Vauxhall 1.6 Engine Upgrade

[Mark Gibson]

Selling on behalf of a friend in the Caterham Graduates race series:

 

"I bought a used Caterham Vauxhall 1.6 8v engine for my race car from a vehicle dismantlers. It was removed from a Caterham with heavy rear damage. The seller delivered it and showed me the Caterham Odometer which apparently corresponded to the car- it had less than 19k miles on it. It seemed a good basis for a race engine with a strip and refresh, so I set about stripping it down.

 

Long story short, it turns out the engine was fitted with a Kent AST15 uprated camshaft and a Kent alloy vernier pulley. We aren't permitted to use uprated parts so the engine is currently being assembled by McMillan Motorsport with standard parts.

 

So, I have for sale a complete bolt-on 'kit' for upping the power of the 1.6 or 1.8 8-valve Vauxhall lump. I don't know by how much, Kent don't have data for this cam in a 1.6, but it's a well-trodden upgrade path and just the camshaft and pulley would cost over £320 new. Quoted increase with additional head work by Bill Bleidenstein was +35bhp, how much can be gained with the camshaft and pulley alone I don't know.

 

For the sake of completeness, this sale will include the Pulley, Camshaft, housing, bearings, seals etc as an assembly (the bearings are fine and there was no evidence of any oil leaking past the seals so I decided not to remove the camshaft from the housing). I can also include the followers used in this engine which I have labelled and numbered sequentially so they can be re-assembled on the same camshaft lobes.

 

I cannot verify the mileage and nor do I know at which point in those 19k miles the uprated camshaft was installed, but I would say the uprated parts are very lightly used. The rest of the engine was in very good health indeed and I'll be getting it inspected, re-assembled and sealed with no additional work.

 

I have uploaded some Photos here for anybody who's interested to have a look at.

 

Installed with a set of gaskets and a new cam belt, this will be a very worthwhile and straight-forward mod for somebody."

 

He is looking for £200 plus postage if necessary for the lot. Please contact me if you are interested and I will put you in touch.

 

Mark