BMWs eh!

I believe they will be updating the engine soon to comply.

Short stroke engines have rather gone out of fashion. Something to do with controlling emissions.

Not sure why the stroke would effect big end bearings though - thought piston speed was the problem with long strokes?

Or they could be trying to fool you into thinking they'd actually checked the operation of all lights.

I dunno, I thought my Dad's 1.8 Mondeo was a pretty decent car. Lively enough engine around town - gutless at higher motorway speeds though.

Peter

-- "Diamonds are what I really need - think I'll rob a store, escape the law, and live in Italy. Lately, my luck has been so bad, you know the roulette wheel, it's a crooked deal, I'm losing all I had."

Something to do with the angles the load is put through?

I'm sure I used to know at least a bit of the reason, but I've totally forgotten it all now. I do know though that the Triumph 1500 engine is said to be weaker than the 1300 using the same journal size, and in my experience that's very true.

Well, yes. BMC etc used to be very good at enlarging engines and wondering why they broke. Examples of the A series and B series. Then they'd do a

*proper* job and increase the crank strength, etc. But the Triumph unit was at the end of the road, so they never bothered.

Hmm... My brother had a Metro GTi. Very entertaining it was too - until the head gasket blew!

Very appealing for kits though, the K-series, mainly because of the weight. Not particularly cheap to tune though. Zetec seems a bit more suited to fiddlers like me. Hopefully, removing the Mondeo and replacing it with a 600KG Fisher Fury should liven up the performance a bit on it's own.

Cheers,

Hopefully, one of the mods is an up-rated head gasket ;o)

Colin.

Colin Stamp ( snipped-for-privacy@stamp.plus.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

There's probably greater coolant capacity in an Elise, too - the rad's up front, so there's bloody great big long pipes carrying a lot more water - and that's the main problem with the K - no reserve capacity.

No, it was because of the US emission regulations.

It's perhaps a weakness, and weaknesses usually compounded by poor attention. That's not to say that a perfectly looked after K-series won't blow a head gasket, of course...

A few of the K series heads I've seen inside have had bits of casting residue floating around inside the heads, if you get rid of that when you do the head gasket they seem reliable enough.

I'm stuck in a 416 SLi at the moment.....

Imagine the Metro with the 1.8 Zetec-E? In 1992, the Metro could have been the 95 PS singlepoint non-cat 1.4i-16, or the 102 PS multipoint cat 1.4i-16, but either way the car weighed about 800 kg. The Mondeo is another 500 kg on top...

The Zetec (and Zetec-E) have a different character compared to the K-series. I'm a fan of the K-series, especially the 1.4, and if Ford had bought Rover back in the early 1990s then it's possible Kermit would have a 1.4 K-series.

My Dad and I put a great many miles on the 1.4 K-series with no head gasket problems. The fleet in Norwich had three 16v 1.4s and none of them dropped the gasket.

But I've also seen two Freeloaders (sorry, Freelanders) with blown gaskets inside eight thousand miles from new... :-/

From the kit car peeps I know, the K-series tends to wane with age relative to the Zetecs. The 1.6 Zetec may have less output than the spunky 1.4 when new, but it's still delivering pretty much the same poke after 40,000 miles and the 1.4 isn't.

Pete M ( snipped-for-privacy@blue-nopressedmeat-yonder.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

45-shape? I had an early (N-reg) one of those. I *liked* it. Definitely better than the alternatives on my company car choice - 1.8 Vectra, 1.8 Mundane, 1.6GL Golf...

Is the Zetec-E the one that'd be in my Dad's 1.8 Mk1 Mondy? How many bhp do they have? Is it around 115? And how much more do they weigh? The 1.4 16v K series was a fantastic engine, with loads of power for its size.

It'd almost be approaching being a decent car then.

Yup, remember that one at the M18 services? HAHAHAHA!

Peter

-- "Diamonds are what I really need - think I'll rob a store, escape the law, and live in Italy. Lately, my luck has been so bad, you know the roulette wheel, it's a crooked deal, I'm losing all I had."

In news:Xns95A19168FBE74adrianachapmanfreeis@130.133.1.4, Adrian decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

yeah, it belongs to a bloke I used to work for and he's lent me it til I sort out the Merc etc.

It's actually a nice little thing, economical, comfy, well equipped, reasonably quiet, huge boot, but it's a bit on the slow side for my tastes.

Pete M ( snipped-for-privacy@blue-nopressedmeat-yonder.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Quick enough for me to put through a fence on it's side...

The 1300 Kent in my kit car has boiled over many-a-time over it's 15 years (Kenlowe stuck, temp switch failed etc) .. thank goodness for push rods (no cam belt) AND cast iron heads (ok, and 22hp) ;-(

All the best ..

T i m

330k in my 214Si for example till some beggar nicked it. It did blow it's gasket once but after refitting a new one was sweet and problem free.