Mods for Caterham 1.4 K Series

[Rob1980]

Hello All

My Dad has got the above mention car, he loves it to bits! He has had it for quite a while and it is a very low mileage example. My Dad has got to the point where he would like to get a little more out of the 1.4, 100bhp engine. A bigger engine transplant is a complete no as he wants to keep it as original as possible.

What would say a cam, throttle bodies and a remap cost? Is this worth doing? How much would it roughly cost and does anyone know anyone that could do it?

If there are any other ways of getting more power out of this engine (he is not interested in a turbo) then please let me know.

[Scoff]

Do they run the MEMS ECU the same as you'd find in the Rover ? I don't think you could re-map that for Alpha-N throttle bodies so you'd need to go standalone.

I did one recently with fast road cams and ITB's but sadly he'd used an 8v block so once I'd dialed his cams in they fouled the pistons.

The 1600cc is basically the same engine, it'll go right in. The 1.8 non VVC also. Maybe he could use one of those, it'll look pretty original still.

[Rob1980]

Hello Scoff, thank you for the reply.

I'm not 100% sure, but I assume that the ECU is the Rover one that you mentioned. With that in mind, how much do you think we are looking at for a stand alone, cam, throttle bodies and remap including labour?

My Dad is adamant that the engine will not be changed what so ever...

[Rob1980]

Standard 1.4 ECU it is.

[Mr_Dave]

Pretty sure Caterham did a different ECU for the supersport version along with some cams, gave 130bhp. My Dad had one, but it was a while ago now.... It was an ex-race car (as most are) with a diff etc.

The thing about Caterhams is that you can sell them for what you paid for them if you play it right. Has he thought about flogging it and buying another one with the right engine in it? I remember it was hard flogging the one we built, I had a tear in my eye! As is the way with these things, he'll not get a penny back on any outlay on upgrades when it comes time to sell, so could end up shelling out a lot and not getting much power - 20-30bhp may cost £2k+, more than that and it'd be very peaky... It needs the 1.6 or 1.8 in there really for some proper fun (then its worth modifying!)

My Dad's on his 4th or 5th or something (lost count!) and has 2 in his garage at the mo, plus my Bro has in there also! All race cars currently though, but not far removed from the road car. He should come along to Rockingham on the 8th and get a ride round if he's keen My Dad still races them and turned 70 last year....!
http://www.graduates.org.uk/calendar.asp

[Rob1980]

Its definitely the 100bhp version, its on an L plate so 1993.

I have spoken to him about changing the engine but he wants to keep it as original as possible. He has talked about trading it in for the 300 but it would cost 10k in cash to do this.

If he can gain the extra 50bhp for about 2k while keeping the 1.4 then that is what he wants to do. Surely this is acheivable??

[Mr_Dave]

You might get 30bhp for that but not 50!

Swap out the cams, solid lifters, get a plenumn and throttle body from a VVC and a remap of the ECU should get you there I'd have thought.

My Dad's megagrad race car has that, (unsure which cams though) plus forged pistons and is dry-sumped, makes 140-5ish bhp from the 1.6

http://www.dvapower.co.uk/ <-- Dave Andrews knows his stuff about these motors.

[Rob1980]

Cheers Dave.