Cortina alloy 250

[Anonymous]

just bought an 86 xf alloy 4.1L weber carby i live in sydney, parramatta
i wanna know how much it will cost me to rebuild it.....
i'm looking for a bit of performance gain but nuthing tooo far out there
maybe upgrade the cam.... and use a set of extractors.....

thanks for all your help

 

[Anonymous]

The wrecker that I go (who is now shutting down) said that he stoped reconditioning engines as It was costing over $1500 each engine., or there abouts (can't remember exactly).

But it all depends to what extent you want to go to.

Just remember Murphy's Laws.
1) If anything can go wrong it will.
2) Nothing is as easy as it looks.
3) Everything takes longer than you think.
7) It always costs more that first estimated.


Cheers,
Dylan

 

[addo]

Dylan,

Is he really closing, or did he just say that? J/K

TE Boy:I'd suggest about $2500 for the motor work ($1900 block, $600 head), plus say $350 for pipes, and around $500 for the in/out and a quick dyno tune. No wonder some of us do our own work.

Cheaper rebuilds often do not rebuild stuff (oil pump, etc), or just fit a service kit, rather than reco things.

Cruise the wreckers and forums for extractors - maybe get a set under $100. A Crow cam, with new timing set, lifters and springs will set you back $500-odd uninstalled. Cleveland roller rockers will fit (with simple machine work to the head), but look for the high-ratio ones. Again, ask the wreckers (Yella Terra brand is nice).

My favourite engine shop is C&B Performance reconditioning in Seven Hills. Talk to John. For wreckers, try Fordham Spares (Tempe), Fairford Spares (Padstow), maybe others, too but I seem to find these guys OK.

A basic tune-up, flicking the EGR and a freer flowing air filter will all help at first.

Adam.

 

[aussie7mains]

Thy these.
Use the later EFI grind cam with a set of 351 4v springs, change to non sintered spring retainers (MUST) suggets CROW. Dont waste money on roller gear, not necessary. This will allow an extra 500rpm.
Dont bother with head porting, just freshen up head.
Go to roller timing chain.
Extractors are not needed for this level, stock exhaust manifold was used on EFI anyway, just get as big diameter system as you can get on the mainfold, 2.25 should be about right. use low restriction muffler.
Use the stock intake, but try to improve size of passages.
Find a 2 barrel weber that non emission that will drop on, 2 litre Cortina V6 capri?
Get a cold air induction to the air cleaner.
Or use EFI manifold and go straight LPG.
Check dizzy advance curve. You should have electronic ignition.
Stock rebuild is all that necessary, fancy pistons oil pumps etc not needed dont go above 8.5 :1 for unleaded, or 9.5 for LPG, get COME LPG cam for straight gas.
Chuck your cooling fan, go electric, run an electric fuel pump.
Otherwise its easy, this setup will give around 165 honest BHP and 5000rpm, whith smooth idle and reasonable fuel consumption.
A7M

 

[addo]

The main reason I commented on the roller top end was to take advantage of the higher lift. Plus you get out of the flimsy pressed arms that way. Pushrod flex and popping - well, some people blame the pushrods, but a bit less friction up top won't hurt.

 

[aussie7mains]

Do they get rid of $600 worth of friction?
Ive never broken a cleveland rocker arm, unless they had too much lift and bound up on the fulcrum, but why would you use that much lift on a street engine?
As to pushrods, never had trouble with them either, for street use stock stuff is fine, dont forget XY gthos had pressed rocker arms.
A7M

 

[addo]

Well, I wouldn't say pop $600 into them. But (as I'm sure you know) they do turn up at swaps and in wreckers for half that. And what of the ratio advantage I mentioned?

I bought a 202 head, P&P with full unleaded conversion AND roller rockers for $400 the lot. Bargains are there to be had.

 

[aussie7mains]

Yes there is a small difference in ratio IF you get the 1.8:1 units, even then its very slight, wouldnt justify the cost, even at $300.
You could put that money into othe camtrain bits and get much better value.
For street use keep to stock stuff, save your pennies for more mods later on.
A7M

 

[xctasy]

te 250 has his alloy head screwed on right.
Keep It Simple, Stupid!

I suppose roller rockers are like long rods..a great idea for the top end of the rev range, but possibly may not be the cost effective option. But then again, it may allow an OHC style 5900 rpm rev capability. In a TE with the right cam, that would scare a lot of Hiroshima Screamers! Shame you can't have a plexiglass valve cover so everyone can see your roller rockers!

The crankshaft windage past 5300 rpm, and the valve gears sled fulcrum (rocker ball) chop out over lifts of 480 thou valve lift, and all the drama with high revs oil delivery, plasticine rod bolts and proper preload hydraulic lifters and springs...mess up on the basics and your standout performer will be a cabbage. Using the stock XF-style low friction rings may cause ring flutter to set in early. Wheels used to thrash XD Falcons out to 5300 rpm, 500 rpm into the red line. XF's were set 300 rpm lower than the 4800 rpm red line. A good engine builder will sort out what ring clearances you need. A 250 with that long, almost 4 inch stroke is going to be needing the pan oil like a slap happy pizza chef any way. If you really do know more than Ford did during the development of this engine, then you'll spend your money where it counts!

The Weber DGAS 38 as an aftermarket carb is a goodie, along with the 40 mm Capri 3000 GT carbs. These are the ones to have if you have no auto kickdown cable to worry about. You can fly cut the venturis to increase the flow rate if you want to hit the 200 flywheel horse barrier. These are better emission wise than the staged DGAS 32/36 Weber found on Cortina. If you do the sums on the basis of venturi area, the 2000 cc Cortina carb is very slightly bigger than the ADM 34/34! Only reson I can see that the ADM 34/34 was used was the massive vacuum and fuel economy from having the tiny primary feeding the engine most of the time. It is also much nicer than the DGAS as far as float bowl, and safety fitting of fuel lines. Energising the secondary circuit causes a little raw fuel to enrich things, hurting emmisions in the real world, but during the ADR 27a test, there was never any opening of the secondary throttles anyway. The right size Weber in a syncronised state is not going to cause Mr Plod to give you a canary if it all looks stock. An ADM is going to cap your power to 180 horses.

 

[Anonymous]

5300 RPM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Buddy I have owned crossflows for a long time.
They do not like 5000 rpm.
BOOOM big time.
Ford designed a rev limiter in these engines, it was those lovely tubular pushrods.
Spit them out if you are a naughty boy.
Noel

 

[xctasy]

LOL. I've heard a few stories like that, but don't they came from Holden owners, so I didn't listen!

Do ya wanna hear something real funny?

My old 250 girl tops the NZ Speed limit in first... that's almost 5500 rpm at 100 km/h. It runs 2.77:1 gears and a 2.39:1 first with 245/60 H14's. The thing sounds like a bag of false teeth, and I'm sure the dancing kniting needles (pushrods) are not happy. At least mines been rebuilt with a 430 thou cam and a proper carb and extractors.

The XE 3.3's were redlined at 5500 rpm, and our 5-speed local XE's used to do 160 km/h in third at 5500 rpm, so it must be the harmonic vibes from the 250 crank that shake the things apart. Next time I give it some curry, I'll call you in case my pushrods get launched as Inter Continental Ballistic Missles!!!

:smash:

 

[Anonymous]

i accidently revved my old iron 250 xflow past 6000 rpms once... off the end of the guage lol. its still going (lucky i suppose)

anyway, I picked up aussie parts peddler mag the other day, and it seems like you can get a fairly decent rebuild package for around $1500 ( bearings/cam (choice of crow ... ) /gaskets/valve springs/new timing set/pistons/balanced/crack tested etc etc)... I think thats not including assembly however!

 

[addo]

That price shows two things - the cost of labour, and (probably) non-balancing or peening of rods, and no torque-plate, hone per piston machine work. Ream it out to something like 40+ and see you later, here's your bag of goodies.

I will bet that's a short motor, so need oil pump, dizzy service, fuel pump... Oh, and an engine cleaning brush kit. Can't stress this enough.

Good, perceptive rebuilders are few and far between. Most are just colour-by-numbers V8-heads.

Cheers, Adam.

 

[Anonymous]

Aussiesevenmains
I realise im a bit late with the question but I was just curious as to why you recommended only going to 8:5.1 comp for the crossflow rebuild on unleaded.
I have 9:0.1 comp in my 250 2V and I run it on premium unleaded. And I was under the impression I could safely go to 9:5.1 as it seems ok now on standard unleaded.
And I had a guy I "thought" was an expert on 250 crossflows tell me I could go to 10.0.1 on premium no trouble at all.
Im not disputing with you just wonder why you said 8:5.1.

 

[aussie7mains]

Its mainly an issue of safety, if you change pistons to go to something higher and improve cylinder filling then you could run into trouble on unleaded, (92 RON)
The problem is one of maximum cylinder pressure, which is a product of how well the cylinders can be filled, and compression ratio, (and other factors) just like supercharging.
So if you stay to 8.5 youll be nice and safe, and dont forget the increase in torque that you might gain is fairly small between 8.5 and say 9.5.
Overall stay away from trouble, concentrate on getting the VE up, by way of manifolds head work etc.
I always say that if your safe on unleded, its saves you money and effort later on.
A7M