Cylinder Head

October 2007,

The engine we are using for this project is a 1600 crossflow originally from a mk2 escort, we have purchased the engine complete, but needing assembly. It has already had some machining work done, including a rebored block, uprated camshaft and an uprated cylinder head.

The cylinder head itself was overhauled by Vulcan engineering and is fitted with large valves, bowled combustion chambers and has been ported and polished. The work on it was done a number of years ago and hence we now need to fit unleaded valve seats to the exhaust valves to allow us to use normal unleaded petrol.

This will need to be done by a specialist machining company but first we will have to remove the valves and associated components.

This was done by using a valve spring compressor to force the spring down and allow removal of the valve collets. Once removed the pressure was released and the valve, spring and top cap could be withdrawn. It is very important to keep each valve together with its spring and collet to make sure they go back together the same way.

Once the unleaded seats have been fitted the valves will be replaced by a similar method.