Hi everybody , my first post, advice please
i have just purchased 2003 locost with crossflow 1600 (1978) (3000miles since build) i picked her up and drove her 450 miles no probs,
She is leaking some oil, just wondering how much is too much?

Im am updating/cleaning/ personalising her to fit my 6ft 4in frame. Just wondering

Would is a 1978 crossflow be capable of a european tour? Im not looking for 0-60 in 3 secs just 7000 miles without serious probs?

Thanks in advance

Xflow engines leak oil for a hobby. Controling the oil loss is a long-term hobby for all Xflow owners. The old reckoning used to be that 600miles per pint was not excessive oil usage/loss.

Xflow engines are a good engine to start with in basic tune and can be built strong up to 140 - 180 Bhp (depends on the pub speak) and quite reliable upto that. I used to run a 1662 Xflow hybrid in a Mk1 Cortina that was good for 20k between rebuilds but then it did produce close to (even possibly just over)160bhp with11:1CR although it did cost me £1600 way back in 1980. (modern equivalent value would be about £90k)

So fairly standard should be quite reliable for what you want.


Oh and welcome to the mad house, I'm sure there will be another bus, sorry mermber along shortly with their view on the subject.

[Edited on 21/6/11 by jollygreengiant]

Thanks Jolly,

i had read somewhere , the crossflow (kent) was over engineered, so should last .
for the 450 miles she use about a cup of oil.. therefore shes ok then.

she seems quite nippy ,

Im in the middle of reconfigurating (misspell) the gearstick, to far back at the moment . the wife has black eyes as my elbow hits her everytime im going for 2nd and fourth.

Kev

It is possible to build an oil tight xflow but to be honest it's about the hardest task when rebuilding one! Using oil is all part of the charm and to be honest as long as there isn't a steady 'drip.....drip.....drip....' you'll be fine - it's actually really quite difficult to properly break a xflow that's in standard ish tune.

Sound like a proper engine should as well - I'd be quite happy with one in any kit car I owned tbh

get a can of stop leak from ebay?
Item number: 290577989307
somthing like this shoud sort it.

thanks guys ,

i have left her on tick over for a couple of mins, i had the engine cover off. every few secs lovely crackling from the exhaust
but then a few pops from the carbs, some pops spit fluid from the join , is this common or do i need seals?

Fact of life with a Crossflow, mine was the same, seemed to be fairly indestructible for all that.
Probably worth checking it's got the correct grade of oil, 20W50 if I remember

Welcome to the madhouse, X flow engines do tend to leak a bit but can be made to be almost oil tight using competition sump gasket set amongst others They are pretty reliable so a trip to Europe shouldn't be a problem after all they pushed Cortina's and Escorts around quite well, in fact they were even used in the Transit's

oh, and one of the interesting factiods about how strong the Xflow was when it was 'the engine' back in the day, was that some people actually converted them from standard with few mod to run on diesel/derv. Apparantly it was fairly simple, on the 1600, swap the 1600 pistons for 1100 pistons (possibly a block or head shave), fit injectors into the plug holes, fit an injection pump (not entirely sure my self on this but driven off the distributor drive some how) and away they went quite happily and robustly apparently. There weren't a lot of car engines running diesel then, it was mostly the reserve of commercial trucks then.