Hello,
next weekend I will be removing the 1700 crossflow from my westfield and fitting a fresh new 1640 engine. I've never done an engine swap before but looking forward to it. Gone through it in my mind a few times, and the only thing I can't figure out is the clutch cable - do I need to detach that before separating the engine and gearbox? If so, how?

thanks

I've never done it on a crossflow, so if someone else responds differently then take their word for it!!! but:

I would imagine that it would be a case of just sliding it out of the bracket thats on the side of the engine before it enters the bell housing to go to clutch arm.

to do so, I would imagine that you just need to depress the clutch (on the pedal) and then hold the arm close to the bracket with molegrip/zipties/however you want! and then just pull the cable free from the bracket...
hth
Steve.

You almost certainly will need to disconnect the clutch cable - the outer is threaded through a hole in a bit of metal that either belongs to the engine or the bellhousing (can't remember which!). The inner is hooked through the operating arm - to remove, loosen the adjuster, unhook from the arm, pull the whole thing out. Depending on the previous owner you might have to undo 1 adjustment/lock nut.

It's so easy to do that it would be better just to get it out of the way while you change the engine (presuming that you are lifting just the engine out).

David

BTW: it's really easy to take a crossflow out - just disconnect everything, take of all vulnerable bits, separate from the bellhousing & pull it forward. Main concern is not to let the engine hang from the gearbox, or vice-versa, while the bellhousing bolts are apart; keep them in line, then pull apart.

[Edited on 10/2/07 by David Jenkins]

Thanks fellas, I'll let you know how i get on.

May seem obvious but make sure that the clutch is aligned before you try to refit the engine

Yes - what he said!

The nice thing about crossflows is that they're just giant meccano sets - just a few basic tools and you can do almost anything.

Well, it went in and runs ok, but I have a problem.

It's fitted with a stage 2 head, a Piper Ultimate Road Cam and stainless steel rocker posts. When I started it, it went thud thud thud - not good. It turned out that the cam was lifting higher than the valve springs would compress. I had gapped the rockers to 0.14" as specified by piper, but that's no where near enough gap.

I opened the gaps to 0.24" and the valves now open without bottoming out the valve springs.

Any idea why piper say 0.14" and it needs much larger gap? I'm thinking that maybe I have high-lift rocker arms. If so, what gap should I space them to?

The engine is ticking over fine with the gaps set to 0.24" but i can here the valves ticking (although quietly). I may be paranoid now, but 0.24" is just a guess and I would prefer something a little more scientific.

thanks

BTW it's a Piper BP 285 Ultimate Road Cam.

thanks

The Piper 285 needs valve pockets cut into the pistons for clearance, also you should be using the matching piper valve springs. I suspect you may have valve to piston contact. The correct way to test is to remove head and place plasticine on top of pistons, refit head and turn engine over by hand. Remove head and measure thickness of plasticine. Might be worth removing plugs and inserting a thick piece of solder (at least 60 thou thick ) through plug hole and work it so it goes under valve , turn engine over a couple of times , remove solder and measure. Repeat for all valves. I have a new 285 cam that I didn't use because of all the extra hassle

That's worrying!!!! The Cam came out of my previous engine which didn't have pocketed pistons. The piper cam website says the no machining is required:

http://www.pipercams.org/NewPiperWeb/redesign/PiperCamFrames.html

I've got the matched piper double valve springs and retainers.

What you say has echoed my fears.

Are these standard or machined pistons?

http://wayne.barraclough.googlepages.com/DSC00012.JPG

Can't say for sure but they look standard to me . I would double check the Piper site as I'm sure they need pockets

Useful xflow resource:
http://www.pumaracing.co.uk/cflow.htm