I do think that would be a good idea, don't alloy blocks have sleeve bores as std? and then will that limit big/over bore options?
But it would save a heap of weight, the entire running gear could be alloy, you could almost save 50kg off the front end...how good would that be .

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Respect mine and I'll respect yours.

What? Like this one...


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Yeah something simular to that....



Is'nt that an old factory R&D item

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Respect mine and I'll respect yours.

Someone over in the uk had a go at grafting a gti block and head onto a std gearbox, but ran out of steam. The other option is to modify the gearbox to accept another block, like they did with lotus twincams.

Or replace the whole lot because more hp through an a series gearbox isn't going to help reliability.

KAD were working on a ally block,wonder what happened to that?

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16v, twin cam, 'a'series, cooper S replica,3x dcoe webers,Around 200 HP and heaps of torque

haven't gone back into the elmer racing site recently but the early power figures were disappointing ( 100), nice cnc thingy but for that sort of power i 'll stick with a standard a series

I have been watching these for a while now, its just a bit of shiny. Looks nice seems to (will eventually) go well, but is it worth it?

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Nick

http://www.ausmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=86675

Our first alloy 5-main engine with 20v cyl head & turbo injection,,, i highly doubt will be slower by any means

but we have designed (correction-> we are in the process of designing) number 2 alloy 5-main block & it`s looking like we can get 1760cc out of her ,,, so add the 20v cyl head with turbo & injection with mini auto gearbox case filled with Late honda bike gear kit,,, maybe it will be slower again Mick

maybe slower to make,,, yes,,, for sure very very much slower in fact

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No offence intended here but--> anyone writing a book about minis 30 years ago may not have experienced such worn or stuffed-with components as we are finding these days.

You should put your heart & soul into everything you do.

What gearbox mods are you doing to stop it from blowing up?

I remember seeing a few motorbike gearsets in mini gearboxes, but they don't seem to be a big thing. But a six speed sequential + 1760cc 20V turbo 5-main bearing engine and we're looking at something I might throw money at.

KAD were working on alloy block,was on their forum when it was running

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16v, twin cam, 'a'series, cooper S replica,3x dcoe webers,Around 200 HP and heaps of torque

When you talk about 20v heads I can only assume you're grafting a Toyota head to a Frankenstein block. Is it a fully custom block?

I think they were yamaha heads and a custom block that Matt is talking about

Regarding Alloy blocks.

1. Economies of scale
2. Bore spacing
3. Extra material required to control flex and distortion
4. Reduction in cooling capacity

1 will never be overcome based on 2, 3 and 4.

Any fair dinkum alloy block has direct plated silicone carbide bores. This helps 2 until you ask a BMC owner to pay for it.

Every area of the block will require an increase in material thickness and additional webbing will be required. Head and main bolt threads would really need to go up to 7/16 taking up more space. No more UNF threads.

A large amount of R&D would be required after the patterns and cores had been made to test hot machined blocks to assess material expansion. An alloy block is going to grow to a different size at a different rate than the steel main caps that are responsible for controlling the main tunnel size.

I just can't see anyone having deep enough pockets to fund something that if done properly is too expensive for market.

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Breaking heaps of stuff isn't the same as R&D since the "R" implies you actually did some research

G&H is the most applied practice by performance engine builders

G = Guess & H = Hope

ONE alloy A series block has been done, but you can see a lot of the issues Gulabill was talking about in this cutaway drawing...appears to the same one spraycanmansam showed above



cheers,

Jacob

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'72 Clubman Van - 1022cc, 295 head, 731 cam - Daily Driver
'69 Morris 1100 S - Dinged by a bus, in shed under repair
'64 Morris 1100 - Early 1100, long term project

i bought a few big chunks of alloy like this to have a play with-->



i have quite a few Yamaha R1 engines that we`re using the barrel/bore & 20v head from,,,

I have a crank design that we`re (attempting) to perfect before we make it,,, & a 5-axis CNC machine in northern NSW that we`re borrowing (including the operator, of course )

we are currently playing with a whole host of different designs for a whole host of different conversions,,, but this one is my pet project & i doubt that anyone else would be able to afford to buy one,,,so i have no intention of making them "For Sale" as such

the Gearbox (for someone who asked early) is a Mini Automatic case, modified to fit a modified motorbike gear kit in "Cassette" form... yes it`s also big bags of work to sort the design (let alone actually making it)

Matty on the turbominiforums uk has already produced a motorbike/mini gearbox & so has another chap here in Aust with a bimmer twinky motor (little blue one),,, but they both used mini manual cases,,, i`ve used the auto case for a bit more room,,, a bit more strength,,, & a bit more ease of maintenance, being we can un-bolt big pieces of it to get at stuff in-situ

i`m not pretending to re-invent the wheel,,, it was just a thought years ago,,, now it`s looking more & more like a reality,,, to produce """my own""" bottom-end & gearbox,,, & use std-issue yamaha R1 20v top end,,,with 1760cc & turbo with injection... quite a bit lighter than the mini pwer unit & sitting a fair bit lower in the engine bay---> well i`d be a happy chappy

if not then it`s been fun trying

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No offence intended here but--> anyone writing a book about minis 30 years ago may not have experienced such worn or stuffed-with components as we are finding these days.

You should put your heart & soul into everything you do.