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Thanks for the advice guys I'll let you know how it all goes when I don't need the car for family duties, etc.

I had my gas Corty on my mate's engine analyser and he couldn't believe how clean he could get it to idle. Normally the cleanest you can get a non-cat petrol engine is around 4.5% CO and 250 ppm HC. Winding the mixture up or down causes one or the other to increase. On gas it was below 1% CO and below 100 ppm HC, as clean as or better than a cat-equipped car. He'd never put a gas car on the machine before and thought there was something wrong with it.

<br />Exactly what I was thinking of doing, and you've just confirmed it... Thanks mate!

Sounds like your float is stuck and flooding the engine

He'd know Peter Molloy, Moffatt's engine builder. Btw he's a bloke at work's uncle. Brilliant engineer so I hear.

Wow you're a glutton for punishment! You could also stick a knitting needle in your ear for slightly less pain.... But seriously, I understand there are two pumps in a wagon: an in-tank lift pump and external inline pressure pump.

I'm guessing the BBM having the longer inlet runners could possibly have a pulse-tuning effect that the log manifold lacks, the extent of which cannot be measured on a flow bench. Also the throttle lives smack in the centre of the plenum, vs right at the front on the log. Better air distribution me thinks

Great info guys, very useful. Nothing beats OEM quality except maybe thousand-dollar Recaros. Does anyone know the compatibility between early seat rails and later seat bolt patterns? It seems there is pre-EA and post, with BA-onwards different again. My original XE seats are pretty crap despite the awesome cream with chocolate/dark brown stripes. BA seats sound mighty tempting

Could go a reco long engine from a reputable builder if you don't have to do it yourself. They often do engines 5 or 6 at a time so can save in labour and parts are bought in bulk. You could get maybe 20% more performance using stock bits without over-stressing things. Cam could be 1 or 2 steps up from a towing cam. Otherwise, nothing more to add than what the other lads have already said.

You have to be careful with the shielding. My old man's XF had a set of Genies that came very close to the clutch cable and cooked a couple of them,so he wrapped it in header tape. Turns out that stuff does as good a job of keeping the heat in as keeping it out, ended up cooking the cable the entire length that it was wrapped instead of just in one hot spot.

Fuck that's really weird

Including axle bearings and seals, you're probably looking at $180 just in parts. Add a diff hat gasket plus machining the cones, and $550 sounds quite reasonable. Some mobs up here in Sydney want $650 for a "checked and cleaned" centre (supply only) with bearings installed.

I remember reading about Chrysler Hemis having a highly tuliped valve, in the order of 25 deg or so. This is to take advantage of the straight port and chamber shape presumably. It must have made the flow go around the valve head and not out into the chamber and cylinder wall. I would love to have been alive at the time and working in this field when folks were pioneering stuff like this. Love your work by the way.

Not an expert by any stretch but that teardrop shape is the most aerodynamically efficient of all and is used on the wings and fins of aircraft as well as on various parts of racing cars... I would guess that the extended trailing edge stops turbulence behind the valve guide and stem and gives a cleaner stream into the cylinder.

Any news?

My experience with those needle roller casings has shown them to be thin and fragile when trying to drive/press them out. They just end up smashing to bits. Welding them out might be a delicate but more successful means. Pressing the new one in might be interesting, may need some heat on the casing to slip it in easier.

Not experienced with either but gut feeling says: drag engine = 4V

Doesn't sound very nice mate. Can't answer the oil one but the cranking issue I have encountered many times on breakdowns. It often happens when the car has sat for a long time. You crank it and it feels like you've got no plugs in it... No compression. It cranks and cranks and nothing still. What's happening is the cam actuator(s) have emptied themselves of oil and retarded the cams fully, bleeding off any compression while you crank. It takes a while to get oil pressure to the top of the engine and through those tiny holes in the solenoids, but then once that finally happens and you get normal cam action, you have another problem: the computer doesn't know all this is happening and just keeps pumping in fuel while cranking, and ends up flooding the engine. The way to clear a flooded EFI engine is to hold your foot flat to the floor and crank. The computer knows that you're trying to clear it out so stops injecting fuel. It should then cough and splutter to life with some black smoke, etc.<br /><br />This cam problem is often caused by the solenoid becoming dirty and jammed open slightly in the tiny valve inside, causing oil to leak back out of the actuator once the engine has stopped. Then you go full retard, so to speak. Hope I explained it well enough

When I pulled the 4.1 out of mine, it sat in the weather a little and both throttle shafts seized solid. I think Webers might be a little tighter in clearance than a Holley or something. Maybe corrosion is causing the two metals to gall up and bind, or maybe as Ando said, there is so much wear that the butterfly is binding on the carby throat. Do as Adrian suggested and pop the ball linkage off to see if the carby still sticks without the cable attached.

There was a feature in Street Machine many moons ago on a Sigma/Clevo that looked like a silly stocka outside, complete with venetians, factory alloys and 2-tone paint. Pop the hood and there's a dirty Clevo staring at you. Also seen a few Scorpions with V8s shoved in. In the 80s there was a bloke in Blacktown who built a Windsor-powered RS2000 Escort, and then another for his wife. Also yet another bloke who liked V8 powered KE30 Corollas was around then too. Both were prominent at Summernats in the burnout arena. Some old videos might have them.

A modified Offy Port-O-Sonic, top milled off and dual carby plate added: http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d37/Walkinshaw83/360Equaflow01.jpg

Another option (if you can find one): a dual-quad with twin Impco 425s. Been done before I believe with great results, a bit more compact than GRA mixers.

That's pretty pricey for a laser-cut lump of steel

Fair enough... Milling, porting and correcting bolt holes: that's a lot of trouble to go to, especially since they brought out a manifold for Clevos not long after that... That's gotta hurt