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Engine swap

The crossflow in the Locost is fecked, it runs, but is smokey as f*ck, it's the bores. I fitted bike carbs this weekend and they ran great, but I needed to remove the crankcase breather from the old inlet manifold and nearly choked on the smoke that pissed out. I'm not shelling out a couple of hundred for new pistons, rebore etc. cos TBH I want more power, and more power with a crossflow isn't cheap (to say nothing of reliability).

Soooo, it looks like the winter project is coming early, I bought this

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a few weeks ago. it's a 105Bhp 1.8, with 2litre cams it'll push 130-ish. Hopefully it'll fit, no doubt I'll need body mods, 'cos it's quite a bit taller than the crossflow, but I'm commited. I've seen conversions costing from £5-600 up to a couple of grand !?! I'm hoping to do mine for less than £2-300.

Just need,

Engine mounts Exhaust Fuelling Sump mods Ignition Lots of plumbing

I can re-use my engine mounts, they're only a few months old and are Land Rover diesel items, just need some steel to fab summat. I'm thinking of a cast exhaust manifold rather than tubular to start , 'cos the tubular ones are expensive and my SS welding is s**te. I've a set of CBR600 carbs and a home made manifold, the carbs are modded to run on the crossflow (so they should run the Zetec). I have a CVH sump chopped and welded and amazingly, oil-tight ! Ignition I have my megajolt, but it's set up for MAP not TPS so I'm wondering whether it's worth changing it to TPS or if theres some kind of bodge to tap into all 4 inlet pipes ? I'm gonna see about a pipe bender and use steel tube for as much of the plumbing as possible, some people have spent £150 on silicon hoses...

Anyway, I just thought I'd post and point out that while the suns shining, I'll probably be stuck in the garage welding :(

Why is it, the Locost is fine all winter, but when summer comes it's a triple-faced-backstabbing-judas ? ;(

Has anyone any ideas for a cheap exhaust ? This is gonna be the major outlay..

Reply to
Tony Bond
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Where the biggest outlay is is in the bespoke engine management system and throttle bodies/ megasquirt but you have all of that. The custom water rail that moves the thermostat costs a fair few quid as well but as it's a Locost, you can build around that.

Just a heads up, there's a Weber Alpha mappable system on Ebay that's complete apart from the crank pulley disc. It was at £10 last night and it'll work on the Zetec. As I said, it's complete apart from the disc you put on the crank pulley:

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Yeah...

Get yourself and the Locost to your local Powerflow dealership and get them to custom build a stainless system. You're looking at around £250 but it'll fit and last forever.

Reply to
Conor

Tony

When I did the zetec job on my last Sylva, we used a Mondeo exhaust manifold and used dissimilar rods to weld an elbow onto it at the right angle. The rest was off the shelf Jetex parts. No need for a water rail. We certainly didn't use one. Regarding your budget - of course it's achievable. You're certainly talking my language.

ATB Zil

Reply to
Bob Sherunckle

They any good? I've heard varied things about them from excellent to not to be touched with someone else's bargepole.

Reply to
Doki

Yeah, I'm pretty sure there'll be no need for a water rail, there seems to be enough room.

Cheap at the mo' but it can only be mapped by a Weber dealer, that's ££££ :(

I would, but seriously, money's tight (as always) and the more this is gonna cost, the more Summer I'll miss. I'll just scour ebay for now, and plan on a home-made jobby..

Reply to
Tony Bond

Cheers Zil, I'd prefer to do it on the cheap, I enjoy it, even IF I could afford to do it any other way ;) I'm hoping that with a bit of ingenuity and plenty of MIG wire I can re-use my Lolocost exhaust. TBH I'm sick of people asking "where can I buy this" or "where can I buy a carbon version of this", for me at least, 50% of the fun is in the fettling :)

Reply to
Tony Bond

Look in BigStu's archive on LCB. He used a lolocost manifold munged about to suit and it works a treat. If you already have the carbs and the ignition, well under 300 is easily doable.

There's always a cheap and effective way to do it.

Reply to
Bob Sherunckle

THe quality of the materials is fine, what varies is the installation quality as it depends on the ability/experience of the installer. My Capper had to go back a couple of times before it was right.

Reply to
Conor

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