Newbie post, so be gentle with me!

I'm about to embark on a build with a view to entering the Locost race series next year (at least I hope it will be complete by then!).

I've been following the posts on here & on Yahoo newsgroup, but no-one seems to talk much about sourcing their engines. Where do you guys tend to get them? Direct from a scrappy or locost supplier on the internet and then strip & rebuild yourselves?

Or do you get them from a race engine builder - I'm on a tight budget here, so probably cannot afford this option even if it is permitted.

Anyone who does the rebuild themselves, can you recommend any decent books?

Cheers,
Rob.

Hi Rob

There are a mixture of engines, some have been purchased ready built, others have built their own. You should find that building your own is cheaper, + its always good to know how it all works so you can repair it if something goes wrong. I've found the book Rebuilding and tuning kents crossflow engine by Wallage & Wallage quite useful, it covers some tuning beyond what is allowed in locost but gives you a good idea of what you can do and how to make sure everything is as accurate as possible. It doesn't really cover step by step how to rebuild the engine, for this you could try and get hold of a mk 2 or similar escort Haynes manual (I got mine from ebay!), that has a section on dismantling and reassembling the engine. I don't know of any other books specific to crossflows unless anyone can advise?

You should know from elsewhere that you will need to get a stamped cam from Kents, other than that the engine can remain standard. So if you wanted you could find a reasonable engine and just change the cam, as a way of keeping costs down for the first year.

Gavin

Also

There are some cars around for sale ready built at the moment, also one on ebay. Buying ready built would usually be cheaper than building your own!!

Having just re-built my engine this weekend after having the cam stamped, I agree with Gavin. I use the Wallage and Wallage book along with a Mk 2 Escort Haynes manual!!! Wallage is easy to get hold of, Haynes is less so. Got mine out of CCC but that's gone now. Try Fast Ford

Dickie

http://www.TeamDickie.co.uk

[Edited on 11/1/04 by DickieB]

Has CCC really gone?

Bought a copy of a new magazine the other day called "cars"

It looks remarkably similar to CCC!

Looks pretty good, like CCC used to be ie. not a load of pants road cars, some proper track cars.

Anyway i'm pretty sure I saw somebody advertising escort "haynes"

Thanks for that info guys, I had been looking at the Wallage & Wallage book; it seems fairly detailed, so I guess I'd better go out & buy one.

I saw adverts at the Mallory race with 2003 raced Locost's up for sale, and costing less than I think it will cost me to build one; however, part of the fun (agony?) is in putting it together, and at least I will know how it all goes back together when it breaks/I crash it.

Thx for the advice.