Turnkey 2b!

[Guest Darksphere]

Hi everyone.

 

Just bought a 2b from a fella in london who has built it up over the last 2 years or so, and, as I'm pretty new to this (and didn;t go through the build process myself), I have a coupla questions which I wondered if you knowledgable chaps could help me with????

 

Firstly there seems to be a steering column bracket under the dash that has sheared completely in two presumably due to vibration - where can I get a replacement and how can I stop this happening again?

 

Secondly the 1.6 pinto seems rather... gutless. I was expecting 0-60 of about ?10 seconds, mine takes nearly 25.... has anybody else fitted thier engine and found this? It has standard RH exhaust and some kind of pancake airfilter fitted (for bonnet clearance I was told) - I wonder if it's messing up the mixture, or there's insuffience back pressure on the exhaust??? Any help with this greatly appreciated - I bought a sports car slower than my Rover 100!

 

Have been reading this site for some while looking for a "tubey", have to say the mutual support here is awesome!

 

Thanks in advance for all your advice

[Big Jim]

The bracket, you'll have to make one yourself, the original RH affair was flimsy to say the best about it, have a look at other 2B's to see what has been done.

 

If you want some go out of your 1600 (and there's no reason why it shouldn't) check which carb it has fitted, then throw it away and get a 32/36 DGAV carb & manifold from a 2ltr pinto (early sierra or cortina) check your timing with a strobe light, it's probably only been guessed.

most of all, throw that pancake filter as far away as you can, once you've sorted out a decent carb, get yourself a foam filter, either Pipercross or similar. There's been plenty of discussions about them on this board, just use the search at the top.

Set up right, with a good carb, the 1600 will go OK.

 

jim

[Guest timswait]

If it takes 25 seconds to get to 60 then there's something wrong! To be this slow it can't be delivering more than half what it's meant to, does it run rough or smoke? You might want to do a compression test to see if your engine is worth saving. I wouldn't spend too much money on it when you bear in mind you can get a decent 2 litre for less than £100. I paid £80 for an un-MOTed 2.0EFi Sierra with a perfectly servicable engine which gives plenty of power and hasn't needed any work (other than routine) for 10k miles so far.

I built mine with a 1600, entirely standard, Sierra exhaust mani, RHE twin tube, pancake air filter and it would do 60 in a bit under 12 seconds. Haynes quote the 1600 at 78 bhp, so in a car weighing about 3/4 of a tonne this gives a respectable 100 bhp/tonne.

This did get a bit boring though, so I swapped the engine for a 2.0EFi, the exhaust for a RHE 4into 1 and the air filter for a green cotton one, which are decisions I'm very pleased with. 115bhp (quoted by Haynes for standard engine, exhaust and air filter probably add 2 or 3 more - a 50% increase) means about 150bhp/tonne, also more torque and responsiveness, and 60 in about 7 seconds.

[Guest Darksphere]

Thanks fellas - have read a lot of past posts about air filters and so on and, having had similar problems with a pancake filter on a Mini Cooper am beginning to beleive this really could be the root cause of the problem - couldn;t believe it when I was driving home down the M20 in my lovely new Hoodie that the engine was bottling out at 65mph and not pulling at all in 5th gear...

 

So could anyone recommend exactly what carb and filter to fit (part numbers etc), bearing in mind that I'm planning to upgrade to a 4-in-1 stainless exhaust come summer?

 

Although the easy option might be to just drop in a 2 litre powerplant, I'm wary of doing this at present due to (1) the insurance and (2) that I've only had the car 2 weeks and have spun it in the wet already! Want to get used to the handling before I start looking into monster power.... yes I know I;m a big wimp

 

Thanks again

[Big Jim]

If you want some go out of your 1600 (and there's no reason why it shouldn't) check which carb it has fitted, then throw it away and get a 32/36 DGAV carb & manifold from a 2ltr pinto (early sierra or cortina) check your timing with a strobe light, it's probably only been guessed.

most of all, throw that pancake filter as far away as you can, once you've sorted out a decent carb, get yourself a foam filter, either Pipercross or similar. There's been plenty of discussions about them on this board, just use the search at the top.

Set up right, with a good carb, the 1600 will go OK.

 

jim

[Mitch]

like Jim said, 32/36 from 2.0ltr capri/cortina and sierra

like this one

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Weber-carb-32-36-sui...1QQcmdZViewItem

 

if bidding note its in Euros as its in Ireland

 

HTH

Mitch

 

posted as jim underlined on his thread

Edited February 1, 2006 by Mitch

[Guest Darksphere]

Lovely stuff thanks fellas, think I'll spend tomorrow hauling round the local scrappies...?

 

Cheers

[Snapperpaul]

Darksphere, fill in your community details so we know where you are.

I have a greasy old 2.0L i will break or give away and a good 2.0L 205 block that i may part with for reasonable money since i bought a 2.1 with bike carbs and megajolt and i need to recoupe some of the £800.

[Guest Darksphere]

Thanks Snapperpaul, have filled in details as requested....

 

At the mo as I say am only looking to improve existing performance of 1.6 - so the above mentioned carb would be great if you have that - will of course give you a few quid for it and maybe ?come and get it or ?enough to cover postage if you;re happy to send it????

 

Cheers dude!

[Guest docter fox]

in the wet it's definately a bit of a handful, roundabout by any chance?

 

try a few insurance quotes for a 2.0, you might find it isn't much difference.

[Guest Darksphere]

Roundabout? Not even - a tight 90 degree in Deal town centre... guess I'm just used to front wheel drive - expected the car to pull me round the corner so gave the throttle a little kick and was suddenly facing the wrong way.... hehehehe. Not something I try to make a habit of....

[Peter Bell]

Ben just try removing the filter for a start, at least that will show you if you are going in the right direction. Also what tyre pressures have you got? start off with about 20 all around.

Peter.

[Bob Tucker]

Hi Ben, welcome.

We Kent Hoodies get together fairly frequently. We havent fixed a venue or a date for our next meeting yet, but if you Just PM me your email address I'll try & get you added to our Kent mailing list.

 

As the weather improves, we run down towards the coast, so Im sure you'd get plenty of offers of advice....actual help may not be so forthcoming!!

Cheers, Bob.

 

PS always do what Jim says!! In this case he's dead right. A neighbour has just completed a 1600 2B which has a very respectable performance.

[Guest timswait]

One thing to be aware of- the RHE 4 into 1 manifold isn't that great, it's the aspect of my conversion that I'm least happy with. The headers aren't equal lengths and it doesn't fit very easily. I had to move the alternator, steering column, brake servo, and cut a larger hole in the body to accomodate it.

Having said all that it is fairly cheap and an improvement on the twin tube.

P.S. Good idea to take the air filter off, you don't want to make a habit of running without it but it will at least indicate if this is the problem.

[Guest Darksphere]

Having read all that about the difficulty of fit I might leave it for a while - I assume the weber twin choke mentioned above will be an improvement regardless of what exhast system is fitted?

 

Also Big Jim said to enquire about this steering column bracket - any ideas about an improvement over the RHE part? I don't really want to have it break and shear into my leg every 5 minutes...

 

Cheers!