Hi from Auckland New Zealand

Oddfire crank

Oh dear. Whole can'o' worms now. As from your PM, if there seems to be a silver ECU between the rear seats which is Renix/Bendix etc then there's no way that unit ran the engine if its oddfire.

Is your car originally a turbo?. Are you sure its not an atmo engine converted with different pistons and a turbo inlet manifold? Does it have a dizzy at the back of the engine or one on the front of the timing cover?

i can take a wee look at the car for you!

i'm in new zeland..... dunedin, at the moment!

i can take a wee look at the car for you!

i'm in new zeland..... dunedin, at the moment!

Did you take a trailer with you ???

Oh dear. Whole can'o' worms now. As from your PM, if there seems to be a silver ECU between the rear seats which is Renix/Bendix etc then there's no way that unit ran the engine if its oddfire.

Is your car originally a turbo?. Are you sure its not an atmo engine converted with different pistons and a turbo inlet manifold? Does it have a dizzy at the back of the engine or one on the front of the timing cover?

I am told the car ran but with a piggy back computer as well, but I dont really know the details.

The car was originally a turbo, however the engine may have been changed by Torque Developments, the engine numbers match the numbers on the head, but I dont know how to tell if it was turbo or atmo. The dizzy runs directly off the right side cam at the rear of the engine.

i can take a wee look at the car for you!

i'm in new zeland..... dunedin, at the moment!

That would be great, I live in Auckland, are you coming up this way?

I would be happy to pick you up from the airport if that helps just let me know.

Just copying across from my post on FF.

Hi

This is going to throw a spanner in the works now Ive seen the pics

I doubt that engine has ever been run like that.

Its evenfire converted to oddfire. Hence the evenfire dizzy on the front, and the fact it has an evenfire ECU. So therefore there is no way it could have been run with an oddfire crank. No piggyback unit can alter the timing of the original ecu (piggybacks can retard or advance) but not change the firing timing independant of cylinders. And the fact that the only piece of equipment that has been removed from the car is this 'mythical' box that can do it points further to the fact.

Then theres the fact of the cams. I doubt if they realised the problem of an oddfire crank on an evenfire system, that they knew anything about the different cams too..

If the pistons are non standard/Mahle and this is an early 90's setup, they may be Sierra Cosworth ones (same diameter) or they are from the Alpine 2.8 Turbo Perengali model / Venturi 260.

The other problem is finding an ECU for oddfire setup.

If I was you I would either (a) completely bin that engine, keep the exhaust manifolds and turbos and fit an evenfire engine and run low boost on a high compression engine, or try and source a 25 Turbo engine. There are some cheap in the UK, and if your worried about shipping, that can be sorted out quite cheaply. Both engine types will run fine and easy on an Adaptronic

..or (b) get an even fire crank for your engine, and a set of even fire rods.
I wouldnt worry about the 'ported' heads too much, as you can see the 8" long restrictive runners on the Volvo inlet manifold scupper any advantages made at the short port in the head. From the pics they don't look much different to standard anyway.

Without the benefit of pictures, it sounds like an even fire engine that's always been even fire. If it was stroked TO 2849cc then that suggests it was a 2.5 to begin with, seeing as ALL odd fires are 73mm stroke. If the bore is 91mm it's a 2849 if it's 93mm then its 2975

Sounds lo me like a 2458 stroked with a volvo B280 crank to 2849 with custom pistons like the Venturi 260. This would then run from a modified Renix ecu.

The easiest way to check even vs odd is to turn the engie and see if your pistons are working in pairs - ie do the pistons hit TDC in pairs? NB if you don't want to re-seat the liners, these must be clamped before turning the engine.

[Alpineandy]

http://www.aussiefrogs.com/forum/showthread.php?t=53955
the pics are one here.

Without the benefit of pictures, it sounds like an even fire engine that's always been even fire. If it was stroked TO 2849cc then that suggests it was a 2.5 to begin with, seeing as ALL odd fires are 73mm stroke. If the bore is 91mm it's a 2849 if it's 93mm then its 2975

Sounds lo me like a 2458 stroked with a volvo B280 crank to 2849 with custom pistons like the Venturi 260. This would then run from a modified Renix ecu.

The easiest way to check even vs odd is to turn the engie and see if your pistons are working in pairs - ie do the pistons hit TDC in pairs? NB if you don't want to re-seat the liners, these must be clamped before turning the engine.

It has an oddfire crank as he said.

Ah yes, defo an oddfire crank as shown in the pics. This means that the pistons were made for an odd-fire gudgeon pin

The easiest solution would be to drop in an even fire crankand rods (from any even fire engine apart from the 2458 turbo) and have the pistons bored out to accept the larger floating gudgeon pins.

With the parts you have, it'll never run. At the most basic level, the position of the electrodes in the dizzy are in the wrong place.

The intake manifold is from a renault or volvo K-Jet setup. My guess is the engine was built using the Volvo internals and intake manifold. Can you provde a photo of the camshaft next to #4 to establish whether you have the turbo cams or the odd-fire cams. If the latter, you night want to stop now... the oddfire cam has a gear for the distributor drive there.

Can you measure the gudgeon pin diameter? As they are Mahle and 91mm they could be Cossie pistons, and they run 24mm pins, so the original rods may have been opened up so as to use completely standard 'off the shelf' pistons.

Thanks all for your advice

I think I need to have another look at what I have and post all the details so we know if this engine can ever run.

David re your suggestion of finding a R25 turbo engine, I bought one earlier in the year so that is my backup plan if the original engine is a non starter.

Well its hard to believe its been over 3 years since I last posted about the GTA project. I had to put everything on hold for a couple of years due to selling our house and buying and building. But this year I have been able to get back onto the GTA and Im pleased to say it is now all running sweet.

Dispite some of your comments that it would never run with the parts I had, I changed nothing and persevered believing I was on the right track. I had the support of a very good engine tuner who stuck with the project even when it had both of us scratching our heads on more than one occasion.

Anyway to cut a long story short it had its last dyno session yesterday and I picked it up today. Very pleased with the way it drives. As you would expect with 2 small turbos power comes on from very low down and continues up to about 5500rpm. Very smooth and no fuss.

I will post a picture of the dyno sheet on Aussiefrogs tomorrow as I dont seem to be able to posts pics on this forum but peak power is 207 hp at the wheels which would equate to about 250hp at the flywheel and peak torque was at 3000rpm. This is all at 8 lbs boost. I decided to keep the boost quite low for now until I get used to the car and get some miles on the engine.

So now I have to get the car certified and registered so it can be used legally on the road and get things like the A/C working. Also some bigger brakes will be on the list at some stage.

[Alpineandy]

Well done.