What's a good price for this?
Discussion
I'm looking for either a 1.6 or 1.8 vvc 'K' series engine, gearbox, ecu and wiring loom.
Speaking to a few breakers they will sell me a 1.6 with everything else for between £450 and £650. This sounds pretty good, but I get the impression that they just want to sell me anything they can and aren't bothered if it's right or not.
Speaking to a more specialist (Rover) breaker. The guy was much more helpful
and would sell me the lot including a 1.8 vvc for around £1100. The advantages I see are that he seems to know what he's talking about, knows what fits different models and even guessed the car I was building straight away.
Problems,
I budgeted £1100-1200 for the complete donor.
This breaker is nearly 300 miles away.
Any advice, ideas and comments welcome.
Speaking to a few breakers they will sell me a 1.6 with everything else for between £450 and £650. This sounds pretty good, but I get the impression that they just want to sell me anything they can and aren't bothered if it's right or not.
Speaking to a more specialist (Rover) breaker. The guy was much more helpful
and would sell me the lot including a 1.8 vvc for around £1100. The advantages I see are that he seems to know what he's talking about, knows what fits different models and even guessed the car I was building straight away. Problems,
I budgeted £1100-1200 for the complete donor.
This breaker is nearly 300 miles away.
Any advice, ideas and comments welcome.
tombs said:
Who was the Rover guy?
Andy at www.roverbreakers.com
Why know any better / cheaper?
He did say he might be able to do me a deal on all the other donor parts I need too. The engine is the main concern as there are plenty of 1.4 engined cars out there for parts.
If it's for a Seven type car then have a search on www.blatchat.com as this topic has come up a few times. There is a breaker that has been recommended by a few people who seems to know his stuff. I've seen prices of £800-£1200 so your man seems to have pitched it about right. The choice of gearbox will affect which bits you need as well. I'm no expert on this stuff but as a I said have a look on Blatchat.
Flintstone said:
Mate.
There was a 1.8 in the Pistonheads classified for 150 quid (can't do pund signs, using a french keyboard at the moment).
It would need a rebuild but that would mean you could tune it.
Thanks Paul
For the money he wants + loom without ECU and other bits that are extra it doesn't seem worth it. The rebuild and tune will add at least £700.
£1100 low mileage (less than 10k) guaranteed, with all the bits I need is looking more and more of a bargain every day.
Hi, thought I'd barge in with my not too amazing opinions.
T Series is a pig iron block and weight accordingly. The problem with that engine lies in the gearbox bearings or summat like that.
If you're considering tweaking a K-series then start off with a bog standard non-vvc model. Mine now currently puts out ~160bhp/140lbft, beat that VVC!! To take the VVC engine much further you end up having to junk the VVC mechanism anyway.
HGF on K series has been imporved on with the latest designs using metal dowels. You can also get uprated gaskets that add to piece of mind.
THE new alternative to the K series in Elise land is the Ford Duratec. Not much heavier but capable of putting out much better power and torque reliably.
check out this forum for the news on the first conversion.
www.briandrought.com/duratecforum/default.asp
Course it costs a bit more than a K from a scrappy
Cheers,
Rob
T Series is a pig iron block and weight accordingly. The problem with that engine lies in the gearbox bearings or summat like that.
If you're considering tweaking a K-series then start off with a bog standard non-vvc model. Mine now currently puts out ~160bhp/140lbft, beat that VVC!! To take the VVC engine much further you end up having to junk the VVC mechanism anyway.
HGF on K series has been imporved on with the latest designs using metal dowels. You can also get uprated gaskets that add to piece of mind.
THE new alternative to the K series in Elise land is the Ford Duratec. Not much heavier but capable of putting out much better power and torque reliably.
check out this forum for the news on the first conversion.
www.briandrought.com/duratecforum/default.asp
Course it costs a bit more than a K from a scrappy
Cheers,
Rob
B19GRR
I'm glad you have 'barged in'.
After a fair bit of looking around, I had an offer of a 1.8 vvc (160bhp) the other day for £1100, however I also found that I could get a 2lt Turbo for about £900 - £1k.
Last night I'd more or less talked myself into the turbo. 200bhp etc. From you are saying, if the turbo is much heavier then there's not going to be that much more performance is there?
The 1.8 is lower mileage and again from your post, as a later engine, it is going to be more reliable than the earlier ones.
Why do we have to make decisions like this.
I'm glad you have 'barged in'.
After a fair bit of looking around, I had an offer of a 1.8 vvc (160bhp) the other day for £1100, however I also found that I could get a 2lt Turbo for about £900 - £1k.
Last night I'd more or less talked myself into the turbo. 200bhp etc. From you are saying, if the turbo is much heavier then there's not going to be that much more performance is there?
The 1.8 is lower mileage and again from your post, as a later engine, it is going to be more reliable than the earlier ones.
Why do we have to make decisions like this.
Ex-Biker said:
B19GRR
Last night I'd more or less talked myself into the turbo. 200bhp etc. From you are saying, if the turbo is much heavier then there's not going to be that much more performance is there?
I thikn you'd be surprised. The turbo engine will put out enormous torque compared to the (relatively) high reving N/A K series. The only point I would be concerened about is the weight of the engine affecting the balance of the chassis. However, Marlin already have the turbo engine in a car which apparently goes well so it's probably not an issue (you are building a 5EXi aren't you? Memory like a kitchen thing with holes in!!)
Well, after taking a looking at the demo car at Exter today, I have changed my mind about turbo power!
While most of the kit seems to be pretty well engineered, there is one point that stood out like a sore, bleeding, mangled thumb. The engine is mounted quite a bit further way from the wheel centerline than it would be in the Rover. This means the driveshafts have to run at more of an angle. Now this isn't too bad for the long drive shaft (offside), but the short (near side) driveshaft is running at an inexcusable angle. This point alone has put me off the car (and I love it otherwise). I would like to think that the smaller K series may not suffer as badly from this, but I don't know.
Running around with 200bhp going through this driveshaft is going to give it a life expectancy of hours rather than years.
www.mikerj.clara.net/locost/driveshaft1.jpg
www.mikerj.clara.net/locost/driveshaft2.jpg
While most of the kit seems to be pretty well engineered, there is one point that stood out like a sore, bleeding, mangled thumb. The engine is mounted quite a bit further way from the wheel centerline than it would be in the Rover. This means the driveshafts have to run at more of an angle. Now this isn't too bad for the long drive shaft (offside), but the short (near side) driveshaft is running at an inexcusable angle. This point alone has put me off the car (and I love it otherwise). I would like to think that the smaller K series may not suffer as badly from this, but I don't know.
Running around with 200bhp going through this driveshaft is going to give it a life expectancy of hours rather than years.
www.mikerj.clara.net/locost/driveshaft1.jpg
www.mikerj.clara.net/locost/driveshaft2.jpg
Ferg said:
Wow! This is the 5Exi isn't it Mike?
I've NEVER seen shafts running at that sort of angle, well apart from the odd sandrail! The Max Power son of a mate of mine killed his 106 shafts by lowering the car and they weren't anything like as bad as that.
Unfortunately yes it is. I reckon it's at least the equivalent of full lock on the original car.
The CV joints on those small French cars are very undersized, and also of strange tri-podial design (even the outers). I've no doubt that lowering the car sped up the demise of the driveshafts, but they don't last long anyway. I just had to replace on driveshaft on my recently acquired AX GTi with only 59,000 documented miles on the clock, and the other one has started to make ominous clicking noise at full lock. Built very much to the same standards of the rest of the car really, but it is a fun car.
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