Now then,

You may remember my better half binned her MGF last month and so far we have the engine up on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=130280301336

But Im thinking that perhaps we might be better off keeping it and me chucking it in the 7?

I know its gonna mean pretty much building the car all over again only to ultimately lose the lightness and acceleration that makes it so good on the roads up here but I have always fancied the european tour idea which I would enjoy much more in a longer legged car.

So before I think much more about this tell me your experiences of 120bhp CECs with type 9 boxes.

From what I remember of type 9s they were nice and positive to shift but you could often beat the syncros with anything but pretty slow changes. Having said that it was in my Dad's old granada with a quarter of a million miles on too which may have coloured my opinion a bit!

Also what do you have to do to tweak a k-series up to high 100s BHP? Ive heard its expensive but anyone with first hand experience, what does it cost and what do you do?

Apologies if its been done to death but Im not hoping to start another BEC v CEC thing honestly!

Cheers

GEoff

u2u stevec, he converted a kawasaki bec to a k-series turbo, had to have an adapter plate made for the engine to type 9 box, but it didn't take him long at all

Geoff - I was (sort of) thinking about your engine as an upgrade to my 1.4 K series. All I can say is that without having done anything serious about weight reduction for the car, the standard 1.4 K series is totally adequate (103bhp) running on standard inlet manifold, ECU, etc. so I haven't tweaked it. My car was 550kg at SVA and I find it fine... though you could always use a little more power.

Plenty of Caterhams have K series engines, and my thought was that to drop in a 1.6 or 1.8 would add no weight because they all use the same block.

Type 9 box is fine - not like a bike box, but then it isn't one!Hereis stuff from Dave Andrews, K series tuning guru.

GeoffT on here changed from Xflow (I think) to K series - he can probably tell you some things. He is using Megasquirt

Like Alex said Geoff, I did a bike to a Kseries Turbo. It goes very well. I know people slag these engines off but they are very light and providing it is sound in the first place they will last ages in a kit car as we don't tend to do the mileage.
There are some pics in my archive.
Steve.

Thanks very much for the replies.

Steve - what are your thoughts then having gone from the bike to a K Series?

What were your reasons btw?

So individual TBs, cams and ECU or forced induction then for big HP?

Sound expensive!

Geoff

Geoff, why move away from the turbo setup? After all the effort and cash you've put into it why not build another car with the K series? Theres a few unfinished kits around atm

The K-series will be a disappointment over the CBR Turbo I reckon.

Steve

The type-9 box is a good one - but it doesn't like quick changes - you can break baulk (sp?) rings.

Geoff, where is the "shakes head in disbelief" similey?



Mike

Nooooooooooooo don't do it !!!!!!!!!!!

If your turbo setup's not been a total success why go cec couldn't you change it back to N/A bec!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO - crazy fool!

I haven't even seen the bec yet

Where were yo over christmas?

I think the biggest thing you will immediately notice is the weight increase going from a BEC to CEC! Having said that there are many 7s out there with 100BHP or less and they're still great drivers cars.

A lot of the issues related to the K series were down to poor head gasget design, plastic alignment dowels and a badly designed cooling system. All issues fixed quite easily in the production cars.

Yes type 9s can be caught out with quick gear changes but high mileage and poor maintenance will exagerate this.

Having had the pleasure of following SteveC out of the lights in Balsall Common I can confirm that his CEC moves all as quick as a BEC (and sounds luverley too)

Cheers, Neil.

if you have a turbo BEC, couldnt you just change the diff ratios for your trip, surely you must have more BHP and ftlbs out of a turbo bike engine to enable sensible revs at cruising.

Personally i couldnt think of anything worse than taking a kit car accross europe, thats what tin tops were made for

Fair to say some differing opinions then - I guess my biggest reservation is the Type 9 Box and the cash needed to get the performance back to turbo BEC territory.

Cheers everyone for that - Hmm still not sure what to do!

I think my winter project is to 'squirt it and sort the clutch and if the K Series is still with us in the Spring have another think!

Mike - ISTR someone talking about MX5 engines and boxes not so long ago, its catching!

Big Dog - Yeah man, Xmas was another one spent mostly in the car - shame to have missed you - would have been cool to catch you and check out what you've been spending your hard earned on! Sound like a massive project - hows it coming on?

THanks again for all your input gents - much appreciated.

Geoff

Geoff - if the downside of the BEC is high revs when cruising, then have you considered adding an overdrive? Yes they will add some weight, but they'll drop the revs by 25%.

Puk

nowt wrong with k series, just not mega power with no work, but it is light.

Yep, std type 9 in scrapyard condition does tend to ponderous synchro, mine seriously eats into the 0-60 and 0-100 times, but I'm waiting till it goes bang and it hasn't yet with 200hp for 1500 miles with sticky tyres(and 75,000 miles in the donor car! )

Re-lapping the synchro rings helps a lot but I can't be bothered to strip this box down, will prep one of my pile of spares at some point!

[Edited on 14/1/09 by NS Dev]