New Member with many questions!

[TomV]

Morning all,

I'm a new member to the club, and I'm keen to find out a little more about the car I have owned for nearly a year now! I'd also like to start entering some speed events and generally have fun. 

A lot of what I write below may be bogus, but it's what I've learned or been told, so please don't flame me. But I'm totally open to being told what's wrong/right and if the car is a total lemon!!  

My car is (I'm led to believe) a 1989 SEI (registered engine date?) and allegedly one of the first of the Ford  CVH 1600 'blue block' engined westies (this is a CVH not a pinto right?). The head has a "Ford Racing" plaque, and the cooling fins have been chamfered off for it to fit under the bonnet.  The car was factory built, and seems to have been initially used as an example of the new engine type (something about trying to appeal to a wider global market?). I've got a few cuttings from magazine tests of the car.

Forgive me if I muck up specific terminology (I'm new to this), but poking around under the bonnet reveals that it's dry sumped, has twin DCOE side draught Webber 45s which are "the quality Italian ones" according to the local garage, has independent rear wishbone suspension, has a number of "special" parts (for example the steering rack has "special" in yellow wax crayon written on it) and has a separate oil cooler. Without tearing it to bits I don't know what else has been done.

Allegedly, the car kicks out about 140BHP (I'm a little dubious), but it's plenty fast enough for me at the moment, and pulls evenly from about 3k to 5.5k rpm. It sounds great too. 

As you can see, I know next to zero about Westfields, and especially the one I own. But I suspect this car has been round the block a bit, and there's a good chance someone on here knows something about this one, or at least this type. 

Thanks! Tom

[Geoffrey Carter (Buttercup)]

what a nice looking car.

 

[Northwarks]

Welcome ! Great looking car there and no doubt you are aware you will be inflicted with upgraditis shortly which will help you get to grips with the new toy 

[Captain Colonial]

Hello fellow CVHer and  to the club - don't worry, we're a friendly bunch and you won't get flamed in here

I'll see if I can help with a few bits:

> 1989 would be when it passed its SVA (now IVA) and was first registered on the road - the chassis number will indicate the year it was first supplied.  For example, my VIN starts with 88WSE which indicates the chassis was made in 1988 but it was completed and registered in 1992

> Not sure what a "blue block" CVH is but yes, that's a CVH all right.  The valve cover being ground down at the front to allow for bonnet clearance but usually only required if the bodywork is low line rather than the more common high line - hard to tell from the photo as they are very similar - but I'm guessing that's a high line body.  The good news if it is a high line is that the body work can still be special ordered from the factory.  A bit more here...

> Unusual to have 45s, 40s are the normal fitment on CVHs.  If the carbs were supplied prior to 1992 they will be from when Weber was building them in Italy before they shut the factory down and moved to Spain.

> 140 bhp may be slightly optimistic, I'd expect to see between 120-130 bhp in that configuration, you'd only find out from taking it to a quality rolling road.  However, the numbers are totally irrelevant if it's enough for you, which it sounds like it is!   (Bhp is not a class marker in this club BTW, we're all here just sharing our love for the car itself.)  Having said that, your cam pulley is non-standard (upgraded) and you do have an oil cooler (also non-standard), so that might be telling that other upgrades have been done to the head and maybe it is closer to that 140 bhp.  Being dry sumped indicates someone was being serious about things, unusual on CVHs.

Anyway, glad to have you on board, looks a tidy car and happy you're enjoying it and trying to learn more, others will follow me with more.

[Kevin (Mr T)]

 from Essex.

I guess the first thing you need to do is read the article in the latest Westfield World on converting a CVH to fuel injection.....

Have fun!

[BenD]

welcome to the club

get yourself booked on our trackday at blyton park

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

Welcome!

We don't do flaming  and anyone that does is likely to get a bit toasty themselves!

Scott's experience with the CVH summed it up nicely there, indeed, a dry stumped CVH is a rarer beast, and along with the cam pulley would make me wonder if the engine has uprated internals. You say the head has a plaque on it, is it directly on the head casting, or do you mean the markings on the finned cam (rocker) cover? The rocker cover is a Ford Racing part, and often gets fitted to standard CVH engines in Westfields. But of the plaque is on the head itself, it's more likely to be a performance tuned head and perhaps cam...

A pretty looking car, and it sounds like your enjoying it! Have you had a chance to get along to a meet yet? Or a run out? (No matter how much fun driving a Westfield by yourself is, group runs are even better still!)

And as Bunje said, there's the clubs Blyton Park trackday coming up....

[TomV]

All, thanks so much for the info.

I'm told the Webbers are a matched pair (which is a good thing). And yes, there's a suspicion that someone has had some fun with the internals. But I've no idea how to actually find any of that out!

I'm guessing I have a wide body 'kit' version? Attached are some more images. Anything else you can tell me would be great. 

I'll definitely take a look a club events.

[Thrustyjust]

Theres a dry sump tank and vernier pulley on the camshaft, which may point to a bit more performance tweaking than people think ! 

[Murraymint]

 and it looks a tidy motor...

[Andy Banks]

glad to have you on board. If you can, do come to Blyton with the car. There will be plenty of help with confirming all of the above and you will be in the right place to talk about the Speed Series.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

Whoops, meant to add to my original post, I've not come across the term Blue Block personally, but other than having had a mk 3 Escort with a CVH in once, that's about my knowledge of them! But it did leave me wondering, they didn't mean Blue Printed block or engine, did they?

Blue Printing engines has often been a big thing in competition cars in past years, and I remember in the seventies/eighties it seemed quite big in tuning road cars, too.

[Captain Colonial]

2 minutes ago, Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Secretary said:

Whoops, meant to add to my original post, I've not come across the term Blue Block personally, but other than having had a mk 3 Escort with a CVH in once, that's about my knowledge of them! But it did leave me wondering, they didn't mean Blue Printed block or engine, did they?

Blue Printing engines has often been a big thing in competition cars in past years, and I remember in the seventies/eighties it seemed quite big in tuning road cars, too.

If you look in the photos, the engine block is actually painted blue - but no idea what it denotes, if anything.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

I noticed that, again, wasn't sure if it was a red herring, or denoted a particular tuner, in the way that Dunnel stuff is often painted that sort of scarlet colour.

[TomV]

Re: the blue 'block'. I have zilch idea. 

So it's definitely a 1991 SE1.

Digging through the wad of stuff I got with the car, and I have rolling road data from 1997 (old). It's showing P-norn at 135bhp, with wheel output at 100bhp (106mph @ 6480rpm). Max torque is 112lbft.

According to an article written about this car (much of which means little to me at the moment) this particular engine was put together by Neil Roper (Hart Formula 1) as a CVH with a 'bolt on head and cam'. Its a gas flow head with a compression of 10.5 to 1 (though a review in a later magazine states 9.5 to 1). It has a Piper camshaft with hydraulic followers. The pistons are modified, as are the valve pockets.   

I think (could be wrong) it's a Piper 290 cam, anti-pump cam followers, duplex valve springs, vernier timing wheel, fully gas flowed head, and alloy cam cover. 

I have the construction manual too, which makes for slightly confusing reading.

Of course I cannot believe that nothing else has been done since then. Though whether that's improved the power is anyone's guess!

I'll try and scan the write-ups and attach them if anyone is interested? One of them goes into some depth on the development of the CVH, and it seems pretty clear that I own the first one ever!