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MG MGF Technical - Bit of a dream but?????

With having had another busy day at the office I have had a chance to trawl thru the BBS archives.
It seems that the whole improving performance of my 1.8MPI beyond K & N and exhaust really becomes rather expensive when compared to Great British pounds spent!
Now I appreciate that this is very unlikely but has anyone thought about changing the enging to one of the rather tasty VTEC units made by our small cousins in Japan?
The reason I suggest this is due to the sharing of parts/mounts etc that went on in the late 80's early 90's. Would the VTEC mate to the MGF gearbox. Are the engine mounts the same etc etc?
It sounds rather appealing to have a screaming 1.8 or 2.0 engine throwing over 200 horses out at 8500rpm???
Not to mention great fun wiping the smile off the face of some Elise owners????
R Baker

Richard

I think its been done. I know I saw on the Elise board a link to a tuning company who have done it and got well over 200BHP out of it.

I've just done similar calculations to you, hence the reason I'm ditching the F in the spring and getting an Elise. I love the F, but I don't need the practicality anymore and they are great fun.

DJ

DJ

There is a good argument for doing as DJ suggests - ie don't waste money on upgrades (it really is money down the drain), instead buy a faster car!

Of course, this is not the whole story. There are those of us who like tinkering with cars as a hobby. Others who like having a car that is percieved as a wolf in 'sheeps' clothing. Whatever. Then the cost aspect becomes rather less important, as this is likely to be a car that you'll never sell.

With this in mind, I'd recommend a chat with a nice fellow called David Andrews. He'll perform small miracles for you at very reasonable cost: 190 bhp is a realistic and reliable proposition from a well built K-series. See http://members.aol.com/DVApower/ for some more details.

DJ is right, there is a company in California that is planning to sell kits to install the VTEC motor (as found in those 'mega'- Civic Type Rs ;o) ) into the Lotus. Stands to reason that if these engines can be fitted into an Elise, it should also fit into an F too.

Worth a thought, but I reckon that a K-series upgrade will probably work out cheaper to do (less labour involved).
Rob Bell

Lotus are thinking along the same lines it seems.
'The Sun' reports that the K-series will be dropped in favour of Toyota 1.8 and 3.0V6 units.
I doubt that these changes could be sensibly fitted to an F/TF - but it also means the MG owners will find it more expensive to tune as other makers drop the ageing K-series

Steve
Steve


Hi all,
is it really possible from a MoT-view to change the engine in a car that has the EU-directive from -95 ?
On older cars it should be OK but to what I have found out so far it is not possible on the continent to do this. Of course it could be done the "Roadsport" way ;), i.e. one engine for the MoT -session and one for actual driving. 2 complete rear subframes with engine and gearbox + better (quicker) interface between some cables,fuel-lines etc.... Any takers ?

BR, Carl.
Carl Blom

The problem with the Honda VTEC units is that they rotate in the opposite direction, and so are mounted the opposite way round, IE in my Civic vtec the box is on the drivers' side. Although the PG1 box was originally Honda-built I don't know which (if any) non-Rover models it was fitted to but I suspect it does not mate to a VTEC... HTH
David

David, the whole transaxle is utilised in the conversion - so engine, gearbox, diff and a pair of custom drive shafts to the wheel hubs.

Given that the engine is mounted differently in Hondas (I hadn't appreciated this, thanks David), then it makes installing this engine in an MG more problematic - the fuel tank access for example really limiting space on the left hand side of the engine bay...

Autocar also carried the story regarding Lotus dropping the K-series in preference to Toyota 1.8 and V6 engines. This apparently is in the effort to homologate the cars for US sale. The story indicated that the K was no longer US emissions compliant - which comes as something of a surprise given that the KV6-powered Landrover Freelander is sold there.
Rob Bell

Or simply engage reverse to move forwards.

No, hang on...
David Bainbridge

This thread was discussed between 12/12/2002 and 13/12/2002

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