ando76

My gosh must be something they are putting in the chicken these days. I think we need some photos in this thread. Pictures of the springs or envys 16 year old? anyone????

OK so I have got the wagon springs out and flipped the bottom leaf as per the instructions in the suspension section. Drew it out on the ground and there is a 2.5inch difference after the flip. The ute comes off the trailer tomorrow for the spring swap. I've measured the mounting point on the EF and it this stage it looks the same as XF. Final measurements will be done tomorrow. envyxf I will not be able to tell you what difference it makes to ride quality as my ute is built for one purpose which means I can not legally drive it on the road. I so want to but I reckon I'd get two blocks before someone complained. Stay tuned for result of this experiment. I seriously hope I haven't induced axle tramp, but I think the flipped bottom spring will stop this and conversation with my local suspension guru have confirmed this.

Pre-crossflow's must the choice for Tugs. Cairns Speedway just bought an ex-aircraft tug for ,hmm i'm not quite shore - shits and giggles probably, and it is powered by an Australian pre-crossflow 250. Shows just how much of a torque monster these engines are. As a wise man once said "Horsepower sells motor cars - Torque wins races!"

ok well slydog is right on it. tighten those tappets down. I run exactly the same as his and don't suffer any valve train issues (see skid ute in video's section). In fact when I tightened mine down the engine was a whole lot happier. Sprintcars up here run zero lash because of the heat we have. Scary but true. I'm settled on your lifters and your pump being the issue. get yourself a set of ISKY 382-H lifters. They also do the same lifter with a small hole in the cam face to squirt oil onto the cam. I use them in my speedway car 382-H-SO, from memory. U can change them without taking the head off. Getting 1 and 12 back in isn't easy but you will get it. assembly lube on the bottom of course and normal cam run it. PM me for the oil pump mod (a man has to have some secrets) and you will be as sweet as a nut.

ok I doubt the oil will cure it permanently. 28mm clearance, are you kidding!!! 6-7mm is much better. sump volume sounds fine, but I'm not familiar with their design. What lifters are you running? What are your tappets set at? Cheers ando

that is big ends and mains respectively in thou of course.

2.5 and 3 with Fuchs Race 60

Your hot oil pressure at idle scares me a little. I usually see about 40psi hot after a 15 lap feature race. My guess is that you are running a flat tappet cam with solid lifters that have the disc style restrictor plate. These are the most common ones. You can buy big brand name (c. cams etc)and they are the same as the cheaper ones. They are all made in China. The only solid lifter to use in a x-flow is a isky lifter IMHO. they are made in America and are a true edge orifice lifter. they restrict oil to the top end and don't screw with the oil as much as the disc design. they are not cheap but neither are screwed engines. they will increase your hot oil pressure by 20psi. You can try reducing your valve lash to improve oil pressure. Do you have a decent volume sump?

does the oil pressure go up when the revs increase? if so is it 10psi per 1000 rpm, hot or cold? what is its peak pressure? Oil is the life blood of your engine. That is why a good sump, good windage tray, enlarged oil return holes, smoothed castings in the lower block, smoothed oil filter area with radiussed galleries, supplementary oil returns from the back of the head, good std volume oil pump and enlarged oil capacity should be a part of every serious x-flow build. I like to fit a hobbs switch set at 30psi connected to a big light so that you have half a chance of shutting down and saving the engine if you see the light come on under full power. most of the hobbs switches are adjustable as well so you can bump that up a bit if u like. suggestions only

yes the front bush is oval in shape on the EF - not round like the XF, but as best as I can work out the mounting points are the same. I did not get around to the swap yesterday, I fitted up the shift kit into the c4 instead and had a trial run (see videos section). I intend on doing this on Tuesday after taking some measurements of the front spring mount on the EF and XF. Would like to have done it today but the convertor seal is pissing out fluid after yesterdays effort, guess that's what happens when autos sit in a shed for years and then are pulled into service. I will let you know how I go with the spring change but I'm not expecting any problems as Lord F has already done this. Yes Sly it will be going down at the back. At this stage I'm looking at flipping the bottom spring on the wagon leaf pack and see how that goes. I actually want it to sit lower than the front just for that drag look whilst doing skids.

Thanks team. Looks like I'll be a busy today swapping spring packs. Gerg - from reading the flipping leaves thread they suggest you remove the smallest spring and flip it to the top for a 1.5" drop. second spring drops it 4.5".

Sorry bud been a bit flat. I'll post them tommorow.

See if you can find an XC 250. they had a tapered pushrod of the correct length. They are much stronger than XF units. I have also seen these pushrods in an XE?? I'll grab one tomorrow and try and post a picture. I stress that this is a budget option but they do work. You can get a standard XF pushrod and bend them by hand, something you can't do with the tapered ones. bent pushrods usually occur in engines with poor valve springs or incorrect poundage springs. I have a set of standard xf pushrods in my flat tappet burnout motor which I ping to 6200 and they don't bend because the springs are right, Roller rockers also help to.

I just pull no. 1 plug and stick my finger/thumb over the plug hole and turn it until you can feel the compression stoke. Pure laziness on my behalf - easier to undo one plug then 8 rocker cover bolts.

No crazy the 8655 from MSD. It has everything needed for 4,6,or 8 cylinder set ups. Bolts up to the ATI chev balancer. Wazzy has done this.

Ok so my idea of trigger the MSD with the standard balancer/equipment is out. Bugger. Oh well Chev balancer and MSD universal kit it is. Thanks for your input.

Yes just like the chev balancers do. a spacer can be made up like Jason did or u can clearance the timing cover to suit. Crazy - My current set up is the EST triggering the 6AL2 then a HVC2 coil. I have the rev limiter set at 6600 and I give it a rap twice every lap of the speedway track for 10 laps in heats and up to 40 laps in a feature. My theory on the spark scatter is the inconsistencies in signal caused by harmonics running through the dizzy at these sustained high revs. my engines run from 2600rpm at the start up to 6600 at the end of the straight and down to 4000rpm in the turns, depending on track, traffic etc. They are certainly not shopping trollies. I could go the same way as Wazzy and use the universal MSD crank trigger set up but I am just trying to see if it can be done using factory components. Call me weird but I just get my kicks that way.

I'm sure e series balancers fit, will just need to change alt drive pulley and water pump drive to suit serp belt and make a mount for the magnetic trigger thingy (sorry when it comes to electricity I seriously have no clue - u cant see it and it will kill you = pay someone for me). I hear what your saying about the dizzy. I'm just trying to get around the spark scatter issue at high rpm. I thought if we just make the dizzy distribute spark rather than giving trigger point and distributing spark we might get around it. What would you suggest then to get the spark from the MSD to the plug using the ef balancer, pick up etc.?

might work in efi computer systems but I'm trying to come up with a budget set up for carb application, using mostly Ford Parts with my MSD 6AL2 programmable ignition. It only has the input for trigger.

Question Crazy Q. Can you use a stock EF balancer with its standard crank angle sensor, magnet etc. to send signal to an MSD, then use a standard dizzy to distribute the spark through a single coil?

notice how the car tracked straighter with the ET streets as well. less sidewall deflection??/

Here here to Mark and his Aussie company. If penny pinching tight arses want to waste thier money on an inferior sceond hand manifold then let them I say. The true performance enthusiast will always pay more for a product that delivers more. The old saying "A poor man pays twice" rings true in my ear. Who else but Aussiespeed would have taken up my idea of making a new "visually standard" manifold for a x-flow? Answer - No one. Mark not only took on the idea but he funded, developed and produced it - all at his own expense with the knowledge that the return for his investment might not be that great. Of course I layed down my hard earned on one of the first ones cast and I am happy to report it ran the numbers straight out of the box - as cast - with no port matching. It still has more in it too and Mark is again happy to assit with ongoing research and development. Who else would do that? As Arthur would say to Terry "its all a case of supply and demand" and this dictates the cost of Mark's products. Perhaps suggest to your customers that yes, they can go the cheap way but they will lose all the benefits of their cylinder head mods, cam selection and potential horsepower by doing so. I have flow bench figures that show the importance of a good inlet manifold and I would be happy to provide them to you to show your customers. Trust me when you see it on paper, you would never go with the 'cheap' option. End of rant.....

Mate I would look at buying Tylers engine that he has for sale in the wreckers section. By the time you machine your exisiting block, gaskets, balance the bottom end etc.etc.etc you will be in the same ball park as Tylers motor but without all the goodies like induction, ignition, carby etc. I do not know Tyler so I am not 'pushing his barrow'. I just know from experience what it takes/ how much it costs to build a decent x-flow and that's without all the other stuff on Tyler's shopping list. Trust me this engine stuff can get out of control pretty quickly and if you can't assemble the engine yourself you could be in trouble as you will need to find a competent shop that actually gives a shit about a crossflow. Most just treat them as 'taxi motors' and don't put the time that is required to properly check every clearance. Just my thoughts...

mcfly - spark scatter occurs due to the load placed on the distributor shaft by the oil pump and harmonics from everything in the engine, including the fast spinning cam shaft. This causes irregular spark at high rpm as the position of the pick up or trigger within the dizzy changes. This is also a problem with XE dizzys and the inside chopper wheel can contact the outside and lead to a big miss. This is particularly bad when people run high volume oil pumps which causes accelerated wear on the single dizzy bush. The proof is in the pudding with both Jason and Wazzy running crank trigger. I would be running one on my speedway car if I was not so afraid of damage to the sensor and wheel caused by flying debris. I have tried to cure this with all sorts of mud flaps and the like but still the damn rocks get in there. Its amazing where they end up. Kev Wyatt has built a crank trigger system that runs off the flex plate which would cure the debris issue. I just need to pick his brains on how he achieved this. He believes that scatter is a real issue in these motors and like Wazzy I have seen it for myself on the dyno. If you plan on reving past 6000 rpm regularly it is worth looking at - but really you would need to balance the engine internally, as well as a good balancer to keep it together in the long term.