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How reliable would a car lile this normally be?
carpy - 11/3/08 at 11:37 AM

Am currently on the lookout for a MK Indy / MAC#1 car with a nice amount of power, and came across this one on Pistonheads.

2.0 Vauxhall XE Powered MK Indy - Rolling road tuned 245 BHP & 7750 RPM

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/401576.htm




Now what worries me about going for a CEC over a BEC, and especially one like this which is highly modified, is the cost to replace / rebuild the engine should it go wrong.

I checked out the price of the kit to do the 245bhp conversion as the car above has, and they were about £5500 without any labour.

So basically if I had to fork out that kind of money on the engine in future then I'd definitely steer clear because I simply don't have that kind of money lying around.

I've got a budget of about £6000-£8000 to buy a car and then money to keep it running, but no way could I afford £5000+ engine work.

So how reliable would a car like that be, and how much would a rebuild cost, bearing in mind I would have to pay to get it done.

Thanks

[Edited on 11/3/08 by carpy]


Mr Whippy - 11/3/08 at 11:47 AM

the light that burns twice as bright burns half as long

how long has that been burning?


carpy - 11/3/08 at 11:51 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Mr Whippy
the light that burns twice as bright burns half as long


Great film......

I thought perhaps because it's been rebuilt with uprated pistons / headwork, upgraded oil pumps etc then it might be reliable even at 245bhp.....


Guinness - 11/3/08 at 11:55 AM

I have a mate, Carl, who had a similar spec'd VX engine in his Caterham. It was very fast and loud. It was also pretty reliable. The only issue he had, which never really got resolved was the oil pressure. It had a constant leak, never from the same place twice, he'd fix one in the sump, and another would break out on the block, fix that and another would pop up on the head!

He's since sold it, moved to the darkside for a while with a Porsche 911 and then a BMW M3 CSL, but he's back in the fold now with another Caterham, this time with a k series in an incredible state of tune. (Mind you it did spit it's dummy on the last run of last year, spraying coolant out all over the shop, and needing a head gasket over the winter!).

HTH

Mike


JimSpencer - 11/3/08 at 12:03 PM

Hi

I think you're looking at it the wrong way around.

Sure if you we're starting with a bog standard XE and then adding the SBD head and throttle bodies etc etc you would be spending heaps of money..

But you're not..

If you severely killed the engine - rod through block sort of killed it - you'll still have the throttle bodies, sump, bellhousing etc etc..
In short you would be replacing what you've knackered and not starting from scratch.
A good secondhand XE and a straightforward engine rebuild would put it all back together again, and a pro engine build is normally in the region of £1k plus parts (certainly mine was this winter.. )

The XE is a very tunable engine, 300+ is often seen from out and out race versions of this engine. In a F.V.L. the stock engine on 45's will nudge 180 ish, so to be quite honest that spec sounds like an engine built for relaibility rather than out and out power in any case.
I would estimate that if you put a SBD head and throttle bodies on an otherwise stock engine it would be comfortably over 200.

Either way round that certainly reads as a very interesting piece of kit for the money, reads as cheap power to me - though can't comment on the car itself as no experience of the Mk Indy

[Edited on 11/3/08 by JimSpencer]


Mr Whippy - 11/3/08 at 12:17 PM

have you driven a similar car to that before, are you sure you'd be happy with that level of performance?


02GF74 - 11/3/08 at 12:22 PM

it should be pretty reliable just how long will the engine last? which depends a lot on how you dive it.

it is only going to be expensive if you want to rebuild to same spec; you can get bog standard vauxhall for £ 200 ish.


PAUL FISHER - 11/3/08 at 12:24 PM

It looks a great car,if you wanted to build one to that spec,it would cost you a small fortune,and with 245bhp would be a very quick Indy,but any tuned engine can be unreliable,and if the worst should happen and it goes pop in a big way,you have said you would not have the funds to repair it,you don't want that feeling every time you give it some stick that is it going to go bang.I don't want to get into a BEC V CEC debate,but a well sorted zx12 would be a lot more fun shall we say ,and if that goes bang,its a £1000 at worst to put another engine in


carpy - 11/3/08 at 12:28 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Mr Whippy
have you driven a similar car to that before, are you sure you'd be happy with that level of performance?


I've driven a 160bhp Caterham and it was totally gutless. I want it to be a lot faster than this but trying to weigh up either going for a 160bhp ish BEC or a 200+ bhp CEC.

My everyday car is pretty fast (300bhp - 165mph) so I really want something that is miles above this is terms of performance. I'm just a bit worried about buying something, finding it really fast for a week or so and then wishing I'd got something with a bit more power.


nib1980 - 11/3/08 at 12:32 PM

quote:
Originally posted by carpy
quote:
Originally posted by Mr Whippy
have you driven a similar car to that before, are you sure you'd be happy with that level of performance?


I've driven a 160bhp Caterham and it was totally gutless. I want it to be a lot faster than this but trying to weigh up either going for a 160bhp ish BEC or a 200+ bhp CEC.

My everyday car is pretty fast (300bhp - 165mph) so I really want something that is miles above this is terms of performance. I'm just a bit worried about buying something, finding it really fast for a week or so and then wishing I'd got something with a bit more power.



remember these cars are built for corners not drag races.

I have a little 1.3xflow, and I can take the mick out of most cars in the bends, and upto about 80mph. (which is above the legal speed limit!!)









.


Richard Quinn - 11/3/08 at 12:41 PM

As was said above, even if it lets go in a relatively big way you are not going to be replacing all of the parts. Although I'm building a BEC, car engines will always be close to my heart as that was what I was brought up on. If a bike engine lets go then, generally, the most useful tools to have are a dustpan and brush!!


Paul M - 11/3/08 at 01:34 PM

If it does let go you won't need to replace much, most expensive parts on this engine are the throttle body/management kit ( unlikely to need replacing) work done to the cylinder head, camshaft (maybe). You will be able to rebuild it fairly cheaply, remember SBD parts are absolutlety 1st rate and top qulaity. unless you druve it at 8500RPM, constantly and never change the oil your not going to have any problems. You'll probably do 3000 miles PA max and 1 or 2 trackdays. In a 5-600 KG car this is nothing to that kind of engine.
I would buy this if i was in the market.


carpy - 11/3/08 at 02:02 PM

quote:
Originally posted by nib1980

remember these cars are built for corners not drag races.

I have a little 1.3xflow, and I can take the mick out of most cars in the bends, and upto about 80mph. (which is above the legal speed limit!!)


Yes sorry I wasn't having a dig at the Caterham just trying to give some background information! The car I took out was a 05 plate and it was awesome in the corners!! If I had the money I'd go for a R400 Caterham or similar but funds just don't allow!










.


carpy - 11/3/08 at 02:04 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Paul M
If it does let go you won't need to replace much, most expensive parts on this engine are the throttle body/management kit ( unlikely to need replacing) work done to the cylinder head, camshaft (maybe). You will be able to rebuild it fairly cheaply, remember SBD parts are absolutlety 1st rate and top qulaity. unless you druve it at 8500RPM, constantly and never change the oil your not going to have any problems. You'll probably do 3000 miles PA max and 1 or 2 trackdays. In a 5-600 KG car this is nothing to that kind of engine.
I would buy this if i was in the market.


Excellent thanks for all the replies. So it looks like this car should be a pretty good bet as it's built with top notch components. Is there anywhere I can look at prices for engine rebuilds that you know of?


fesycresy - 11/3/08 at 02:15 PM

Try and u2u NSDEV on the forum.

A bit of a guru on the subject