Steve Cragg Posted October 25, 2006 Share Posted October 25, 2006 Help please! After a lot of head scratching and a couple of near misses buying ready tuned engines I have decided to go down a route of building a 1.8K. This will allow me to continue to run my existing 1.6 engine and potentially in future to revert back to a standard set up should I so desire. I won't be going crazy (to start with ) but want to build a strong base I can develop later. I already have some Jenvey DTHTBs purchased some time ago and will fit forged pistons. I have the opportunity to buy a failed 1.8 from a Freelander sourced by a club member at a good price. Suspected failure is a liner base seal. My question is whether this route is worthwhile? I will need to strip the engine down to build the new engine and want to get teh crank balanaced properly etc. anyway so is the only additional cost going to be a new set of liners and seals? Any help/advice appreciated. Steve Superlight #63 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martinwhitcher Posted October 25, 2006 Share Posted October 25, 2006 best to speak to oily (DVA) here Martin MW 51 CAT Superlight No.171 now known as:Superlight DVA 207 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delberts Wallet Posted October 25, 2006 Share Posted October 25, 2006 I have a VVC head for sale if you are interested. Gareth Blue and Carbon 6 Speed Supersport with new wheels Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rj Posted October 25, 2006 Share Posted October 25, 2006 The VVC head with Piper 285 cams and Jenvey TB's will be good for 180-185BHP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Cragg Posted October 25, 2006 Author Share Posted October 25, 2006 Thanks for the input My main question though is whether I should go for this failed 1.8 engine or obtain one by another route eg. from breakers yard. Is going for this cheap option going to be false economy? Steve Superlight #63 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nifty Posted October 25, 2006 Share Posted October 25, 2006 Steve, I'd have serious thoughts of getting Scholar to do their work on the liners and you might as well go 1900 for the extra over the the cost of doing this and staying 1800. If you are going to do this it doesn't matter what the previous liners were like and you've got a cheap starting block (all puns intended ). Keep off the straight and narrow 😬 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Walker Posted October 26, 2006 Share Posted October 26, 2006 I have a friend selling an unused new 1.8k scholar block with forged pistons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Plato Posted October 26, 2006 Share Posted October 26, 2006 I have a friend selling a 230 bhp all steel K series for a Caterham as a complete unit - good price too !. here is C7 TOP South Wales AO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Cragg Posted October 26, 2006 Author Share Posted October 26, 2006 Rob/Dave YHM Cheers Steve Superlight #63 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Walker Posted October 26, 2006 Share Posted October 26, 2006 Sorry to Paul Bowden I could not reply to your Blatmail, you will have to send me your e-mail address. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ged Posted October 26, 2006 Share Posted October 26, 2006 Steve, I know someone who's got a VVC for sale, from what I can remember it's complete with injectors and throttle body etc, but I'm not sure about the ECU. It's reputed to have done 24000 miles, and had a new head gasket just fitted. It's located in Middlesbrough, the asking price is £495. I was very tempted myself, but was told the next upgrade was going to be the kitchen 🙆🏻 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delberts Wallet Posted October 26, 2006 Share Posted October 26, 2006 I would say that if you are going for a complete rebuild any way then I would probably go for the failed engine and then make sure that it is built up correctly ie liner seals and heights etc. I would then fit my VVC head 😬 and you have a very easy 185bhp, with a little more porting work then 200 is on the cards. Oh, did I mention I have very tidy, low mileage VVC head for sale Gareth Blue and Carbon 6 Speed Supersport with new wheels Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Cragg Posted October 26, 2006 Author Share Posted October 26, 2006 Ged, YHM Gareth, You don't happen to know anyone with a VVC head for sale do you? 😬 Steve Superlight #63 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delberts Wallet Posted October 26, 2006 Share Posted October 26, 2006 I'll ask around Gareth Blue and Carbon 6 Speed Supersport with new wheels Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Cragg Posted November 2, 2006 Author Share Posted November 2, 2006 Thanks for everyones input and Dave Andrews and Rob Walkers time on the telephone I have now bought the VVC engine that Ged put me on to - cheers Ged and bought an Emerald. This means I now have a complete VVC engine (the 143bhp version not the Trophy) a set of Jenvey DTHTBs and an Emerald I think the plan will be to source 285 cams and a blanking kit from DVA to convert the head and I now need to decide whether to do any serious work on the bottom end. It is an EU2 engine which i understand has better rods and pistons than EU3 and at the price i paid it is tempting just to run it as it is at the 180 bhp or so I should get from fitting all this gubbins. But in my heart I know I should get the crank assembly properly balanced and fit forged pistons but my budget won't run to doing everything I would like to do. Decisions , decisions! Sorry to ramble on but I've just got back from the pub 😬 Oh, and Gareth - I now have a VVC cylinder head Steve Superlight #63 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leadership Team SLR No.77 Posted November 3, 2006 Leadership Team Share Posted November 3, 2006 Nice one Steve And it begins ........................................................... Stu. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Brown Posted November 3, 2006 Share Posted November 3, 2006 Steve, There was an interesting thread on here a few months ago which was to the effect that most engine tuners couldn't balance the cranks anywhere near as well as Rover. This in turn lead to may people's problems with uprated K's. This all refered to an article with a table showing the test results which were miles worse than standard. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Cragg Posted November 3, 2006 Author Share Posted November 3, 2006 David, I've read the article you're referring to agree it contains some interesting stuff. What are people's views on the max power/revs that standard EU2 VVC pistons are good for? Are the VVC pistons (not Trophy engine) better than the standard 1.6 K pistons? I've seen Oily's pictures of some broken standard 1.6 SL pistons from a 200 bhp engine but I'm not looking to go quite that far at this stage and if these pistons are of better quality there might be more margin to play with. If I can safely run the existing bottom end at say 180/190 bhp it will enable me to do what I want with the head and induction system within my existing budget. Steve Superlight #63 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rj Posted November 3, 2006 Share Posted November 3, 2006 Steve, Have a look here re rev limits. /regin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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