Alfa Sud engine

[rcarr]

Hi

I have an Alfa Sud engined Sunbeam Californian.
The engine is a very handy piece of normally aspirated kit.
It has Cosworth BDT Pistons, Lowman Steel Rods, Holbay Cams, big valve heads etc.

I was wonder what the powerout put of an engine like mine would be?

I have seen some "sud race engines" saying 140bhp, would mine be any more powerful?

Cheers!

[instructormike]

Hi,
what carbs/injection is it running and what capacity? I used to run quite a few Suds in the old days. Best engine I had managed about 130BHP/115 at the wheels. Great engine. Some motors ran up to about 160BHP so you should have a quick car there.
MC

[rcarr]

Hi Mike,

Cheers, its running Weber DCOE 40s as far as I can remember, I am at uni down south and the engine is at home in Scotland.

The major problem that I have, is that I am so physically big and heavy that I feel that the engine is just not powerful enough to push me and the car up the hill at Knockhill. It would be perfect for a guy who is about 11-13 stone but I am not, I'm a rugby player and I'd like at least 200bhp to make the power/weight ratio close to 400bhp/tonne.

[MJK 24]

You don't say what engine size it is.

Suds were 1200, 1300 and 1500. Many now run with the later Sprint/33 1700 too.

100bhp per litre is attainable from all. They're expensive to tune though, as parts aren't as readily available as they are for contemporary VW engines for example.

There's a chap in the AROC who's got over 220bhp from a bored out 1700 (think it's about 1850 now...)

To answer your question(!) if you've got a 1500, I'd say you'd be around 140+ bhp...

[rcarr]

Sorry the engine is a mixture between 1500, 1700 and the bore equates to approx 1800 with the cosworth bdt pistons in it.