3 Litre Essex V6 Cylinder Head
driving the distributor and oil pump, wearing it out. Car Clinic uses a stock pump and pressure for all engines, including racing, concentrating on flow instead.
People think putting in a high-pressure pump will prolong the life of the big ends.What it really does is overload the gear
Oil PumpBeware of fitting a high-pressure oil pump. This might seem like a good idea, hut it's just got a more powerful relief valve spring,which puts undue load on the camshaft auxiliary gear.

Camshaft The Essex can suffer from camshaft breakage due to front bearing wear. Martin finds people never change its bearings, but the front one wears badly, particularly if you're using steel timing gear. It's worth monitoring and replacing, otherwise you can lose the front of the camshaft.When it comes to upgrading your cam, Martin recommends that you go for one below what you're thinking of. Coupled with some induction work, a cam is still one of the first steps you should take. Car Clinic will supply you with anything from Fast Road to a race cam - brand-new, not reprofiled.

Screw-in Rocker Studs
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Tuning the Essex V6

 

It's worth monitoring and replacing, otherwise you can lose the front of the camshaft.When it comes to upgrading your cam, Martin recommends that you go for one below what you're thinking of.
Camshaft
The Essex can suffer from camshaft breakage due to front bearing wear. Martin finds people never change its bearings, but the front one wears badly, particularly if you're us
Coupled with some induction work, a cam is still one of the first steps you should take. Car Clinic will supply you with anything from Fast Road to a race cam - brand-new, not reprofiled.
ing steel timing gear.
Tuning the Essex V6
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Heads
When it comes to valve sizes, anything over 1.75 inches is a waste of time, because of the bore shrouding the valve opening area.You can get up to a 1.85 inch inlet, but it giv
If it's too big it can reduce mid-range torque.
All the big-valve stuff came from the '70s where, for Group 1 homologation, they weren't allowed to do any grinding work or flowing. So they just homologated the two biggest valve sizes they could get in there. Martin reckons for a Fast Road engine, use standard exhaust valves with a 1.7 inch inlet valve. This leaves plenty of metal for the
The standard compression ratio is 8.9:1, but there's also 9.8:1 in a standard form -useful for an LPG conversion, as it's got an octane rating of 109 RON.
The original rocker studs are pushed in -you only need screw-in rocker studs when you're using double valve springs. The originals can be pinned, but that's as expensive as screw-in anyway. For road cars, leave them alone.
Martin's used to people asking for Reinz head gaskets -they think that's some sort of high-performance gasket, .
unleaded conversion you're going to want
es no more power than the 1.75 inch. Obviously, this reduces the space between the valves, which in turn adds to cracking problems. Ideally, the exhaust valve should be 80 per cent of the inlet's diameter.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Essex V6 Camshaft

 

Essex V6 Valve Seat
Essex V6 Roller Tipped Rockers

 

Essex V6 Cam Followers

 

 

but it's actually the original. These were good in the '7Os, but you can get better now. There are three types:- one made to the '7Os standard (budget); one made to Ford's contemporary standards; and a competition one. The latter is only really needed on a true race engine with an 11:1 compression ratio.

 

 

 

Another thing to take care of is the timing gear. Alloy gear from Car Clinic is 2 lb lighter than the steel variety and 22 ounces lighter than standard.

Always remember to change both gears. Often people will  just change one, so they wear unevenly.

3 Litre V6 Essex Alloy Timing Gear kit