B0ZWELL

you can pretty much buy an off the shelf kit to put the F20c into a rwd Escort (including a dry sump kit). the engine mount kit i got was designed for an Escort but because it came as a kit it can be adapted for pretty much anything

including an S800

Yukspeed

Dracoro

The main issue was that the S2000 engine turns the "other" way round than most engines.

So you need a gearbox (I would assume most would go for the s2000 one anyway!), diff, propshaft etc. all designed as such.

If the engine turned the other way, it would be a lot easier as many cheap parts/knowledge is already out there.

The other main issue is that the S2000 engine is quite tall which has caused problems with installation. You would then nee to be looking at baffled sumps to help shorten the height, again you'd need this fabricated and so forth.

jonner

soulcrew

chuck an ls3 v8 in there.

not much bigger or heavier.


but you knew i was going to say that

B0ZWELL

what are you on about?


it turns the correct way. i.e., clockwise. it was the front wheel drive stuff that turns anticlockwise. but the DC5 and the new Civic Type R have clockwise engines. turning clockwise is the main reason for choosing the F20c because i wanted to keep the engine Honda. but iv'e since found the some people have managed to build the old B16 vtec engine to turn clockwise.(not to be used in a fwd honda of course)

there is an adapter available for the F20c to use the Ford type 9 gearbox as it's a little smaller than the S2000 gearbox. it is just like any other 4 pot engine apart from you don't have to fully rebuild it to get 240 horsepower like any other 4 pot would need to be so for the power it ends up being the cheapest option.

Pete Findlay

Just to confirm that the S2000 engine works just fine in a Sevenesque installation. Dax Rush, standard engine and box, standard sump, mated to a Sierra back-end (although with a 4.1 CWP). There are quite a few kit manufacturers that support the engine with chassis options to suit now - but it's likely more suited to the larger, heavier variants - so may not be quite the purists bag. It is quite a big engine - tall, hence the bonnet bulge - and the gearbox is quite fat.

There are quite a few after-market ECUs that will run the engine, even using the standard sensors, so even that part of it isn't too much of a chore.

It's not really scary - you don't have to drive it in VTEC all the time!

Ultra_Nexus

The F20C is a great engine, no doubt.

However....

When in a kit car it no longer needs to haul around >1400kg, so it is massively over-engineered.

IIRC, the Gearbox and Diff come in at about 170kg.

A Hayabusa/ZZR1400 engine and gearbox will come in at about 85kg and they will put out 210bhp.

In a car weighing in at <500kg, another 85kg will make a rather large difference.

Still, i'd say it was one of the best car engines to put in a kit car

Ginge

Yeah, I looked into bike engined kit cars and they are notoriously delicate.

They have amazing specific power and they are very compact since they have the integrated gearbox but they just aren't designed to push so much weight.

My mate who has one has to fix it once for every two track days.

I'd say for the improved reliability the F20C is a fantastic Kit car engine.

MarkB

But all that works the other way round too.

A bike engine is designed to haul 200kg plus rider and so is under-engineered for everyday kit car work. In addition, the clutch is engineered to be hand-operated.

Fine in a race car, or if you have the time to work on it between outings, but they're a labour of love and not much fun for more than short blats on the road.

BECs are great fun, but for anyone that wants a usable car with minimal running costs, a car engine is the way to go.