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I know someone who built these for racing. They used to eat themselves for breakfast periodically as I recall. Eventually, and this must have been one huge pile of money later, they figured out it was happening when they started up the engine when it was cold. Not sure I remember this right, but I believe they fitted a block heater and they had no failures after that. The engine builder was very good so that wasn't the issue.

I don't know what was special about these engines and how they were built that this became a requirement. Obviously your average Cosworth Vega didn't do this...

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Marcus Barrow - Car9 an open design community supported sports car for home builders!
SketchUp collection for LocostUSA: "Dream it, Build it, Drive it!"
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Mitsubisi 4G63 (2.0) and 4G64 (2.4) are only usable as rwd with wideblock engne blocks, unless you use a custom bellhousing adapter. 2.4's can use 2.0 dohc 16v heads and turbos and most of the 4g63 hotrod parts. 400hp is in easy reach. Wide blocks are in mitsu and dodge d50 pickups. The only m/t straight bolt up is the mitsu km145 5spd and the km148 4spd a/t, and a really old km144 4spd m/t. 144 and 145 are a little weak. Starion 4g54 2.6 used same tranny. 4G54T motors had from about 170-206hp, highedst 88-89. The head gaskets are not a problem unless you overheat the motor. 4G64dohcT is a popular swap for 4G54T. See projectzerog.com for complete details. Starions/Conquests also used the JAP600 a/t, inferior to the km148, which is a variant of the AisinWarner aw372 series used in several vehicles (Toyota, Heep, etc.)

Several engines missing here!

Alfa-Romeo 1300 - 2000 four cylinder and V6's.
1300 and 1600 really wind out the RPM.

Several Triumph engines, Sunbeam Alpine and Imp engines, various Fiat engines, Corvair, Cortina, and Jensen Healy (Lotus) slant four.

Yes, I do favor British and Italian engines.

Wish I could find a good Sunbeam Imp engine, they are a very light SOHC engine that became the famous Coventry Climax.
If you don't recognize the Coventry Climax engine, well I don't know what to say!
I would love to build a single seat formula 2 or 3 replica with the Imp engine.

Looks like I am about to fabricate an adapter for Ford T9 five-speed to Alfa-Romeo L4 engine.

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I sorted out these numbers on-line as it looks like I will be adapting a Merkur T9 box to my Alfa Romeo engine.
Appears to not be too hard, a spacer type adapter should do it without any welding.
I may have to slightly relocate the top two Alfa bell housing bolts.
My intent is to be able to use an unmodified Alfa clutch assembly with only the driven disc changed or modified.
Pretty clear I will want the Cosworth first gear upgrade.

Ford Sierra (Merkur) T9 Gearbox Ratios
1st : 3.65
(2.95 on Cosworth version - available as a modification to standard boxes)
2nd : 1.97
3rd : 1.37
4th : 1
5th: 0.82

Alfa Romeo Gearbox Ratios
Number of gears: 5
Gear ratios (overall):
1st : 3.304 (15.05)
2nd : 1.988 (9.06)
3rd : 1.355 (6.17)
4th : 1 (4.55)
5th : 0.79 (3.6)
R 3.01
Speed range

Alfa (max speed on gears, top gear value theory 4.55 diff).
(km/h/mph)
I: 47 / 29
II: 78 / 48
III: 115 / 71
IV: 155 / 96
V: 197 / 122
1000rpm speed:
(km/h/mph)
I: 7.8 / 4.8
II: 13 / 8.1
III: 19.1 / 11.9
IV: 25.9 / 16.1
V: 32.8 / 20.4
Final drive ratio std: 4.555
Standard tires: 165 HR 14
Alfa rear gears.
USA version Spiders.
69-79 - 4.56, 41/9. LSD from 1972, optional in 69 & 71. No 4.10 option.
80-94 - 4.10, 41/10. Manual gearbox.

Adding a pic of my geometry for the Ford T9 to Alfa adapter.

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Cosworth Vega,

bin there done that,

most vegas have been fitted with liners by now, i don't think that is the way to go.

if you use coated pistons then just bore the aluminum block, it's the same technology that gm used on the can am big blocks.

cosworth have nothing to do with this engine and do not supply any parts, they just did the design work on the 4 valve head.

the injection is very primative, there are two pots on the computer that you can adjust, i forget how to adjust them but there is a vega nut in detroit that does, also you can adjust the fuel pressure regulator to richen the whole thing across the rev band.

the main problem is mid range flatness but if you find out how to do the adjustments that can be managed.

also valve clearance can be a problem but you can top or tail the valves to suit the available shims.

people who have tried to make serious horse power report that they will snap in half along the bottom of the cylinders, this can be rectified by boring the head bolt holes all the way out the bottom and attaching a girdle that clamps the engine together.

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My Isuzu thread may have additional trans info. viewtopic.php?f=4&t=15737

A lot of Isuzu engine info on my RX-8 build thread. http://www.rx8club.com/frankenstein-rx- ... ad-241226/

So has anyone looked at the Ford 3.5/3.7 Cyclone family? From what I know they have a unique bellhousing that only bolts to the MT-82 Mustang transmission, but they're 265/305 hp out of the box and the 3.5s are dirt cheap because Ford put them in literally everything starting around 2007.

I keep being surprised that I can't find anything about these engines being used for swaps. There's a little bit on the Ranger forums, but not much else.

I am not sure if this has been posted. But you can now use a Honda K series with a Miata trans checkout

http://www.kmiata.com/

And my build

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=16975

Graham

As someone else stated - high Silica. Problem was not with the cylinders as much as with the heads warping. Brother-in-law had one he put over 140 thou on and no problems. Was not really a car guy, he just made sure the basics were covered. Engine ran good until the body died.

Bigger problem was the clutch. Horrible from the factory. Dealers coudn't get it right. The pivot ball was too far back and after adjusting the clutch was great...

As I recall, the problem was the radiator being too small. The excess heat warped the head and the engine was toast. GM fixed the problem but by then the engine had already gotten a bad reputation and the early Vegas were already rusting away. I think the same aluminum technology was used in the Can Am engines team McLaren used.

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I have a book with an IMechE (Brit version of SAE) paper on the development of the Lotus 907 engine. Lotus claimed that they shared the development cost of the linerless aluminum block with GM, who used the technology in the Vega.

Chevrolet's official story was that Vega liner failures were due to not following the recommended oil change schedule.

Most sources claimed the pistons were "tin plated." The Lotus paper said they used iron plating. I stripped a Vega engine one time and tossed the pistons and rods in the scrap metal pile, and was surprised to see the pistons were rusty a while later. So at least some Vegas used iron-plated pistons.

The Vega radiator was *tiny*; I've seen motorcycles with bigger radiators. And no shroud. I seem to remember a two-blade fan, but that might have been the early Pinto.

My Sunnen boring bar came with a collection of Sunnen technical papers. They had a procedure for using a regular boring bar to rebore the aluminum cylinders. GM's official procedure involved boring, acid-etching aluminum to leave the silicon particles standing up, and then honing those with a special hone.

Nowadays so many vehicles use linerless aluminum cylinders that I'm sure the techniques are well-understood by the aftermarket. I've never dealt with any during my years running an engine shop, though.

I love walking thru the local yards.
A few weeks ago I discovered a wrecked 2005 Mustang GT. The engine had already been pulled but the 5 speed Trans was still there. I grabbed my tools (I keep a junkyard-pulling tool kit in the trunk at all times)
30 min later I was at the checkout with the TR3650. I paid $118 total (core incl) Took it to the parking lot and strapped it to the roof rack of my 66 vw bug. Got home and watched the spouse shake her head as I pulled into the driveway. Luckily she let's me spend my birthday cash on whatever.
Next was to find a modular motor and wouldnt you know, one of the other yards had a 98 lincoln Mark VIII . 32 valve 4.6 with the teksid aluminium block.
Best part, my wife wanted to come help Saturday morning and pull the engine. I was surprised at how excited she was especially since she had never been to a yard before. I figured I'd make it as painless for her as I could. So I went the afternoon of the previous day and did all of the tedious and time consuming work iN the enine bay. When we showed up the next day we were only there for an hour and we were done. She loved working the chain hoist.
Feels like I've been collecting stuff for ages.
I have the complete rear from a toyota mk3 supra with lsd in its subframe. The completed front end as well which is double wishbone in a subframe.
16x7 BBS style mesh alloys from a Ford crown vic and mounted 205 45 16 tires
Tomorrow I begin my bench for the frame construction.
I will be building the locost frame around the drive train.

First, Welcome the asylum.

Second, sounds like its time to make a build thread!

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Tucker

ARWdohcV8, welcome. You can introduce yourself in the new members thread or start a build thread...

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Marcus Barrow - Car9 an open design community supported sports car for home builders!
SketchUp collection for LocostUSA: "Dream it, Build it, Drive it!"
Car9 Roadster information - models, drawings, resources etc.

Or you show up the next day and the engine's gone with a note on the hood, "thanks for disconnecting everything for me!"

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