1500 GT engine rebuild

[Gary]

JUST BEEN GIVEN A 1500GT CORTINA ENGINE.LOOKING TO REBUILD AND MODIFY.ANYONE KNOW ANY GOOD WEBSITES OR BOOKS THAT COULD HELP ME.CHEERS

[Graham]

cams and carbs are pretty much as per x/flow, the art in building a good 1500 is in the head, the best heads were prepared from the baby 1000cc ones

i have an old vizard book with goes into good detail on these heads,

published by MRP Speedsport it had a really catchy title (not) The theory and practice of cylinder head modification first published in 1971 it was reprinted as recently as 1988 (my copy is 1988) although i doubt its still in print, ebay may turn up a copy or a specialist bookshop

[Gary]

CHEERS FOR THAT.WHEN YOU SAY BABY 1000CC HEADS ARE YOU TALKING LIKE 997CC 105E ANGLIA HEADS?IHAVE A COUPLE OF THESE

[Graham]

CHEERS FOR THAT.WHEN YOU SAY BABY 1000CC HEADS ARE YOU TALKING LIKE 997CC 105E ANGLIA HEADS?IHAVE A COUPLE OF THESE

yes, those heads were the ones to use, as the smaller combustion chambers gave higher compression with out lots of skimming and allowed better combustion chamber shapes to be produced

[neilm]

You may find that the 997 head will boost the compression too far beyond sensible road use, remember a lot of the tuning books from the day were written back in the 60's and early 70's when 5 Star fuel was available.

A friend of mine stuck a 997 head on a 1340cc Classic engine and although it seemed to go well he couldnt stop it pinking its tits off.

The common mod back in the day was to use a 997 head on a 1200 bottom end which increased the compression without excessive skimming.

I guess you could try and repeat that on a 1500 with a 1200 head or even the ultra rare 1300 Pre-Crossflow head as they have the same size valves as a standard 1500 anyway.


Failing that, just get your one done by someone whos into pre-crossflow tuning like Joe at Throbnozzle Racing (www.throbnozzle-racing.co.uk)


I have a spare copy of Tuning Anglias & Cortinas if you want some bedtime reading.

[Graham]

You may find that the 997 head will boost the compression too far beyond sensible road use, remember a lot of the tuning books from the day were written back in the 60's and early 70's when 5 Star fuel was available.

A friend of mine stuck a 997 head on a 1340cc Classic engine and although it seemed to go well he couldnt stop it pinking its tits off.
(www.throbnozzle-racing.co.uk)


I have a spare copy of Tuning Anglias & Cortinas if you want some bedtime reading.

mind you were not far off 5 star with some modern super unleaded fuels, also the cam needs to be taken into account, if you used a 997 head with a std cam then yes it may well pink its socks off, but use it with a cam with some overlap say a A3 then proably not

[Gary]

Cheers for all the info gentlemen.