Fords were represented by a couple of well-known Escorts, several Zephyrs and the lone white Capri XL.

 

Capri - Car Quiz

This quiz, How well do you know your car?, was in today's Brisbane Courier Mail.
The author, Neil Dowling, asks whether the modern motorist is losing touch with the car.
It is pretty easy for most enthusiasts but I was completely incorrect with Question 13. See how you go.

These three funny stories were also on the page. The first one is a beauty and I can really relate to the last one as my eldest daughter tried to do exactly this with her first car.

Capri - Exhaust Manifold Flange

Owning a classis car means frequent maintenance and that is part of the fun! Maybe! The green Capri started to sound a bit like a tractor last week and a hand near the exhaust/manifold joint revealed an unwanted exhaust gas leak. If my memory is correct, the exhaust pipe had a very small crack in it where it fits into the manifold. So, off to buy an exhaust bandage and some muffler putty. getting the flange off wasn't a great problem but the two nuts are getting worn so I decided to replace them. (These pictures show the flange on loosely)



That was the hard part. I thought they were 3/8 inch UNC and they fitted the bolts at the local hardware store but on trying them on the car, they were not quite right. I tried numerous spare nuts but none seemed to be the correct fit. So off to the local bolt specialist & after a bit of trial & error decided the best fit were some metric nuts, about 5mm.  You never know what is on some old cars!
I wrapped the bandage around the joint, put some putty on top and then tightened everything up. After running the motor for about 10 minutes, it all seems good so we will wait and see after a decent trial run.

Capri Oil Filters

These comments refer to the 1600 Kent engine only. I have discussed this on occasions with other 1600 owners and there are a number of different points of view. I have experienced a few problems in stopping the oil filter from leaking on my green Capri. At present, it is not leaking and I am using a Repco oil filter on it, tightened to the extreme. This car has the 69IM engine block while my white XL 1600 has the 71IM block. I do not have the same problems with the XL. After discussions with other owners, I have learnt that the oil pump on the 69IM has a different type of connection area to the 71IM. There is a small ridge around the circumference on the 69IM which may reduce a good seal being made with the rubber seal on the oil filter. Some owners have ground off the ridge or even replaced the oil pump to solve this problem. At present I have a collection of three spare filters so I have had a good look at this seal area.

 

The three brands are (from the left): Repco ROF-22; Ryco Z62; Motorcraft AFLE227 (I managed to find this on EBay last year). There also was a Valvoline VO32 available but I have not seen one recently.

If the top area is examined carefully there are differences.

 



Firstly, it is obvious that the Ryco has a smaller inner diameter (57mm) than the other two and the seal is thinner (4mm). It also has a higher metal ridge on the inner side of the seal. The Motorcraft has a diameter of (62-63mm) and a seal width of 5 mm. The Repco has a diameter of 62 mm and a 6 mm seal width. I now understand why the Ryco, which is the one that is the easiest to obtain, is possibly the most unsuitable for the 69IM block as the smaller inner diameter is catching on the ridge. I have not had the filter off my car to accurately measure it on the pump but next time I will check it out.
So, the moral of this little story is - just check the oil filter seal measurements before you replace it, if you are having a problem with it leaking.
I would welcome any comments on this matter.