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Memoirs from the Hard Shoulder: bASeman's Spot of the Year award.


BorniteIdentity

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Ooh a 3 door!

That would look good lowered with a Zetec in it

I expect most of them have had that sort of treatment by now, can’t be that many standard or standardish 3 doors left now.

My mate had a 1 owner Y reg 1300L (CVH) 3 door in the lovely shade of Rio brown. He was given it by his girlfriends grandma when she gave up driving. He wanted to restore it but ended up having kids instead so the Escort went on eBay. Sold for a decent amount and went on to become an RS replica. Shame, but at least it still exists and seems to be loved!

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My aunt had a 1.3 base in Sunburst, A reg'd, I removed the Ford radio, that car took some abuse, with all her aerobics gear in the back, as she was a fitness instructor, wasn't a bad car in a base type way, that being an 1100 makes it mega, mega rare, the cheapest Escort you could buy!

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I thought that was the case but couldn't remember for sure.

 

X-flow means a much nicer noise than CVH.

I was never a big fan of the CVH tbh. They just didn’t seem to last or age well! That rattly old Valencia engine was prehistoric but it’d just keep rattling and clattering on forever.

Mind you I had a 1300CVH in a mk2 Fiesta Ghia and it absolutely flew on the rare occasion it was actually running well!

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I had a 957 Valencia mk2 Fiesta, and with a Weber carb and freer flowing exhaust, I had that bugger to some insane speeds, especially on that long downhill stretch of the M1 near Barnsley, that car took some real abuse, and it lived for another 2 years after I part ex'd it due to rust issues, and it having 120k on the clock, I bought it with around half that on, and doubled it in 3 and a bit years, even though it was a 957, I think it would have been even more of a miser on fuel with a 5 speed box. 

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I had a good CVH in a 1600 Onion. XR3i exhaust (better manifold shape) & XR3 square Weber meant it went as well as a 1.6i and didn't rattle as I put the right oil in it. I think most of them died as the tappets rattled a bit so people put thicker oil in, that oil was too thick to get to the tappets so they collapsed due to lack of internal oil pressure.

 

Oh & the other important thing was fit RST valve stem seals as they didn't ride up the valves. Come to think of it, I've still got the tool to do that without removing the head somewhere.

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You could have my Rover for that kind of money and I know which one I'd like to own, I paid £500 for my last MK3 Escort 1.3L in 2012 and that was immaculate with 44k on it.

Aye, but it’s like everything innit? Time marches on. As we’ve seen in just the last month - £500 now buys you a decent MK5 Escort. A nice MK4 is four figures, and a MK3 is probably £2k with 3 doors and good provenance.

 

£3.5k felt like he was changing his arm a bit.

 

Realistically, I don’t need another car. But then I don’t need the 5 other ones I already have either...

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Was the 1.1 crossflow a 1117cc?

If so, it seems the MK3 Escort was launched with the crossflow and changed to the CVH early on but changed back to the crossflow later!

 

Anyway, here's an extract from the October 1981 brochure to show that 1.1 CVH Escorts were definitely a standard offering at one time:

 

post-20295-0-03482100-1535373093_thumb.jpg

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Was the 1.1 crossflow a 1117cc?

If so, it seems the MK3 Escort was launched with the crossflow and changed to the CVH early on but changed back to the crossflow later!

 

Anyway, here's an extract from the October 1981 brochure to show that 1.1 CVH Escorts were definitely a standard offering at one time:

 

attachicon.gif_20180827_132951.JPG

 

 

The 1100 CVH was deleted by 1982 according the the most reliable source on the internet that is the Wikipedia as it offered little in terms of economy and refinement over the pushrod lump. I can well believe that as I've never come across a 1.1 CVH escort but was mentioned in the HBOL when I helped a mate with his Mk3 some time ago.

 

I used to like the 5 o'clock 0rpm position on the rev counters on the Mk 3 escort and facelift Mk2 Granadas

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So, to finally nail this Crossflow/CVH digression, I've had a look at my brochures for this period. 

I don't have every single month, but I can narrow down the start of 1.1 CVH Escorts to after June 1981 and no later than October 1981.  

The October 1981 brochure mentions the 1.1 CVH as a new feature for the 1982 model year, so probably started production nearer October than June.

 

June 1981 https://www.flickr.com/photos/61090099@N04/8200621890/in/album-72157632051739890/

Oct 1981 https://www.flickr.com/photos/61090099@N04/42607684262/in/album-72157691967117290/

 

As for the switch back to Crossflow in 1982, the May 1982 brochure very helpfully gives an exact date:

"1100 CVH not fitted to cars produced after 29 March 1982"

 

post-20295-0-85759100-1535390488_thumb.jpg

 

So the 1.1 CVH Escort is indeed a rare beast, being manufactured for at most 9 months.

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I've only ever seen one 1.1 cvh in the flesh. It was in an early mk3 van, in a breakers yard circa 1992 when I was looking for bits for the 1.1 mk3 base I had at the time (actually officially named the Popular after the '84 facelift when it gained the decadent spec of cloth seats with a-frame head restraints, full length door cards and single speaker 2-band radio).

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So was the 1.1 CVH a failure?

So it would seem. Replaced by an ancient pushrod with its roots in the sixties.

 

I'm not up on new engines but imagine if the zetec had been quietly dropped and Mondeos started running pintos.

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they weren't that price new were they? lol

 

£4585 in March 1985.  https://www.flickr.com/photos/61090099@N04/8532583598/in/album-72157632863434119/

 

If this really is a base, badged simply Escort, then it hung around for a while before being registered, because from May 1984 onwards the 1.1 was badged Popular.

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That's a proper treasure trove on your Flickr account - must have taken ages to upload. Fascinating stuff. I stupidly threw way most of the car brochures I collected over the years save for a few.

Thanks. I've been building it up over a few years now. The physical scanning of the brochures is what takes the time really, rather than the uploading to Flickr.

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