KS's hillclimbing odyssey

[Gary71]

…and a turbo. Why not

[Sam]

From the thread title I was expecting something more like this:

[KS]

Wash your mouth out sonny!

[911hillclimber]

What are your expectations of this engine?.

[KS]

That it runs. That's all I'll say at present.

[KS]

One small step, one potentially giant leap…

[neilbardsley]

That will make a big difference

Sent from my M2004J19C using Tapatalk

[KS]

That will make a big difference

I hope so, but it's only part of the story. The car's weak links are fuel surge and a lack of grunt pulling out of the hairpins at Wiscombe, or up the long hills at Werrington and Castle. Plus a massive loss of traction at the hairpins.

The plan is to do a budget revamp to cure the above, but still leave the car fully usable for long-distance trips. First is a capacity increase, with a 78mm crank replacing the current 71mm item, which will give a capacity of 2258 as opposed to the current 2056. I'm retaining the same H-beam rods which, at 5.158in in length, give me an ideal rod ratio of 1.67. This will increase piston speed to give better cylinder filling, producing more torque at lower rpm. This relies on more efficient inlet design to help things along, which is one reason the heads are being swapped from 42 x 36 1.8-litre heads to 44 x 37 2-litre heads, which have the added advantage of better plug location. We've (the 'we' being myself and Graham Rawlings at Rawspeed Engine Tuning) worked out what needs to be done to the stock ports, which are 'limiting' in their design. More of that at a later date (Graham has some interesting ideas...). I'm almost certainly (almost...) staying with the current cam, a WebCam 86a, which should deliver goods where needed, aided by an increase in compression ratio (currently around a lowly 8.5:1!). Lightening the flywheel will help pick up, too.

Regarding the fuel surge, the obvious choice is to get rid of the carbs and go to throttle bodies, hence the trigger wheel which then allows us to go down the DTA ECU route, killing two birds (fuelling and ignition) in one hit. More of that anon.

We're aiming for 150-160bhp, but who knows. It is, after all, just a number. A mild weight loss programme is planned, too. The car currently weighs around 960kg, so it should be quite lively even as it stands.

As for traction, the plan is to purchase a Quaife ATB (and one of their quick racks while we're on their website...) with which I've had great experiences in the past.

Then we'll see what Chris Rudling and I can come up with for the brakes...

[Yellow491]

What about the driver:),fitness program,special diet,otter beer banned,lose 3 stone and up the reaction time training,one divers lead boot:)
Look forward to seeing the finished weapon.

[Bruce M]

DubShop part I think. He does nice work.

David Vizard has been doing some interesting you-tube videos recently. The production quality isn’t great and it’s all V8 based but the info is very good. Learnt new info on port bias, valve shrouding, and such like. Worth a watch if you are interested in general head porting topics.

[KS]

What about the driver:),fitness program,special diet,otter beer banned,lose 3 stone and up the reaction time training,one divers lead boot:)
Look forward to seeing the finished weapon.

Hmm, valid points. I started the diet today with a double Scotch (Glen Keith, no less) followed by a glass of Malbec. As for weight, if I lost 3 stone, I’d weigh 6 1/2 stone, which would def help the power to weight ratio. The rest I’ll need to work on…

[KS]

DubShop part I think. He does nice work.

David Vizard has been doing some interesting you-tube videos recently. The production quality isn’t great and it’s all V8 based but the info is very good. Learnt new info on port bias, valve shrouding, and such like. Worth a watch if you are interested in general head porting topics.

David Vizard always interesting - first met him in my days on Hot Car in the late 1970s.

[rhd racer]

I did an awesome Wilwood brake conversion on mine Keith, with a Merc 23mm MC, with SC discs all round. It was totally awesome on the brakes, the conversion is pretty straightforward and there are a couple of threads on 914 world that show all the steps. They were 4 pots all round and came in about half the price of a typical UK 4 pot conversion. Obviously needs provision for a handbrake, so I did a 911 conversion inside the 914 trailing arms which worked well, but was a bit of work…..

Looking forward to seeing your progress

Cheers
Wayne

[911hillclimber]

David Vizard!
Have a book on V8's by him somewhere.
Pleased to read he is still here.

[KS]

I did an awesome Wilwood brake conversion on mine Keith, with a Merc 23mm MC, with SC discs all round. It was totally awesome on the brakes, the conversion is pretty straightforward and there are a couple of threads on 914 world that show all the steps. They were 4 pots all round and came in about half the price of a typical UK 4 pot conversion. Obviously needs provision for a handbrake, so I did a 911 conversion inside the 914 trailing arms which worked well, but was a bit of work…..

Looking forward to seeing your progress

Cheers
Wayne

Thing is I have and wish to retain 914/4 struts on cost grounds, so the 911 disc swap isn't possible. We have some plans in that direction, though...