Time for a new head?

[sgrant]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H70vEq_F ... re=related

[erictharg]

If you're serious go to Morspeed's website. They do this conversion. Not cheap and I don't know how durable it is. At the moment I"ll forsake the extra 15 to 20 hp it could give over a 5 port A series. If I ever did want for more serious power there is a 7 port A series head available. Or you look for something more recent. Snag is most engines are too tall to fit under an XI bonnet. Dry sumping a zetec could work, but you've got the exhaust on the driver side to sort out (as with most modern fwd engines). Not huge problem but the drivers footwell would get hot. Some of the japanese engines have a LHS exhaust when installed longditudinally. Suzuki 1300 16 valve for one.
All interesting but at the end of the day the A series is a good reliable cheap power unit. I think a Ford 1600 crossflow could work with dry sump too...
Matt's idea of supercharging the A series looked good, but not as easy as it first appears. Turbocharging always possible using Metro turbo bits but all that lag. Still, dream on!

[techbod]

Did you notice the small but constant flame out of the exhaust once the engine was being rev'ed (from about 1:16 onwards), not just on the over-run.

Lovely exercise in engineering, nice for a mini race car. Do the big end bearings need to be beefed up I wonder?

[sgrant]

I wasn't entirely serious about it, but I thought it was a lovely "old meets new" moment....

stephen

[Mknight702]

I looked quite a lot at the Morspeed conversion as they did my engine machining. Their conversion is actually the cheapest 16v or 8 port on the market that I found, but it suffers from the height issue that plagues most twin cam heads. The 7 port head already mentioned would be the best of both worlds, the standard exhaust setup would still fit, the standard valvegear and cam would work and you get 4 inlet ports that makes fuelling so much easier (even EFI) AND it will fit under the bonnet!