I was just wanting to count my chickens a little i.e. work out the power-to-weight ration of a car I haven't even begun to build yet and was wondering, on average, how much and MK Indy weighed all up? I will be using a 16v Citroen lump but anything'll do just to give me an idea. Can anyone help?

hi
My mk indy weighed in at sva test at 580kgs (Vauxhall xe engine, full tank petrol and me 83kgs).
I tried to be very weight consious when building.

Hi,
Have you found a suitable RWD gearbox for the citreon lump yet?

Just out of interest.

Ian

Sorry for the extreme tardiness in replying! I have a Ford type 9 box, I've just gotta find a bellhousing. I keep looking at breakers ads to see if theyr'e scrapping an LDV pilot diesel as I was told this'll do the job but none have turned up yet. I'll maybe have to get onto Sherpa Spares and get a new one. I really must do this soon to ensure I'm not chasing a pipedream and that I will be able to mate one to the other. If the Sherpa solution doesn't work I'll have to get back in touch with th echap I rang at a company called A Frame Engineering who seemed to be OK with the idea of producing a one off for it, obviously more expensive though!

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I'd be very interested to find out how you get on with your Citroen plans. I originally wanted to use a Pug Mi16 engine, but found the same gearbox issues.

Also I think the exhaust manifold & steering rack may clash as the Pug engine is canted over toward the drivers side - is this the same for the Citroen engine installation?

keep us posted on how you get on with it - it's a cracking engine if you can do it!

Cheers

Nick

ive done a few engine transplants and usually a 1/4 steel plate with lots of holes cut/drilled does the job as adapter

There is a shroud of mystery hanging over adaptor plates, but I don't know why. There are several methods of making extremely accurate plates (and they need to be).
Some need only be 1/4" thick as the kid says, others need to be thicker/aluminium.
Sometimes you can get away with just replacing the spigot bearing in the end of the crank, and other times you'll need to make up a new input shaft for the 'box. Either way, it's not difficult.
It might take all of 3 hours to do (not including a new input shaft).

Oohhhh, he makes it sound sooo easy doesn't he!I'm not averse to the adapter plate idea, it's just that if I can get away with a bellhousing which will (fairly) easily bolt on then I'm gonna do that
R.E. the exhaust manifold yes, the engine is angled in the Citroen as well but I have a sneaky plan to combat this. Due to the exhaust ports all being in a straight horizontal line I intend to cut the flange off the manifold and weld it back on 180 degrees round, which should give plenty of clearance for the steering rack and I hope will clear the top chassis rail. If this plan is a bust I'll have to look at a custom jobbie which will be lots more money so fingers crossed!