280 I engine

[tunepipe911]

Hey,
It has been a while since I posted on the Wedge forum,
have been busy on the T350T-forum,
Well a friend off mine is looking for a good or a engine to restore for his 280I Wedge,
he wants to change the engine and needs a spare to get in in good working order,engine in his car is
crap,
hope there is something to be found?

thanks

Rudy

ps, we could pick it up when we visit the UK after the summer;

[Graham]

Ive got about 3 ex tasmin challenge 280 motors in bits looking for a good home. Currently in midlands

[Graham]

Ive got about 3 ex tasmin challenge 280 motors in bits looking for a good home. Currently in midlands

[440Interceptor]

Out of interest, what is the difference between a stock engine and a Tas Challenge engine?

[mrzigazaga]

440Interceptor said:

Out of interest, what is the difference between a stock engine and a Tas Challenge engine?

Probably around 60bhp...

[Graham]

mrzigazaga said:

Probably around 60bhp...

i wish....

in reality not alot, as mods to challenge cars were originally fairly limited basically blue printed, steel timing gear, lightened and balanced, decent pistons ,a different cam and a bit of head porting.

later on it was anything goes on the v6 engines, first thing we did when they relaxed the rules was junk the problematic fuel injection for a twin choke carb.. Tovvey reconed they were good for 200 on the single twin choke..

triple carbs really livened things up a bit.

[Wedg1e]

Graham said:

later on it was anything goes on the v6 engines, first thing we did when they relaxed the rules was junk the problematic fuel injection for a twin choke carb.. Tovvey reconed they were good for 200 on the single twin choke..

triple carbs really livened things up a bit.

I seem to recall there was a Tasmin in the early days of the Challenge that blew all the others away that was allegedly bog-standard

[Graham]

Wedg1e said:

I seem to recall there was a Tasmin in the early days of the Challenge that blew all the others away that was allegedly bog-standard

they were all standard just some seemed more standard than others :wink: there was one that later turned out to be something like 3.1 litres with mahoosive valves and a lairy cam.. no wonder i couldnt keep up in my 2nd hand dragged from a capri engine lol, that I first started with.

[440Interceptor]

mrzigazaga said:

Probably around 60bhp...

hmmm. Not likely with siamesed exhaust ports. That's why I asked the question. I've always heard that the Cologne was best left alone. I would like to help it breathe 'cos throwing more fuel in won't make any difference unless you can get it out fast enough.

[Graham]

The stock inlet manifold on the injection is quite a restriction too. most of the mods were to keep the things together at high rpm. and to reduce rotating mass to get them to spin up faster...

when the regs changed later on, most went to triple carbs a few changed to modded 2.9's with the better heads, and quite a few went for the 24v cossy which is what now sits in mine.

[Stog]

Graham I'm curious as I've currently got two cars with the Devils injection system. What carbs and throttles did you use and where did the manifold come from?

[Graham]

Stog said:

Graham I'm curious as I've currently got two cars with the Devils injection system. What carbs and throttles did you use and where did the manifold come from?

we used a stock ford carb inlet manifold and a twin choke webber ( can remember exactly which one but its stat on the shelf at my dads. along with a 2.9 with the same setup) toovey reckoned with a carb the 2.9 was good for 200bhp... and we wernt too far off that on the 2.8.

the inlet manifold fits the 2.8 and 2.9 burton do an inlet manifold for 3xdcnf carbs


jenvey or omex might do something suitable if you wanted to go efi they do a loverly set for the boa a snip at 1500 quid plus vat

[Stog]

The burton power kit is pretty shiney but costs more than my wedge is worth I think.
http://www.burtonpower.com/weber-triple-carb-kit-4...
I thought carbs might be a cheap option but of course it involves more rare parts. Been thinking of maybe megasquirt as a possible winter project but in the meantime I've other fish to fry

[Stog]

That jenvey / omex stuff is a bit pornographic

[Graham]

the manifolds for the single twin choke turn up every now and are a lot less than the tripple !!! I do have one and a a fairly new carb, although as its setup for racing it doesnt have a choke

[GBinUSA]

Just wondering if this is the manifold needed for the 2.8. Thinking about doing the carb conversion.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ford-V6-inlet-manifold-N...

[RCK974X]

Although you might say "duh..." I always try to find out from the gasket versions....I think Burton have some pics to compare, which might help.
I think this needs some care, as I know there were some subtle differences in head gaskets, but I think there were only two inlet gaskets.

As far as I know,

NB. Ignoring the US version of 2.8, 'cos it gets very confusing otherwise...

To start with there was a 2.0/2.3 carb inlet mfold, and a different 2.8 carb mfold. Later 2.3 engines (stamped 'A9' on the heads) apparently used the 2.8 mfold and gasket. That ebay pic looks right, the early 2.3 mfold had a 'double hole' for rad feed (smaller one was heater outlet), but it's hard to tell for sure. Some people say the shaope of the inlet ports is different, don't know for sure.

I've heard that the 2.8 carb fits the 2.9 also, but I've never seen one done this way.

The twin choke mount fits a wide variety of carbs, the 38DGAS works well (same as older 3.0 Essex), had one of those in a kit car. The 40DFA (as on the triple pic) tends to be heavy on gas, good for track, but not really std road use.

[440Interceptor]

Is the carb version higher or lower in the engine bay than the FI Plenum?

[GBinUSA]

Thanks for the reply Andy. Looking at the the gaskets makes sense.

[RCK974X]

440Interceptor said:

Is the carb version higher or lower in the engine bay than the FI Plenum?

I think the [single] carb one is slightly lower, probably not with original air filter pan, but of course there's a lot of slimmer aftermarket boxes
for the carb versions, so you can save some height if necessary.

The later Efi box (and probably 2.9 as well) is same height (within a few mm) as 2.8 'K' by my measurements, and I don't think there's much difference between any of them.