very tunable and well over 200bhp
I'm in process of figuring out whether to go BEC or CEC.
My problem is I can't seem to find anwhere that supply full engine, gearbox and ancillaries for a car engine for anywhere near the 3-4K I want to
spend.
I can get a bike engine up to around 180HP e.g. ZX10R for around 2 K which obviously includes box.
Anyone know any good engine suppliers tuner that can offer car engine to 200HP or so for this amount and allow enough for box etc.
I want to use car for road trips, often 2 up, and some track days and call me mad but 150HP seems like too little.
Iv'e been 2 up in a fireblade BEC and whilst quickish I feel I want more!
Im used to 310HP and 340 ft/Ibs in my much heavier modded T5 but even this will run a mid 14 std qtr and if Im going to build the car I want quite a
bit quicker than this.
Any recommendations
I haven't got any idea really, but have you tried a turbo MX5? There must be one somewhere for that price, with a box. Does a Cosworth Zetec cost that much?
nissan 200sx
very tunable and well over 200bhp
Zetec is cheap and with throttle bodies and cams will go to 200, Duratec, more expensive but tunable 250 to 300 and as for a box, Cossie T5 will cope with the torque and the horsepower. With a bit of carefull buying you could save a grand or two and that would buy a lot of horsepower or other gizzits.
hi you could try a 200bhp Honda type r engine or s2000 lots of fun and lots of tuning stuff out there for them good for 450bhp if you have the pennys
good luck with the build paul
Kawasaki ZX14 makes 190 BHP in stock form. Add a straight through exhaust and you'll be close. A bit of work with a power commander and you should easily brake 200.
If you install any of the sports 1000 bike engines from 2000 onwards your going to get good power, this equates to a 13 dead on the quarter. Add a
passenger and you noitice the difference, go up to zx12, busa etc you are getting mid 12 sec on the quarter, do you want more? On the mk drag day last
year someone had a 200sx turbo giving 300 bhp and he was doing low 12's but had too much power to get down on the start.
It all depends what you want and the money you have. If i were to build another i would go for either high torque bike engine, or something like a
rx7 motor, high revs low relative weight. However, pound for pound bike engines will give you more grins.
Grahame
quote:
Originally posted by phil T5
I'm in process of figuring out whether to go BEC or CEC.
My problem is I can't seem to find anwhere that supply full engine, gearbox and ancillaries for a car engine for anywhere near the 3-4K I want to spend.
I can get a bike engine up to around 180HP e.g. ZX10R for around 2 K which obviously includes box.
Anyone know any good engine suppliers tuner that can offer car engine to 200HP or so for this amount and allow enough for box etc.
I want to use car for road trips, often 2 up, and some track days and call me mad but 150HP seems like too little.
Iv'e been 2 up in a fireblade BEC and whilst quickish I feel I want more!
Im used to 310HP and 340 ft/Ibs in my much heavier modded T5 but even this will run a mid 14 std qtr and if Im going to build the car I want quite a bit quicker than this.
Any recommendations
HI zetec engine 2.0L whith cams and bike carbs = 200 bhp easy. Used type9 strait cut box Ie quaif/tranex (will take 260 bhp). Either a proper ECU ie
webber/omex/dta/emerald or a home built mega watsit. Easily doable for under £3500 And puts it on a par with a tuned busa.
cheers matt
how about the audi 1.8t? standard from 180-225 bhp but with only a different mapping you can do 265bhp at 5500rpm and 340Nm at 1800-5500rpm
plenty engines available, rear-wheel drive fit and good power.
£3500 on an engine and box? I thought this was a locost car builders forum?!
If its only 200-250bhp you're looking for (which will give you about 300-380 bhp/tonne in a CEC, and willbe far quicker than a modded T5), then
there are many standard engine and box combo's to choose from without going down the expensive 'custom build' route.
eg:
Any of the relatively modern big V6's. Mostly 190-250bhp in standard NA form, can be bought for a few hundred quid with all the ancillaries,
wiring etc and lowish milage
A turbo 4-pot eg Mitsi evo, cosworth YB, 200sx etc. Easy to increase boost to get 250+ bhp, but engines are in higher demand so fetch more second
hand.
Mazda rotary?
A modern flashy bells n whistles engine eg S2000, Honda VTEC Toyota VVTi etc
You could easily spend £3500 having something like a Zetec built up with stronger internals, throttle bodies, aftermarket ECU, then add a quife
gearkit for a type 9 etc etc, but will it actually be any better than a completely standard engine & box costing less than a grand which had that
sort of power in the first place?
There's plenty of cheap plentiful RWD gearboxes which will handle that sort of torque too, MT75 being the most obvious one.
If uncle Ron were dead he'd be turning in his grave!! 
As said there are quite alot of standard engines that should be up near the 200BHP mark and be reasonably cheap and very reliable.
I should imagine a Vauxhall XE engine with a bit of work and some cams and Throttle bodies should see you near the 200 BHP mark, or there's
always the LET engine that should be well over 200bhp easily.
The XE certainly has adapterplates made for it upto the ford gearboxes and the LET should have as well, or there are older Vauxhall gearboxes that can
be used.
as some one has said it earlier also , i will recommend Honda s-2000 engine. my idea is that one should get the closest one can get to hp wanted as
stock....
and as the 2 liter 00~-3 version s2k has 9k+ reline, i think it will be much quicker than any turbo charged engine having same hp.
thanks
[Edited on 6/5/07 by ghuncha]
quote:
Originally posted by rav
£3500 on an engine and box? I thought this was a locost car builders forum?!
I seem to remember the guy with the viper engine paying ~7k for his engine 
...........
A standard (internally) vauxhall XE will give 180bhp once on carbs/throttlre bodies. A pair of cams will get you easily over 200hp and be well within your budget.
Well, I'm running an internally standard vauxhall XE engine, 176hp @ wheels, 204 hp @ flywheel, cost £200 for the engine and £600 for the
throttle body injection (MBE ecu and Jenvey bodies, s/h) plus home made 4-2-1 exhaust manifold.
The same engine in my grasser made the same power too, no turbos, no different cams etc etc.
200hp on a completely std Vauxhall XE is no problem, one day somebody on here will wake up to it!!!! (well to be fair a few have already.)
PS they always seem to top out at 180hp on carbs but 200hp on throttle bodies, its very odd but that's what they always make on the rolling
road/dyno. Theoretically it should make no difference so I've no idea why!
Car weighed in at 570kg with all the sva crap and a full tank of fuel, so is around 360 hp per tonne.
Total build cost of the car was approx £5500
quote:
Originally posted by NS Dev
Well, I'm running an internally standard vauxhall XE engine, 176hp @ wheels, 204 hp @ flywheel, cost £200 for the engine and £600 for the throttle body injection (MBE ecu and Jenvey bodies, s/h) plus home made 4-2-1 exhaust manifold.
The same engine in my grasser made the same power too, no turbos, no different cams etc etc.
200hp on a completely std Vauxhall XE is no problem, one day somebody on here will wake up to it!!!! (well to be fair a few have already.)
PS they always seem to top out at 180hp on carbs but 200hp on throttle bodies, its very odd but that's what they always make on the rolling road/dyno. Theoretically it should make no difference so I've no idea why!
Car weighed in at 570kg with all the sva crap and a full tank of fuel, so is around 360 hp per tonne.
Total build cost of the car was approx £5500
quote:
Originally posted by NS Dev
PS they always seem to top out at 180hp on carbs but 200hp on throttle bodies, its very odd but that's what they always make on the rolling road/dyno. Theoretically it should make no difference so I've no idea why!
Well when I get mine on some rollers I'll let you know how I get on.
Probably not commonly available in the UK, but here in the States the alloy block Camaro/Firebird LS1 V8 complete with a T-56 six speed can be had for around $3000. It is easily 300hp off-the-shelf and can be tweaked to over 400 hp with only a little work. Total overkill for a Locost......
you only need 150bhp in a std 600kg CEC to have the same power to weight as a BMW M3. Might need to spend some cash on gearing and tyres etc to imrove
0-60 acceleration.
180bhp and decent gearing / tyres will see you faster than most super saloons and all doable for well under your budget. ie half decent zetec etc.
Going lightweight with similarly powered BEC will easily see 4 sec to 60 acceleration if not better.
Exactly right darren!
I guess this thread really won't result in any argument or debate, as for £3-3.5K engine budget you can have a pretty potent car, be it BEC or
CEC.
..........................................In fact, all this just made me take a peek at the carfolio site for the latest cateringvan
specs.............................
Caterham CSR 200, 04 spec, weighs 570kg (exactly the same as my locost) 200hp (my VX powered one makes the same within a couple of hp) and 165lbft of
torque (mine made 168lbft)..................................................
interesting as this is comparing a dry sumped fandango Duratec against a £200, 1992 vintage ex calibra 78,000 mile XE
engine.................................................................
VIVA LOCOST
(PS I know the CSR is an awesome car, don't take this the wrong way, just saying that performance per pound the locost ain't bad! )
Just increase your budget a tad...
Linky 1
Linky 2
Linky 3
You know you want to!
well my complete vx installation probably owes me about £4.5k, but remove the forged pistons, steel rods and laminated head gasket and it'd make
the same power safely for £3.5k. that's 220bhp, 170lb/ft.
And that was fully mapped and rolling roaded from a bare block, core plugs out, dipped, rebored and ground up total rebuild.
Ned.
[Edited on 8/5/07 by ned]
fit the volvo engine phil .
With that budget 200bhp should be too easy. I installed a 2.0 Zetec though the winter on TB's and freeflow tubular exhaust manifold. Much quicker
than the Pinto but not quick enough.
The head is coming off now and the new piper cams are in the office. Once done I will be close to 200bhp and all for around £1K.
With £2K to spare you could probably get that to 220bhp and £1K for stronger transmission.
A Bec has its uses but mainly as a track toy. Not too practical for road use. But with £3K I guess you could probably build a fairly special Bike
engine.
As I can testify from the recent Teesside trackday. Spend some of that money on good tyres as these will find you more time than lots of power that
you cannot get onto the road.
As Darren said you dont need silly power, to have a very quick seven. The cars are so light that you get to a point where you just cant put the power
down, no matter how good your tyres suspension are (ultima vs caterham 0-60)
Your volvo I would guess is probably just shy of 1400kg? (going based on our focus which will be about the same size) giving you 220bhp/tonne.
Most CEC sevens weigh in somewhere around 550-600kg. So to get the same power to weight you only need 132bhp. Already forgetting that you have weight
transfer on your side in a seven. If you want an idea how fast even a pinto engined car can be, have a word with mookaloid. 180bhp 2litre pinto will
see you at the 4.5-5 sec to 60 mark at a guess.
Then theres also the fact that the distance covered getting to 60 in a seven is less than the distance you will cover in your t5, so you will be going
faster for longer.
One thing you will have trouble with though is going much more than 120-130mph in a seven, they just arent aerodynamic!
If i had the money I would fit a duratec and the weber alpha throttle body kit. All bolt on, no internal mods and 240bhp out of the box. Whole set up
likely to cost in the region of £2k i would think.
David
you went out in the least powerfulest BEC
and even with that engine theres still hardly anything that will keep up
you now need to take a ride in a later 1 litre engine or busa etc and understand why CEC is the past £ for £
thanks guys
Ive done the deead and bought a mk xe with around 235 bhp QED engine
It does the job!
May still one day exchange or build a bec as there great too, but until then its cec for me
Thanks
good choice
235hp XE should hit the mark!!!
Just make sure you have some decent tyres on it (yoko A048 or Toyos) or you'll never put any of it onto the tarmac!