Hi all, I have purchased a Locost with a xflow engine and a live axle and really want to put a blade engine in it, just spoken to abperformance in Norfolk and he rekons 3k should cover most things including a paddle gear change, billet sump etc does this sound expensive? he made it sound quite easy to do the conversion, anybody else got any experience of doing this? Also my rear diff at present is 3.9 he said I would need a different one maybe 3.63 where would I find one of these? He also said it is critcal to get the engine lined up perfectly to avoide any vibration is this really possible to do when fabricating your own mounts? I look forward to your replies, sorry if my questions seem a bit lame but I just want to make sure I am doing the right thing and i'm not going to be left with a pile of bits and and unusable car in my garage!

hi

The BEC Owners club have just moved into a small Unit due to work demands

we shall be offering a deal next month £2500 gets you a Fuel Injected R1(03-04) or Zx10r(05) both the next step up from the blade.. basically a real fast car

Paddle Shift
TRT prop
Full exhaust system


basically ready for you to drive away in all fitted etc

if interested give me a call on 07914888894

thanks chris

When you first read it £3k sounds a bit high, but in all honesty, when you've taken absolutely everything into account, sounds about right.

You could do it a considerable amount cheaper by doing all the work yourself, buying an engine off ebay, fabricating your own paddle and so on. The ability to do things yourself will be the main factor in budgeting...

I would be happy to make measurements of any parts of my car, engine, cradle and alignment for you if you wish (just drop me a U2U). Oh and yes I do have a Blade engined car!

I bought a chassis where the engine mounts were already in for the cradle and therefore the engine to Prop alignment, but I would say that what Andy will of said about alignment will be spot on, but at the same time I wouldn't worry about it yourelf as by the time you get to that point I am sure it will be very easy to achieve, like I said, happy to help out in any way that I can...

ETA - sorry I forgot you said live axle, scrap my sierra diff comment!

And NO your questions are not lame - all questions presented to this forum have been asked by a number of people before, so don't worry about how silly anything sounds when asking!

Regards,
Steve

[Edited on 7/11/07 by worX]

as title

winter is the perfect time to do it.

£3k seems alot, but it depends what blade engine your using.

I'm on track to get my whole converstion done for £1k, but I am not in a rush and not after every last BHP (it will be flippin fast enough!!) and defo not sumping it.

I will be reading the replies around alignment with interest. I am in the process of buying a MIG so I can sort these myself, but I was wondering how on earth do you line it up?? its not like I can get a mate to hold it in place whilst I mess!

You can buy a replacement diff that you can fit into your axle. I'm going to be buying on come payday. £90 for a 3.54 plus postage. Not sure how many he has, and I have dibs on that one!

You wont end up in a mess, there are some very knowledgable types on here, who have done what you are doing. Just ask nicley and they will point you in the right direction.

See above- already the helpful people are queing up!!



[Edited on 7/11/07 by Dangle_kt]

quote:

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Originally posted by zxrlocost

we shall be offering a deal next month £2500 gets you a Fuel Injected R1(03-04) or Zx10r(05) both the next step up from the blade.. basically a real fast car

Paddle Shift
TRT prop
Full exhaust system


basically ready for you to drive away in all fitted etc

---

I'd definitely take Chris up on his offer, that would be a good price for a drive in drive out fitting!

You would save all the hassle of finding the correct ratio diff and of welding the chassis mounts, making your own cradle and getting the alinment right. fitting the exhaust cutting the body and so on. And along with a dry sump kit, same as abperformance you are probably going to get a good deal there...

M

quote:

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Originally posted by fesycresy

quote:

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Originally posted by zxrlocost

we shall be offering a deal next month £2500 gets you a Fuel Injected R1(03-04) or Zx10r(05) both the next step up from the blade.. basically a real fast car

Paddle Shift
TRT prop
Full exhaust system


basically ready for you to drive away in all fitted etc

---

I'd take Chris up on this offer for a ZX10 motor.

If that includes everything including wiring, clocks, mounts etc, that seems a real good deal.

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PS yes thats all wired up ready to go with clocks etc

ie you can drive the car away

you get a baffle in the sump.

ta chris

Blade all the way

thats a very good price indeed! but i wouldnt say they are a much bigger step up on the blade...well the 954 anyway.

my conversion probably cost me 3-4k.

Saw the note on prop alignment and thought I would share our findings.
Basically we found to our cost! that whilst you can feed one angle into the centre bearing ( up/down or left/right) we found that if you have both angles at high RPM you create a very bad vibration as the bearing tries to self centre in its rubber mount. When I say bad vibration, my race drivers quote at Donnington was - "the vibration is so bad approaching redgate I have to lift 50 yards early just so I can see the corner!" Once aligned correctly the vibration ceased.
As for ways to align it - we use a smart camber guage and take a reading before and after the bearing to get a steady rise or fall across the props length and adjust where necessary by shimming the bearing mount or in extreme cases shimming the engine mounts.
This is made much easier at build stage by using a dummy engine fo lightness - I do have a number of blank cases with just an output shaft fitted so if anyone is in the process of building a BEC let me know - you are more than welcome to borrow them - I think at present we have blanks for early blade, busa, zx12 and CBR1000rr
Regards
Andy

I have a LOCOBLADE that was converted by Stuart Taylor Motorsport - Having just got it I have stripped a lot off to do some mods (full cage) so if you want any measurements ask now!

Brian

Dear Andy,

I appreciate the importance of alignment, and the wisdom of all your experience.

One thing I don't understand in your comments on alignment is that you say it is fine for it not to be aligned left/right OR up/down but not both.

But, this implies (to me at least) that the bearing is aware of which way is up and which way is down. I would have thought that the gravitational forces in the system are not relevant. Further the bearing is radially symmetric so I don't understand.

I am not questioning the observation of this effect (i.e. big vibration under some situations of poor alignment), but I am a little confused by the analysis. Also I have a prop-centre bearing to mount at the weekend so its near the front of my mind!

Thanks,

Matt

Matt
I probably didnt explain myself very well give me a call on 01449 736633 and I will try and explain it better but trust me it does matter
regards
Andy

Which blade? One with similar mounts to a 893?

I'd be interested if so. I can get a courier to collect.

Won't need it very soon (as i need to learn to weld first!! LOL! ) but thats a very kind offer.

Cheers

quote:

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Originally posted by Andy B
Saw the note on prop alignment and thought I would share our findings.
Basically we found to our cost! that whilst you can feed one angle into the centre bearing ( up/down or left/right) we found that if you have both angles at high RPM you create a very bad vibration as the bearing tries to self centre in its rubber mount. When I say bad vibration, my race drivers quote at Donnington was - "the vibration is so bad approaching redgate I have to lift 50 yards early just so I can see the corner!" Once aligned correctly the vibration ceased.
As for ways to align it - we use a smart camber guage and take a reading before and after the bearing to get a steady rise or fall across the props length and adjust where necessary by shimming the bearing mount or in extreme cases shimming the engine mounts.
This is made much easier at build stage by using a dummy engine fo lightness - I do have a number of blank cases with just an output shaft fitted so if anyone is in the process of building a BEC let me know - you are more than welcome to borrow them - I think at present we have blanks for early blade, busa, zx12 and CBR1000rr
Regards
Andy

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Thanks Andy,

I will read more carefully. I have only good things about you, and so I do trust you on this, which is the main reason I want to get to the bottom of it!

Probably try fitting it together and I am sure your instructions will all become obvious.

Thanks for the offer,

Matt

I have to agree with WorX and say that it really isn't expensive when you add up ALL the parts required, not to mention the time it takes to put it all in.

I reckon converting my blade to an injected R1 a couple of years ago myself cost me over 2 grand in parts alone if I don't take into account the money I recouped flogging all the blade parts (engine, loom, exhaust, engine cradle etc).

In addition to the engine, to do a CEC to BEC conversion to a drive-away state you need all sorts of bits like air filter/box, propshaft, gear lever/linkage, hoses for the cooling system, engine cradle, exhaust manifold/silencer, fuel pump, fuel line (return feed if injected), plus all the electrical stuff and clocks / guages etc. Then there's the possibility of needing a new/modified fuel tank and radiator if the current ones aren't suitable.

When you have to buy all that lot and more, it all adds up quite quickly.