Post by buster on Aug 22, 2021 15:23:45 GMT
way back when I was around 18 a mate of mine bought a 1.6GL ford escort, I think he was partly shamed into it by us taking the piss out of his chrysler alpine, it didnt take long though for him to start to think about tweaking it a bit. so one day he enquired at a garage how would you make it go faster and a mechanic reeled a list off the top of his head, twin 40's, ported/skimmed head, kent cams etc and my mate took this as gospel.
the first thing he fitted was the twin 40's, they then needed the complication of a mechanical (as opposed to vacuum) fuel pump and a regulator, with everything fitted and (sort of) working it was awful. so the carbs then had to be restricted back to 38's, still pretty awful.
so next job he attempted to gas flow his own cylinder head, problem is he got over enthusiastic and started grinding steps (deliberately cast in there by ford) in the exhaust ports out smooth (fine if you have a flow bench and half a lifetimes experience) then came the expensive box from kent cams and finally to complete the ruination of a good cylinder head he had it skimmed. this was carried out by a local 'engineer' who had the biggest flat grinding wheel I'v ever seen, the 'engineer' simply fired up the wheel and gripped firmly the head and put it to the grinder, you dont need me to tell you this isnt the way to skim a head, let alone try to take a specific amount off it.
so engine back together (worth mentioning that while this was going on he lowered the car's suspension and fitted bigger alloy wheels, it could now shake the fillings out of your teeth on the smoothest of roads) and off to the dyno to see what he'd created. he'd looked at fords figure when new (80hp) and then totted up (using info from where ever he could) how much horsepower each modification should bring, at the final calculation he came up with a figure of around 135, he was soon to be disappointed, on the dyno it peaked at 78.
no real moral here but he'd have been far better off going out and buying an xr3i and paying the increased insurance, overall it would have worked out much cheaper, much faster and a hell of lot more comfortable.
the first thing he fitted was the twin 40's, they then needed the complication of a mechanical (as opposed to vacuum) fuel pump and a regulator, with everything fitted and (sort of) working it was awful. so the carbs then had to be restricted back to 38's, still pretty awful.
so next job he attempted to gas flow his own cylinder head, problem is he got over enthusiastic and started grinding steps (deliberately cast in there by ford) in the exhaust ports out smooth (fine if you have a flow bench and half a lifetimes experience) then came the expensive box from kent cams and finally to complete the ruination of a good cylinder head he had it skimmed. this was carried out by a local 'engineer' who had the biggest flat grinding wheel I'v ever seen, the 'engineer' simply fired up the wheel and gripped firmly the head and put it to the grinder, you dont need me to tell you this isnt the way to skim a head, let alone try to take a specific amount off it.
so engine back together (worth mentioning that while this was going on he lowered the car's suspension and fitted bigger alloy wheels, it could now shake the fillings out of your teeth on the smoothest of roads) and off to the dyno to see what he'd created. he'd looked at fords figure when new (80hp) and then totted up (using info from where ever he could) how much horsepower each modification should bring, at the final calculation he came up with a figure of around 135, he was soon to be disappointed, on the dyno it peaked at 78.
no real moral here but he'd have been far better off going out and buying an xr3i and paying the increased insurance, overall it would have worked out much cheaper, much faster and a hell of lot more comfortable.
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