K series rebuild

[VXJON]

Now that I've got myself a k powered car, I've started to considered having a engine on stand by for when it goes pop


The engine in the car is a 1.8 with 160hp and 154lb, and since I will be expecting a little more from a new one what should I be looking to upgrade in the replacement? I will probably go down the route of buying a std 1.8 then having it rebuilt

[robin]

154lb.ft of torque but only 160bhp power?

Doesn't quite add up? Most 1.8K that make 154lb.ft of torque go on to make 200BHP.

What sort of mods does it have, and do you happen to have a dyno plot of it?

Anyway, back to the question. Depends on how much more power ...

Cheers,
Robin

[Lazydonkey]

tell me again why you're worrying aoujt this just now?

[DDtB]

The engine in the car is a 1.8 with 160hp and 154lb, and since I will be expecting a little more from a new one what should I be looking to upgrade in the replacement? I will probably go down the route of buying a std 1.8 then having it rebuilt

as if you'll keep the car long enough to worry about needing a new engine....

[Mikie711]

154 ft/lbs from 160 bhp !!!. Mine dyno'd at 163bhp and 128 lb/ft so would really be interested in you spec. As for building a more powerful standby engine. 1st phone someone in Nigera and give them your credit card number.............it would be cheaper.

[VXJON]

tell me again why you're worrying aoujt this just now?

Its a K

Id feel a lot better if the engine did go pop knowing i had one ready to go. I'm well aware that not all K engines eat themselves but Ive seen enough SE cars go off the road for months while the owner searches for a suitable replacement.

154lb.ft of torque but only 160bhp power?

Doesn't quite add up? Most 1.8K that make 154lb.ft of torque go on to make 200BHP.

What sort of mods does it have, and do you happen to have a dyno plot of it?

Anyway, back to the question. Depends on how much more power ...

Cheers,
Robin

The car was mapped by emerald - cat 7 1800k, SS cams, Plenum, lightly ported head, 421 exh
160.5 BHP/ 6039 (95mph) 152.3 lbft/ 4894

Will scan in the emerald mapping graphs tomorrow Now I'm a little worried.




Not fussy about more power the car doesn't need it, around the same would be a good start

[VXJON]

Neil the engine is absolutely fine, just planning to cover all the bases by having a ready made replacement if it goes bang

Your welcome to have a go at Kames on sat to see how it feels to you

[tenkfeet]

Neil the engine is absolutely fine, just planning to cover all the bases by having a ready made replacement if it goes bang

Your welcome to have a go at Kames on sat to see how it feels to you

From my drive at Kames on Saturday I felt it had an engine

[steve_weegie]

I'm well aware that not all K engines eat themselves but Ive seen enough SE cars go off the road for months while the owner searches for a suitable replacement.

I start my rebuild on Friday

[robin]

Cool. Well if you just want the same again ....

You have to say this next bit in the style of George Agdgdgwngo

Put money in your bonk.
Wait for enjin to breaaak.
Peeeek up the phoaaan.
Call PeeTeePee.
Give them your bonk account details.
Ask them for a new enjin.
Wait for a few days.
The new enjin will arrive.

It's about 1,000 quid but is brand new, properly built, will last the best part of 100K donkey punching rough love miles when mated with your 160-ish BHP cylinder head. Any damage to the head during the hypothetical grenading event will probably be no more than getting some new valves in it. Unless you have excellent skillz in the engine building department, or you're happy to risk your cash on a mid-life smoker from some old MG or Elise, I'll bet you won't get a warrantied new bottom end cheaper.

Different story if you're talking terry tibbs cranks with big pony pistons, obviously.

Cheers,
Robin

[campbell]

It's about 1,000 quid

I'm probably looking at the wrong part of the PTP site but it seems to be more like £1,300?

And imagine spending £15k on their 235bhp "evo" K series engine

[woody]

You can have my engine when yours goes bang. For the right monies obviously And you'll be desperate enough to pay.

So, say you have a new bottom end sitting... by the time you need to fit it, it may need a rebuild depending on how it's been stored. Or what if it's the head that goes and you've just spent a £k on the bottom end? Makes no sense, even K's aren't consumables. With the power of positive thinking, it may not even go pop. I know a sport 160 thats done 61k know You may only afford a good spec standard bottom end now, but be in the position of being able to afford a 1900 or whatever takes your fancy if the engine does ever go. Your car has a dry sump system?

[robin]

It's about 1,000 quid

I'm probably looking at the wrong part of the PTP site but it seems to be more like £1,300?

That's around 1,000 quid ... especially if you're on the logarithmic scale It's still good value if what you need is a brand new standard bottom end, compared to the cost (including labour) of rebuilding a tired one. Note, that's different from just buying a reasonable mileage used engine and keeping it lying around for when you need it ... that also makes sense, depending on what you do with the car.

Cheers,
Robin

[mac]

oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.


Ok, here goes (why - I do not know as I know you won't listen)

- yes, you do have a K series engine.
- yes, there are some issues with engine reliability in elises with tuned engines
- yes, you have a tuned engine
- No, you don't have an elise
- No, you don't have a radiator located remotely from the engine requiring long lengths of pipework
- No, there isn't as much of an issue with caterhams eating engines


Give me your money - I'll spending doing sprints & hillclimbs - maybe even go down to Walshy for some driver training, and if your engine does go pop due to HGF (and not because you weegied the engine (def: driving without sufficient oil - also known as Rolfing it or Ironsiding it) I'll stick my supersport engine in your car.

Alternatively, you could spend the money on driver training and sprints and worry about rebuilding it if/when the time comes. The K in the cat isn't like the one in the elise, there's no under trays - there's reasonably good access, it's long mounted which means you can easily do a head swap or even reposition the liners without a huge amount of trouble.


Mac

[robin]

The caterhams suffer pretty much the same set of failures that the elise/mgf do. The shorter cooling system run limits the problems caused by so called "thermal shock", but it's still there; so much so that many of the race cars just have no thermostat at all (this is obviously not a solution to any problem, but for some reason some set of owners/mechanics/engineers decided this would make it better; hence there must have been *something* they were trying to make better) . The shorter cooling system does nothing to improve the probability of piston failure at high engine speed (indeed the 1600 high revving K engine that caterham used to use did fail frequently in that fashion, as I understand it). I'm not sure whether all the sevens have dry sumps - I expect not - so you have at least as good a chance of IRW (Ironside, Rolfe & Weegie) failure as the Elise.

So I still think putting your pennies in the bank for the rainy day is the best solution ...

Cheers,
Robin