Considering '70 Plus 2 purchase

[The Veg]

I brought the car home today!

The bad news is that I still haven't actually driven it due to a leaking clutch-line...but I'm nevertheless CHUFFED to have the Plus 2!

Foggy morning, waiting for the tow truck:



Home now:

[The Veg]

It still has the cross-over tubes for preheating the inlet mixture.

I meant to ask a while back, is it common for these to be removed, and what are the pros and cons of doing so?

[trw99]

Yes, it is usual to remove the crossover pipes.

As I understand it you lose nothing by doing so but gain better access to the engine and perhaps a couple of extra HP - who knows?!

Tim

[gus]

Either remove the secondary throttles or wire them open, remove and block the tubes

I think the car is almost undriveable as delivered. The lag caused by the secodnary throttles/tubes combined with the windup in the donuts leads to comical effects.

[The Veg]

Thanks gents, that sounds like a good thing to add to the project-list. And a previous owner has already done the CVJ conversion, so any remaining comical effects should be entirely my own fault!

[CBUEB1771]

I meant to ask a while back, is it common for these to be removed, and what are the pros and cons of doing so?

Yes, it was common practice to remove the cross-over tubes, blank off the two ports on the top of the secondary throttle housing and remove the secondary throttles from that housing. Nothing is really lost by this. However a much better solution is to find a set of inlet manifolds used on engines with Stromberg carburetors in markets outside of the US. These manifolds have a balance tube connecting the siamesed inlets to cylinders 1/2 and 3/4. The balance tube promotes more uniform cylinder filling. Without the balance tube cylinders 2 and 3 fill slightly less than 1 and 4 due to the phasing of the inlet strokes. These versions of the inlet bodies with balance tube are clearly illustrated in the Service Parts List. I am not sure where you might find a set of these now. You might try Spyder in the UK, they tend to keep items removed when doing their Zetec engine conversions.

[The Veg]

2036
engine number I20375 4 speed box yellow built 3 July 1970

????

I did not know when I asked the question that I'd find this on the car:



So who's right?