New Member with many questions!

[TomV]

I appreciate that I'm talking to myself here. But I just gave Neil Roper a call. He seems like a really decent guy, and confirmed that the above is correct; though it's "one of the first". He doubts that anyone has done much more to the engine since he parted company with the car. He also basically told me to stop wussing out at 6000rpm, and see what happens at around 7000rpm, as peak power isn't until 6500rpm. Fun .

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

Excellent, would love to hear/read more!

[Northwarks]

As someone has already said it's not all about HP, the car will be great fun 

[Martyn Vann - Warwickshire AO]

 Tom!

Your car looks great and I'm sure it goes very well too. As Dave says we would like to find out more particularly what happens over 6000rpm 

You need to get along to a local area meet as you will find lots of advice there too. Shame its a bit too far for you to come our Warks area meet tomorrow evening 

[Jenko]

Ex CVH'er here.......With my Old Orange Westfield I pretty much took the CVH engine to it's max without turbocharging. First thing is the dry sump really is a rare beast, I could never find one, ended up with an accusump. As for the CVH, it's actually a great engine when set up right. Only thing that doesn't ring quite true is the rev limit on hydraulic lifters. 7krpm on solids would be just about do-able. As for 140bhp....it could well be, but as well as the cam the head would need porting along with the inlet manifold. My CVH westfield had a 2ltr block with a ported head and manifold, running a kent 305 cam and solid lifters, all on megasquirt and gsxr600TB's - pumped out a reliable 173bhp (and that was on Northampton motorsports rolling road, so was real), and a really good wodge of torque. I've attached the article I wrote with Troy from Northampton Motorsport.

I thought I knew pretty much everything that there was to know about the CVH, and must confess to have never come across the 'blue block' thing...could be it was simply painted blue. They also use the cvh with a dry sump set up in the formula ford cars back in the day...I wonder if the engine originated from there?. Anyway, enjoy it, keep an eye on cam wear and it should give you yrs of good service.

 

Westfield world article.pdf

[TomV]

There's a Cotswold meet which is only a few miles from my house. So I'll definitely try to make it to that. And you're all absolutely right; I don't much care about horsepower, it's grin-power that bothers me. And this thing has that in spades!

For those interested (and considerably more clued up than me) here's the info on the development of the CVH. Pretty sure that's my engine in the badly (and repeatedly) scanned image!

[Thrustyjust]

Before you start trying the 7k rev limiter, sensible move is a water pump and cam belt. Those are the Achilles heal for the cvh and many have been lost by either breaking.

[TomV]

Well, I can safely say that 6500rpm is both achievable and highly entertaining. I think I'll leave 7k until I've changed the oil, cam belt and generally checked the whole thing over. It was serviced about 8mnths ago, but better safe than sorry.

Any thoughts on what oil to use and how much (The oil reservoir is HUGE)? Also, I haven't looked, but I'm guessing there isn't the standard drain point in the sump, so am I just looking to disconnect the lowest oil hose? Someone mentioned getting a re-usable oil filter? Worth it, or should I just replace like for like?

Thanks 

[Olliebeak]

I would agree with Thrustyjust above and get the water pump and cam belt changed as a priority. I used to work at a Ford dealer way back when and every Monday morning there would be three or four Escorts / Orions etc outside that had been towed in over the weekend with a seized water pump causing the cam belt to strip and then the usual bent valves etc.  Ford recommended the cambelt changed with every 36000 m service but they didnt last that long.

Perhaps blue block is just the painted colour , Ford engines around this time were painted dark blue. 

[John K]

Greetings..!!!

This thread might be interesting reading on the CVH / Lowline bonnet thing - and don't read anything into the fact that Grizlee is about as good as it gets in 3D CAD modelling to fractions of a mm precision. But can't get a bonnet to fit without resorting to an angle grinder and hammer...

Going forward there is no such thing as a stupid question - only the stupid answers you get back.

Sorting through the box of paper you get with any multi owner 'historical' Westie is all part of the joy - discovering what you have actually bought and not what you thought you bought is a 'journey'

And massive +1 to the comments about not chasing the BHP - sure if you want to, then go for it, but for me the enjoyment is wringing 110% out of less power rather than driving at 80% because what you've got scares you...

Take the time to enjoy the next few months of ownership - there will plenty of time for the "what have I done" moments of regret later..!