[bedford ca freak]

I ll try and keep it brief,but need a bit of advice.We have had a little MK1 Fiesta convertible to fit a i.3 engine in,having started life as a 1.1.All simple stuff,but the owner(he reads a lot of books and quotes a lot of facts and figures) gave us a burton cam,a28/36 carb from an xr2 1.6 and various bolt on goodies including an ally rocker cover for a kent/pre-crossflow engine with a gas fitting tapped into it to help breathe.
It was one of those hospital jobs that suddenly becomes urgent as ,in his defence ,it has sat around with me for a while.Its all gone back together,along with many donor bits from a scrap mk 1 ghia.It runs ok,and the power from 2000-6000 rpm is not at all shabby for a little thing like that.At low idle its pretty shit and i told him it really needed sticking on a rolling road to get a better idea-something i dont have dont have that kind of experience.Ive arranged this,but we are having a dispute over the breathing system on it.I origionally ran a breather pipe from the gas fitting (not a Ford design i may add) to a catchment tank,which worked ok.He insisted on me routing the pipe back through a self modified joiner in he base of a pancake air filter and back into the carb.
The result seems to create a far worse running car.it als has a couple of oil leaks ,including one from the gland on the manual fuel pump.
These little lumps used to breathe through a guaze filled filler cap with 2,sometimes 3 outlets,which indeed an back to the large air filter and inlet.To add to the issue,Ford put a blanking grommet for the crankcase just above the fuel pump.I really should know how to sort this,but when these were new we never twatted about trying to do much to them.
What the best way of doing this?

 

[H15HSV]

Roger
When I circuit raced Fiesta's we used standard rocker cover with a XR2 oil filler cap off of that a breather pipe to a catch tank on the outlet from the catch tank we used a small breather type filter.
This worked a treat never a problem and I would use 7500 rpm

 

[bedford ca freak]

thanks for that,the origional way i did it was similar to his.Becaue he wants his precious ally cover i had a steel filler cap with a pipe in the middle of it running to a tank.Problem i really have here is someone who thinks he has some ferrari type race vehicle,when in fact its a fiesta 1.3 with a peppy cam and thats about it.They were good,tough little cars but built 30 yrs ago for shopping.Could never understand why he didnt just get an xr2.

 

[kapri]

Those ali covers have a screw on cap and are a pain and make the engines breathe heavily . I would never use one again.

 

[54 devon]

I thought the breather went to the base of the inlet manifold? It was a while ago that I ran a crossflow so could be waaaaay out of touch!

 

[ironheadpaul]

Hi Rog, we used to run one from the block (r/h side towards the rear above camshaft) and tee into one from the rocker box, into a catch tank with a gauze to atmosphere. Putting all those oily fumes back into the cylinders via the manifold or air cleaner makes them run rich, or in extreme cases oil up the plugs!!

 

[1stpop]

I have a 1760 crossflow what breaths heavy ,
1 has it an electric fuel pump ?
As found you need a special blank at the crank splashes oil up the crank case vent pipe .
I have crank case to rocker cover , then another from rocker cover to catch tank then bottom of catch tank back to sump , with a filter on top of catch tank .
Works well now

 

[kapri]

I thought the breather went to the base of the inlet manifold? It was a while ago that I ran a crossflow so could be waaaaay out of touch!

It does via a vacuum operated shuttle (PVC) .The engine vacuum controls how much that is open on tickover so poor tickoever vacuum , due to 'lumpy' cam , means it's open at tickover when it shoudl be closed. In turn that means it's pulling in both oil and crankase air ( so weakening mixture).

 

[bedford ca freak]

Thanks for the advice chaps,knew i was right,just needed some back up.The air filter by the way is one of them K and N jobs which ive never thought that highly of.Took it down to Gerald Dales in Hastings today ,who tweaked it about a bit,got it better ,but also wondered why he didnt buy a better cam or put an XR2 lump in it.