Kent 1600 race prep.. anyone with knowledge please click here

jwrcorty · 28-09-2009, 08:07 PM

Hey guys, I’ve singed up hoping for some answers/opinions from anyone who has had any experience with the kent 1600 Xflow. Dad and I have bought a mk2 cortina for the purpose of historic racing.

What pistons and rods have people used?
Cam shafts?
Datsun 180b cranks - factory steal not cast like ford?? Know anyone who can machines these?
Do you know of any engine builders who understand the kent 1600?

Do you know anyone selling a competition 1600 or with parts?

Any information will be greatly appreciated

fpv_escort · 28-09-2009, 09:14 PM

G'day

Firstly, try http://classicford.mine.nu there are plenty of escort nuts there, one by the name of Mk1 Lotus (Paul Truelove) has a great understanding of these engines. He's built many, whether it be for group nc racing or formula ford racing. He's also a dealer for kent cams to he has many many performance parts available.

I built my first enigne (1600) at the age of 16 with a mechanic on hand helping me sift through the good and the bad info. Just experiment as much as you can and try and have some fun on the way.

The engine in my club car seems great and its not that higher spec (keeps up with mini's and a few fj's):

Specs are: Midly ported head, standard valves, flow tested
1300 pistons
decked and bored block
standard bottom end (hasn't been touched)
single 45mm weber
crow cams 51606 cam

and yeah thats about it really, it revs to 7,000 very easily, pulls very nicely and it seems to be strong.

The only difference between our engines is that to run in group nc, you'll have to run the 681f 1600 block, these are weaker than the later 711m escort block. The differences are in the main caps, thicker cylinder walls, bigger cam followers and maybe a few other items. SOmeone correct me.

Good luck with it, dad and i are building a 1300gt mk1 group nc historic touring car. Its using second hand parts so hopefully it all stands together.

Cheers

cortina-mk1 · 30-09-2009, 05:03 PM

there is also threads HERE
on just that question

even a tech guide to download on how to do it

HERE

also info on other builds
HERE

.

hawke · 30-09-2009, 05:42 PM

Any Formula Ford builder can help, or buy the book - Building Formula Ford Engines by Jake Lamont. It can usually be found in any of the Australian Technical Bookshops. While it is particular to US Formula Ford, much is relevnant to Aus, and considering that you will not be bound by those rules, it'll help.

I built my last engine out of a $50 waterlogged piece of crap, and $3,000 later, it goes like a rocket. Very few can match it off the line or down the straight.

The main things for life and power are light flywheel, crack free crank - crack test every two years or 10 meetings - always run full or no throttle (it stops the harmonic vibration breaking the crank), rocker allignment, high rather than low clearances, crap oil to bed rings, synthetic oil to run, low ring gaps (use 0.005" OS rings), retard the cam 3 degrees, and dont rev over 7,200.