Engine

[Hamish Weir]

After how many races should an engine need re-built?

[Adam43]

Sorry for saying the obvious thing, but it depends on what engine! And how hard you push it!

At the moment we rebuild our about once every 120,000 miles Although every season our 110K engne is checked over. Perhaps the head will come off, but nothing is done to it.

[Hamish Weir]

Doh Yeah good point. Im looking at the possible costs involved in buying a Formula Ford. So the engine will probably either be a Solus.

[kickstart]

Although I have never followed this advice myself, I have been told that FF1600 go off the boil after about 1500 miles or about a season of normal racing with some limited testing.
I think you are looking at one rebuild a year, normally during the winter, when you have some money left and costs from memory circa £1500 from someone like Neil Bold in Manchester.
From someone who has bought a number of FF1600 cars over many years, they have all seemed to have needed an engine rebuild. However, if you are starting out, before you spend any money I would get out there and see how you and the car work together. Unless the engine is completely knackered I would probably run it as is for the first season and then rebuild it next winter.

[JohnMiller]

Despite what some people might say, a Zetec (unless you **** it up) will only really need a build every five years or so. It's a modern engine, balanced when new and designed for the stresses you will give it. I think Solus mainly do lease motors though..

[zefarelly]

I'm building a precrossflow 1500 . . . .not including buying the engine (in pices) I've spent nearly 1500 on engineering, balancing, machining and bearings etc, if your going to thrash/race it I'd say once a year, and a minimum of £2k

[zefarelly]

thats assuming an average season of racing and a relatively simple 4 pot engine like a ford. probably not more than 10-20 hours racing . . . .i'd hope . . .disasters aside, the rebuild to be considerably cheaper than the initial build

[Mackmot]

The solus will do the whole season no probs

[MikeM]

I was always told that the guide for an FF1600 engine is about 1000 miles, mainly due to cranks cracking - get them crack detected. Plenty run much longer but if something goes it tends to be bigger. Also depends on how it is used (revved) and if you kerb it, easy to hit the front of the engine. A quick rebuild with no machining should be less than £1500.

[zefarelly]

crack testing cast iron can be a bit misleading as well, all cast iron has cracks in it, although major ones can usually be 'heard' . . .. .the crank wont ring if you tap it. . . . .maybe a heath robinson way of checking, but cheap !

[DSM]

How do F Renault 2000 engines, as used in BARC FR compare with the above. I'm surprised that there are concerns about cranks cracking. I know that years ago ford would run standard engines on test beds for the equivalent of 1000's of miles at maximum revs. Unless the engines are seriously over revved, which should be prevented by limiters, I would have thought that you should expect a few years of racing from a rebuilt motor.
are these engines run with air filters? I know that some formulae don't and that obviously increases the rate of wear significantly.

[JNWRF01]

Hamish - Solus tend to only lease engines - so be aware if you are buying a Solus motor from anyone except themselves. The engines themselves need little maintainance - I would say you would easily get 3000miles out of it without too many problems. Best to just get the engine bulder to freshen up (Scholar charged me £300 for this) the gaskets etc etc and you know what you are buying is going to be right from the start.

[kickstart]

Hi DSM,
F Renault motors (pre 2000) are supposed to do circa 5000 miles before a rebuild. ALthough it is often cheaper to buy a new motor than actually re-build your old one unless you believe the old one has mystical powers.

[DSM]

Thanks Kickstart. it's one of the things I'm looking at for this year, now we've sold our F Honda and it's good to get a feel for reliability etc.

I notice that some of the cars up for sale have spare engines with them, which is why I was interested in reliabiity - you know,it looked like spare engines might be needed.

If they can run 5000 miles, I assume they must have air filtration?