Ford Escort MK1 Twin Cam (Lotus 1.6) - Tuning by AG Classic Car Tuning
The above is a beautiful Ford Escort Twin Cam (Lotus 1.6). These are by many seen as the predecessor to all of the Ford RS Escorts including the legendary MK1 Escort RS1600, 1800 and 2000. They were produced with the specific target of gaining rally success for Ford and that's how the legendary rally and fast road status of the MK1 Ford Escort started in the MK1 Escort body shell.
Like so many other cars, on arrival it started ok, 'ish'.....ticked over a little on the low side and had a very uneven, unhappy tone to the tickover. Basically it was struggling, and I can only imagine how grumpy and underwhelming it was out on the road. So on to the tuning, what did I find?
(Importantly to say, nothing serious just lots of simple things that were out of sorts and a few incompatible components bought as separate upgrades.)
- Ignition timing was out at idle.
- Ignition timing mechanical advance not optimised
- Points gap was acceptable at 57deg dwell (however cap possible cracked - kept zapping me).
- Carb jetting was not correct as a starting point / datum to adjust for modern fuelling.
- Carb jet heights wrong,
- Idle gases too high >6.0% CO
- Spark plugs wrong grade, gapped wrongly and too wide.
- Carbs not balanced, and one was doing significantly more work than the other
- Float height incorrect for the Weber 40 DCOE 31 spec (Brass floats)
As I said, nothing serious instead just lots of niggles...which when put right, brought this car back to life and ready to be enjoyed.
