High mileage bragging rights

Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.

SHC286

Newbie
Joined
Aug 25, 2020
Messages
38
Reaction score
63
Location
Louisiana
Anyone familiar with Ford’s Cologne engines?
Real pieces of junk designed or manufactured in Cologne, Germany. Can’t remember which.

I had a ‘87 Ranger with the 2.9 liter V6, the crappiest piece of crap of them all. I think they averaged around 100-150K miles. I managed to milk mine for 480K miles. Damn thing sounded like a diesel lawnmower with asthma after being kicked in it’s balls.
 

Erik the Awful

Supporting Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2019
Messages
7,602
Reaction score
15,500
Location
Choctaw, OK
The earlier 2.8 Colognes are the hot engine to swap into Sunbeam Alpines. You can get as much power as a Sunbeam Tiger without the V8 weight. Still, it's a very outdated engine.
 

SHC286

Newbie
Joined
Aug 25, 2020
Messages
38
Reaction score
63
Location
Louisiana
The earlier, slightly smaller displacement Colognes didn’t have the head and head gasket problems the 2.9 did.

I had to look up that car. I have a Sunbeam toaster.
 

Erik the Awful

Supporting Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2019
Messages
7,602
Reaction score
15,500
Location
Choctaw, OK
I have a 12A half-bridgeport from my old RX-7. The center ports are fed from the primary barrels of the carburetors (dual Weber 36DCDs), and have a heavy street port that's akin to a lopey cam. It braaps at idle. The ports in the end housings are fed by the secondaries and are bridgeported, i.e. a second port is cut next to the stock port. The bridgeports give you more port volume than you can get with a street port while keeping a bridge of metal to support the side seals, and are akin to a cam that requires a 2000 rpm idle. From idle to 3000 rpm you use half the gas pedal and it runs hard. Above 3000 rpm you mash into the carburetor secondaries and it screams all the way to 9000 rpm, and I mean screams. It's loud, obnoxious, and fast. With the original Nikki carburetor I turned a 15.189 in the quarter, and that was with a 2.5 second 60 foot time due to my tires spinning. Well over 200 hp from a 70 cubic inch engine that weighs about a hundred fifty pounds. It's also a fairly easy swap into a Sunbeam.
 

885speed

OBS Enthusiast
Joined
Sep 1, 2019
Messages
58
Reaction score
41
Location
Hell, Florida
My 97 C1500 ECSB is at 295k currently. Original motor, has slow oil leaks, but doesn't smoke and oil changes done every 4k miles with full synthetic oil. Dipstick shows about half a quart low at oil change time. Not bad IMO.
The rest of the truck isn't in amazing condition by any means, but for almost 300k it's rather decent, and everything in it works.
 
Top