A new slant on bangernomics?
Discussion
OK. I have down graded my daily drive in order to afford my 'toys'. At the moment I'm driving around in an 'L' reg Astra 1.6 
. It is reliable and economical but will not last forever. Last night I was thinking about various ways to try and enjoy my daily drive when I had a thought...
What if I get an engine and go to town on it? Tune it for good performance and economy, use good quality parts and take great care over building it so it should give a good long service. I then buy a car, hopefully with a knackered engine, and drop the good engine into it and drive it until something else on the car requires more than, say, £100 to put right. I then find another car to drop the engine into.
The question is this...
What manufacturer/engine would the PH gurus suggest in order for me to carry this exercise on for the longest period in time?
It would need to be a fairly simple job to change the engine over. Minimal (if any) mods to fit the engine. Preferably a good assortment of cars in which to drop the engine.
Suggestions please gentlemen?
. It is reliable and economical but will not last forever. Last night I was thinking about various ways to try and enjoy my daily drive when I had a thought...What if I get an engine and go to town on it? Tune it for good performance and economy, use good quality parts and take great care over building it so it should give a good long service. I then buy a car, hopefully with a knackered engine, and drop the good engine into it and drive it until something else on the car requires more than, say, £100 to put right. I then find another car to drop the engine into.
The question is this...
What manufacturer/engine would the PH gurus suggest in order for me to carry this exercise on for the longest period in time?
It would need to be a fairly simple job to change the engine over. Minimal (if any) mods to fit the engine. Preferably a good assortment of cars in which to drop the engine.
Suggestions please gentlemen?
VAG 1.8T?
I think you'll find it hard to follow your plan because although the engine hardware might be transferrable, the ECU won't be- and any tuned engine will need an ECU to match. Plus your donor vehicles might need brake/suspension work or tyres too which would cost money each time. Plus it'll cost time and money to swap the engine in, plus you'll be constantly be on the phone to the DVLA and insurance companies to declare mods and engine number changes.
I think you'll find it hard to follow your plan because although the engine hardware might be transferrable, the ECU won't be- and any tuned engine will need an ECU to match. Plus your donor vehicles might need brake/suspension work or tyres too which would cost money each time. Plus it'll cost time and money to swap the engine in, plus you'll be constantly be on the phone to the DVLA and insurance companies to declare mods and engine number changes.
It would be a lot of work, but if you really want to do it then don't let that stop you - it's a fun idea.
The best engine in terms of reliability is probably a VAG Diesel, but that's probably not what you have in mind. You could try K-series or Duratecs, they're always going in unusual cars so there's probably a wealth of parts and knowledge about how to fit them.
The best engine in terms of reliability is probably a VAG Diesel, but that's probably not what you have in mind. You could try K-series or Duratecs, they're always going in unusual cars so there's probably a wealth of parts and knowledge about how to fit them.
Only issue with that is do you really want a higher than standard power engine in an old car with original brakes and suspension that might not handle it too well?
Depends on the type of cars you're interested in as you want to think in terms of families. Golf/Leon/A3/Octavia make a lot of sense as there's quite a few cars sharing the same engine, and a lot of specalists tuning them.
Alternatively if you do a high enough milage to think about diesels there's the Peugot/Citroen HDI which I believe is shared by a fair few fords, or the VW PD150, though probably tuning a PD130 would be cheaper.
Depends on the type of cars you're interested in as you want to think in terms of families. Golf/Leon/A3/Octavia make a lot of sense as there's quite a few cars sharing the same engine, and a lot of specalists tuning them.
Alternatively if you do a high enough milage to think about diesels there's the Peugot/Citroen HDI which I believe is shared by a fair few fords, or the VW PD150, though probably tuning a PD130 would be cheaper.
PoleDriver said:
To those of you who have mentioned 'k' series I should have specified NOTHING MG/R!
(Check out my history! )
Shame as if you want a ready source of cheap cars with knackered engines which can be easily replaced with a reliable hand-built special then K-series seems to be a winner.(Check out my history!
)How about RX8s? Loads about with dead engines...
If you're considering diesel and fancy economy over power then the Peugot/Citroen XUD9 or the old indirect injection Mercedes engine will quite happily run on veg oil rather than diesel. I only went as far as 50% on my citroen, but theres plenty of people running 100% in the summer and cutting it with 10% petrol in the winter. current duty rules allow you to use 3000 litres per year without having to pay duty on it, and I believe you can still buy it for about 75p/litre
The Vauxhall 150bhp C20XE would slot straight into your Astra, they were fitted to the mk2 & mk3 Astra, Mk3 Cavalier and Calibra as standard. It's not much work to get them to fit any vauxhall really, with Novas/Corsas/Mk4 Astras/Vectra B's and many more besides all benefiting from the conversion.
KevSeymour said:
The Vauxhall 150bhp C20XE would slot straight into your Astra, they were fitted to the mk2 & mk3 Astra, Mk3 Cavalier and Calibra as standard. It's not much work to get them to fit any vauxhall really, with Novas/Corsas/Mk4 Astras/Vectra B's and many more besides all benefiting from the conversion.
This could be a good option!
The engine on my one has done 130,000 miles but body is fine (now) and suspension is good. Brakes may need a little work!
The Astra has not even had an advisory on it's MOT's in the last 6 years!
I could build the engine and have it ready for the day when this one gives up, then carry on till something else gives!
Definitely worth a look at I think!
Better the devil you know and all that, but wouldn't this be a waste of time and effort when all you are doing is going from one average hack to another (albeit with a souped up engine putting stress on the rest of the car and hastening the time until the next swap)?
Bangernomics is about short term displosable motoring, but there's nothing short term or disposable about spending money on major components and then moving them around time after time. Might as well spend a little more money on a decent car and have done with it. That seems to me, to be a lot less of a b*llache than what you're thinking of.
Besides, one of the joys of bangernomics is that you never know what you might be driving next and you can get to try out all manner of left field stuff. You'll be tied down to only models that will accept the transplant easily. I think you'd get bored before too long, or end up spending more money than you'd planned chasing engine stressing levels of performance.
Saying all that, good luck if you go through with it and keep PH updated.
Bangernomics is about short term displosable motoring, but there's nothing short term or disposable about spending money on major components and then moving them around time after time. Might as well spend a little more money on a decent car and have done with it. That seems to me, to be a lot less of a b*llache than what you're thinking of.
Besides, one of the joys of bangernomics is that you never know what you might be driving next and you can get to try out all manner of left field stuff. You'll be tied down to only models that will accept the transplant easily. I think you'd get bored before too long, or end up spending more money than you'd planned chasing engine stressing levels of performance.
Saying all that, good luck if you go through with it and keep PH updated.
PoleDriver said:
This could be a good option!
The engine on my one has done 130,000 miles but body is fine (now) and suspension is good. Brakes may need a little work!
The Astra has not even had an advisory on it's MOT's in the last 6 years!
I could build the engine and have it ready for the day when this one gives up, then carry on till something else gives!
Definitely worth a look at I think!
Another advantage of the C20XE is that it goes in proper cars too - should you ever consider a 7 or a mk1 Escort in the future.
BoRED S2upid said:
If it were only that simple everyone would do it. You need some decent spanner skills to do this if you have them as well as a knowledge of wiring then why not.
I wouldn't be even considering it if not! Bit difficult with a TVR spread over my garage at the moment, but I do have a weekend place I can do engine swaps in!
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