I'm looking into having an engine built while I am away from the car.
What I want is about 150-175hp, and as much torque as I can pull out of her. I don't want something exotic, I want to be able to drive it everyday. I plan to ditch the fuel injection and go with weber 44's.....
Is there some place to buy a reasonably priced long block, or is that something I will have to build/have built?
I really want to spend less than say $3k USD on the motor.
I found a freshly rebuilt 2.0L (engine tin and all) for $1k, I think that might be a good starting point. Maybe split it, throw a cam in it, have some head work done, and throw some carbs on it. What kind of power can expect with something like this?
Also, the trans concerns me. I don't want to swap to manual...but want a strong trans. Will a late bus trans bolt in? Also, were they ever OD? What year bus trans should I be looking for?
Thanks guys.
building an engine...finding a trans.
-
raygreenwood
- Posts: 11906
- Joined: Wed Jan 22, 2003 12:01 am
You will not get anything approaching the HP level...reliably....for anything close to $3k....unless you build it yourself and get asome really good deals.
Skip the $1k for a freshly rebuilt 2.0. Reason why is that you cannot really even do a bsic rebuild with reliability for that low....and even if you could, its a bus 2.0 and probably to bus 2.0 specs which puts you below what the stock 1.7L with high compression and fuel injection served up.
Without knowing the if the valve seats were changed...for $1k..they most likely were not....and those are probably chinese piston cylinder set....or a rehoned re-ringed stock set....and for that cost....a reground stock cam and lifters (a disaster waiting to happen)........you will need to rework all of these things just to get a reliable 76+ hp from that engein.
Since for any engine you need at least a new cam and gear with matched lufters (Jake Raby)....and balance work...which will not appear on the menu at $1k, proper honing and oversized pristons.......save teh money you would have dumped into that $1k bus engine and use it to put in known good parts.
You can find complete worn out but rebuildable engines for lesss than $500...sometimes greatly less.
Since any of the type 4 cases will work....you can find those sometimes for as little as $50.
Find a set up shot but rebuildable heads for $75-100 each and spend anothe $600 on them. $600+ for a complete cam lifter and pushrod set-up. Regrind the crank, balance the whole mess, rebuild the rods....say $300 give or take, gaskets and incidentals...$300 give or take. Decide on say a new Chinese set of P&C's....or rebuild the old...about the same cost with trade-offs for both.
Carefully build this...after selecting a combo....and you could do it for between $1,900-2,200. You could have a 2056 with amaybe 125-230 hp or even a hot 1.7 with 100 hp.
What you can expect for freshening that 2.0 bus block....is about 100-120 max I would say.
You would get better results all around to keep the fuel injection and either properly tune it...or if displacment goes up more...keep the intakes and use aftermarket injection guts.
All of this cost has said nothing about the greatly improved exhaust you will need, or if you plan to keep stock cooling which is good but will limit you to how hot you can make this thing. If you want to go further...invest in upright cooling. Not trying to shut youdown....just keeping it realistic. There are also many ways to very carefully select parts tthat are slightly used or totally from a different engine...and with a bit of work you can get basic building prices down even further and still keep reliability.....but not at the HP numbers you are thinking of.
Also bear in mind.....if you have ever drive a 412 with 4-speed...and the 82 hp 1.7 withfuel injection.....good tuning and a cam and a few other goodies will get that set up to 90hp easily. That means 0-60 times of about 8-9 seconds....which is quite good. If you build an engine with the torque band similar to stock.....you would be surprised at how excellent a 2300 lb car with only 100-110 hp drives. Ray
Skip the $1k for a freshly rebuilt 2.0. Reason why is that you cannot really even do a bsic rebuild with reliability for that low....and even if you could, its a bus 2.0 and probably to bus 2.0 specs which puts you below what the stock 1.7L with high compression and fuel injection served up.
Without knowing the if the valve seats were changed...for $1k..they most likely were not....and those are probably chinese piston cylinder set....or a rehoned re-ringed stock set....and for that cost....a reground stock cam and lifters (a disaster waiting to happen)........you will need to rework all of these things just to get a reliable 76+ hp from that engein.
Since for any engine you need at least a new cam and gear with matched lufters (Jake Raby)....and balance work...which will not appear on the menu at $1k, proper honing and oversized pristons.......save teh money you would have dumped into that $1k bus engine and use it to put in known good parts.
You can find complete worn out but rebuildable engines for lesss than $500...sometimes greatly less.
Since any of the type 4 cases will work....you can find those sometimes for as little as $50.
Find a set up shot but rebuildable heads for $75-100 each and spend anothe $600 on them. $600+ for a complete cam lifter and pushrod set-up. Regrind the crank, balance the whole mess, rebuild the rods....say $300 give or take, gaskets and incidentals...$300 give or take. Decide on say a new Chinese set of P&C's....or rebuild the old...about the same cost with trade-offs for both.
Carefully build this...after selecting a combo....and you could do it for between $1,900-2,200. You could have a 2056 with amaybe 125-230 hp or even a hot 1.7 with 100 hp.
What you can expect for freshening that 2.0 bus block....is about 100-120 max I would say.
You would get better results all around to keep the fuel injection and either properly tune it...or if displacment goes up more...keep the intakes and use aftermarket injection guts.
All of this cost has said nothing about the greatly improved exhaust you will need, or if you plan to keep stock cooling which is good but will limit you to how hot you can make this thing. If you want to go further...invest in upright cooling. Not trying to shut youdown....just keeping it realistic. There are also many ways to very carefully select parts tthat are slightly used or totally from a different engine...and with a bit of work you can get basic building prices down even further and still keep reliability.....but not at the HP numbers you are thinking of.
Also bear in mind.....if you have ever drive a 412 with 4-speed...and the 82 hp 1.7 withfuel injection.....good tuning and a cam and a few other goodies will get that set up to 90hp easily. That means 0-60 times of about 8-9 seconds....which is quite good. If you build an engine with the torque band similar to stock.....you would be surprised at how excellent a 2300 lb car with only 100-110 hp drives. Ray