Carby

well gee progress already today, picked up a 308 motor a 305 motor two turbo 700 trans, 3 pairs of heads to suit, 2 that have already been recond. manifolds etc blah blah. All for nix nothing zilch zero. just a bit of time doing some electrical work when required. did I mention a hoist to go with.

 

Messing doesn't always mean some dumb arse that doesn't know what they're doing (my friend is a mechanic and let m borrow his equipment). I'm no noob when it comes to cars and tuning, I've been doing it for over 15 years now.

In my first car i changed the stock unreliable carby for a weber. It made a big improvement in power, response, etc.
I'd change jets to get a/f spot on and having running great for a fortnight before weather would change and it would lose response as a/f would change due to temp changes, etc. Carbs don't have temp compensation.

Eventually I converted to efi which resulted in better drivability all round and didn't require constant fiddling to keep it running great. I tuned the car myself on the road running standalone with great results. To get the final bit of power out of it I decided to pay to have it dyno tuned which left the car running worse. Where I grew up there was only 1 working dyno tuning place. From then on I stuck to road tuning.

We bought my wife a zx2r which didn't run to well down low. Played with the tuning to make it ridable then balanced the throttlebodies to further improve it but it was still rough down low. Took it to a local garage who has years of experience with car by bikes. Spent a week working on it only to make it unrideable! Eventually it came down to me to get it running reasonably before selling it a few months later.

I figured its a small bike thing so bought a 600 which ran fine but on cold mornings it had a habbit of dying just as I'm crossing the freeway! Reason being is the car by would freeze. Happened more than once.

Yes efi can let you down too but in general its much more reliable than any carby will ever be. And if you know how, its not hard to tune efi, no I don't regard pod filters and cannon exhausts as tuning.

 

That's a pretty good haul, are you a religious man? Might be interested in joining your church

Have you mocked it up against the front strut towers to see what you're dealing with?

 

They were a 4 litre Alloy V8 from the Leyland P76 and were the engine of choice for many 260Z owners(because they were more powerful and lighter than the 2.6 & 2.8 Nissan straight sixes of the day).:zlove:

 

This is off topic. Mods should know better than to voice their personal opinions with no reference or relevance to the topic.
Personal opinions off topic should be confined to PM, Mod or not.

Back to topic...
The Leyland engine was a nice bit of kit...back in its day....in comparison to, say the ubiquitous GMH 253 or a Ford 289 Yblock, in the 70's! It was relatively lightweight and could be massaged to make some power that was especially popular with the off-road buggy boys!
These days they are outdated and unsophisticated and importantly, rare as hens teeth!

Far better options would be a VH45 or whatever that Toyota V8 equivalent. Lightweight, sophisticated and produce more powah stock than the heavily modded old Leyland kit.

As far as a VG goes...carbed or not, lets look at it in context to what its being asked to do. Which is chucking skids!
Lets be clear, there is NO reference to drag racing or any other competition.
The entire car will weigh..Im guessing 800 odd kilos and in such a lightweight car, little power is required to initiate a skid let alone maintain it.
Id predict that a bone stock single cam VG with stock EFI would provide enough power for endless tyre frying fun and games.

A carb arrangement on the VG would be really cool actually and would perform well with a well designed plenum/ram type manifold. Remember, stock EFI setups are almost always a compromise between road manners and emissions and rarely focus on wot performance so are nowhere near the bees knees for powah.

HOWEVER the entire manifold setup will have to made from scratch and factor in a decent carb, assorted bits and bobs and fabrication time and we are starting to hurt even before we load the engine into the skid car!

As far as tuning an efi system for a skid car, Its a no brainer.
I would grab a 2 bob Microleb/Wolf/Haltech clunker that controls fuel and ignition for 200 bucks and within an hour, knowing the injector size, I could have a workable tune good enough for road driving within an hour.
If your local men say its too hard to get an EFI system running they are to be given a very wide berth and used strictly for tyre pressure adjustments and shock absorber changes only.

The bent 8 iron spoken of is obviously good value on the face of it but there is usually good reasons such clobber is made available for peanuts and usually being not a lot of use in its current state.
Quite a bit of money goes into those old engines top bring them up to a state where they are reliable day in and day out but the state of tune can be so mild in such a light car it prolly doesnt matter upgrading anything from stock!!!

I love the idea of the VG carbed but it wont sound much chop compared to the bent 8!!!! V6's just dont sound "right" when it comes to revving and skids!!!!!

Cheers men
E

 

Then why was my entire post deleted? Took me quite a while to retype it all.
E

 

So after all this is he gonna post vids of av8 mini popping tyres :br:

 

Hawhawhaw Im hoping so!!!!!!
RWD Mini on v8 steroids!!!!! Love it!
E

 

Go with whatever you can muster up cheaply unless you have a specific task/ role!

Once put a 202Cui GMH in line 6 in a mini - yes that's not much room for legs!
Why - simply because we had the parts and so it cost us nothing! That simple

JC

 

Thanks for your input.

First of all labelling a 253 as a terrible idea is just plain short sighted.

Its a bit like n00bs wanting to go for the the largest turbo they can, bigger is not always better.

As mentioned else where in this thread (yes, now might be a good time to read it.) difference in power is not an issue, for the job at hand so 253 or 308 means little.

But a 253 is cheap and they are very easy to find.

As far as build/refresh cost, I think you will find very little difference between the mentioned V8 options, but I would put a few dollars on the Holden V8 for being cheaper.

For your information I was fully aware or that a 253 and a 308 were the same size, most recent experience was at a2zed, I also noticed a 260z that Eric completed a 253 V8 conversion in, but having grown up in a wrecking yard and from a family of numerous Holden V8's, its the sort of thing that doesn't need to be said because its common knowledge.

I must admit I considered putting a "know all caveat" regarding the 253 and 308 being the same size in my original post, but I thought why should I, if someone is going to jump on that band wagon they will only be showing their lack of real knowledge and why I was suggesting a 253.

Now not to split hairs but a 302 is not so much smaller as it is narrower, length/weight is all comparable, the 302 is taller definitely an issue if you are trying to get under a mini bonnet, but in context 1.5" is really not the issue you are up shit creek and have plenty of work no mater what you do.

Yes you are right engines don't like bouncing of red line for several minutes at low speed.

Apart from all that I liked the idea of a nasty little V8 in a Mini, sounded cute almost, and something that made it interesting, especially as it was to promote and encourage others to get involved.

So I am really struggling to understand your "terrible idea" statement.