Tuning a 1l nova engine...?

[Calamity Josh]

STOP! before you read this i am not going to do a engine conversion for a long time yet as this is going to be my first car so i really cannot afford insurance, and i'm not going to xe it either.

Anyway i'm building up my saloon for the next 1 1/2 years, i can't really do much more to make it handle better as it's sat on banded steels and lowered 75 mm on uprated shocks. I was wondering what tuning i could do to it and what parts are available? This engine of course will have had a good full service, and i'm stripping a cbr 600 so have the set of carbs to go on it and be re-jetted, any help on this, any useless don't do it comments will be neg repped, i know it's harsh but i'm fed up of seeing people get this type of reply,
thanks in advance :thumb:

[jonn]

there is not really a whole lot you can do with a 1.0l engine. i would give it a full rebuild, good exhaust system and try and fit the bike carbs

[Balley]

Bike carbs would be cool. might be hard to do it though but not impossible! Get the exhaust manifold ported out and the get the head gas flowed. Re seat the valves. A nice 2 inch manifold back system would help too and a good cold air feed. You may be looking at 60bhp then :)

Keep us updated though as I would love to see something different! And I want to see it on a Dyno too!

[Nobby]

tbh mate you have done all you can already really, a decent service will benefit and weight loss, a decent exhaust system and kn filter will benefit but not much really:thumb:

[Andy]

what you pay extra in insurance wouldnt be worth it

[Calamity Josh]

I don't really want to lose any weight as i love every bit of the car, (mostly the interior) so what can i lose haha. and exhaust system wise would a 1300 exhaust and manifold fit it? the rollers i use is in a classic car breakers barn workshop and it's old school with a propper gage so none of the usual extortionate figures people come out with

[Andy]

A 1300 exhaust manifold wont fit,try a grasstracker forum,they still use them engines and will know how to squeeze every last bit of power i would imagine!

[Calamity Josh]

what you pay extra in insurance wouldnt be worth it

I'm planning on declaring it whatever it costs or i'll just take the carbs back off and revert it back to origional till i can afford it :D

[Calamity Josh]

A 1300 exhaust manifold wont fit,try a grasstracker forum,they still use them engines and will know how to squeeze every last bit of power i would imagine!

i am a grasser :D iirc no one uses the 1l these days

[t45_ste]

I wouldnt admit not declaring. Its a big no no and voids your insurance should anything happen. Sorry to sound a kill joy.

[Calamity Josh]

I wouldnt admit not declaring. Its a big no no and voids your insurance should anything happen. Sorry to sound a kill joy.

I'm not admitting it, as it's sorn and i'm not having it on the road till i pass my test in a year and a half+, it's just a possibility for the future, unless insurance goes down alot

[Southie]

Do it legit or not at all.

[Calamity Josh]

I'm planning on declaring it whatever it costs or i'll just take the carbs back off and revert it back to origional till i can afford it :D

Better southie?

[Southie]

If your offering yes lol

[mk1nova_rich]

An engine swap to an OHC engine would be an instant power increase, as well as being more insurance friendly than the bike carbs.

I know its not exactly what you asked but well worth considering as an option. I have never seen much tuning info on the 1.0 so you will be on your own with modifications...nothing off the shelf is available performance wise

[burgo]

is a cbr600 a two cylinder bike??

[General Baxter]

2 little turbos :p

[marc69]

The best you can do with the 1.0 ohv, is make sure it is all set up right with a good distributor ( they wear and slow it down), good tappet clearances, champion plugs, carb settings, ignition timing set with a strobe light, points and so on.

It won't be fast but they are happy to be driven hard and seem to go on forever, you can rev all the time up to 5500rpm, won't cost much fuel and will be fun. I don't think anything additional will give much power increase but, driving it hard, it will go at reasonable acceleration for your first car, the weakest point is lack of torque going uphill.

[Calamity Josh]

The cbr600 is just a straight 4 like r1's and all that, iirc the carbs are the same as cbr1000 carbs just the jets are different

[turbojolt]

This could turn out to he really intresting if you get round to actually doing it.

What about regrinding the cam? Can be done for fairly cheap
And skimming the cylinder head down a bit to raid the compression ratio slightly? Another cheap option and at the same time you could rebuild the head

Edit.. if I was you I would buy a secondary engine to do the work on in a shead rebuild it aswell as doing work to it that way you still have the car running whill messing about and you can pick up 1ltrs for next to nothing

[garyc]

Segto run 1l novas and they are slightly quicker than a mini. As said above doing the cylinder head etc would help and sorting out the dizzy. That's all I would do. If yor cam is worn there are no new ones, unless vauxhall still have some at 300 ish a go.

[Mieran]

Only way you can make a 1.0 Nova faster is by making it handle and brake better

[burgo]

The cbr600 is just a straight 4 like r1's and all that, iirc the carbs are the same as cbr1000 carbs just the jets are different

you might want to actually look at your engine before coming up with all these big plans

[mowgli]

/\ agreed.... 5 port engines only need 2 carb barrels at most.

You could buy the david vizard book on tuing a series engines.. The 1.0 ohv & the a series are similar layout engines. You could look about for stuff off the 1.2 ohv as fitted in the mk1 & mk2 astra, the cams/carbs heads etc might be a bit better, but you will be struggling for any decent cheap gains.

[moffat]

Only way you can make a 1.0 Nova faster is by making it handle and brake better

lowered 75mm on banded steels its no going handle that good either tbh. just give it a service a wee k and n and an exhaust system and just enjoy driving it till you can afford an engine conversion

[Calamity Josh]

/\ agreed.... 5 port engines only need 2 carb barrels at most.

You could buy the david vizard book on tuing a series engines.. The 1.0 ohv & the a series are similar layout engines. You could look about for stuff off the 1.2 ohv as fitted in the mk1 & mk2 astra, the cams/carbs heads etc might be a bit better, but you will be struggling for any decent cheap gains.

could you expand on why i can't run them, surely you still have the 4 inlet holes going to the valves like any other straight 4 ( sorry to act dumb but it's dark outside)

[John]

(Without trawling through the rest of the thread) there's not a lot you're gonna do to gain power. I'd make sure it's well serviced inc valve clearances. A good exhaust won't harm it but that's all i'd do. I'd run it stock for a couple of years till you can afford to drop a bigger engine in :)

[Stuart]

could you expand on why i can't run them, surely you still have the 4 inlet holes going to the valves like any other straight 4 ( sorry to act dumb but it's dark outside)

Its got 2 inlet holes that split to 2 valves each... this permits 3 outlet ports for the exhaust (think its the middle pair that share the port)

[mowgli]

could you expand on why i can't run them, surely you still have the 4 inlet holes going to the valves like any other straight 4 ( sorry to act dumb but it's dark outside)

the 1.2/1.3 etc engines are an 8 port design so they have 4 inlets & 4 exhaust ports 4 on each side... the 1.0 ohv engine is a 5 port design, thus it has 2 inlet ports & 3 exhaust ports on one side of the engine as stu said. this is because it has the camshaft in the block & the pushrods that work the valve rockers take up the useable space on the other side.

[simonm]

Is the 1.0 ohv not down draft carb so don't think any bike carb will suit but a 1.2 ohv would be a little quicker just get the grinder at the number no one will tell the difference

[bazil]

Turbo it,

[tom reid]

I'd look at a reground cam, I actually think I may have a 270 for one of these?, change the valve springs and a bit of a port job on the head, look at the gearing,can an F10 mount to this engine? and you'd have a decent wee car, it won't break many records, but if it gives you a smile on your face it'd be worthwhile.

[Stuart]

They come with the F10 as std.

[mowgli]

re the f10, fit the gear cluster from an f13cr with a low diff & you'll get good acceleration. i think the f10/4 has a low diff on the 1.0 but don't quote me on it

[turbojolt]

don't quote me on it


To late

[burgo]

They come with the F10 as std.

the 1L f10 is specific to that engine though. the others wont bolt on

[mowgli]

/\ yup, but the innards can be swapped over from other boxes...