Engine Choice?

[Colin Grundy]

Can You help?

Looking at the Caterham price list I notice that the difference between the standard 1.8K and the VVC engine is very little.

Therefore is it worth the expenditure of paying £1000 for a SS upgrade which, on the face of it will still have less BHP than a VVC and finish up costing more.

Which in your opinions is a better proposition. I will in due course be upgrading to emerald, throttle bodies etc. , but is the VVC a better starting point?

[scooby dooby doo]

as a starting point (assuming you've decided on a K - which keeps that can of worms firmly closed) you want to get a plain 1.8 K.

 

you can then get the the Emerald kit of cams, TBs, ECU and map which is about 1500 i think to give you about 150 bhp. its worth getting the supersport exhaust instead of the standard item though - the std exhaust is truly horrific in perfermance terms.

 

The SS upgrade is a dead end - the cams are ok, the exhaust is fine but the ECU is useless for anything else and is more expensive and less good than the emerald. its also expensive.

 

The VVC is only a good starting point if you want the VVC head itself which you can then port etc. but a s/h VVC head can be picked up for a few hundred so its not really worth it.

 

HOOPY CYCLE WINGS CUCUMBER

[Colin Grundy]

Thanks Hoopy

I think I'd more or less decided on the bog standard 1.8K, but nearly 140BHP from a standard VVC engine at very little more dosh than a standard 1.8 makes you think. Ive had the 4-2-1- hole cut ready for the exhaust so thats decided. My rationale was that if I'm going to spend 2K on ECU TBs and cams on a standard 1.8, Iwould have thought spending it on a VVC thats all ready got 138 odd BHP would ultimately give more bangs for the buck. Perhaps Im living in hope. I have budgeted approx 7K on an engine its just which one to start off with.

[Miraz]

I started with a basic 1.8k - which made 155bhp with the addition of an Emerald and a set of Supersport cams - there are lots of second hand SS cam sets floating about for a couple of hundred quid. A little bit of head work, a new set of valve springs, Piper 740 cams and throttle bodies has pulled that up to around 180bhp.

 

The minimum upgrade to a VVC engine is quite substantial, as you will need to junk the VVC gubbins - the basic motor will allow you to make some incremental upgrades along the way. imho it's worth having a seperate head to work on for the major upgrade to avoid having to take the car off the road for a sustained period.

 

Go for the basic unit as a starting point.

 

Miraz