605bhp Per Ton 200SX Powered Kitcar

[dave2007bc]

wormus said:

Interesting choice the CA18DET. Did you ever consider the B235 2.3L turbo engine from Saab? Originally fitted to the 9-5 Aero, they make 250hp standard and with a software remap (£90 from Noontune) will easily make 300hp with standard hardware. You can pick them up on eBay for about £400 complete. Chain driven camshafts too.

Edited by wormus on Thursday 19th September 07:27

I did consider it, but it goes back to my original point. Saab engines aren't meant to be red meaning you have to find a gearbox to mate it to, most of which are made of chocolate.

You also don't see too many cars going sideways sitting in the limiter. That was part of the reason I went for the ca18; tried and tested to take abuse if the oil setup is maintained and considered.

[anonymous-user]

I’m pretty sure you can use T5 gearbox ? Bit of Googling shows plenty of people have used these engines in drift cars.

[dave2007bc]

wormus said:

I’m pretty sure you can use T5 gearbox ? Bit of Googling shows plenty of people have used these engines in drift cars.

Maybe now. This engine went in over 4 years ago.

Don't see why I'm having to defend my choice of engine anyway tbh

[DavSki153]

Fantastic log of your build throughout the years. Forged engine looks like its working like a dream. I personally love the CA18, how did you find fitting the gearbox in the chassis? Much chassis modifications? Keep the updates coming!

[Greg_D]

dave2007bc said:

wormus said:

I’m pretty sure you can use T5 gearbox ? Bit of Googling shows plenty of people have used these engines in drift cars.

Maybe now. This engine went in over 4 years ago.

Don't see why I'm having to defend my choice of engine anyway tbh

As an outsider looking in, I don't see it as you having to defend your choices, more of a pub conversation about the options.

It's more of a sharing of opinions thing. I imagine there are many people on this thread considering a similar car, and someone suggesting, for example, a saab engine may encourage another forum member to go down that route...

I wouldn't take it personally if i were you...

ps your car looks ace....

[Gord1]

Are you planning on taking it to Teesside again Dave?

[C70R]

Greg_D said:

dave2007bc said:

wormus said:

I’m pretty sure you can use T5 gearbox ? Bit of Googling shows plenty of people have used these engines in drift cars.

Maybe now. This engine went in over 4 years ago.

Don't see why I'm having to defend my choice of engine anyway tbh

As an outsider looking in, I don't see it as you having to defend your choices, more of a pub conversation about the options.

Exactly. There's no need to be defensive about it.

You posted a long and detailed thread about your car, which featured multiple engine failures.

Surely you'd expect someone to ask the question about whether you'd considered alternatives?

[TheDrBrian]

Why would an engine run cooler with a thermostat.

[TekoTime]

TheDrBrian said:

Why would an engine run cooler with a thermostat.

If water flows too fast through the radiator it won't have enough time to transfer heat. It's more of a problem with small radiators, but there's not much space in a 7 for a good sized one.

[ndg]

The thermostat not only opens the path to the radiator, it also closes the bypass loop. No stat means coolant will bypass the rad in part.

[AW111]

ndg said:

The thermostat not only opens the path to the radiator, it also closes the bypass loop. No stat means coolant will bypass the rad in part.

Some engines also use the restriction offered by the thermostat to raise the dynamic water pressure in the engine.

[dave2007bc]

Greg_D said:

As an outsider looking in, I don't see it as you having to defend your choices, more of a pub conversation about the options.

It's more of a sharing of opinions thing. I imagine there are many people on this thread considering a similar car, and someone suggesting, for example, a saab engine may encourage another forum member to go down that route...

I wouldn't take it personally if i were you...

ps your car looks ace....

Sorry, was having a bad day clearly. I'm a fairly chilled out bloke normally

C70R said:

Exactly. There's no need to be defensive about it.

You posted a long and detailed thread about your car, which featured multiple engine failures.

Surely you'd expect someone to ask the question about whether you'd considered alternatives?

As above. Bad day.

DavSki153 said:

Fantastic log of your build throughout the years. Forged engine looks like its working like a dream. I personally love the CA18, how did you find fitting the gearbox in the chassis? Much chassis modifications? Keep the updates coming!

Gearbox fitted without modifications. The original chassis was built to have an MT75 gearbox which I understand is slightly wider than a Type 9?

Gord1 said:

Are you planning on taking it to Teesside again Dave?

Probably not. I love the track because it's relatively close and so cheap but the car was bordering on being over-powered for such a short track when it was 260bhp so it'd be a bit pointless now to be honest.


Post run-in update

The update you've all been waiting for?

I completed another 150-200 road miles on the car with the running in map. It was properly good fun. I'd lowered the rev limiter to 6k (mapper said don't go above this for running) and it got there so so quickly.



I booked back in for the final setup some weeks later


Before mapping, I was asked how much boost I wanted to take the car to. All of it was my answer The mapper said at 1.5bar the turbo will be on it's arse. You might get 350 flywheel bhp. We'll see eh?

After just an hour or so on the rollers, at 1.2 bar we achieved 343bhp (flywheel) and around 270lb ft. The massive amounts of work to the cylinder head and new and improved intercooler pipework were noted as the reasons the car is making such good power at such low boost. The engine has the capability to rev to over 8k rpm but we've already made peak power so the new limiter is 7,500rpm.

The image below shows the before and after of the old engine was the new with new turbo


It's such a lovely power graph, great linear power with no boost spikes. Incredible for such an old-skool turbo really.

I wanted to turn up the boost but the mapper advised I would be sensible to leave it how it is and see how it drives. As it stands neither the engine or turbo is over-worked and the car is making good, reliable figures.

There's a video on my YouTube channel about the last lot of mapping -


The car is quite simply awesome. 1st and 2nd gear are utterly useless but it is so much fun. Unfortunately the cold weather has of course now set in which will prevent any properly spirited driving. Give or take, that puts the car at 550bhp/ton or equivalent to a McLaren F1 or 488 Pista

Again, lots of videos of how the car now drives on my Instagram page:
https://www.instagram.com/locost_turbo/

Edited by dave2007bc on Thursday 28th November 12:30

Edited by dave2007bc on Thursday 7th May 10:53

Edited by dave2007bc on Thursday 7th May 10:55

[dave2007bc]

So, now that's all resolved lets spend some money elsewhere, ha

My LED headlights were always just DRLs so as I want to drive the car more (and it's Winter) I purchased some eBay special motorbike headlights -




They're not amazing by any means but they look a lot better than the other ones and have main beam now so that's a bonus.

When browsing one of the Westfield forums I noticed an absolute bargain come up for sale. A brand new AIM MXS 1.2 digital dash. For those of you that don't know, the AIM dash is a full digital unit that, using CANBUS, can display almost any output that your ECU can give it. Wiring is relatively simple and you use some software to modify your display. My MaxxECU has a CANBUS facility that can provide those outputs.

This is an example of some of the things the dash can do:


I've hated my dashboard for a long time. It had holes where old gauges used to be, mis-matched gauges and just generally looked rough.


The AIM was purchased. The problem with some kitcars is that all the gauges sit to one side of the wheel meaning they're practically useless as they're not even close to being in your line of sight. I wanted the AIM above my wheel and under the aeroscreen.

I would need a new dashboard so a new carbon fibre dashboard was ordered. I only need a hole for the steering column, battery switch, headlight switch and map switch. Way tidier than the old setup.

The new dash was marked up using the old as a template and then cut using a drill, grinder and dremel.






For those of you that are counting, this is my third dashboard so the process was fairly well rehearsed now!

I then needed to connect up the dashboard and configure it. With a bespoke 'welcome screen' of course


Once the dashboard and AIM were in place I went out for another drive to test that everything works. I need to configure my fuel gauge, but other than that it's all complete.




Yes I said that. The car is "complete". In theory, no more money will be spent on it other than consumable such as tyres, brakes, fuel and servicing.

I've also been approached by a well known car YouTuber to feature the car (again). This will hopefully be completed at some point over the next couple of weeks, providing that we get some decent weather.

[Dave Hedgehog]

look forward to watching it

you pretty much have a complete car in the bits you have upgraded lol

[dave2007bc]

Dave Hedgehog said:

look forward to watching it

you pretty much have a complete car in the bits you have upgraded lol

I was discussing this with the Wife the other day. The only items that haven't been changed/modified since purchase is the basic chassis and steering rack.

[Trigden]

dave2007bc said:

So, now that's all resolved lets spend some money elsewhere, ha

My LED headlights were always just DRLs so as I want to drive the car more (and it's Winter) I purchased some eBay special motorbike headlights -


They're not amazing by any means but they look a lot better than the other ones and have main beam now so that's a bonus.

When browsing one of the Westfield forums I noticed an absolute bargain come up for sale. A brand new AIM MXS 1.2 digital dash. For those of you that don't know, the AIM dash is a full digital unit that, using CANBUS, can display almost any output that your ECU can give it. Wiring is relatively simple and you use some software to modify your display. My MaxxECU has a CANBUS facility that can provide those outputs.

This is an example of some of the things the dash can do:


For those of you that are counting, this is my third dashboard so the process was fairly well rehearsed now!


Once the dashboard and AIM were in place I went out for another drive to test that everything works. I need to configure my fuel gauge, but other than that it's all complete.


Yes I said that. The car is "complete". In theory, no more money will be spent on it other than consumable such as tyres, brakes, fuel and servicing.

I've also been approached by a well known car YouTuber to feature the car (again). This will hopefully be completed at some point over the next couple of weeks, providing that we get some decent weather.

LLF?

[Cylon2007]

Great thread, just read through it this afternoon, makes me wants a kit car for track use

[dave2007bc]

Trigden said:

LLF?

Yep, good guess!

[swampy442]

Just caught up with this thread, what a ride! As said CA18s have a rep for being a bit fragile but good to see you're working out the problems and sticking with it

[dave2007bc]

swampy442 said:

Just caught up with this thread, what a ride! As said CA18s have a rep for being a bit fragile but good to see you're working out the problems and sticking with it

Their fragility is typically due to a poor sump design, poor maintenance and poor oil return flow from the head.

I've got a custom baffled sump, additional oil return pipes and have a good maintenance regime so it should now be no less reliable than any other engine.

I also don't spend much of my time going sideways which also seems to kill them, ha.