I have purchased an extra 1.8 engine complete. My plan is to keep my nice stock 2.0L and build a nice big/fun motor from the extra 1.8L. I now have the following questions:

What do I need for a fuel pump, is mine too much for a carb set up? Do I just add a regulator?

I might jump on the nickies group buy, should I get a set of 2.0 tin, anything else?

What other modifications would be necessary to convert to carbs, remember, I want the option of putting the stock motor back in.

Thanks,

Kirk

Well the 1.8 doesn't use the 2.0 tin. For the fuel pump, your gonna have to change it to a low pressure pump 4-7psi.

Your also gonna need to change out the cam thats made for carbs. The FI cam even though it'll work, won't give you the same performance as a cam specifically ground for a carb.

Will the 1.8 tin fit the new cylinders?

I'm mostly concerned with harnesses and modifications made to the items that stay on the car when swapping the motors.

Any others have recommendations/information?


Merry Xmas!

It's the cylinder heads that determine which engine tin you need--specifically, the spark plug angle. You can sometimes run into problems where the cylinders are too long, but if you have long enough cylinders that the tin needs to be modified, that is the least of your problems. (Custom-made pushrod tubes, anyone?) I think that only happens when you are trying to use very long connecting rods in an attempt to keep the rod ratio near stock.

You need the low-pressure pump for the carbs. If you want to be able to swap the motors relatively quickly, you will need to keep the old pump in but cap off the fuel lines. Install the new pump somewhere or other and either be prepared to connect and disconnect the fuel lines to it, or come up with some way to bypass the pump (perhaps a valve you can manually open and close?).

I don't think the electrical harnesses will be that different. You unplug the FI harness obviously, but most of the engine harness stuff is still needed and is in pretty much the same place. You may need to tape up the wire going to the AAR.

I don't remember there being any other serious wiring changes that have to be done, but I could easily be missing something...

--DD