Ford 100E Willment OHV engine ??

[Electron]

Anyone know much about the "Willment OHV conversion" and how easy it is to either rebuild or get spares ?? Not an engine I'm familiar with at all and Google doesn't show up much.

Thanks in advance

Chris

[V8 Disco]

A pal of mine is a bit of a 100E/300E guru. I'll ask tomorrow. I recall a special head called the "Aquaplane'- due to its use on speedboats I guess - but not the Willment. I imagine the Sidevalve Owners Club would also be a fount of knowledge......

[Electron]

Thanks .. found a picture as well

[ChevronB19]

There was also an Elva conversion. Not sure about the Wilment, but you can get plenty of Aquaplane bits new

http://www.ford-aquaplane.co.uk/

[Electron]

The car I'm interested in was fitted with the Willment conversion when first built so needs to stay in the car ...

[Electron]

Ha found some stuff ...

http://www.pop100e.com/PopWillment.php

A quick lift from the website with commentary on spares ...

"I would like to add a bit about the Willment IOE cylinder head. I purchased my second head, actually the complete engine from Malcolm Buckler. The engine didn't have quite the 'poop' that my other Willment equipped stock 100E had.
I have been running a Willment equipped 100E engine for around twenty years, both on the road and in vintage races and it has never given me any problems. It runs strong and was fast. Despite the fact that Malcolm's engine was bored .060 over and had a completion cam, it just didn't run as strong as the engine that I had built. Malcolm's engine blew a head gasket during a race and so I put my old engine back in the car.
After a year or so, I decided to tear down Malcolm's engine and I was surprised to find that the crown of the pistons were 1/4" short of the deck. The engine had a very low compression ratio, less than 6:1 which led me to believe that the pistons may have been for a supercharged
application at some time in its past?? The blown head gasket was a composite gasket. There are some areas on the Willment head where the gasket is very narrow. I use only copper head gaskets with a Toyota sealer that was recommended to me by the Copper Gasket Company and have never had one fail. If there is no restrictor in the oil line to the rockers, the valves are flooded with oil. Both my engine and Malcom's have restrictors, but his flowed four times as much oil as mine does. Excess oiling, combined with no thermostat and the Castrol R bean oil he had been using, might have contributed to the carbon build up he was experiencing. My engine runs way too cool without a thermostat. Many people do not understand that an engine runs much better at proper/higher temperatures.
I rebuilt the head from Malcolm and swapped it onto my original block and it has given me no problems whatsoever. I will say that I am not a professional mechanic but I am careful engine builder. My engines are always balanced, I tune SU's with an air/fuel ratio meter, lap the oil
pump for minimum clearance, time ignition for maximum advance at WOT, check valve spring pressure, etc.


The original valves and springs in the Willment are off-the-shelf Jaguar. TR7 bronze valve guides are a direct replacement for the iron guides. I bore the heads to use 14mm spark plugs. 14mm plugs are used by many motorcycles and are available in a wider heat range and are less expensive than the original 10mm plugs. The spacing of the ports on a Triumph Spitfire intake manifold comes very close to matching the Willment ports and the Spitfire manifold is an easy fit with a bit of massaging. I have run both the single and the dual carb manifolds.

Although I have had no problems with the original rockers, I would like to find a better set of rockers. The Willment pushrods looked a little thin for me and I have shortener TR pushrods."

[occrj]

I put up a page about the Powermaster OHV conversion a while back, some of the images further down the page may be of interest.

http://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/powermaster.htm

rgds, RJ

[silverfoxcc]

Thanks for the thread, brought a very nostalgic tear to my eye, and i was back in 1965.

[Electron]

Got sent this ..



as I needed the info thought it only fair to share ...

[V8 Disco]

Hi again, finally made contact with my pal and as expected, he has some info - apparently a book on tuning the sidevalve which includes some info on the Willment and maybe a second document that he needs to locate. I've arranged to get scanned copies but might take a while. If you PM me your email address I will get them to you asap.

[Electron]

So this is one of the pictures of the engine in the car in question ..

[jith]

Electron said:

So this is one of the pictures of the engine in the car in question ..

Electron, it's very interesting that the tuner has chosen Solex twin chokes rather than Weber. Is there a reason for this? Although the reality is that the Solex is actually a more efficient carburettor. Must be hard getting jets for them now however.

J

[Electron]

The carbs are wrong for the chassis ... it looks like a chassis rail has been sawn through to fit them ... this is the correct manifold but the downdraft will stick through the bonnet ...



The trouble is a Ford pre crossflow is much easier to build than a Willment 100e ... and the engine is original to the car so it would be a shame to swap it out ....

Edited by Electron on Friday 8th February 21:01

[Electron]

Stewart,

The engine is in it's original chassis and body so it would be a shame to see it broken up. The whole car is for sale but the owner (not me) is in New Zealand. PM me if you want me to connect you but you'll have to pay a hefty premium to get just the engine.

I talked to a couple of people and the view is you can make a much more powerful and reliable pre-crossflow screamer (Formula Junior or otherwise) to make it worthwhile trying to build up the Willment for race use ..

I guess you have a Morgan 4/4 Series Two ?? 0 to 60 m.p.h time of 29.4 seconds !:-) I can see why you want tuning goodies ...

Surely a TR2 engined or pre-crossflow engined car would be a better start for racing ??

I see the racing Standard Vanguard is pushing 200bhp ...

[quiraing]

Is this a 100E with one? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d75KGBec30g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_l1UwS4OJ0k

[jimmy the hat]

Electron said:

The carbs are wrong for the chassis ... it looks like a chassis rail has been sawn through to fit them

Unless I'm wildly mistaken, the top of the bulkhead and most of the transmission tunnel has been removed and that "chassis rail" is in fact the pedal box and where it's been "sawn through" is actually the bulkhead itself. Looks like the carbs would fit in nicely in a standard engine bay.

Of course if I am wildly mistaken, please swear at me and disregard everything I've just said, I haven't got any pictures on this PC of my bulkhead.

Cheers, Jim

[Megs1838]

Electron said:

Stewart,

The engine is in it's original chassis and body so it would be a shame to see it broken up. The whole car is for sale but the owner (not me) is in New Zealand. PM me if you want me to connect you but you'll have to pay a hefty premium to get just the engine.

I talked to a couple of people and the view is you can make a much more powerful and reliable pre-crossflow screamer (Formula Junior or otherwise) to make it worthwhile trying to build up the Willment for race use ..

I guess you have a Morgan 4/4 Series Two ?? 0 to 60 m.p.h time of 29.4 seconds !:-) I can see why you want tuning goodies ...

Surely a TR2 engined or pre-crossflow engined car would be a better start for racing ??

I see the racing Standard Vanguard is pushing 200bhp ...

I have a complete engine for sale. - megs1838

[fsisson]

Be glad to help you with info on Willment. I have two engines and run them in my Morgan Threewheeler. EZ conversion. Stock valves/springs are Jaguar. I have four different intake manifolds... most I have seen these days run the Spitfire long-runner dual SU intake. Close match to Willment head. Make my own headers, but any 100E Exhaust manifold for 100E will fit. One head has MGB valves- about 1/8" larger dia. Would love to buy another 100E/Willment engine if you know of any. I have rebuilt a number of then and it provides me with entertainment on rainy days.
Fred Sisson
Indiana USA

[imagineifyeswill]

Isnt the 100e that races at the Goodwood revival and other historics in Alan Mann Racing colours a Willment engined car.

[Russell Mc]

That's a 107e so it's fitted with the ohv pre xflow