Toucan

Haha yea spring compressor is essential for the fronts. I took out the whole strut and then tightened bits of wire around the coils a few times then took the nut off, the wire only loosened a little bit so I was lucky that the spring didnt fly off. Kept that wire on and tried putting it back but on the strut but there was no way it was going to go on so I got some spring compressors and they worked piece of cake

I'd definately be keen, much easier than buying from overseas myself.

Haha thanks, I used a very similar diagram when I took the carb apart the other day. Wasnt brave enough to take it all apart at once as shown here though lol, bit by bit so that I didnt get lost, thats the way to play with carbs

This is on my 1600 crossflow with single downdraught weber 28/36. Yea I got the one from the intake manifold to the brake booster (servo). The one I was talking about is the really small one that goes from the distributor. I guess your right though, if it goes better then it should be the right one

Thanks BigDave, not quite what I was after but a good read none the less. I put on my 28/36 and it was running pretty rough so I was tinkering with a screw driver trying to tune it. I wasnt making any progress and so I started playing with my vaccum hoses. I had 2 outlets, one from the carb, and one from just below the carb on the intake manifold. My vac advance went from the dizzy to the outlet on the carb and the outlet on the intake manifold was just blocked off. So being adventurous I swapped the hose. Now the vac advance goes from the dizzy to the outlet on the intake manifold and I have blocked off the outlet on the carb. Would you believe it it runs smooth as! So my question: Which outlet is it MEANT to go on? or is there no real difference? Hope someone can understand that

Does anyone have any links to a good site containing info on Weber carbs? I want to see how good my 28/36 is compared to the rest. It's made a huge inprovement in power

I only used the honing tool to remove the ridge that forms on the top of each cylinder so that I could fit new rings. I didnt use it on the head so I'm not too sure??

GNR - Yea I just used the pod filter thing example, I got no idea what sort of hp increase it makes. jaymz - nah I didnt do a port and polish, the only thing I did to the head was take out each of the valves and re-seat them, its real easy to do with a cordless drill and some valve grinding paste but it is more of a reconditioning thing than a performance thing which is what most of you will be after. Be careful if you try to do it though because the intake side of the head is meant to have a rough surface to a certain degree, I wasnt too sure how to do it so I just left mine as is.

Yea it was my first one too. Helps to have someone with a bit of experience aswel as the haynes manual. Do you use messenger? escortahAThotmailDOTcom and we can talk sometime, otherwise we'll have to make sure we go to one of the meets/cruises sometime.

Damm I got ripped off... $80 for a new square headlight from repco when I got mine.

If your wanting to raise the compression you can also put a 1300 head on a 1600 block, they have different shaped valves an all that carry on... The rules for certing are bullshit, they say something like if you get a 5% increase in power you need to get it certed, that would mean every gay honda with a pod filter an exhaust system would need it... yea right. I chucked a 1600 into my 1300, it's still rego'd as a 1300 and the warrant guy saw that it was a different engine but didnt say anything, and this was at VTNZ, not some dodgy garage. The difference between my 1300 and my 1600 is honestly quite small, and I've done quite a fair comparrison (same carb and exhaust on both engines). With the 1600 I notice the extra torque alot more though, especially when going up hills. The biggest improvement you can make to each engine is the carb, so I'd say a 1300 with a big carb would go just as good as a standard carb'd 1600 so the choice is up to you. I just went with the 1600 because it was actually cheaper than any of the 1300's I could find. Oh yea and rebuilding is a piece of cake Although pommy engines use a different sized nut for everything And yes, a gasket kit is esential ($120ish), along with new rings ($60ish) and make sure you check the bearings/crank. I also honed my cylinders before I put the rings in, I made friends with the local engine reconditioner and he let me borrow his tool for doing this, but I found that a really fine grinding stone bit on the end of a cordless drill was just as good, then use really fine sand paper and then polish them clean. I can't really think of anything else to add at the moment but yea I've done the whole crossflow rebuild thing recently and am happy to answer any questions.

Yea I put a aftermarket weber twin troat downdraught on it and it made a huge difference, I had to take it off though because its in big need of a recondition. I've got extractors sitting in the garage too, once I put both the carb and the extractors on it should go like nuts

I'm also young. I wouldnt bother paying somebody to do it, timing aint that hard aye, but yea if you dont have a timing light it probly would be best to get one. Its a good thing to know how to do and an escort is probably the easiest car in the world to do it on ...Carb tuning... thats when you wanna pay someone to do it for you lol

Haha what a coincidance, same thing happened to me last friday night, rolled through an intersection an into a mobile an stopped right beside the pump I filled it up and it was fine, though my tank was cleaned out not long ago so there shouldnt of been any crap in there. I got told that you foul up your spark plugs if you fully run outa gas??? Havn't had a chance to check mine yet but its running sweet so maybe thats all a load of bull*hit.

From what I've heard you can't run sideys with the brake booster there, and looking at it you wouldnt think so either. Some people like taking out the booster, they say it gives a more "direct feel" for the brakes, aslong as you got a strong leg though

Not worth paying someone else to do it, less fun too. I went from knowing nothing about engines to know all about engines Jump in there and have a go, aslong as you label everything as you take it out you wont have a problem. When I took my engine out i took just the engine, then took the gearbox off afterwards. Though when we put it back in we put both the engine and gearbox in together, i think it was easier this way rather than the first, even though the manual says otherwise. But yea I took out my 1300 recently so if you have any queries feel free to ask while the infos fresh in my mind

Did you say how much you got the seats for? And how much you reckon for the custom mounts? Id be keen to see pics and know total cost etc.

I paid $150 for my 1600 with everything but a gearbox. Bolts straight in, same mounts as my 1300, used my 1300 flywheel just because it suited the teeth on my starter and kept with my 1300 g/box. Only thing that gave me a little trouble was the sump but that was mainly because of it being a cortina sump. Its all going sweet now though

MWHAHAHAHA 4 hours under the car working with a pry-bar an its sweet as a nut, didnt have to take it out or anything. Took her for a drive without the bonnet (fun) and she goes better than ever. Will post pics up soon

Cortina 1600 and nah its still OHV one, identical to the 1600 escort just different shaped sump and maybe a few other subtle differences, not sure. Would anyone reccomend just running it for awhile to see if the crank eventually knocks the sump bigger? its hitting on the side of the sump with the corner of the nut holding the big end bearing cap onto the conrod... Its either gonna knock it big enough or put a crack in my sump, advice please

Yea we are using the 1600 sump, cept its a 1600 out of a cortina and the crossmember is right in the way so we had to beat it, but we didnt touch anywhere near where ts hitting an I dont understand cos it WAS going fine before we put it in, we must of knocked it out of place or sumthing. Just a pain in the ass to take it out agen thats all.

Pretty much just want somewhere to B!tch... Putting my 1600 in the escort today, we started it outside the car an it went sweet as, we got it in the car, fired it up an knock knock knock, the crank is hitting the sump on the exaust side, you can feel it, not on the bottom of the sump but on the side. Now we had a 1300 sump that we beat out to make room for the bigger crank swing but that warped a bit an wudnt fit on straight so we used the 1600 cortina sump and beat it smaller to fit over the escort crossmember. It fits sweet and WAS running sweet outside the car but now that its in its hitting where it fuc*ing shouldnt be hitting. So now looks like I gotta take the engine out again, or crossmember off to get at the sump, what a pain in the ass. RAAR!!!

Me too... if its cheap. 1600

Hey man where abouts are you located? I just got a 1600 off a guy and he also had a malory (???) twin point distributer for $100. This is in Hamilton.

Man thats looking nice Yea my 1300 pistons are worn really bad thats half the reason i got a new engine so no chance I'd be able to use them, and measuring the 1300 head off my old engine it turned out to be a 1600 head anyway