25 replies to this topic

[pantera2075]

From my experience of CVH's

The 1600's are underpowered for their size by todays standards, and can't easily be overbored - I remember tuning companies offering oval pistons to make the displacement bigger up to 1900cc - dodgy.

The 1300 was a better engine for it's size, but still no ball of fire.

The vv carbs are pants.

They always smoke unless you change the valve seals every 5000 miles

The RS Turbo at 134bhp is log.

They're big and heavy, as are the gearboxes.

Escort vans reverted to the old Valencia/Kent engine in about '85 because the CVH was so unreliable.

There are much better engines out there IMO.

[mattjg87]

no affence but im not bothered what you think to the cvh engine, i think its a great engine, easy to work on and i no guys that no them like the back of there hands.
all i want to no is if its possible and how
does anyone no if that plate that fits the ford engine to the mini box fits and where to get hold of one.

[maph2]

all i want to no is if its possible and how
does anyone no if that plate that fits the ford engine to the mini box fits and where to get hold of one.

anything is possible, you just have to have the time, energy and skill to do it,. the problem is, like i said before, the reason why it hasn't been done is because there are BETTER engines out there. And no, i'm not saying the the CVH is crap or anything. just that you can pick up all alloy,16V, fuel injected engines for peanuts.

and sticking a cvh on a mini gearbox is just asking for trouble. if you spec the gearbox correctly you might get a it to hold 120bhp reliably - ie day in day out for a few years. anymore, and you be fixign it more than driving it?

have you thought about putting a steam engine in?

[boulton6868]

I had a cvh (non turbo) in a fiesta we converted to rear wheel drive, all we done was skim the head and put a fast road cam, it was running on a mexico gearbox with alfa clutch and pressure plate and the vauxhall engines couldnt toutch it.

[maph2]

yeah, in a fiesta, not a mini

[pantera2075]

I think that what most people are trying to say is that if you are going to spend the time, money, and heartache to do a conversion, it makes more sense to use a more up-to-date engine and box, and so get more power, better mpg, more reliability, an easier conversion etc, for the same money and trouble.

IIRC the 1600 carbed CVH only pushed about 90bhp in the mid 80's, the XR3i engine about 105 if you were lucky. And the bosch K-Jetronic knows how to sup petrol too.

I also think you will have trouble fitting it in the hole as the 5sp gearboxes are pretty big.

However, if a CVH will fit, you could swap it later for the 2.0 twin cam Sierra unit!!!

[Custom_Minis]

We tried this conversion about 12 months ago, the engine will fit in a modified Mini subframe with ease. We didn't get as far as the gear selector mechanism because the sump sits too low and catches the tie bar. We sat the engine centrally so that weight was pretty evenly distributed. I think it would just about fit in a Clubman front but you couldn't fit a rad straight across the front.

Looking back I'm glad we didn't spend too much time on it (about a week in total). The engine is very heavy compared to others that are out there. That said, stick to a light engine, the Mini handling seems to suffer hugely with a big engine upfront.

Les.

[StaffordSi]

NMS have taken a 1600CVH up to 500bhp now.... But there still gash, weak bottom ends and tappets that loud they had to have double skinned rocker covers. The fiesta top speed record has also been held by the zetec engine since 2001, find a early silver-top engine. Change the cambelt and head gasket then fit and forget.

[Saxo-Fiesta-Mini]

well i still love the cvh ford made them so cheap over 200 blocks / cranks we considered scrap ford re machined them fitted on off bearings and pistons and then stuck em in the car i know lots of people who did know this and after an engine rebuild killed the bottom end due to oil pressure loss

also zvh are coolio and Jam sport and NMS are ace saw one of there 230bhp rs turbo mk3 escorts in derbyshire was tasty

[dsgoody]

However, if a CVH will fit, you could swap it later for the 2.0 twin cam Sierra unit!!!

The Sierra DOHC engine is a very good engine. Plenty of torque in the lower end. However, it's not very tuneable due it the lack of parts (although I'm sure if you spent some time on it and TB's you could be seeing 180+). I'm pretty much with everyone else in this thread. The CVH is by no means a bad engine but there are so many Zetecs floating around which are superior to the CVH it seems daft not to use one.

[dave1293gt]

im not gonna try hard to convince you i just think that the design and engineering behind the cvh was way before its time and that in my opinon is a very good basis for tunning and more resently the ZVH turbo engines have made 450bhp and did hold the world fastest fiesta medal

1, The FWD fiesta records haven't been held by cvh engines for a long long time.

2, I belive Stuart Meads engine was based loosly around a zetec but looked different due to an unusual rocker cover. (unless he's swapped to a duratec since i last saw it)

3, The 2.3 Duratec has been proven to make over 700 flywheel hp in this country BUT also has a weak block.
(the american Drag racers use a block with the liquid cooling cavities filled with chemical metal to get round this)

as for most of the above 3 statements One man has been responsible in the involvement of helping Friends/customers to achieve these goals and records.

The Cvh is a poor designed engine, but can be made to produce good power, albeight with a weight penalty compared to other modern engines power to weight wise.