• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

FORD V6 Essex?

Share this page

S

Scimitarman

Freshman Member
Offline
Hi All

Pending disasters, I should see my Reliant Scimitar GTE restoration project in my yard on Sunday.

Least of my concerns at the moment, but is there spares and support for the FORD 3.0 V6 Essex in North America?

This powerplant was used in top of the range UK Fords throught the late 60's and 70's, eg : Capri, Granada etc.
As well as the Scimitar, other low volume producers like Gilbern, Marcos and TVR also used them.

Interestingly, the Scimitar prototype had an American Ford V8, but a domestic fuel crisis at the time urged Reliant to downsize!
Needless to say a popular conversion for the Scimitar amongst UK enthusiasts is to change to V8, be it Rover, Ford or Chevy. Lack of support for the Essex here may be my justification!

Regards

Darren
 
Re: plant

Not many in North America. A few in TVRs' and a couple in Marcos. There are two different Essex V6 engines: pre-1971 and post-1971. Nothing much is available for the pre-1971 engine. Check at https://www.burtonpower.com in the UK.

Don
1971 Marcos V6 (for sale)
 
Re: plant

Just to prevent confusion, there is also a North American Ford Essex V6 (built in Canada, I think).

But that engine (with a 90 degree Vee) is not really related to the 60 degree Vee engine that you are talking about.

I have a modern 3.9 L Essex in my minivan. I had an old Capri with the original Essex V6 engine.
 
Re: plant

I have a few parts cross references for oil filter, spark plugs I think. I can get those on the weekend. Not much support here otherwise - only used on the niche stuff here. When I last looked at the Scimitar I thought the starter might need changed. Looks to be an engine out sort of job.
 
Re: plant

aeronca65t said:
I had an old Capri with the original Essex V6 engine.
Click to expand...

If it wasn't 3.0L, it wasn't an Essex, All of the Capris
available in the US and Canada that came with a V6 were
Cologne engines, first the 2.6L then the 2.8L, the 4.0L
in the new Mustang is a close cousin to the original V4
that the Colognes grew out of...
 
Re: plant

I think you will find the 4.0L Mustang engine is a closer cousin to the 1991 to 1998 24V V6 Ford/Cosworth engine, which uses the 2.9L Cologne iron block with Cosworth alloy twincam heads.

Tony
 
Re: plant

SteveL said:
.....If it wasn't 3.0L, it wasn't an Essex, All of the Capris
available in the US and Canada that came with a V6 were
Cologne engines, first the 2.6L then the 2.8L, the 4.0L
in the new Mustang is a close cousin to the original V4
that the Colognes grew out of...
Click to expand...

I guess you're right.
Mine was a 2.6 (by the way, I bought the car for $1 and sold it fairly quickly so it wasn't a car I spent much time with)
I remember the Ford (Taunus) V4 as used in the SAAB 96. I once saw a SAAB with a Ford V6....apparently a fairly easy swap.
 
Re: plant

duffy said:
I think you will find the 4.0L Mustang engine is a closer cousin to the 1991 to 1998 24V V6 Ford/Cosworth engine, which uses the 2.9L Cologne iron block with Cosworth alloy twincam heads.

Tony
Click to expand...

If you study the architecture of the engines in question,
you'll find they are indeed related to the Cologne V4. Even
though they changed somewhat, I can still bolt a SOHC 4.0L
to my 2.6L bellhousing with a small amount of grinding to
align 1 bolt...

SteveL
 
Re: plant

The V4 was used in the Ford Corsair starting late '65.
You can get some items through the Ford Corsair Owners Club
in England.

- Doug
 
Re: plant

SteveL said:
If you study the architecture of the engines in question, you'll find they are indeed related to the Cologne V4. Even though they changed somewhat, I can still bolt a SOHC 4.0L to my 2.6L bellhousing with a small amount of grinding to align 1 bolt...

SteveL
Click to expand...

OK, now *that* would make a Killer swap for a SAAB 96!
 
Re: plant

Hi Dave

YES- its mine! It was a stressful month trying to arrange transport, in the end I cut the c**p and paid a pro to bring it back for me, piece of mind that it was not being transferred via fork lift from semi to semi!!
First impressions- better than expected, my wife also commented the same, saying it is a better starting point than my resto when in UK! So its good to have her on my side.
I want to make some improvements to my shop before I go full blown bodyshell removal etc.

2 questions:

Were there keys when you had it?

Was there any paperwork regarding the import?

Regards

Darren
 
Re: plant

I'm glad it made it there ok.

I had no keys or papers. For Alberta only a bill of sale is needed to register. Since it was in the Alberta system in theory you should not need any import papers. A friend of mine rescued it from going into the local scrapyard. I'll email you his contact info but he really doesn't know much more than me.
 
Back
Top