My MG-TF 80th Anniversary with a 230bhp K20 Honda CTR engine

[Adam-MGTF]

Yeh I am that mad

I bought this car "half converted" and it's the only one of it's kind... it was wired up... but the driveshafts were holding the engine in place and it was just a wreck basically. So i sold my old TF and I've spent the better part of a year re-building it with all new Parts

The Engine mounts are a work of art and by Woodsport

With the help of a few MG Geeks I've done everything else myself pretty proud of it really

As i got her home (the hardtop isn't mine)











Started the Strip down, first look of the V-TEC Yo!:



Time to get the engine out:





Rubbish subframe with worse moutns:



Expert Assistance needed... Bring on Woodsport





Thanks paul, thats better!

Lay out all the suspension for blasting and powder coat



Epic Air Fix Kit!

just need to glue it all together when the parts are back from blasting now!




Engine was Dyno'd at 244bhp with the K-Pro ECU and a better exhaust than this car came with (I'll be sorting that) so I guess around 230bhp of mid engined RWD wolf in hair dressers clothing!

[Mike 820]

Cracking project mate.
Bet you catch quite a few boy racers off guard.

[wackojacko]

You have literally have no idear how spooky this is !!!!! I saw one today and said "That would be cool to stick a K20 in, I wonder if anyone's done it already"


Great stuff, very sleeperish.

[IrrElephant]

You can buy a mount kit????

I have an MGF sitting here doing nothing, and I know where I can get a K20.

I expect the wiring is a pig?

[Adam-MGTF]

Mike 820 said:

Cracking project mate.
Bet you catch quite a few boy racers off guard.

When it's done i expect I'll eat a few quick cars for lunch, just for kicks lol It only weights 1100KG so not a heavy weight and 230bhp is still respectable, plus the naturally traction of mid engined RWD (which makes a bigger difference then youd expect... a TF with a 1.6 K series engine - 115bhp can out drag a 160 bhp 1.8 version of the same engine in a MG ZR (fwd)

If the car handles the 230ish bhp ok I'm already talking to TDI North about a Turbo, Should see 450bhp on the "Race" map and 330ish on a Road map... and that should surprise a few of Stuttgarts finest, never mind boy racers! Thats at least a year off though

Thanks for the positive Post mate nice to see Petrolheads of a different world liking it

wackojacko said:

You have literally have no idear how spooky this is !!!!! I saw one today and said "That would be cool to stick a K20 in, I wonder if anyone's done it already"


Great stuff, very sleeperish.

Cue the twilight zone music!!!!

Its been done once in a MGF that know of, but the F and TF (contrary to popular belife) are very different cars... one in a F would need different mounts, suspension (because of the weight difference) electrics, exhaust and all sorts compared to one in a TF

Being a revvy motor is should suit a sports car nicly. Thats the only thing making me hesitate on a Turbo really, weather it will spoil the fun and make it too serious

Thanks for the comments It has an iVTEC badge on the back atm but that will dissapear... from the outside it will look OEM apart from the light weight alloys and suspension and a few very very subtle tweaks... sleeper ftw in this case!

IrrElephant said:

You can buy a mount kit????

I have an MGF sitting here doing nothing, and I know where I can get a K20.

I expect the wiring is a pig?

Do you mean "can you buy a kit?"

sadly not... mine is the first of it's kind

there has been an F with a K20A2 engine in it... but that engine is now mine! lol... it doesnt exist

Woodsport have said they will make mounts but youd need to give them your subframe and an engine to work on

The F is totally different to the TF and Paul couldn't just make you mounts like mine i'm afriad

The wireing was a joke when i got the car... I'm trying to sort it out but it's not exactly fun

I'm considering making a kit for enthusiasts (like the lotus kit)... Woodsport would do the mounts and i'd do everything else

But im a Student Nurse so not exactly full of time, and i think my Girldfriend would kill me if i spent yet more nights in the garage making kits for people

so it's a way off for now

I saw some companies offering coneversions (Drive in, Drive out) but your looking at 8 grand+ and youd need to fork out for the car (if you dont have one) plus a 2.5k engine and gearbox and £800+ worth of K-Pro ECU

Including the purchase cost of my car i'll have spent around 4k by doing it myself on a night and at weekends

[Adam-MGTF]

Pop along to here

http://forums.mg-rover.org/showthread.php?t=412984

If you want to read my project thread... its a heck of a read like, you'll need an hour so grab a cuppa (or beer) and have a mooch... Its got spades of pictures and shows everything i'm doing to the car (the engine is just the tip of the iceburg)

[mike88]

Hello Adam

[RobCrezz]

Great engine, shame about the car...


...only joking. Great project, will be quite nippy I bet!

[pthelazyjourno]

Adam-MGTF said:

Do you mean "can you buy a kit?"

sadly not... mine is the first of it's kind

there has been an F with a K20A2 engine in it... but that engine is now mine! lol... it doesnt exist

Woodsport have said they will make mounts but youd need to give them your subframe and an engine to work on

The F is totally different to the TF and Paul couldn't just make you mounts like mine i'm afriad

The wireing was a joke when i got the car... I'm trying to sort it out but it's not exactly fun

I'm considering making a kit for enthusiasts (like the lotus kit)... Woodsport would do the mounts and i'd do everything else

But im a Student Nurse so not exactly full of time, and i think my Girldfriend would kill me if i spent yet more nights in the garage making kits for people

so it's a way off for now

I saw some companies offering coneversions (Drive in, Drive out) but your looking at 8 grand+ and youd need to fork out for the car (if you dont have one) plus a 2.5k engine and gearbox and £800+ worth of K-Pro ECU

Including the purchase cost of my car i'll have spent around 4k by doing it myself on a night and at weekends

Even at £8k, it could be seen as good value (depending on quality) - most of the Lotus conversions are an easy £10k+, with thousands on top of that when things get serious (chargecooling etc).

Bloody expensive!!

Still, looks like fun. I'm fond of the MGF / TF. Quite fancy an MGF 160.

[piooly]

Hi Adam.

Very pleased to see the engine change. I used to have an elise and always wanted to put a supercharged K20 engine in but funds were low. Anyway I now have a MGTF and really want to do this engine swap. How much did Woodsport charge to make the changes to your subframe and fabricate the new bits etc?

Also what did you do regarding the driveshafts? get new ones, or was it a mirracle and the old ones fit?

Is your car on standard suspension as it looks very high? If it is and you are considering a suspension change, I highly recommend Protech adjustable coilovers. Used to have them on the lotus and they were fantastic. I am going to be getting a set for the TF shortly as the standard shocks are terrible.

Thanks.

Oliver.

[piooly]

Hi Adam.

Very pleased to see the engine change. I used to have an elise and always wanted to put a supercharged K20 engine in but funds were low. Anyway I now have a MGTF and really want to do this engine swap. How much did Woodsport charge to make the changes to your subframe and fabricate the new bits etc?

Also what did you do regarding the driveshafts? get new ones, or was it a mirracle and the old ones fit?

Is your car on standard suspension as it looks very high? If it is and you are considering a suspension change, I highly recommend Protech adjustable coilovers. Used to have them on the lotus and they were fantastic. I am going to be getting a set for the TF shortly as the standard shocks are terrible.

Thanks.

Oliver.

[jonnydrama]

Did you get it from a guy called Richard in Scotland? If it's not the same fella then there's another K20 MG-TF

[Podie]

Bookmarked.

[jamieleehodgson]

Very interesting car and i quite like.
A nice suspension setup decent brakes and arbs etc then it would make great fun!

Tho i wouldnt turbo! Supercharge yes .... Oooo yes

[TheDoggingFather]

Wow, never thought of this conversion, it's rather inspired.

[NadiR]

This is my kind of project. When its done you're basically going to end up with a car that people will think is a Rover at the lights then the same people in their 330i will think "What the fk just happened" after your VTEC blows their eardrums off and leaves them for dust.

[Dift]

Having had a Elise with an NA honda conversion, I can see the reasoning behind it.

As mentioned previous... what drive shafts are you using?