Locost engine

I can get an easy 160bhp from a D16Y8 with D16A6 pistons, Hondata ECU, intake, exhaust and a few other mods. This would give me a 320bhp a ton which is quite a bit. How easy it to modify the Swift engine?

Dunno (ask airplane folk), but it'd probably get awesome city mileage, and it's not the import world's small block Chevy, which may be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your outlook.

http://www.ssgti.net/main.htm This page has links to some stuff available.

Personally, for bang-for-your-buck performance, I'd go for any of Nissan's VQ/VG 6 cylinders, available front or rear wheel drive, 180+ horsepower, huge aftermarket support and stupid cheap to find the earlier versions.

Or... the supercharged 2.5 ltr v-6 from the Mazda Millenia S(n/a version available in the Ford Probe/MX-6 and other Millenia's

You could buy whole donor cars for less than your Civic engine build would cost with similar weight and higher power potential.

I am thinking the Genesis Coupe 2.0T will be the next ultimate Locost donor.

The DOHC 2.0/2.3/2.5L four cylinder Duratec/MZR. Fwd/Rwd/Awd. 5/6 manuals, automatics, they come turbocharged as well as NA, all aluminum, Caterham uses them, Cosworth can make porn out of them, and the Formula Atlantic cars make 300hp NA. Plus its comes in the Miata (Which is the first answer anyways). FTW.

130hp, 9500rpm G13B out of a Swift GT is my #1 choice for a 1200lb locost. They sound absolutely wicked at full song. But I'm partial....

on that same note, how about a bored/stroked busa motor? ~1400cc's, 170+hp, 13k+ RPM, weighs less than a swift motor, I bet... :)

But it doesn't bolt up to any transmissions.....

Why not a GM Quad 4? When my dad built his Lotus 7 kit cars back in the day, he was using 12a rotarys and Pinto motors, and those had plenty of poop to get the job done. GM came to him with, at the time, the new Quad 4 motor for him to slap 2 turbos on and go to Bonneville to set a time. Ive tried to find more info on my dads old Lotus's "Sabre Sevens" but have not been successful. I do have however the old KitCar magazines from the day with his cars in it. See if i can get the scanner here at work fired up to scan them in...

Bobzilla wrote: But it doesn't bolt up to any transmissions.....

You mean aside from the one it's already bolted to? Who needs reverse?

If the OP wants to stay below 1000lbs the best option would be an all aluminum 4 cylinder of debatable size and origin. Preferences dictating.

You didnt get this from me . Its a document for the duratec, its big too.

RossD wrote: You didnt get this from me . Its a document for the duratec, its big too.

Thanks Ross.

Here's the same thing for the Duratec V6's:

http://www.newcougar.org/gallery/users/16/30L-MAIN.pdf

http://www.newcougar.org/gallery/users/16/25L-MAIN.pdf

Bob

Keith wrote: Every engine has been considered for a Locost at some point :) It ends up being a game to see who can suggest the most oddball of the bunch :)

...and it ends up being a pain in the butt if you're dumb enough to follow through on some of those hair-brained ideas.

I'm currently regretting my donor decision....It's next to impossible to find cheap (a.k.a salvage yard) parts for the fuel-injected inline six (l24e) from a 1982 datsun maxima station wagon.

I just thought of an interesting one... an s2000 powered locost! :) (not that it would be low-cost anymore with an s2000 drivetrain, but I bet it would be a berkelying monster to drive!)

S2K's been done. Company in Texas makes a kit or turn key of it. I saw one last year in KC.

That's the World Class Motorsports (WMC) Ultralite. It's a step above a Locost in design and execution. I'm pretty sure most of their cars are sold as turn-keys.

You could use an SR20DET from the Pulsar GTI-R, its fairly unique as far as sr20s are concerned because of its independent throttle bodies. It also comes stock with a t28 turbo and makes decent power. They are also much cheaper than the RWD sr20s, last I checked you can pick up a clean engine set for $1200-1500!

CLNSC3 wrote: You could use an SR20DET from the Pulsar GTI-R, its fairly unique as far as sr20s are concerned because of its independent throttle bodies. It also comes stock with a t28 turbo and makes decent power. They are also much cheaper than the RWD sr20s, last I checked you can pick up a clean engine set for $1200-1500!

There's a guy that has a Se7en kit car that did that, making somewhere north of 400whp. Speculations were 600whp. Either way, i'm not entirely positive that i'd have the cajones to ride in it.

I would be more than willing to bet that you could beat your 1000 lb goal using a Saturn SC2 motor... 1.9 liter, dohc, 124 horses... The aforementioned World Class Motorsports started out using the saturn motor, and in F/R layout barely hit 1200lbs...Eliminate the drive shaft and rear diff assembly and BOOM!!! 1000lbs.... http://www.wcmultralite.com/article_tkc-08-2002.htm As for an aftermarket, Saturn Performance Specialists have been racing and making parts for these motors for years... Visit www.spswebpage.com for info on these guys. And if you really need the power, there are super/turbocharger kits available for these.

My personal choice would be any Saab turbo 4 after GM took over... Capable of an excess of 500hp on stock bottom end, easily 350hp in daily driver. They're basically turbo charged Cavalier motors(Again, huge aftermarket support and FREE downloadable engine tuning software-T5 Suite...) My Aero makes about 240 hp stock, with a slick shifting 5-speed, cruises at just under 3k rpm at 85mph... you can get these motors pretty dang cheap... Buy the Cavalier motor and 5-speed, swap on the saab exhaust manifold and turbo... But yeah, any transversely mounted, F/F manual trans car would work great...

Oh, a popular one with the VW crowd, VR6 in the hatch where the back seat used to be...

Oh, check out www.grabercars.com while you're at it... He used a first gen Toyota MR2 motor/trans in his car. That combo is virtually identical to the Toyota Corolla Fx16/GT-S, just in the back instead of the front...

http://www.grabercars.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=1799&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0&sid=58810d0737fd935d8254d2349877efb4

Mid engine Graber with a supercharged EcoTech(same as SAAB 4-cylinder turbo, just supercharged from the Saturn Ion...) Great build to follow, BTW...