Went to pf meet at weston last night had a blast against audi tt on the way home and the oil light decided to come on @5000RPM IN 5TH . Although its still running it now sounds like a tranny diesel ,want to no would it be best to rebuild the cvh upgrading it at the same time or build a zvh what do you think, cheers andy

 

depends on budget, power expectations etc.

easier to get more power out of a zvh but that also means costs more!

 

If your going to do a zvh, Do a full on 16v instead, Better power options, And you havent got the problem of having an inbread engine


All depends on how deep your pockets are and what you want from your engine at the end of the day

 

As long as i can achieve a reliable 200 bhp will be well happy

 

stick with 1600 cvh then mate

 

As rich says, cvh

 

CVH would be my choice as it's what the good Ford intended the car to have.

 

If i stay with cvh what upgrades would you do as its only bottom end, steel rods& forged piston?

 

For 200bhp I would just go with a good quality rebuild with new low comp pistons and new standard rods (if the old ones are past it) ARP rod bolts to help keep it all together. New oil pump and water pump (they are only cheap) and a full bearing set. Having the cracnk reground wouldn't do anyharm either. This should see you fine for 200bhp

 

Guess i'm not right in saying I thought CVH's were more expensive to tune, or is this only when they get big power i.e. towards 300+bhp?

 

Wrong!

 

Was I right then? lol

 

Stay cvh

 

Stay CVH. Both the CVH and Zetec rods are on their knees around 250bhp so there is no benefit going zvh other than having a huge torque spike to make you break traction and feel like you're going fast.

For 200 bhp, do a full (meaning everything, oil pump, water pump etc) bottom end rebuild with ARP rod bolts on the standard rods. Keep the compresion around 8:1 (standard is 8.3:1) using Mahle cast pistons. The crank will require a regrind and polish and the bores may require re boring. At a minimum they must be honed. Refurb the cylinder head (the ports can stay standard) and fit a cam and vernier pulley. Get a stage 3 turbo (T3 still). Get it run in then set up.

 

Keep it cvh...

 

Have a look through this thread. It gets a bit interesting about half way down the first page and again on the second page. This engine went on to produce roughly 230bhp with a 5th injector.

https://passionford.com/forum/viewto...889&highlight=