Why ? well the race engine I have in the car, which I built last year, is good very very good but above a certain RPM it suffers from some serious vibration which is going to impact on this engines longevity. Having now spoken to a number of people, most of the usual suspects i.e. Mr Andrews, Fabry, Smith among others plus some not so usual's I think I have enough info to set about building this engine.
A quick run down of the spec a with an explanation of why for each part looks like this.
Block, new or used haven't decided this one yet mainly due to my experience with the previous engine. Arguments both ways. For and old block the pro's and con's are:
Pro's
Thermally stable not so pron to size changes with temperature.
Easier and cheaper to get hold of.
Con's
Block twist
Liner heights
Bearing tunnel straightness
Condition.
Based on all that it'll probably be a brand new engine casing as I will also be using a brand new crank I think it makes more sense but feel free to comment either way. As a foot note I will not be going the scholar route. It's far to hit or miss for me and they certainly have questionable customer support if it does all go south.
Crank will be brand new mainly due to the constraints place by Steve at Vibration Free for tungsten insertion. I already have a suitable crank and this will be sent on Wednesday to kick off the whole process.
Rods will be steel Arrow or if I can get a replacement for the one that got damaged in my previous engine, the one that went bang running it in on the rollers, then Farndon. Mainly for strength. There is no real empirical evidence that the standard rod isn't strong enough but why take the chance.
Pistons will be Omega forged, primarily because I know the pockets are deep enough for the amount of lift the cams I use generate. These coupled with standard 2nd and oil control rings but with a total seal top ring.
Liners from QED, the banded type. I used AE liners in the current engine and have had no problems with them but feel the added strength provided by these won't hurt although they are about twice the price.
Water pump from Elise Parts there uprated one has done a fine job in the current engine and for no other reason that it gives piece of mind.
Flywheel/clutch. This is the subject I talked to a few people about, in part due to the lack of info about what to use. The main stream light weight flywheels aren't that light by all accounts shaving maybe 3 or 4kg's off the original but still 11 1/2" in diameter. Now by adding 2kg of tungsten to the crank I needed to loose to loose 2 kg somewhere else and the only place to do this is in the flywheel clutch area. So I will be fitting a 7 1/4" clutch and suitable flywheel. The total weight of both of these is 3.3kg. A light weight steel flywheel is about 6kg add to that a 9 1/2 standard clutch and cover it's about 10 -11kg so a significant weight saving more so because it's spinning. It requires fitting a different starter motor, stepped to catch the starter ring gear but still has the reluctor ring the crank position sensor needs. Ark Racing is the company that make it and comes as a kit for the K series, at a price.
Oil system This is a bit of a head scratcher> As I see it I have two choices, one is to stick with the original oil pump and fit a steel gear in place of the sintered original which can come apart at high RPM. That coupled with the baffled sump which I already have and a windage/scrapper plate. The second is to dry sump the engine. Not many people seem to go down this route, I have no idea if there is any disadvantages to using dry sumping or just that it is prohibitively expensive. It is used by Caterham in some of their cars but that might be because of the longitudinal engine as opposed to the Elise's transverse engine. The problem with the first option is it's hard to increase the flow through the engine, bit hit or miss stretching the relief valve spring which only really changes the pressure and not the flow. Current engines oil pressure can get quite low once the oil is heated up above 110 deg c so looking at ways of increasing oil flow through the engine as the oil thins. Might just be the millers oil I use so might try swapping to something else and seeing if it makes any difference.
The engine will keep it's original crank pulley as there is no advantage to be gained changing it and it still helps tune out some vibration even though the internals have changed. The head will be the same Sabre Heads prepared VVC converted one I ran this year, all be it stripped and checked and keeping the 1444 cams etc.
In a nut shell that's the plan photo's of all the shinny bits once they start appearing as usual with updates along the way. Worth noting all of the above has come from many different sources and is nothing new, all been done before but few if any have pulled it all together in one thread complete with pictures so I thought why the hell not.
Comments, suggestions, ideas or mickey taking wanted/expected feel free to throw your 2p in the mix.
Why am I doing this, simple answer, because I can
I was just wanting to know where Mike got the starter and flywheel 
Geez Mike you've only just finished the last one 
Sounds awesome mate I'll be keeping a close eye on this, love your work fella