Hi Everyone

I was lucky enough to get a written off Blade and have now stripped it and got all the usefull parts for a Locost BEC. In SA bike engines are scarse and expensive, so want to research properly before blowing her up at the first Trax day. Have anyone used one of these in a BEC? I am specifically worried about oil surge (will a custom sump work?), the clutch slave cylinder close to the prop adapeter (think I can work around that) and the water pump also being close to the prop adapter (might have to fit a leccy pumps). Any advice on this specific engine in a BEC much appreciated.

Sorry for the long post

Hi Andre,

I have just finished my MK Indy with a 2007 Blade engine. It is not the easiest of engines to choose for this build, but with a little enginuity it will work just fine. First of all you will need another sump. The standard one is very narrow and deep, and will not work in the car. I used a custom billet sump from AB Engineering, with a rotating pickup. I know they have been quite succesful in racing that setup, so I am sure it will do for your car too. Its is not cheap, at around 500£, but worth it.
It is very tight around the propshaft, both the hose and the clutch slave as well. If you get a fairly short propshaft adapter, I got mine from MK, you will have around 3 mm clearance to the waterhose. It looks very tight, but none of the parts are moving towards each other, so space should be fine. For the clutch slave cylinder I used a homemade spacer, and modified the housing to allow the propshaft to pass. Can't remember excactly how much I spaced it out, but between 5 and 7 cm I think.
A problem you hve not adressed, and maybe not realized, is the height of the engine with the secondary injectors in the airbox. You cannot move these injectors without sacrificing power, and they sit quite high. After many months of trying to come up with ways to tilt the inlets, or make curved intake ports etc. I finally decided to keep the original airbox in a modified state. It took quite a bit of modifying. I cut the base of the airbox out, where it connects to the inlet ports, and turned it around 180 deg. I then used fibreglass to glue it back in. That effectively means that the airbox is now turned the other way. That gave me around 5cm reduction in height. I then modified my bonnet, and made a small bulge just covering the rail at the top of the engine. Alot of work for just a few cm, but worth it.
I whish you all the best with the engine, and let us know how you get on. I would like to post some pics, but had a major laptop meltdown, and trying to recover the pics from my hd.

Howdi

Awesome, thank you very much for the reply, exactly what I wanted to hear. Had a look at your archive photos. Good looking spacer you made for the clutch slave. Does it stand proud of the engine cover?

Thanx also for the info on the sump and prop adapter

I have a plan for the secondary set of injectors. The airbox on the engine is crushed as it is, so the thinking is to try and make a new airbox with the same volume as the original one. It will have to accomodate the injectors then. As an alternative I was thinking of trumpets curved through 90 degrees but with the sec injectors spraying in through holes in them. Will still see what I end up with.

Some more pics would be great if you can recover that hdd. If I was in the UK I could have helped.

Are you running the original electronics etc? Power Commander? I want to try and use the original electronics. The instruments on the bike I got was broken, but I have stripped and cleaned them and apart from the broken LCD, they look fine. Will be looking for a replacement, since I kind of like the look, almost like a Stack dash

Will keep you updated with progress.

Hey again,

Was just going to mention the pics in my archive:-)
I have used the bike loom, and combined it with the stalks from the sierra. In hinesight I would probably go for a sollution with two seperate electrical systems. One for the engine, and one for lights. There was a lot of extending and cutting required to make it work. I bit of a mess really..
I have used the original dash as well, which looks awesome.
Problem with making a new airbox is that it is not going to solve any problems, since the injector rail will sit at excactly the same place, in order not to mess with the correct flow. As you mention, you could make some angled ports, but you dont know how its going to affect the flow. Of course if you are willing to accept pwr loss of 5-10p it might work. Another sollution is to tilt the tb's maybe 15 degrees, by making angled adapters. I know AB Engineering have looked into that as well.
My engine uses a pwr-commander, and speedohealer to make it all work.

Thanx again for the info.

Yeah I'll be making seperate looms. I have made integrated looms with management systems for around 25 Locosts here in SA, so wiring is not a problem

I'll have to try and find a new dash for the car, since the casing on the bike's dash is stuffed, and although the electronics look ok, it doesn't seem to power up. Spun the motor on it's starter this weekend, just to check that everything is still fine

mmm, I'll work on the airbox problem, but I am sure something can be done. Losing 5 to 10 hp is not acceptable

How much power is yours making?

If you get pics, please send to me, especially of the sump also: andredp(at)ananzi(dot)co(dot)za

[Edited on 14/4/09 by Andredp]

Howdi

Any pics yet?

Just spotted this thread
we run a load of 07 blade powered cars in the RGB race series.
So far we have had no real problems at all - the list below summarises the additional parts we fit to deal with the various issues -
Billet sump kit inc baffle plate and pick up
CNC billet clutch stand off and replacement ground steel bar
CNC machined stainless exhaust headers which conert the oval exhaust port to round to make fitting pipes easier
Hard steel prop adaptor with wasted skirt
Power commander to remap
Billet swirl pot indexed for standard blade fuel pump - as there is no regulated return rail and getting the original pump to seal is a nightmare
Foced induction airbox - as low as we could make it
We keep all this kit in stock and have supplied everyone from road cars to race including sprint and hill climb cars
If we can be of more assistance give us a call on 01449 736633 or email sales @abperformance.co.uk
Nice choice of motor by the way - our best standard install has just come off dyno at 149BHP at the wheels
regards
Andy

Hi Andy

Thanx for the info. Had a look at your site when I got the engine. Will definitely get the sump kit from you. Was going to get the prop adapter from MK, but if you have one that guaranteed to clear the water pipe then I'll most likely get it from you also. Rest of the issues I should be able to sort out here in SA. Shipping stuff from the UK is expensive, not to mention the Rand/Pound exchange rate, kills us her in SA.

I'll mail u for prices, just waiting for all the paperwork on the engine.

149bhp at the wheels sounds good