Changing an engine in a production car?
Discussion
Cyclone make an interesting engine, but I don't have all the details I need on it yet, apart from power and torque measurements when run on carbs: http://www.cyclonepowerltd.co.uk/engine_performance.htm
The engine is very light, small, and the internals a all designed high power, so fitting a new supercharger unit (so it can remain stable at the high revs) should bring the torque up.
If the engine doesn't cost the Earth, and has decent reliablilty then I want to fit it to a car. However, I've never fitted a new engine system to a car before, only replaced one, like for like. What are the issues involved in fitting a new engine, and what areas do I need to think of contingency for?
Oh, and am I mad?
The engine is very light, small, and the internals a all designed high power, so fitting a new supercharger unit (so it can remain stable at the high revs) should bring the torque up.
If the engine doesn't cost the Earth, and has decent reliablilty then I want to fit it to a car. However, I've never fitted a new engine system to a car before, only replaced one, like for like. What are the issues involved in fitting a new engine, and what areas do I need to think of contingency for?
Oh, and am I mad?
Things to consider:
- will it fit physically? Mounting points etc
- are you going to use the car's existing gearbox or use a different one? If different things get more complex.
- how to mate it to the gearbox (clutch, spindle etc)
- Engine management. Best go with a third party setup here
- How and where to route the exhaust
That should get you started
What car were you thinking of sticking it in?
- will it fit physically? Mounting points etc
- are you going to use the car's existing gearbox or use a different one? If different things get more complex.
- how to mate it to the gearbox (clutch, spindle etc)
- Engine management. Best go with a third party setup here
- How and where to route the exhaust
That should get you started
What car were you thinking of sticking it in?I only sent an email asking for prices & extra figures yesterday, so have no idea of cost, but yeah, I can't see it being cheap - the joining mechinisms seem to be patented by Cyclone, so won't be cheap, but you never know.
Was thinking of getting a new box too, I want to get it into an Elise, or a Ginetta. The Elise uses the Rover PG-1 box which isn't that good, and I'm not sure it could handle the power, so I was thinking of using a quaife medium duty sequential unit. The Ginetta's have better boxes, but I'd probably still want to replace the box in that too.
I expect the Elise fitting to be hard, as the chassis is designed aroung the K-series and has been modified for the Toyota lump, but this V8 is much smaller than both.
The Ginetta should be more accomodating, but will also leave the engine much more exposed.
I have access to CNC table time & a shop floor with tools to make up any parts that are needed.
At the moment, this is all pie-in-the-sky stuff; depending on sorting out sponsorship, and MSA legislation on the engine being in the cars for various race series, depends on what route I go.
Was thinking of getting a new box too, I want to get it into an Elise, or a Ginetta. The Elise uses the Rover PG-1 box which isn't that good, and I'm not sure it could handle the power, so I was thinking of using a quaife medium duty sequential unit. The Ginetta's have better boxes, but I'd probably still want to replace the box in that too.
I expect the Elise fitting to be hard, as the chassis is designed aroung the K-series and has been modified for the Toyota lump, but this V8 is much smaller than both.
The Ginetta should be more accomodating, but will also leave the engine much more exposed.
I have access to CNC table time & a shop floor with tools to make up any parts that are needed.
At the moment, this is all pie-in-the-sky stuff; depending on sorting out sponsorship, and MSA legislation on the engine being in the cars for various race series, depends on what route I go.
B19GRR said:
I believe Sinclairs in London have, or are in the process of, fitted one of these new fangled bike head V8s, not sure if it's the Cyclone, but anyway I seem to remember £20k being bandied around before much work had started.
Cheers,
Rob
I think they do the RST-V8 (www.rst-V8.com), which sounds similar.
Gordon Allen used to cast his own blocks up and build his own cranks, I suppose if you had a head to work off, you could get a pattern maker to knock you up a pattern and get them sand cast. Getting a crank made would be expensive, about £1K, finding local people is the way to go and getting the job done that way. I know a metal caster and have my own head patterns. I guess you could buy your billet and get someone with a CNC machine to build your crank, it isn't rocket science really, it would just take a long time without paying someone mega bucks.
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