Destroy it yourself..
OK I think I’ve come to a decision on which route to take.
Which engine, which kit?
Upgrade the K - I’m not convinced this is the best solution. Rover is no more, its pretty old technology and I just don’t feel comfortable about squeezing 190+ BHP out of it.
The new car route? Common sense tells me that I’m mad not to sell my S2, put £8K to it and buy a 111R. There are a number of these for sale around the £18K mark.
The engine conversion route is where I want to be. I’d dearly love to see that high revving iVTEC number in the back of my car.
During the course of my investigations into this subject I’ve spoken to all the major shops who fit these kits and I think £10K plus is a huge commitment to make. After all my car is only worth 11 thousand pounds to start with. But on the other hand a turn-key is a very stress free and easy solution.
I’m not that interested in the Audi conversion or the Duratec, no specific reason really. I just like that Honda engine.
So, what should I do…?
A decision had to be made and I’ve put my money where my mouth is and bought a 2004 Civic K20A iVTEC engine. The engine came complete with all the sensors attached and a 6 speed box, UK spec ECU, drive shafts (all 3), cat, wiring looms (engine and starter), air box and just about every other bit I got away with stripping off the car. The engine has covered less than 30k miles and looks complete apart from the intermediate shaft heat cover. I also had to buy a new thermostat housing which was broken during its removal.
With much deliberation I’ve also decided to go down the DIY route. Why?
Well, the fundamental reason is cost. OK I accept I’ll be criticised for this and the current consensus in the market place is that I’ll probably lose out. There will be hidden costs here and maybe the re-sale value of my car will be the highest. I appreciate I’ll need some rolling road, I may also need to replace the ECU? I’m going to lose the skin off my knuckles and I’m also going to wish I’d never started the damned project. But, what I hope to achieve is to show it is possible and it does cost less and it makes you feel good to do something yourself. Above all - do something that’s desperately needed - provide a resource for people like me who can and will DIY.
One thing I do promise…. !! Warning - mission statement time !!
- I’ll share all my information.
- I’ll be fair to and frank about costs and time taken to complete tasks.
- I invite other conversion specialist to detail their activities and provide more detailed information about their conversions - it will make the difference to the non-DIYer.
Why would I want to share my information openly?
I work in IT which for better or worse has shaped my views with regard to community projects. A community being a group of like minded individuals with a single goal in mind. In this case, putting a new engine in the back of a great sports car. Many traditional engineers will be un-aware of the Open Source movement and be very reluctant buy into its ideology. To find out more about the open source movement go to: http://www.opensource.org/
Why would you want to spend hours making and designing something and then not sell it for a profit? Well you can, its just the freedom of information around your product that will ultimately help you:
- Make your development the industry leader and bring down production costs through economies of scale.
- Develop your product through its complete life cycle.
- Enable a forum for knowledge sharing, reducing your support overheads.
- Increase the residual value of your product.
There are many examples where software engineers have taken advantage of these opportunities and made a sustainable business in the medium term. For example, the software to drive this web site is all open source, Linux, MySQL, PHP, WordPress - all free to non-commercial entities such as this.
Please, lets not be confused here - I’m not planning on giving away anyone’s development information, diagrams or secrets which are owned by a manufacturer. What I do plan to give away is ‘My Experience’ of the process. This will include:
- Information related to any products I use.
- Where to source these products.
- Potential alternatives if (I’m made aware of them).
- How I installed these products.
- HOWTO’s and build guides.
- A directory of contacts and manufacturers.
Where do I go from here?
My only real option for DIY is to go down the Sun International route. I could make all the engine mounts myself, then the gear linkage, exhaust manifold, wiring loom, cooling system etc etc AND do I really need the hassle? The short answer is NO.
Many of you reading this may be aware of a few DIY projects that have been documented on Seloc (Lotus Owners Club) - NO? Well, have a read:
1. http://forums.seloc.org/viewthread.php?tid=118291 - Written by LotusElan17, to be honest, this is my inspiration for going down the DIY route. Even though this guy had problems with the his engine, I really felt the highs and lows and I learnt a lot - particularly with regard to buying the engine. Many common pit falls were embedded with in the text and this blog hopefully will re-order that information and provide an easier way to access it.
2. I’ll try and dig around the original Honda post I saw on seloc.