4.5 Six - it's alive!
Discussion
Listened to it fire up and purr smoothly today..... unfortunately only down the phone as it's at the other end of the country.
After painstaking development, honing and assembly over the last 8 months by Dulford Automotive's engine-building team, it's a leap beyond the 4.3 that's a sensible budget limit, requiring highest-spec internals as well as further changes to ancillaries and drivetrain to make the most of it, and at the same time be rather OTT for durability.
In theory it should perform like a 4.0 with rather more mid- and top-end from the extra capacity and freer breathing. It's still an oversquare bore so should rev willingly, but not zing to quite as high a limit as a 3.6.
Dulford's mods, developed by a team who have built hundreds of race engines of all types since the Tuscan race series first started, have focussed equally on further extending durability for sprint/trackday & road conditions, though I was pleasantly surprised that there was little wear evident on my standard '04 engine at 26k miles.
Running in and dyno set-up next, before fun can really start, and we get real-world data-logged & drag-event figures.
After painstaking development, honing and assembly over the last 8 months by Dulford Automotive's engine-building team, it's a leap beyond the 4.3 that's a sensible budget limit, requiring highest-spec internals as well as further changes to ancillaries and drivetrain to make the most of it, and at the same time be rather OTT for durability.
In theory it should perform like a 4.0 with rather more mid- and top-end from the extra capacity and freer breathing. It's still an oversquare bore so should rev willingly, but not zing to quite as high a limit as a 3.6.
Dulford's mods, developed by a team who have built hundreds of race engines of all types since the Tuscan race series first started, have focussed equally on further extending durability for sprint/trackday & road conditions, though I was pleasantly surprised that there was little wear evident on my standard '04 engine at 26k miles.
Running in and dyno set-up next, before fun can really start, and we get real-world data-logged & drag-event figures.
Daftlad said:
Congrats Paul . Hope the shake down of the car with it's new bits is relatively stress free.
When is the first outing?
Thanks John & Ceejay, . Hope the shake down of the car with it's new bits is relatively stress free.When is the first outing?
Thorough shakedown on a few March trackdays, then can't make Croft as in US, so first TVRCC event will be April Loton... and your circuit debuts?
Edited by tail slide on Friday 25th January 12:22
S6 SFX said:
Have you retained any components from the Salisbury engine?
Did you retain the same followers which had started to flake in the other engines?
Hope not. All the best with it - sounds exciting Paul.
I'm running in my engine at the moment.
Al.
Hi Al,Did you retain the same followers which had started to flake in the other engines?
Hope not. All the best with it - sounds exciting Paul.
I'm running in my engine at the moment.
Al.
Most of my spec was quite different at an early stage, but does use similar followers.
Let us know how you get on, all those of us with modified S6's are surely due a less 'interesting' year in '08!
tail slide said:
Daftlad said:
Congrats Paul . Hope the shake down of the car with it's new bits is relatively stress free.
When is the first outing?
Thanks John. . Hope the shake down of the car with it's new bits is relatively stress free.When is the first outing?
Thorough shakedown on a few March trackdays, then can't make Croft as in US, so first TVRCC event will be April Loton... and your circuit debut?
Could be ready for April 12th and Cadwell at a huge push, but I honestly can't be bothered with the hassle it would involve for something that's supposed to be fun.
If I'm 100% honest, even if me and the car were ready for Cadwell, it would be with precious few hours in the car.
Dissapointing if I were hunting Trophies I suppose - as I supect the grid would be quite sparce for Cadwell (first race, other folks cars not ready, and lots of peoples who seem not to like it too much...)
My main aim is the persuit of grins so looking foward to Brands and one of the few UK circuits I've not driven before.
I should be testing (with the standard SP6 engine we ran at Snett) the new box, clutch and diff at Cadwell in Feb. The Wilder engine is due to be fitted 1st week of March so hoping middle March for our first test in the spec we'll be running this season.
Good luck to all of the S6 racers / sprinters this season.
Good luck to all of the S6 racers / sprinters this season.
YI8TVR said:
Well done Paul, Hope it does what it says on the tin!
That's one done(ish), a few more to follow shortly I hope.
I would have had mine done by now but some bloke has jumped the queue
Looking forward to seeing it in action.
That's one done(ish), a few more to follow shortly I hope.
I would have had mine done by now but some bloke has jumped the queue
Looking forward to seeing it in action.
Not sure who that may be, but I've not got mine back either...
14th February is my date.
Daftlad said:
tail slide said:
Daftlad said:
Congrats Paul . Hope the shake down of the car with it's new bits is relatively stress free.
When is the first outing?
Thanks John. . Hope the shake down of the car with it's new bits is relatively stress free.When is the first outing?
Thorough shakedown on a few March trackdays, then can't make Croft as in US, so first TVRCC event will be April Loton... and your circuit debut?
Could be ready for April 12th and Cadwell at a huge push, but I honestly can't be bothered with the hassle it would involve for something that's supposed to be fun.
If I'm 100% honest, even if me and the car were ready for Cadwell, it would be with precious few hours in the car.
Dissapointing if I were hunting Trophies I suppose - as I supect the grid would be quite sparce for Cadwell (first race, other folks cars not ready, and lots of peoples who seem not to like it too much...)
My main aim is the persuit of grins so looking foward to Brands and one of the few UK circuits I've not driven before.
I've never driven Brands but might squeeze the TVRCC sprint in this year, maybe there's a trackday before your event that racers/sprinters could meet up at.
YI8TVR said:
Well done Paul, Hope it does what it says on the tin!
That's one done(ish), a few more to follow shortly I hope.
I would have had mine done by now but some bloke has jumped the queue
Looking forward to seeing it in action.
That's one done(ish), a few more to follow shortly I hope.
I would have had mine done by now but some bloke has jumped the queue
Looking forward to seeing it in action.
'A bit of practice explodes a lot of theory' - but I live in hope. On second thoughts the 'exploding' reference was a very poor choice.
Would be a laugh to get the various differing modified S6 cars together on track sometime. Have you improved the cooling since Rockingham? An area I've still got to do but have a good plan.
In theory.
Whitey said:
Wow, a 4.5 S6 ! Good on you! Cannot wait to hear more about the mods etc and also the dyno results!!
The S6 engine aftermarket options are certainly increasing!
Yes good to have options. Biggest not always best but I succumbed to temptation, again! The S6 engine aftermarket options are certainly increasing!
Most of the mods are obvious, and fairly well-proven on other S6's they've built which have been racking up the miles. Maybe there could be money saved on some mods, but best not to be the guinea pig that skimps and finds out, so mine's a bit OTT in some areas.
It'll be Autumn before there can be much hint of 4.5's expected 50k mile durability, as it'll be well run-in after about 15k road miles and 20+ track days and sprints, so I'll do a partial strip, compression test etc. & publish results. Still will only pick up early wear items I suppose, and won't tell where money could have been saved if anywhere.
tail slide said:
Whitey said:
Wow, a 4.5 S6 ! Good on you! Cannot wait to hear more about the mods etc and also the dyno results!!
The S6 engine aftermarket options are certainly increasing!
Yes good to have options. Biggest not always best but I succumbed to temptation, again! The S6 engine aftermarket options are certainly increasing!
Most of the mods are obvious, and fairly well-proven on other S6's they've built which have been racking up the miles. Maybe there could be money saved on some mods, but best not to be the guinea pig that skimps and finds out, so mine's a bit OTT in some areas.
It'll be Autumn before there can be much hint of 4.5's expected 50k mile durability, as it'll be well run-in after about 15k road miles and 20+ track days and sprints, so I'll do a partial strip, compression test etc. & publish results. Still will only pick up early wear items I suppose, and won't tell where money could have been saved if anywhere.
YHM.
So Dulfords, Wilder, TVR Power, and I think also Austec, are all doing larger capacity Spd 6 engines.
If these are stroked and bigger bored, they must have separately (do any of them work together) resolved (or built in) enough reliability issues to provide a decent powerplant that customers will buy.
I think this is great news, it's one thing to say, buy our standard rebuild it's much more reliable, here's our warranty, it's another thing to provide a bigger capacity more powerful engine.
Also they must have decided there is enough customers to make it worthwhile.
I think this is great news, and has made me feel a bit more confident in the Spd 6, something I have not felt for, well the last 8 years!
cheers
Whitey
PS. But a LSx conversion would still give me the Tuscan I always wanted
but maybe now I will not have to think that's the only solution!!
If these are stroked and bigger bored, they must have separately (do any of them work together) resolved (or built in) enough reliability issues to provide a decent powerplant that customers will buy.
I think this is great news, it's one thing to say, buy our standard rebuild it's much more reliable, here's our warranty, it's another thing to provide a bigger capacity more powerful engine.
Also they must have decided there is enough customers to make it worthwhile.
I think this is great news, and has made me feel a bit more confident in the Spd 6, something I have not felt for, well the last 8 years!
cheers
Whitey
PS. But a LSx conversion would still give me the Tuscan I always wanted
but maybe now I will not have to think that's the only solution!! Whitey said:
I think this is great news, it's one thing to say, buy our standard rebuild it's much more reliable, here's our warranty, it's another thing to provide a bigger capacity more powerful engine.
Also they must have decided there is enough customers to make it worthwhile.
Also they must have decided there is enough customers to make it worthwhile.
If going for a really thorough rebuild, and you're planning to keep it for some years, and especially want power and durability for trackdays etc it's not a huge leap. That route with RV8 5.2's has been pretty popular - but we're up a level with a 4v head and throttle per cylinder though
BCA said:
Any estimates on bhp/torque?
Too many variables in the design that will influence the shape & level of torque curve, and as you probably know bhp is just a calculated figure from the torque x revs.
Have to wait and see the torque curve from the dyno, but for real-world performance probably wait for a bit more running in then the datalogger - and proper competition if anyone's game for a TVR drag event this year!
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