stressy
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| posted on 13/9/04 at 06:22 AM |
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K in Bay
For anyone still contemplating............
Image deleted by owner
The conversion was worth every penny, tranformed the car!!!
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mackie
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| posted on 13/9/04 at 07:13 AM |
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Smart! Well done 
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Surrey Dave
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| posted on 13/9/04 at 08:51 AM |
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Looks Good
Looks good, is that a Caterham nose, 'cos when I measured my locost the height was tight ,although I did not allow for the angle of the
engine.
Can you post a list of the parts you used for this installation, g/box /bellhousing,/clutch stuff.
Have you been able to used the standard injection?
What size is the engine ,what was the approxiamate cost?
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stephen_gusterson
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| posted on 13/9/04 at 08:59 AM |
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there it is. Had to happen. Someone on the forum has at last used a K series.
Are there any others with an enigne IN the car?
atb
steve
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mackie
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| posted on 13/9/04 at 09:43 AM |
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Looks like the stock injection system to me.
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scoobyis2cool
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| posted on 13/9/04 at 11:39 AM |
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Looks really nice, it's one of the engines I'm considering to replace my pinto. I assume it's the 1.8? What power is that producing?
is it the VVC or whatever it's called? I get confused by k-series engines!
Cheers
Pete
[Edited on 13/9/04 by scoobyis2cool]
It's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care...
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Rob Lane
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| posted on 13/9/04 at 11:44 AM |
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Not to denigrate anyones choice of engine but the K series is not the most reliable of engines.
Too prone to head gasket problems and once gone virtually impossible to rectify correctly.
Ask Dean C his opinion of them
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MikeR
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| posted on 13/9/04 at 11:54 AM |
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I've been watching the sevens list for quite a while. I seem to recall a view that if the head gasket goes on a performance engine (180bhp) then
you take the engine to bits and re-seat the liners and all is well. On a standard engine as long as the coolent is changed (with the proper rover
stuff) and you have no over heating problems you'll be fine.
Of course getting a second hand engine thats not boiled and has had the coolent changed every 2 (or is it 4) years with Rovers special coolent .......
good luck
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stressy
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| posted on 13/9/04 at 12:00 PM |
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The engine is a 1600cc, this is because i feel the 16 revs nicer than the 18 (especially for my planned tuning) and they are easier to come by. The
engine currently puts out around 120 bhp and that blows my old dellorto fed 2L pinto into the weeds in all aspects, i.e. weight reduction, handling,
braking, acceleration, drivability, economy......
Dave, my nosecone is approximately 1 inch taller than a cats. I have also used a bulge in the bonnet to allow the engine to (when i fit the shallow
sump......) be within a few mm's of flush with the bottom of the chassis. when ive done this i will be making a pattern for a kevlar skid plate
to go on it which i know a few caterham guys are interested in.
You will need a shallow (caterham) sump in order to get a k under a low bonnet, especially if your going with the standard injection equipment.
I have kept the standard injection manifold and just used a set of blanking plugs and a green filter. I am currently running the standard MEMS ECU,
rover MFRU, and lucas 5AS vehicle control unit (immobiliser and blippers).
I will try and out you a list together as to what i used for the entire install tonight, if you want to u2u me a number i will happily give you a call
for a chat.
Cheers
Chris
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stressy
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| posted on 13/9/04 at 12:06 PM |
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reliability, i was waiting for that......
Having had a few rovers in the family and knowing many people with them i have had more problems with ford and vauxall engines.
I agree with the comment about second hand engines and hence mine was full service history by rover and 19k miles old when i got it. if the head
gasket does go its a good excuse to port the head sooner than planned as far as i am concerned. I know people running 175bhp on original bottom ends
with no problems at all.
The biggest issue is not airloking the cooling system when filling ( my design of coolant rail deals with this as best as i can).
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Surrey Dave
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| posted on 13/9/04 at 12:51 PM |
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When I spoke to the guy at Redline ( Caterham Parts) he said that there where very few head gasket probs when this engine was in a Caterham, I believe
there are mods you can do to the cooling system/thermostat, but I dont know what they are!
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MikeRJ
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| posted on 13/9/04 at 02:04 PM |
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The K series is perfectly reliable when the original problems are sorted out. The original engines used nylon downles to locate the head to the block
which were not rigid enough. Steel dowels are now used whenever a headgasket is changed.
Another problem was the length of the (very long) bolts that clamp the various layers of the engine together. Some of the bolts were slightly too
long and bottomed out beofre reaching full clamping force. Only a couple of bolt locations were affected by this, can;t remeber which ones of the top
of my head.
Main problem with the 1.8 is the poor rod ratio which produces a lot of side thrust on the liners, the 1.6 is definately better in this regard.
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stephen_gusterson
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| posted on 13/9/04 at 03:10 PM |
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but then how many nice sunny day type motoring miles would a caterham do compared with an all weather, all purpose 10 year old 416 rover?
atb
steve
quote:
Originally posted by Surrey Dave
When I spoke to the guy at Redline ( Caterham Parts) he said that there where very few head gasket probs when this engine was in a Caterham, I believe
there are mods you can do to the cooling system/thermostat, but I dont know what they are!
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Surrey Dave
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| posted on 13/9/04 at 04:22 PM |
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Yeah But!
Yeah But, dont they race the K series Caterhams, they couldnt do that if they where going pop every 2 mins,.
Ive never seen any reports saying DONT buy a K series Caterham 'cos......................
I dont know why i'm defending it 'cos I dont care either way.
[Edited on 13/9/04 by Surrey Dave]
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stressy
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| posted on 13/9/04 at 06:54 PM |
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Im going to avoid the k reliability topic here as it will run and run,
Back to your request Dave.
I knew i wanted a k having tested many of the common 16v engines in sevens but still did alot of research.
There are a suprising number of companies who supply conversion parts for rear wheel drive, caterham, QED, Fisher, BPJ, Frontline spridget,
Titan.....
I wanted to use a type 9 I4 gearbox and keep the short input shaft, i also wanted to have a low exit clutch relaese arm to allow me to set the engine
high and back in the transmission tunnel.
I ended up with an ally bellhousing, a ford cluch release arm, plate,cover, release bearing and starter. ( i can get you the part numbers) all brand
new from fisher at about £450, as this met all my requirements from 1 supplier and Mark at fisher was excellent.
It looks as though the bellhousing i have is the same as the ksports casting.
When buying an engine you need to pay attention to get the right crank to allow fitment of the standard ford sierra spigot bearing otherwise some
machining is required. you also need the smaller flywheel.
You must get the ecu, flywheel, immobilser, loom and blippers from the same car if you intend to use the standard injection, a lot of people also get
the standard rover exhaust and modify it but i currently have a modified caterham stainless steel manifold (you need the lamda probe).
For a 1600 expect to pay around £750 for factory milage down to £200 for a 70k miler. I went for the newest of the EU2 engines (older type) i could
find, simply to give me more confidence in the wiring and to better allow for upgrade options later.
Wiring and plumbing is actually quite staight forward, i made up some solid pipes with bleed screws for the cooling system and have a swirl pot for
fuelling, i use a facet pump at the rear to pump to the pot and a sytec pump, running off the ecu, in the engine bay to supply the fuel rail.
The biggest problem with the k is the shape, although its actually quite small in volume and weight terms its wide at the base and quite tall. The
width was not too much of a problem in my chassis but i dont know what yours is like so it would be hard to comment. Ive already mentioned the sump i
think.
What i can say for sure is that im very happy with the results of even the standard engine compared to my old warm pinto and the weight difference is
very noticable. Next up is new gearbox with better ratios and resorting the handling as its now feeling a bit too stiff.
And the bank managers happier about the fuel bills!!!
If you want any more info you know where i am.
Cheers
Chris
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