Milesk Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 I am looking for a 1.8 VVC engine that I was going to upgrade as usual, forged pistons , throttle bodies, emerald etc. However by the time I have done all this, is it woth it financially? You see people on here and Piston Heads selling the above albeit with some miles on the engine for between £3500 and £4000 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
u01rsb Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 Afternoon Miles, I suppose the most important thing about doing it yourself is that you 'know' what has been done. Buying it second hand you cannot be sure unless you strip it all down, you don't really know how many miles each part has done and you definately can't trust bhp / torque claims unless you witness it run it on a dyno. Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham King Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 Miles, I am in the Rob camp, and took exactly this approach. I bought a 2nd hand engine of a decent spec and am then sending it to DVA for further work so I know what state it is in. I could probably have bought one with the full spec slightly cheaper but in the end I wanted to be confident with what I was going to be running. It was worth the extra to me for the peace of mind. That said if the right full spec engine had come up at the right price (i.e reflecting the risk I was taking) then I would have probably gone with it. Graham. R7 GPK Superlight #85 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milesk Posted July 7, 2009 Author Share Posted July 7, 2009 Hi Graham/Rob Thanks for the feed back. Having stripped a car then rebuilt it again I was looking for an easy route - but hand on heart I had already had the same thoughts as you. My only concern is I have never built an engine Many thanks for the advice Miles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taffyracer Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 had exactly the same dilemma, spent ages researching all the options,simple truth is that upgrading an engine is alot more hassle and more expensive than buying something decent, at the end of the day it'll always be an upgraded engine and from what I have seen that adds nothing to resale value and can detract, if you don't care about that then it's not an issue but it was for me as I have a habit of needing to sell my toys to fund my racing addiction C7 YUM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sigmamark Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 Miles. I can claim no real expertise in this, however I can volunteer my (ongoing experience). Having bought a car with a high spec K series motor (247bhp on Emeralds rollers), I thought I was in heaven. At that output it had all the right stuff already with a Scholar EVO 4 Block, DVA Head, forged pistons etc. and I expected about a season of track days and road miles before a refresh was needed. The car was well looked after when I got it and the motor had about 5K miles on it since it was built. To cut a long story short, back in mid April it emptied the water out after only 500 miles as a result of HGF. Dave Andrews sorted the head for me and the motor went back to Scholar to be reassembled about a month ago. Unfortunately, the crank was found to be cracked which has obviously increased the costs, but even for Scholar, getting the parts together for the refresh/rebuild is proving difficult and by the time I get the motor back, I don't think I will see much change from £3,000. So if I had my time again, I think I might go down the route of collecting some mechanically sound components and then building or getting built, a motor I know the origins of, know the sources of the components and perhaps most of all, feel has some of "me" in it. Or at the risk of being branded a philistine, if it blows up again, maybe I will just get some unknown 260 bhp Duratec unit and bung that in because control is nothing without power Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milesk Posted July 7, 2009 Author Share Posted July 7, 2009 Hi Mark Sorry to hear the costs are so high however your your comments are duly noted. I was looking to get 200 BHP so hopefully would see more reliability. May be a duratec engine is they way to go - the more I look and listen the more confused I become. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidvoas73 Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 The duratec engines certainly look better value for money in the long run, i.e. need less work to get to similar outputs with a more reliable parts supply. Only issue for a K series car is the obvious one, the duratec has the exhaust on the wrong side So at the very least you need to budget for a n/s side panel reskin & spray (or alternatively a louvered cover over the empty exhaust hole). I guess that you will also need a different ecu, exhaust, engine mounts. Not too sure what others who have followed this route wrt gearbox/propshaft? airborne tweaked supersport Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonycaterham Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 Miles, I would agree with Rob as well, having been down the same road Sigmamark albeit with different problems with what I believed was a good seconhand 200bhp K series engine. It is now running beautifully thanks to the considerable help and assistance of Dave Andrews (DVA) who was both helpful and sympathetic, but is has cost me nearly £2,000 to sort. If I did it again I would factor in taking the engine down to DVA to give it a 'healthcheck' before installing and running. Tony L7 EVL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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