Engine swap or serious upgrade

[James Doulton]

It was all Paul Sheridan's fault by talking about 500bhp engines in Astras, not that I can afford such a beast nor that I think that it would make a lot of sense in a Dutton. However, I am thinking about ways to add power to my Legerra.

What I'd like would be to fit a Vauxhall V6 from an Omega but there is no way that it would fit - there is a reason for that huge bonnet on the Omega! The Legerra engine compartment is rather snug. A Rover V8 is much too long and a bit too wide, an Essex V6 is too wide (and heavy), most modern V6's are much bulkier because of all of the overhead cams etc.

I have thought about going down the Zetec route, looking at the engines that Omex offered, although they have now moved on to Duratec. Both of those engines have the coil pack and water housing at the back of the engine where it wouldn't fit against the Legerra body. Plus it is not cheap, at £7700! Also I am not sure whether an engine needs to have the emission paraphernalia appropriate for its date of manufacture.

All of that leads me back to my Pinto. I don't want to spend a fortune on making it rev to 8000 rpm and I want it to remain easy to drive in any gear, rather than having something temperamental and lumpy. So I think that it only leaves 3 options: supercharger, turbocharger or nitrous oxide injection.

As far as I can see, all modern superchargers and turbochargers are designed for dry air, i.e. the pumped air is fuel-free, this affects the internal design and they don't expect to have a vacuum which would suck the oil out of their bearings. Therefore I'd either need a blow-through carburettor, which are rare, or I'd need fuel injection.

I've seen suitable superchargers on ebay from small Mercedes but they are not simple and expect electronic control of the clutch in their drive pulley. I prefer the turbo option as it is less challenging mechanically and as far as I can see the TD04-14T from a Volve V40 (200bhp) looks a pretty good fit with a wastegate set at 0.7 bar - that should give me a 60-70bhp increase. However, it would need fuel injection, and that is a considerable extra cost when there is no guarantee that the project will work.

The only 'simple' option is N20, which could be done by adding an injector below my existing carburettor - the carb need never know about it! From what I can see N20 should be good for about 50-60bhp extra without making any real changes to the engine. I have been reading up on it in a book that I bought and on the net, particularly www.nitros.info which was created by a guy calling himself burgerman. He made up systems himself and seems to think that I could make a home made system (for less than £200) that is superior to the systems that I could buy for £900. I am rather inclined to believe him as I cannot see why the kits are so dear. I am thinking seriously about doing that.

[James Doulton]

Are you sure? Are you sure that you are sure? Even for an anonymous Q plate where the age is not stated or not meaningful?

[Dave Adams]

zetec engine size

just for an idea on the size of the Zetec.

[Paul Thomas]

Q plated cars are visual smoke test nly

[Adrian Southgate]

Yup... that's what I was told by my MOT bloke too.

I have two unidentified turbo's in the garage, look to be japanese by the castings, no idea where they came from. I've often wondered if they could be used on the pinto.

[2edvaw06pgbav]

How about the 1800 Nissan turbo and 5 speed from a 200SX?

[Dave Adams]

MOT emissions

this part of the MOT manual tells you the test requirements, it specifically mentions kit cars.

[James Doulton]

I have been doing a lot more thinking and research into Nitrous Oxide and turbocharging and I am swinging back towards the turbo again. The things that I like about a turbo, compared to N2O, is that there is no on/off behaviour - the turbo comes in smoothly, also there is no short limit on use or problems with refilling and no bottle to rattle around in an accident.

In both case, I need some extra controller. In the case of N2O then I could keep the carburettor but would need to control the spark timing. In the case of the turbo then I need fuel injection too, So for the time being I am looking at doing that. I already have most of the bits to convert my car to an EFI but I don't think that the standard ECU will be able to cope with retarding the ignition under boost. Also the injectors will be near their limit just with my high torque cam, let alone with the extra needed by a turbo. But if I uprate the injectors then the ECU data tables will need changing. So I think the best bet is to use the Ford sensors with a different ECU and different injectors.

To this end, I have bought a different manifold that should fit below my bonnet line and I have bought a set of injectors from a SAAB 900 Turbo, the 175bhp DOHC version. I have been offered a MoTec M8 ECU but even second hand the guy wants £800 so that is out of the question.

[James Doulton]

I'll let you show me the way, Daryl! The Legerra engine compartment is pretty small unless you chop it pretty drastically. I think that the only V6 you would get in there is an Essex 3 litre and they are pretty expensive to tune. A Pinto turbo will achieve similar performance. Well, in my head it will!

[Dave Price]

I am I have somewhere that you can fit the advance curve from a Saab dizzy to sort the timing.

[John Allen]

James I have a couple essex's in various states so might be an option. Pm me if want to discuss. ?? John

[Dave Adams]

i dont remember myself.......it s just blank pages at the moment 99% of those who said they would send in articles never did....never do.....take your pick.

[Dave Adams]

not an excuse ....its called a fact. you might look to your memory and recall a promise to provide an article on the b-type malaga at stoneleigh.......did it get lost in the post, i hope you had it tracked i will go on Saturday to the main post office and chase it up and put in a claim for lost post. 

it seems that Hull is bad for post there are about 20 missing articles......