Engines

Ford Kent Race Engines.

With years of experience in preparing and maintaining Formula Ford vehicles, we've gathered a range of experience in one particular powerplant - the Ford Kent 1600 crossflow engine. Extracting the maximum from these engines is critical in a racing environment, only made more difficult by a hugely restrictive set of technical regulations which is intended to increase affordability and component longevity.

The Kent 1600 engine was originally fitted to a range of small Ford vehicles from the 1970's and was in production for decades. Iconic cars such as the Ford Escort were reliant on this powerplant and even engines such as the "holy grail" Ford Cosworth BDA essentially used the bottom end of this engine to great success. It is believed that more than 10 million Kent engines were produced, the humble Kent engine being the power unit used to propel drivers such as Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher when they were competing in Formula Ford. Ford Kent engine blocks are still being produced by Ford Motorsport in 2025 and are a reliable, cast iron pushrod actuated overhead valve, 1600cc inline 4 cylinder.

Our race engine program pivots around this legendary engine and we have a huge range of spares and tooling in stock. Our day-to-day operations revolve around building strong and reliable Kent engines to suit the Australian Formula Ford 1600 Technical Regulations.

Our Formula Ford powerplant is designed to suit any Australian Formula Ford 1600 competitor, from the amateur Historic racer, to the most competitive modern machinery. We offer consistent power levels, in line with our proven race winning engines. These engines are Dry sumped, with 3 port or 5 port oil pump options, Weber 32/36 Carb, Moly low tension Ring pack, CNC Valve Seats, FF1600 legal valves, new Mahle pistons, CNC Honed blocks, Crankshaft and rods are fully balanced and prepped for Formula Ford racing use. Current delivery and build for a Formula Ford 1600 engine is 14weeks, if not in stock.

Dyno figures are provided with each engine. Each engine is hooked up to our in house dyno and tuned and proven before handover.

Road engines - Escort, Cortina, Capri, Clubmans etc.

Outside of the highly regulated Formula Ford rulebook, we also build engines for the road. We have multiple build options available for the road, from the highly proven Formula Ford spec build using a wet sump setup, to twin Webber carbureted engines. Injection is getting cheaper and user friendly, offering the ultimate reliability for your classic weekender.

We have a wide range of Ford Kent engine parts for sale, click below to browse our parts.