KENT CROSSFLOWS

[TONY R]

Ok im old but in my misspent youth my afliction for large motorcycles and anything that involveed going up steep hills against the clock on cars or bikes was my way of getting my fix of a adrenaline.

I kind of missed the street boy racer thing, i just took to competition and the love of my life then was the humble ford kent crossflow it was in everything then from escorts to transit vans capris cortinas they all had then and some others had them too TVRs to name but one.

Ive melowed a lot since those heady far of days, i still like hills on bikes and cars but at a much stadier pace than all those years ago.

Still have a crossflow engine in a trials car and another ready to go in another, pluss a spare block etc.

Putting the head back on the spare cars engine the other night i realised just how much of my life as been conected to this family of engines and just how many i have owned and worked on. Right from being a little lad in my mothers Mk1 1100 in 1969 right to now and these marlin trialers they are still part of my life today.

There are some great engines about the old A series BMCs the B series BMCs and the kent fords in bboth pree and crossflow variants these three motors vertualy dominated the british car scene for a long time.

Just thought i woyuld share my thoughts and passion for these little engines, and wondering if any more on here still own or share a fondness for this fantastic little engine.

 

[la bala]

711M block comes to mind

[TONY R]

711M block comes to mind

Thats the best of the blocks bela all these thrree blocks are 711ms there is a 618f i think it is a 1600 out of an old mk2 cortina deluxe scraped it in 1976 man dont i keep some old tat.

[la bala]

Many years ago, i took the engine and drive train from a MK1 Ford Capri 1600 GT XLR along with the 3.77 diff and put it in a scruffy Escort van, it surprised a few.

[malkiserow]

Ok im old but in my misspent youth my afliction for large motorcycles and anything that involveed going up steep hills against the clock on cars or bikes was my way of getting my fix of a adrenaline.

I kind of missed the street boy racer thing, i just took to competition and the love of my life then was the humble ford kent crossflow it was in everything then from escorts to transit vans capris cortinas they all had then and some others had them too TVRs to name but one.

Ive melowed a lot since those heady far of days, i still like hills on bikes and cars but at a much stadier pace than all those years ago.

Still have a crossflow engine in a trials car and another ready to go in another, pluss a spare block etc.

Putting the head back on the spare cars engine the other night i realised just how much of my life as been conected to this family of engines and just how many i have owned and worked on. Right from being a little lad in my mothers Mk1 1100 in 1969 right to now and these marlin trialers they are still part of my life today.

There are some great engines about the old A series BMCs the B series BMCs and the kent fords in bboth pree and crossflow variants these three motors vertualy dominated the british car scene for a long time.

Just thought i woyuld share my thoughts and passion for these little engines, and wondering if any more on here still own or share a fondness for this fantastic little engine.

 

 

We need pictures of these cars

[shaun4860]

Bro in law had a MK 1 XR2 with the 1.6 Kent

 

Piper 285 cam,

 

Ported flowed head by PERDAL performance,

 

Went like stink.....

 

Then had it over bored to 1700cc, lost performance and was told the bores had gone porus and shouldn't have gone past 1660cc

 

Was a VERY fast car in its day

 

[TONY R]

 

We need pictures of these cars

Well they are both works in progress im afraid, but here is some pictures.

Here is what we are aiming for a competative class 7 trials car.

here is where we are with ours. we got a long way to go.

[dougall]

had a dry sumped ford x flow in a caterham 7 for 15 years...loved it....hugely versatile and strong engine...then went BDR had all sorts of large bills and not as driveable...

[malkiserow]

Well they are both works in progress im afraid, but here is some pictures.

Here is what we are aiming for a competative class 7 trials car.

here is where we are with ours. we got a long way to go.

 

 

Brilliant

 

I imagine they are so much fun

[Rimfireboy]

Got you Tony, haven't got any Kent crossflows complete anymore, but still some parts. Used to love tuning those engines, and the pinto's. Still got David Vizard's book somewhere. I went a bit too far with a 1600 crossflow once with A6 cam and big valves it was terribly lumpy for road use. Flat at low revs, the took off like a two stroke at 4000 like a powerband. Suffered from oil surge though as I'd had to remove the sump baffles to get the 1300 sump to clear the crank webs.

[TONY R]

Got you Tony, haven't got any Kent crossflows complete anymore, but still some parts. Used to love tuning those engines, and the pinto's. Still got David Vizard's book somewhere. I went a bit too far with a 1600 crossflow once with A6 cam and big valves it was terribly lumpy for road use. Flat at low revs, the took off like a two stroke at 4000 like a powerband. Suffered from oil surge though as I'd had to remove the sump baffles to get the 1300 sump to clear the crank webs.

As a kid my old Anglia had a front pan 1200 pree crossflow pan on a 611f block in it, sump had to be warmed up with the oxy act and knocked out to clear the 1600 crank all good fun though,

 

The best sounding kent i ever had was a 1500 pre crossflow in a mk 1 cortina GT green white stripe. with a lynx manifold with twin 40dcoes off a rolled elan sprint ples 2 , and a home made fourbranch manifold with tin plate heat baffle to draw the heat from the webbers. It had the stock GT 1500 cam in it but open bell mouths man did that thing sound great in the old cortina. i had a 4.44 diff from an anglia van in that was quick off the line even against the wifes 3 litre capri. Dont make cars like that much fun anymore, ok a new Vauxhall adam Would chew it up and spit it out in small bits on top speed, but as for personal adrenaline pumping fun ... no way the old push rods pintos etc had fun in huge spoonfulls.

Maybe im just old i dont know.

[TONY R]

 

 

Brilliant

 

I imagine they are so much fun

This is bassicaly the type of thing thats involved, cars are in various classes and specs for each class and type brand of car in some classes, not as techy as motorcycle trials which i come from, im a complete novice in cars like this, and its more an endurance trial but still needs ability the car to be put together right and a degree of luck if thats what you want to call it, the various cars are better worse than each other beetles and buggys do well but are competing in their class agains other similar cars, it all relative. class 7 is the class interested me, and the lumbereing marlin although probably not the best car type are good fun tough and available for a bit of sport in my old age, still into twi shock trials on bike and might do a few of these long distance trials on a bike some time, but wanted to try at this first.

A vid with a bit more insight than my newbie words can ever give, tons on the web, and shooters from devon cornwall should be well used to these events, a lot down that way not so many up north but still a few clubs fellside ilkley etc do a trial or two.

[Dunkield]

I bought a wreck of a Lotus 7 years ago with pre-crossflow 1200 already in it.

As I always wanted a crossflow as soon as I saw an ex-grass track engine come up in Motoring News the 1200's days were numbered.

The crossflow was a 711m Mexico engine bored out to 1760 from memory with a Burton BL22 cam which along with the size of the valves was hopeless for the road - but good fun just the same. Anyways that engine died of overwork so I took all the parts, apart from the cam, over to a 1300 crossflow and started all over again.

With a more suitable cam and properly jetted twin Weber 40's it made almost as much power as the 1760 when it was set up on a rolling road.

 

As I was clogging up my parents garage I chucked the original 1200 in a skip as part of a huge clear out.

Years later I met the previous owner of the 7 who went white when I told him I binned that motor, apparently it was built from almost all Cosworth parts and would have been worth a bomb

[la bala]

I bought a wreck of a Lotus 7 years ago with pre-crossflow 1200 already in it.

As I always wanted a crossflow as soon as I saw an ex-grass track engine come up in Motoring News the 1200's days were numbered.

The crossflow was a 711m Mexico engine bored out to 1760 from memory with a Burton BL22 cam which along with the size of the valves was hopeless for the road - but good fun just the same. Anyways that engine died of overwork so I took all the parts, apart from the cam, over to a 1300 crossflow and started all over again.

With a more suitable cam and properly jetted twin Weber 40's it made almost as much power as the 1760 when it was set up on a rolling road.

 

As I was clogging up my parents garage I chucked the original 1200 in a skip as part of a huge clear out.

Years later I met the previous owner of the 7 who went white when I told him I binned that motor, apparently it was built from almost all Cosworth parts and would have been worth a bomb

Oh dear

[TONY R]

The 1300s are not so bad we are going 1300s 711m blocked in these trialers, there is no substitute for cubic inches as vizard says, but just how much HP do you need to break traction on a wet muddy hill when your running a marina van axle wit Austin A40 devon 5.8 crown wheel and pinion .

When your low powered gear it down it works ok on bikes so there is my logic, now im no expert on these cars im a total newb but if im wrong ill know soon enough its the way i am going to keep taxation of the cars to a minimum if nothing else. the savings from taxing a 1600 pays for the inssurance near enough running on a bugget means making compromises like this, and being there is the thing winning is a massive plus and highly unlikeley i feel for us.

[Dunkield]

I was doing sprints and hillclimbs at the time, when the 1600 let go it was a good opportunity to drop down into the 1300 class which wasn't full of white hot escorts and the like. That and getting a bit braver started to fill the cupboard with a bit of silverware (well plastic actually) at last.

I would have thought for trials torque would be more beneficial than outright power no?

[dougall]

I was doing sprints and hillclimbs at the time, when the 1600 let go it was a good opportunity to drop down into the 1300 class which wasn't full of white hot escorts and the like. That and getting a bit braver started to fill the cupboard with a bit of silverware (well plastic actually) at last.

I would have thought for trials torque would be more beneficial than outright power no?

correct...the best pre-war trial cars were supercharged,and it was the rorque that got em up hills....Dad had blown P type MG trial cars throughout 60s/70s/80s and these would get up the most daunting looking hills Exeter trial etc..Of the modern stuff specialist Trolls came along/huge ground clearance many ran A series and some x flow these were so light that blowers not needed.

[TONY R]

Torque is of value but our engine choice was more about availability and cost re road tax and cheaper replacement engines than the 1600s, we removed a perfectly good 1800 mgb engine and a ford type 9 gearebox conversion to fit the 1300, all down to lightness and cheap road tax, reliability is one area i am striving to be good at for a start you have to finnish we hope to put together something strong reliable and light with low gearing hopefully we will do that.