Escort 1600

Sounds like you have pulled the layshaft out. The bearing is not a caged bearing, they are loose needles that are assembled in the layshaft cluster using a dummy layshaft before the cluster is inserted into the main gear casing. The actual layshaft then gets inserted after. If you have removed the layshaft the box will now need to be dissasembled to be able to put it all back together properly. You cant just jam it back in there.

Before you start it whip the dizzy out and use an allen key in a grunty drill to get some oil pressure up then put the dizzy back in, set the base timing then fire it up. Your correct with a fresh cam to keep the revs above 3000 rpm for about half hour. What I usually do is run it at 3k for about 15min till everything is warmed up and have some one else keep an eye on things from the outside to make sure its not spewing out water or oil then head out to the motorway (best to do it in the late evening when the traffic is light) keeping the revs up on the way at the traffic lights ect as it seems a bit harsh to just have an engine sitting there in the garage at 3k for half hour. Once its had a run up the motorway and back for 45 min or so it should be safe to let it idle. You can then set your idle mixture and check the timing and from then on just drive it normally for a few hundred km's or so, change the oil and filter and your good to go. If it dosnt want to start dont keep grinding it over as this is what really wrecks a new cam.

A really good crossflow with big valve head, side draught carbs, forged pistons and rods ect you would expect to make around 160hp at the flywheel. Some big budget builds with alot of trickery make over this but they are big budget. 160hp crossflow engine aint slow!

Doing it on the Cheap 1300 pistons are an easy way to gain more compression but you dont get as good burn that you get with the 1600 pistons as the combustion chamber in the 1300 pistons is offset to one side of the piston crown so dosn't fill as well + the 1300 pistons have a thicker crown which also makes them heavy. You get best results from decking the block and turning down the piston crowns to suit. You will also probably find you will need to pocket the pistons to give some clearance to the valves if you ar running a hot cam. Various tuners have different Ideas regarding the flat heads and chambered heads and there are many arguments for and against each. I'm running the chambered head on mine with big inlet valves, 1600 sport exhaust valves, 10:1 compression using 1600 pistons and decking the block, standard twin throat weber carb BCF3 cam and after a good tuning session on the dyno its been sweet reliable and drivable motor at 110hp, Ive put alot of cars to shame that are claiming much bigger power than what mines making!