engine kits

[braceuself]

thinking of getting a more powerful engine.been looking at a few.been told to avoid mini sport ones.want as much power as i can for about £1000.any recomendations?

[ljonez]

i think swift tune are probly one of the best, but you pay for it. Morspeed engines are suposed to good but from the ammount of complaints on tmf and minifinity about waiting times and customer service i think i'd give them a miss.

another option is to decide on a spec and get a local machine shop to do all the rebores, skims, regrinds etc etc then build it yourself. will probly work out alot cheaper and you wont have the fuss of postage and exchanges etc. Also you can go back and speak to them in person if any thing is wrong etc.

[braceuself]

been told avonbar and med are good too.

[ljonez]

yeah i've heard MED are good seemed a bit pricey when i looked at them i know allot of the turbo ed engine builders tend to use avonbar so that must be a good sign

[braceuself]

i was recomended the 1293 kit.told its 91 hp.its about 800

[dai9fxey]

Remember, if you buy a short motor ready built the supplier nomally needs a surcharge unless you supply an engine for them.

[braceuself]

it was £179 surcharge

[irishstick]

ive got stacks of spare engines here, swop them a crap one and gimme a couple of quid?

[braceuself]

cool.i'll let you know closer to the time.

[ljonez]

i had all my machine work done by lyons in brynmawr who seem to be pritty reasonable. just to give u an idea on my current 998 i had -

+40 rebore, block skimmed and some 1cc pockets cut along with the pistons and it came to £188 and as far as i remembre the pistons were over 100 on their own. might be worth giving them a ring and seeing what they can do for you?

[braceuself]

thats a tidy price

[braceuself]

i decided to get a minisport stage 3 head for my cooper.anyone got any info on these?any good or not?or any other suggestions.it costs £412

[ljonez]

i personly have no experiance with their heads, but from what i have read and heard i would avoid them.

just had a quick look at thier web site and the stage 3 heads have 35mm and 29mm valves which is what the MG metro heads are, might be worth trying to get one of them?
i paid somthing like £15 for mine ( which was a bagin) dont forget mini sport prices dont incluce VAT or the surcharge

[braceuself]

does the metro one give much more power?i did have a metro engine in a mini and wasnt impressed with it-

[ljonez]

from when i was looking at engine options i was lead to belive the MG metro engine ( large valve head) was the most powerfull produced in standard form ( except the turbo but thats a whole diffrent story) think it was somthing like 75 BHP , plus you can get it gas flowed etc etc aswell.
only problem is they were leaded so would either need addative or seats inserted, i did ask about the conversion and it was somthing like £140 but that was a few years ago, but it would still work out cheaper than a mini sport head

[braceuself]

i'm really after the cheapest way to get about 90 hp.prob have to go for an engine kit then

[ljonez]

your best bet is to pick which cam you want then build the engine around it.

for example
if you was low down torque go for somthing like the SW5 and get a head to suit, bigger valves and abit of gasflowing

or if you want a screamer you could go for a 286 or posibly a 300 degree cam which produces most of its power at high rpms so you would want a head with much larger valves and alot of flow work done.

so i think the first question is what will the car be used for?

[braceuself]

road use.want quicker acceleration more than top speed

[ljonez]

might be worth looking at the SW5-07 or the slightly hotter morspeed PH2 cams, thats if you can get hold of morspeed and they have then in stock.

both cams give better torque ( which is what you want for accelaration) and will produce a higher BHP ( which you want for top end) and both are emmisions freindly so you shouldnt have any problems come MOT time.

if you want the cheapest option the MG metro cam is not far off the SW5 and can be picked up of ebay for a few quid but you take the chance its not too worn etc.

i have a SW5-07 in my 998 and it pulls like a train from 1800 rpm all the way up to 6k rpm, it will probly carry on but thats when my rev limiter kicks in.


head wise Stage 3 is more than enough but check specs as diffrent companys have diffrent specs for each stage

block wise a simple rebuild with a +20 rebore taking it to 1293 would be fine thats if it needs one.

[braceuself]

thanks for that advise