1.9 Scholar block/Pistal pistons, full-house VVC/1444s head, steel rods, crank...

[Mankee]

Garage clearout time. There's some fruity bits here if I say so myself. But I have not used them since collecting them and they are just crying out to be put to good use instead of languishing around the garage.

First up is a used Scholar 1.9 block with Pistal pistons. Bought from a club member as a decent block that formed part of a 250+bhp engine. The block comes with liners obviously, the bores of which DVA kindy honed for me (while still in his bath robe no less!), but the pistons will need a new set of rings. I paid £400, so would like that back.

Next is a full-on modified VVC head with 1444s, big REC/Paul Ivey 33.5mm inlet/28.5mm valves, full DVA port, Piper verniers, Piper VVC blanking kit, solid lifters, double valve springs, steel caps, rear cam belt cover. Again, this was bought from club member and the spec is good for an easy 240-250bhp on a 1.9 bottom end, possibly 250+bhp with the right setup. You can see where I was going originally! Would probably cost in the region of £2,500 plus a good VVC head to get it up to this sort of spec. I paid £1,500 so would like that back.

Set of new Max Speeding steel rods. Updated design with the single tang cutouts and correct little end oil feed placement. I paid £269.77 after all the import duty and stuff. Pretty sure they come with ARP bolts. After £225.

Standard 1800K crank that I removed from the 1997-ish Elise 118bhp engine that my car came with. I ran that standard block, head and weedy cams at 150bhp and 7000rpm and everything was perfect when I stripped it back in summer 2012. No engine failure; upgradeitis just bit me VERY hard. Even had the original plastic dowels and head gasket from the factory, so I obviously didn't give it enough beef! Was going to use it with the above bits. After £100.

If anyone wants to take the lot from me (these bits are available right now as they are just sitting on the engine stand, albeit 25 miles north of Ipswich), I can do some sort of deal. I also have a new Payen BW750 head gasket, new genuine water pump, new timing belt, new Kamax (I think) bolts, used crank pulley with two sets of ribs to run a Titan/Caterham pump, used but good belt tensioner, used but very recent oil pump and other stuff to help you on the way to building your own 1.9 monster.

Also, after my last trackday of the year at Donington on the August Bank Holiday Monday, I will be splitting up my current 200bhp/160lbft engine. The complete head will be for sale after I have done a final power run and got Scholar to strip, check and rebuild it.

It doesn't sit right with me to sell the bottom end complete as it had done nearly 80k miles mincing around in an MG TF before I shoved it in the Caterham (with zero attention) and rinsed the life out of it, so the bare block, crank, 160 rods/pistons, wet sump, Apollo, 42mm Jenveys, injectors, Emerald ALI trumpets etc. etc. will all be sold separately from September onwards, after inspection.

Feel free to come to the trackday for a ride out if you are interested in the head. If it's dry, it'll be fun, but if it's wet, you won't see its full potential as I'm a bit of a pansy when trying to drive fast in the rain.

Cheers.

[Nick Bassett]

Hi there,

Can I have first dibs on the wet sump & Apollo please?

Thanks

Nick

[TomB]

I could be interested in the 160 pistons and rods when your ready.  I trust with new rings and a clean they would be essentially good as new.  

[Chris Coxall]

YHM 

 

[Superwhite R283]

YHM

[Mankee]

Hi Nick. Yes, dibs on the Apollo (full setup, pipes, a spare sandwich plate seal or two, tank, spare dowty seals for the drain plug and even an EU2 cam cover drilled for the breather hose if you want it) and wet sump (pan, baffle, two oil pickups, four dipsticks, dipstick tube and decent drilled gasket, but no foam) go to you. I'm hoping to have all the bits removed and ready to go by the middle of September and we can go from there.

Hi Tom. Yes, I think a freshen up of the 160 pistons and rods with new rings should do the trick. Unless I find that they are damaged when I take the engine apart. It still goes like stink though, so I hope they are fine. The power run after the trackday should give me an idea. I can put the bits in my parts washer for a soak and they will come up looking great again.

I shall get on with replying to private messages in the next hour or five. Cheers guys.

[revilla]

Nick / Mankee,

If you don't need the baffle / one of the two oil pickups / one of the four dipsticks (if calibrated for a Caterham) with the wet sump ... could I take second dibs on those bits alone please?

Andrew

[TomB]

Cheers Mankee. When the time comes, ask me about your current head, but I probably cant afford it - Im hoping to fit new dampers over winter!  What are you planning given your selling off your engine parts, and apparently your working engine?  

[PROBE2]

Hi, interested in the head on the 200bhp engine, can you confirm spec please? cheers Paul

[Mankee]

Tom, I am sticking with a K-series.

Paul, the 200bhp head is actually not very wild but produced a real grunty motor on top of a standard VVC 160 bottom end. It's based on a VVC 160 head, extensively molested by Ady at Scholar, standard VVC valve sizes, genuine OEM valves as I had an issue with aftermarket tat, Kent RK1812 inlet cam, Piper 1320 exhaust cam, both of which are tamer than 285Hs, Piper springs and steel caps so will take 8000+rpm if you are a nutter, unlike standard springs that go wobbly, VVCs blanked off with a Mike Satur kit, Piper verniers, new set of hydraulic lifters when the head was built a few years ago, runs on a distributor and leads.

From looking at engine specs in the past (and I am not a K-series guru), it looks like a standard VVC head casting will top out at about 187bhp and 145lbft, even with 285Hs, as flow has reached the ceiling. With the casting modified, mine picked up more bhp and, more importantly for me with a 5-speed box, a fairly sizeable jump in torque to 160lbft. This is what I really wanted; a grunty track engine without needing to rev to the heavens. Although if you wanted more bhp, you could rev it harder and tune the cam timing, inlet length, manifold configuration and mapping to do so. I saw just over 205bhp on one run and the power still hadn't rolled over at 8100rpm.

[jp7]

Hi Mankee

YHM re the Scholar block.

cheers

Andy

[Chris Coxall]

YHM agian 

[Nick Bassett]

2nd dibs on the Scholar 1.9 block - have just emailed you!

Thanks

[Mankee]

Block/head/rods/crank/stuff all provisionally sold now. If anything changes, I'll post up. I'll start a new thread when the 200bhp engine has been extracted and dismantled, probably late September/October. Cheers.

[KRL]

Looking forward to see what you come up with the new engine Mankee :)

[Mankee]

Hey Kristian. Hope all is well. It's going to be an exciting winter I think! I'll still be knocking about the circuits even if my car is missing an engine, so give us a shout if you have some track time planned.