Smallblock 1.8 8v

[therealnovaboy]

Has anyone ever done this and is it possible.

I was thinking that if you use the crank, rods and pistons from a smallblock 1.8xe and bore out the e16se block. Then fit the 8v head.

Or if you used the 1600 16v rods and crank and fitted the 1800 pistons would you not have like a c17se

Compression would be up a fair bit but would it be any higher than when you use the 1600 xe crank rods and pistion in a 16se block?

Id like to think a 1800 8v would easily see 200hp with the right mods?

[mowgli]

if i came by a bottom end cheap enough, it would be a decent way to recondition a tired e16se.

machining piston tops is hardly difficult, as long as you know exactly how much to take off.

the thing about an engine like thhis is that it would produce loads of torque, which is what pulls a car up the road, but trying to get 200hp will be pretty difficult, not impossible, just difficult.

[mk1nova_rich]

Would the 8v head not just fit straight on the 1800 block? Or is that just impossible? Im not overly clued up with the later 16v engines

[mowgli]

the block is a different shape & so various holes don't line up

[therealnovaboy]

Would you be able to use the head gasket from the 16v ?

[C612DNM]

Are you really really interested. Get some popcorn, sit down, and I shall begin.

I built a 1763cc smallblock in 1997 before some of you were born...
The bores were like fag papers, and so close together a factory head gasket was never going to work.

Here's what I ended up with....

83mm bores. Standard stroke.

I used 1300 rods because the 1600 ones are crap, feeble, and only good to about 150hp before the have a habit of making an excuse to leave in the general direction of outside. 1300 rods are ever so much beefier!!
The choice of piston took a serious amount of searching the AE Hepolite catalogue until I found out that had the right pin diameter, pin to crown height, and was the right size.
Then it's a case of getting a good block to bore the hell out of it. And finally - you need to make a headgasket. This is the difficult bit. I have a jig which I had made from two pieces of 10mm thick steel plate with a spark erosion cutter - so it's accurate to better than one thou. And the gasket is made out of 1.6mm copper sheet, etched for bore seals and water galleries. Oil galleries need o-rings and some creative licence.

I wouldn't attempt to run this engine in a road car. It's a pure race car engine - as you have to be prepared to rebuild regularly, tear it down to check it out between races.

Put it this way, in my GSi race car, I used this engine to get pole position at Lydden Hill in 1997 with the Super Road Saloons by 0.8s over HT Racing engine'd 1800cc Mk2 Fiestas- which is a country mile! Didn't convert it into a win due to the exhaust falling off!!!

So, it can be done. Not with off the shelf components.

Power - 195hp on 45mm bodies/injection, dogs danglies head, development Kent Cams cam/solid lifters.
Though I got that from the 1600 when I went to a Kent AST9 cam, and DTA management. The head is the key to this engine, and the man that did it - doesn't anymore. He was the best! The best £600 I ever spent on a head! (in 1995)

[therealnovaboy]

I bet it went well with 195hp. I suppose the limit would be in that the head cant flow enough for 195 hp (unless its verry well flowed)

I didnt think 1300 rods were the same length as the 1600 ones? surely it would mean at TDC the piston wasnt flush with the block? unless your piston had a longer length from the gudgeon pin to the face of the piston.

I recon it would make a pretty good engine/ project.

[mowgli]

what you need to do is immerse yourself in parts books.. stuff is out there...

when researching oversize valves for my e16se, i discovered bmw 318 8v valves are surprisingly close in dimension to nova ones, with a bigger diameter.....

this sort of stuff used to be what was in proper car mags in the 80's/early 90's, when tuning meant modifying bits of metal, and not plugging laptops in.. a lot of really good info is disappearing because of this.

[novasrikev]

try tom reid in here he has built one his thread is on mig

[mowgli]

tom used a 1.6 block, rebored & transferred the bits over.

[novasrikev]

i know what he used i was there when it was built but has the same principle