would there be much work to be done to change a pinto engined car into a blade/R1 engined car? Is the chassis the same on mk's becs as the cec's? or are they more rigid? Anything else i should know.....

Chassis is the same,engine cradle will be needed.

Pinto to bike engine would be a world of difference,i'd go for a better car engine myself

What size pinto have you currently got? If it's not overly powerful, changing to a bec may be too much of a change. As said, maybe better looking at a 2.0l zetec or similar first.

i havnt got one yet, but am considering the orange one in the forsale section. Really i want a bec for the noise/gearbox and weight. It will be mainly for track days and nice weather fun eves/wkends. The car at mo has a 2ltr pinto, so quite a heavy engine and old technology! it would be good to go out in some zetecs to seee how they compare.

diy si- what do you mean by too much of a change?

Sorry, I assumed you meant you already had one and were thinking of upgrading. Ie going from a (poss)1.6 pinto with 80 odd bh to a light weight bec with 150+bhp is quite a leap to take.

we went from a pinto to a 929 fireblade in a mk chassis had to weld some lugs to the chassis to pick up an engine cradle and welded some engine mounts to bottom rail.
easy enough to do. can be quite costly when you consider what has to done
engine
loom
dash/ clocks
prop
prop adapter
diff ratio ?
gear linkage
bodywork mods
rolling road
speedo healer
cost us about £1500 all in all

and exhaust

its not too hard at all. I swapped my old 1640cc crossflow for a zx9 engine, took about a month all in. Phenominal difference! Id say it cost about £300 for the engine, £50 for the sprocket adapter, £200 for the prop and maybe £300 for the exhaust. I didnt bother with a cradle, just welded in a bar at one side and two spars sat over it all to support the other side. Eveything else just got cable tied in!

mine needed no bodywork mods besides a bigger hole for the exhaust, ive not bothered with a speedo, and it didnt need the diff changing. Clocks were around 30-50, and i still need a rolling road doing.

Deffo worth it though!

[Edited on 10/6/06 by JoelP]

cool, so if it can all be done with say an 893 blade engine for under 2k it could be quite a good deal then!

Ive just sold my tvr cerbera to buy a new house, and going from that to a cec with less than 180ish bhp isnt really going to impress me!lol!

Surely it would be better to buy a BEC in the first place if that is what you want?

yeah it would, but am just weighing up my options, i only have around 5k to spend atm due to moving house costs. Ultimately id like a bec, but wont get one for that price. Ive spotted speedthing's car in the fs section, and thought i could finnish it, and have it how it is for the summer, then over the winter convert it to bec of some sort......that way most of the work is done for me too, lazy i know!lol! Im a mechanical engineer so would love to build my own, but with this lovely weather were having i dont think i could wait!hah hah!

mmmm......im liking the sound of this!