Preview of the new engine for my Felicia Rally Car

[fruitbat]

Some of you might remember that I built a new Felicia rally car a couple of years ago with a 1.4 8v Fabia motor on throttle bodies.

A little reminder...

Well, anyroad, spurred on by the desire for more power, and inspired by Teflontom's threads, I thought you might like to see a little preview of the new engine that I'm building for her...

It is (of course) a 1.4 16v AFH motor from a Polo. I've freshened up the bottom end, had the head ported and skimmed, and I have a pair of reground piper cams to go in it. I'll be using another set of GSX-R 600 throttle bodies on a nice manifold that Bogg Brothers made for me, and I have an Ashley tubular exhaust to fit too. Most importantly, she'll be bolted to the car with one of Tom's magnificent engine mounts!

Not quite finished yet - the eagle-eyed will notice that the cams have been substituted for bubble wrap in this picture, but progress is being made...

Cheers

James

[TeflonTom]

nice one james, it's looking great... bubble wrap is a fantastic substitute for camshafts, much reliable

one thing though, you can get a mechanical follower conversion kit for these engines, also a baffled sump is a must in this engine, they suffer from shocking oil surge problems..

i hope you are going to dispense of the distributor and use a coil pack from a later 1.4 16v engine??

[uma1998]

nice looking engine mate keep it up.... v5 ing mine soon

[Yoss]

That looks very nice. Almost too nice to put in the car.

[waool1988]

Some of you might remember that I built a new Felicia rally car a couple of years ago with a 1.4 8v Fabia motor on throttle bodies.

Do you have the build documented somewhere? ... I am working myself on a fabia 8v and looking at some other people work would help a lot

[felicia16v]

Welcome to the darkside mate.....

it makes soo much sense really for a rally car with over 100bhp straight from the std motor and more to come easily enough.

maybe not a good move as far as the purists go but its not usually them paying the bills to keep a big bhp skoda motor on song.

[djaychela]

Looking great, James. Wish I'd never sold mine.

[fruitbat]

So, after a lot of what can only be described as "dicking about", getting the oil pump to prime and sorting out a million and one other little niggles, I finally got the rally car back from being mapped with its new 16V motor today. 

 

To say that I'm pleased is an understatement.  161bhp and 127 torques!

 

First event is next weekend's Tour of Hamsterley.

 

[ClarkE_123]

Impressive results.

Do you have a spec list for the engine?

Also, i'm not far from hamsterley i may pop along to hear/see this in the flesh

Edited 19 April, 2014 by ClarkE_123

[fruitbat]

So it's an AFH from a Polo 16V (obvs!).  Standard but balanced bottom end (new pistons and bearings, re-honed block), lightened flywheel.  Head was ported by Ric Wood Engineering (CNCheads), standard cams reground by Piper to their "fast road" spec  (Whatever that is!), Suzuki GSX-R 600 throttle bodies on a manifold that Steve Bogg at Bogg Brothers made up, Ashley tubular exhaust from a Lupo and a 2inch system.  It's all run by an Emerald ECU.

[dohnjoe]

I wonder how the frame and running gear will hold to that engine power...

[ClarkE_123]

So it's an AFH from a Polo 16V (obvs!). Standard but balanced bottom end (new pistons and bearings, re-honed block), lightened flywheel. Head was ported by Ric Wood Engineering (CNCheads), standard cams reground by Piper to their "fast road" spec (Whatever that is!), Suzuki GSX-R 600 throttle bodies on a manifold that Steve Bogg at Bogg Brothers made up, Ashley tubular exhaust from a Lupo and a 2inch system. It's all run by an Emerald ECU.

I'm really impressed by the figures. Bet it sounds awesome too

This has me thinking, thanks for the spec james

Have you anything special for the gearbox/clutch?

Edited 19 April, 2014 by ClarkE_123

[fruitbat]

Thanks!  I was impressed even if I say so myself.  I was expecting about 140-145 bhp.  It's so much more revvy than the old 8v unit.

 

In terms of the drivetrain, it's got a Helix cerametallic paddle clutch and supposedly heavy duty pressure plate (though this doesn't look particularly different from a decent standard part).  The gearbox is a standard synchro box, but the insides are a mix and match of various cogs from the Fabia Mk1 1.4 8V box, which gives a lower final drive and lower 3rd, 4th and 5th gears.

[TeflonTom]

Alright jimbo, impressive result there, what was the problem with the oil pump in the end?

[Bobfav]

I'll look forward to seeing this at Hamsterley, I'm servicing Dave Hemingways MK2 Escort, hope to see you there!

[fruitbat]

Alright jimbo, impressive result there, what was the problem with the oil pump in the end?

 

Thanks Tom, and thanks for all your advice (and the mount!)

 

The pump just wasn't priming, and the trick of packing with vaseline had just made things worse - the poor thing had virtually given itself a hernia trying to create a vaccuum.  I primed a spare pump off the car with an electric drill by pouring oil back down the outlet, and then installed that.

 

It's running a little hotter than ideal (but not boiling over), so I'm going to try a cooler thermostat (there's one that opens at 80-95 rather than the standard 87-102).

[felicia16v]

Nice bit of power there mate, bet that flies now.

Did you find any uprated con rod bolts or just std ones ?

[skodanorman]

My god, I bet that flies!!

Sent from my C6603 using Tapatalk

[RainbowFire]

So, after a lot of what can only be described as "dicking about", getting the oil pump to prime and sorting out a million and one other little niggles, I finally got the rally car back from being mapped with its new 16V motor today. 

 

To say that I'm pleased is an understatement.  161bhp and 127 torques!

 

First event is next weekend's Tour of Hamsterley.

 

 

"Nobblie tyres not the best for rollers".......

[fruitbat]

Nice bit of power there mate, bet that flies now.

Did you find any uprated con rod bolts or just std ones ?

 

I thought I had discovered some that would fit, but they didn't, so I just used new standard ones.  Same with the flywheel bolts, but I had the flywheel dowelled to the crank too.

 

The bottom end is balanced, but otherwise standard.  I might have a go at doing the bottom end properly with forged rods and pistons and then upgrade to billet cams from Schrick or similar at some point in the future, but for now I think I'll just try to keep the revs to a reasonable level to try to preserve it best I can!  I'd like to do the gearbox properly next - still have my eyes on Kalmar Motorsport's six speed dog kit.

 

It runs a bit hotter then I'd like - not boiling over, but temp is around 95-97.  I'm changing to a cooler thermostat but might need to look at an alloy radiator.  Have you had any temperature issues with your 16v motors at all?  What would you expect it to run at?

 

cheers

 

James

[TeflonTom]

mine always ran hot james, even in a mild state of road tune with the 1600 stroke out, it was always on the brink of the needle going to the top and the fans kicking in. there is a hot climate stat you can get for those engines from vw from a model that was built in south africa and it opens sooner,

[fruitbat]

That's good to know Tom, thanks.  I found the part number for the stat that opens at 80-95 rather than 87-102, so hopefully that will help.  Plumbed in the oil cooler tonight too.

[felicia16v]

Nice one, diesel rad should fit and has a better fan system, if your using the 1.6 rad and fan the fan cowl stops airflow over the exhaust and oil filter which increases underbonnet temps immensely even my 2.0 xe didn't overheat with a diesel rad to be fair on it.

Thermostats are rubbish on these if you take one apart and look at it carefully how it fits the housing you will see a way of increasing a bit of flow around it.. The 1.6 in Luke's runs at 86.c all day on the stages.

I'm guessing the knobblies are the reason for the 40 bhp power loss thru the transmission ?

looks good mate hope you have a good outing with it.

[fruitbat]

Thanks Jim,

 

I thought I had the biggest radiator possible - Vagcat implies that the 1.6 and 1.9 radiators are the same size (6U0121253A).  But that's a good point about the fan cowling.  I think I might take it off and do some judicious modification with the air hacksaw before the event...

 

It will no doubt get worse with the sumpguard on if I dont!

[felicia16v]

Yea the diesel rad is the full width of the front mate about 4 inch wider than the 1.6 rad