Winter Strip Down and Rebuild (Done and Dusted)

[roadboy]

"Trophy 160" bearings...so some aspects of the bottom end of the K were reworked for that MGF variant then, not just the head and intake etc?

Interesting.

The later 160 VVC engines had different bearings and different pistons with larger ring lands as the earlier pistons were marginal at this sort of power output. I have seen a few piston failures on completely standard early VVC engines.

Dan

[campbell]

useful to know Dan, thanks

[Mikie711]

Just a quick update as I din't have time to post these up before I left.



Dash back together, switches and gauges (still waiting for the AFR gauge from Demontheifs).





Xoombox in place and wired up, need bigger cable cover than I had !!!.




One of the 2 oil feeds in the block, squared off to match the bearing ladder. Needs finishing with a file but you get the idea. Supposed to improve oil flow between the bearing ladder and block as the oil feeds for 1/2 and 3/4 are siamesed so only 2 and 4 require the extra oil delivery. That along with enlarging the corresponding oil holes in the ladder should give an improvement in oil delivery.

[Esprit]

Mike,

FANTASTIC thread, really enjoying it and will be taking heed of what you've done as I build my own, similar spec engine up. You may have seen my own "over winter" refresh thread on SELOC that's just reached its one-year anniversary.... so perhaps that should be an over two-winters and one-summer refresh.

My mess of things here: http://forums.seloc.org/viewthread.php?tid=169225

My engine build will be copying yours, but I'll be paying someone to do most of it as I've invested WAAAY too much money in this engine to be doing this one myself without training wheels. Also given that my landlord uses the garage for carpentry at the moment, it's fine for building a chassis where I can chuck a dust-sheet over it, but would be a disaster to try and build an engine in!

One of the jobs I've got to do is replace my oil cooler lines (I've got the standard Exige "Lotus sport" kit that you've got as I notice the rubber in some of the lines is a little perished. It's much easier to replace them now than when they 'splode. What hose/fittings would you recommend using? I'm not far off from going down to the local specialists in that area and it'd be good to know what to ask for and what fittings / hose etc work best.

Also, what type/brand of oil thermostat did you use. It would appear from the state of my VHPD bottom end when pulled apart that the bottom end was suffering from excess oil pressure, most likely from the oil not getting up to temperature, so I want to fit an oil-stat in the line like you have. Any pointers to follow here?

Other than that, I'll be using this thread as a reference in my own engine rebuild. I've pretty much forked out a small fortune on the internals (only the original lifters remain, every other moving component has been replaced) and I've spent a small fortune on balancing as I've gone down the tungsten-insertion route, which isn't cheap.

Mine's a lot less complex than yours in the control side of things as I'm not converting looms or anything as I had a VHPD to start with and I'm nto going to be running any fancy traction control / launch control gubbins. I'm also retaining the VHPD externals as my aim is to keep everything as standard as possible... I'm aiming to build the ultimate Exige S1 VHPD, not the ultimate K (My bank balance won't stretch that far!)

Keep up the good work and no doubt I'll be hitting you up with many questions in the future.

George.

PS, My Exige spent much of its life in Edinburgh so I'm practically S-E family

[tut]

Thanks very much George, that is another hour of my life disappeared reading the ten pages.

However it made a great read and it is rewarding to see an enthusiast owner going for a complete re-build as you have done, especially on an S1 Exige, the best looking Elise built so far. I have two Hondad S1's, one of them S/C, and would love to rebuild them to that spec, but time is literally too short. Will follow the rest of the thread when you get the head back from Dave and all the balanced components from Steve.

Anybody who has the spare time, have a look through the thread as the pictures themselves are first class and blow up perfectly.

tut

ps love the numberplate (SEXIGE)

[Mikie711]

George,
thanks for the comments, think I have read some of yours already BTW. Hard going sometimes isn't it. I have a big push on just now to get the thing finished as it's first race is 5 weeks away and I am away for 3 of those.
As for hoses if you have the originals then I would go for goodridge braided with swedged ends, you specify the hose size and length along with the fittings required. In your case it would be something like 1/2" type 200 or 202 hose with 1/2" BSP hose fittings 90, 45 deg or straight as appropriate.
Must admit I do fancy the tungsten inserted option, but the rest cost so much I had to draw the line somewhere. Will be building another bottom end for this engine over the coming year and that is one of the things on my, as yet, wish list. Can't decide weather to stay with a K or go the engine transplant route, (down tut down).

Current state of play is............going to be a surprise. Will have a major thread update in the coming week, hopefully .

Mike

[Shug]

Who's taking bets on a Scholar 1.9 block?

[Victor Meldrew]

Who's taking bets on a Scholar 1.9 block?

Advertising in this months PPC for 1.9's from £350+vat (modify own block)... now lets get back onto Ebay and find one to send down.....

[Shug]

FROM £350

That means the work is £350, but you add parts costs for liners and forged 82mm pistons. £900 as a starter is more like it.

[tut]

Stick with the K Mike if you can get the power AND reliability.

Anybody can have a Honda put in if they hand over the readies, doing it mostly yourself as you and George are doing is much more satisfying in the end. And it keeps the originality of the car which is the part that I regretted.

I would not swap my Hondas, but N1 was done for different reasons, and N3 was a no brainer.

tut

[Victor Meldrew]

FROM £350

That means the work is £350, but you add parts costs for liners and forged 82mm pistons. £900 as a starter is more like it.

Just off the phone... now over £1000+ vat due to the Euro.

Price quoted was for machining only.. advert not exactly strictly telling the whole story....

Sod that then.

[Mikie711]

tut, I can see your point about retaining a K series. By and large it's a pretty good option as I have spent the bulk of the money already, and to be honest a lot of that went on the car as apposed to just the engine. If I stay with the K my plan is to indeed buy a scholar Evo 2 1.9 block and pistons but doing that is not cheap

Block, pistons and machining £1081.00 (web site here)
Steel rods (arrow) £815.00
Balance and tungsten insert the crank £? would guess not a lot of change from £800
Oil pump water pump and gaskets bits and bobs £500

Now I already have some of these parts but even though it's another couple of grand just for a bottom end. Will see how this one fairs over the year and how much free cash I've got knocking around.
Failing all that it's about £11,000 to go German . (much better option than a type R IMHO)

[Mikie711]

George,
just a thought but it's unlikely that your engine was killed by oil over pressure unless the relief valve in the oil pump was fubar!!. Even with cold oil it should still open. The oil stat I used is this one. It fits, on elise at any rate, between the guard plate and fuel tank.....just.

[Victor Meldrew]

Had an interesting chat with Dan about "downsizing". 200 bhp out of a 1600K series.. Just need to wait to see what the class structures turn out like in 2010.

[BiggestNizzy]

Had an interesting chat with Dan about "downsizing". 200 bhp out of a 1600K series.. Just need to wait to see what the class structures turn out like in 2010.

1.4 Turbo ?

Is the 1600 a bored or stroked 1400 ? and is the 1800 bored and stroked again ?

what would you get by keeping the 1400's stroke but 1800's bore ? or is that the 1600 and I am talking p1sh ?