Now what engine???

[rossrox]

Right, as most of you knew i was going to be placing a 4age lump in to my minor, but the place i was going to buy from has stopped selling them, i have looked around and cant really find them for sale from any where else.
and obviously most zetecs are expensive and apparently fiat twin cam is aweful on fuel. so now what engine could i go for??? i was going to have 200bhp from the 4age, and ideally i would want to be able to have 200BHP under my bonnet. i was going to use the ford type 9 box, but maybe thats all going to have to change now i am completly messed up, i would like the 2.0l zetec from jlh but that price is a little bit too high for me.

[chrisryder]

V8? i'm sure Plastic Orange will agree

[ratrodmog]

Either the Rover K series (available in 1.4, 1.6, 1.8, 1.8vvc and used by Caterham I believe so plenty of tuning parts available) or go for the Vauxhall 'Redtop' or the slightly newer Ecotec (both used in kit cars for years). Both these engines are FWD but easily converted to RWD with the appropriate bellhousing and box.

[hotrodder13]

There's a 4age for sale on retro rides forms at £250 engine and gearbox only done 127000 miles

[Alec]

Hello Hotrodder,

what is a 4 age?

Alec

[hotrodder13]

a toyota 4A-GE

one of these http://retrorides.proboards.com/index.c ... read=94134

[rossrox]

that 4age seems pretty high for mileage,
how easy is it to fit a red top, how would you go about converting it and has it been done before???

[Alec]

Hello Hotrodder,

ah, an MR 2 engine. Where is the 200 bhp comming from, as an MR 2 doesn't have that sort of power?

Alec

[rossrox]

you get alot of power from things like turbos and compression ratios, 400bhp is achievable but with alot of tuning. also like other engines there are black tops, silver tops, red tops, blue tops all with different power ratings, i would have loved to have the 4agze basically the supercharged 4age, take the supercharger off and swap it for a big turbo which then becomes a 4agte and has alot of power.

i think im going to bite the bullet and just go for a 2.0 zetec... only just realised that it comes with alot of stuff. i thought it was just the block not including bellhousing gearbox and other parts

[Alec]

Hello Rossrox,

yes you can do a lot, but Hotrodder is obviously limited in cash if you read his first post.

BMW (and others) got a huge amount of power when they turbo charged their Formula 1 engine (based on a road car engine) but it was like a hand grenade, when on qualifying boost. The point being that didn't come from small change.

Alec

[rossrox]

but its my post???

[Alec]

Hello Rossrox,

sorry my mistake, so I didn't need to point out the finances.

Alec

[rossrox]

no problem haha

[Alex'n'Ane]

How about an mx5 engine conversion, already has a rwd gearbox fitted.. and a nice cheap engine/ car to buy? Or if u have slightly more money a mazda rx8 ****** engine?!

[ratrodmog]

Vauxhall 'Red top' engine + conversion bellhousing + Ford Type 9 Gearbox = job done.

Bellhousing http://www.rwdmotorsport.com/Bellhousin ... od_10.html

Gearbox http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Ford-Type-9-gearb ... 43a3d72947

Engine http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/C20xe-Vauxhall-Re ... 2a0ccb8c45

Engine parts http://qedmotorsport.co.uk/qed-shop/vauxhall-xe-c20xe

[Jefftav]

Isn't the red top engine, gearbox combo quite long. I seem to remember a minor being converted to use this engine but having to add some length to the front of the car. It is a good engine but the distributor gets in the way on a rwd configuration which isn't insurmountable as plenty folk use it in a rwd format. It is also easy to work on and tune but strait out of the box and into a minor would make for quite a rapid car

There must be a reason JLH use the zetec engine so this might be an easier route if JLH can supply most of the parts. That said if you have the skill and facilities I'm sure lots of engines can be fitted into a Minor.

Be great to see what you end up using.

[hotrodder13]

jlh charges £2800 for a new 2 lt zetec and all the bits needed for rwd brand new and a 2 year warrenty (i think thats what he said)

[ratrodmog]

The only reason I said to use a red top is that it's my engine of choice for my own project. The distributor hits the crossmember at the back of the engine so a notch needs to be cut but this is easy to do. It is the same size (I think) as the Rover K series so fits in the engine bay very nicely. A notch needs to be cut out of the bellhousing to clear the steering rack but this is the same on most engine swaps. I think the front pullys even clear the front chassis crossmember but is not then you can just cut a section out. Only annoying bit is finding the right exhaust manifold but Caterham do some for there cars so could be adapted.

[Jefftav]

No doubt the red top is a really good engine and is very commonly used so there is no criticsm meant. I had one in a 16V GTE and it was a brilliant car in a straight line, it could take my astra to 130mph so god only knows what you will do in a MInor? I think you can blank off the dissy but I guess it's just more expense as you probably need to add an ecu to run the engine.