1749cc Wasserboxer crank
Engine by Laurie Pettitt (01890 781664)
One of the first things I did when we go the go-ahead for the project was to
talk to Laurie about an engine. I'd had 2 engines off Laurie previously and both
had been spot on. One had a wasserboxer crank conversion which gave a lot more
torque. Laurie was interested in the build on a budget idea and agreed to put
together an engine for us at a very good price.
Laurie and his mate Jay (from Bugshop in Newcastle) came all the way down from Scotland one w/e to give an engine build workshop in our back garden. He does these workshops at a number of shows, and they are well worth going to as you can see how things go together in front of your eyes rather than reading them in a book, but hasn't gone one in someones garden before so it was greatly appreciated. Members of the FlatFourFanatics club came over for the day and everyone learned a lot.
First Laurie stripped the original
engine showing us how to do it and what to look for in terms of wear etc.
Next he built up the 1749 in stages (machining for the crank had already been
done), explaining what each bit was about and correct procedures etc.
The engine he did was a 1749cc, which is mainly 1600 based but the 2.1 wasserboxer crank gives the odd cc number. The heads were worked and the case was modified for full flow. Following along the budget idea the engine had new bearings, new valves, new rings and the rest was 2nd hand. It's not built as a screamer but something torquey that will be able to do motorway speeds all day long. The exhaust was a 2nd hand BAS system bought for £80 from dubfreeze. Couple of minor holes were welded up and it was aluminium coated at Marawise (stops it rusting externally). The tinware was either out of the loft or £1 a bit from shows and that was powdercoated by Marawise too. An 2nd hand external cooler and filter were added (thanks to Phil for letting us borrow one on the engine build day) and a kawasaki motorbike fan was installed to help the external cooler. finally, a set of Laurie's new solex biza twin carb kits were added.
Paul had lent us his starter rig, so once the engine was fully built it was placed on the lawn, battery connected and a pipe run to a fuel can, the engine fired up first time!
Total cost about £750 all in and power is estimated at about 80bhp. After driving it around for a few months it's certainly got a kick and is quick off the mark and keeps up with (and sometimes outruns ;o) ) modern traffic - not bad at all for an engine built in a back garden!
The smaller pics on this page were again shot by Andy from Skibbly TV
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| Engine autopsy on the old engine | ||
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| New engine build up starts | ||
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| Lots of bits | ||
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| Wasserboxer crank | Case together | Barrels on |
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| 2/h BAS exhaust | Connecting the rig | It starts first time |
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