All steel crossflow

[andy couchman]

Looking into the feasibility of going all steel internals for my old crossflow and possibly going for an ali head too.

Anyone done this? And is it worth looking for secondhand parts?

Burtons list Arrow and Fearndon crankshafts and con rods, with Arrows being a lot more expensive. Again, any views?

Car is essentially now a tourer doing the odd sprint/hillclimb/trackday and already has forged pistons, Kent 244 cam and Omex/Jenvey fuel injection.

Finally is this doable myself or would you get a professional engine builder to build it and, if so, who would you recommend? In the good ol days it would be Roger King but Roger has moved on.

Thanks.

Andy

[OliverSedlacek]

I've gone for the ali head myself as I reckoned the premium wasn't so big if you compare final prices (post machining, porting etc). There were a couple of surprises, specifically the lack of water outlet between inlets 2 and 3. I solved this by adding a take off instead of the rear blanking plug as this supposedly gives better temperature distribution between cylinders. I also found that the bolt holes for the thermostat housing weren't quite as deep, so those bolts were bottoming out.

As for steel bits, I went for steel rods from Maxspeedingrods. Of course I will never (hopefully) find out what the rev limit on them is, but they aren't much dearer than Ford's pig iron bits, they look lovely and they save 100g each.

Apart from rods and crank, the cam and followers may want changing to steel.

What sort of power would you be happy with?

[Kingsley Young]

Andy

i have sent you an email. 

 

Kingsley. 

[pikeyboy]

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=66&t=1641368&i=0

Some interesting thoughts on con rods cheap and other wise.

[andy couchman]

Thanks all.

Oliver, is the water outlet between 2 and 3 to feed the heater? If so, luckily not a  problem as I don't have a heater! Presumably you got the head from Burtons? Did you use their machining and valves or go elsewhere for that?

​Currently the car is a pretty genuine 150bhp and rev limited to 7000. I'd like to see a bit more power but also to be able to use more revs (8 or 8.5?) and to have a more bulletproof engine.

The research continues...

Andy

[OliverSedlacek]

I got the head from CNC heads, complete with a set of valves, springs and retainers, which I assembled myself.

As for the water outlet, I don't really know enough about bypass water flow (when the thermostat is shut), so I'm just happier with a take off on the head.