oioi !

W

Workid

Newbie
Points
11
Location
Lossiemouth, Scotland
Car
Seat Ibiza 1.4
Finally i have found a forum which is UK based!

My name is Rory, i work in Lossiemouth in Scotland but my hometown is Newcastle upon Tyne.

I'm getting sick of spending my wages on getting drunk every weekend and have nothing to show for it. I have been toying with the idea of buying a cheap car and whacking a nice big silly engine into it. I want to make the ultimate sleeper (within budget)

Since I saw the Nova c20let for the first time i have had a yearning to do something like that myself. I know it is a fairly common conversion and has everything i would want but I also want to consider all of my options.

If you read my profile you may see I am a mechanic in the RAF. You may also see the word 'mechanic' is in apostrophes, if you were to imagine a mechanic in your head now, that is not me. I am a psuedomechanic. This is part of the reason I want to do this, for the experience. I have a good understanding of the theory and principles of mechanics after 18 months training but due to the nature of my job i have no experience at all with any vehicles other than those i got tested on in training. I do have experience stripping engines though, but since I have left my phase 2 training camp i have been on the ground support equipment (GSE) side of my section which doesnt see me doing much in the way of vehicle mechanics. Unfortunately.

I do however have access to an extensive tool set (including a range of STT tools), car ramps and lifts, garage space and colleuges who can weld or manufacture stuff.

So, what are the most common engine swaps to do? What sort of budget should i set myself? What else should I consider before I embark on this mission?

If it helps i have roughly £4-5k to start it off with and an expendable income of ~£500 to pour into it each month if need be

Any and all responses appreciated

Cheers!
 
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May I as the site admin wish you a very warm welcome to TorqueCars. It is really nice to meet you and I hope you'll be spending some time with us over the months to come.

You'll find us one of the friendliest and most helpful car tuning forums around.

What about an old classic VW Golf and dropping in a 1.8T engine? Skylines also make great project cars and achieve massive power figures with the right mods. The more power you start with the easier it will be to increase this.

Do you have any cars short listed for your project?

Do feel free to chip in on our other topics and discussions, we are all here to share our passion for cars. Being friendly and helpful is a forum rule here and I'm sure you'll fit in just fine.
 
Cheers for all the comments like, apologies if i seem ignorant ive been one leave for the last week.

Some really good ideas there like, i'm loving the Golf + 1.8T (my mother had a mk1 and 2 mk2's) and the Clio sounds like it would be mental. I know of skylines and how rapid they can be but i dont think i could own one / be seen in one.

Once i get my head around the forums interface im sure i will be a regular poster here and will endevour to share any knowledge i can offer myself.
 
I'm 21 but only have 2 years driving experience. Funny thing you ask about insurance, first policy when i was learning in my own car was £700 (provisional insurance) went up to £900 when i passed my test, year 2 went renewal went up ~£1350 so i rang up and immediately got it down to £1200 and eventually £1100 my most recent renewal is above £1700 (this month). Not happy to say the least, im pumping myself up for a pretty nasty phonecall in the near future.

Im loving the idea of a RWD car, its how a proper car should be laid out. If i can give you a bit of backround on my car tastes, i grew up with a petrolhead of a mother who has a love for german motors ie bmw, vw and audi. She must have had 5 or 6 mk1 bmw 3 series and an e30 325 touring, mk1 and 2 golfs, a passat, 3 maybe 4 sciroccos, think there was even a cheeky polo in there, the only audi we had was an audi 80. I lose count of the cars there was that many, as a result i love these cars deeply. Especially the mk1 beema's. Theyre obviously RWD, do you reckon thats a possibility? Would i have much room to play with there? If im honest i would forgo the powerful engine to restore or 'do up' a nice bmw like. I suppose i could be doing alot of this research myself instead of relying on you lot and as you can see i get a little excited about old german motors like.

Cheers for the reply though mate
 
Workid said:
I'm 21 but only have 2 years driving experience. Funny thing you ask about insurance, first policy when i was learning in my own car was £700 (provisional insurance) went up to £900 when i passed my test, year 2 went renewal went up ~£1350 so i rang up and immediately got it down to £1200 and eventually £1100 my most recent renewal is above £1700 (this month). Not happy to say the least, im pumping myself up for a pretty nasty phonecall in the near future.

Im loving the idea of a RWD car, its how a proper car should be laid out. If i can give you a bit of backround on my car tastes, i grew up with a petrolhead of a mother who has a love for german motors ie bmw, vw and audi. She must have had 5 or 6 mk1 bmw 3 series and an e30 325 touring, mk1 and 2 golfs, a passat, 3 maybe 4 sciroccos, think there was even a cheeky polo in there, the only audi we had was an audi 80. I lose count of the cars there was that many, as a result i love these cars deeply. Especially the mk1 beema's. Theyre obviously RWD, do you reckon thats a possibility? Would i have much room to play with there? If im honest i would forgo the powerful engine to restore or 'do up' a nice bmw like. I suppose i could be doing alot of this research myself instead of relying on you lot and as you can see i get a little excited about old german motors like.

Cheers for the reply though mate
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Your Mum must be the coolest Mum in the world! A love of BMWs would get more than the £10 I spend on my Mum on Mother's Day! :lol:

BMWs are definitely a possibility (I'm a BMW man myself :D). I'll assume by 'mk 1' you mean an E30? (Although it isn't actually the first 3 series FYI). That or E21? You can pick up E30s quite cheap now but be prepared for a complete overhaul on pretty much everything. You won't find anything particulary powerful though as most are either ruined or garaged.

Alternatively E36s are quite cheap as well nowadays. Check out my project thread as I have an E36 318is.

From the Jap side of things a lot of people go for S14s.
 
Haha aye me mam is mint mate. Just looked up e30 and e21, by mk1 i meant the e21. I've never been good with them numbers like. My favourite was a black 316 with twin headlights, was in beautiful nick. I dont mind a nice e36, had a look at yours there and it looks canny and glad to see it doesnt look like its been dragged through halfords. I'm going to have a look now to see if theres any 328s kickin about on autotrader.

An s14 is a skyline isnt it? Youre not the first to mention one so i suppose ill get off of my german high horse and have a look at whats on offer from the Japs as well.
 
Workid said:
Haha aye me mam is mint mate. Just looked up e30 and e21, by mk1 i meant the e21. I've never been good with them numbers like. My favourite was a black 316 with twin headlights, was in beautiful nick. I dont mind a nice e36, had a look at yours there and it looks canny and glad to see it doesnt look like its been dragged through halfords. I'm going to have a look now to see if theres any 328s kickin about on autotrader.

An s14 is a skyline isnt it? Youre not the first to mention one so i suppose ill get off of my german high horse and have a look at whats on offer from the Japs as well.
Click to expand...

E21s are becoming quite rare in good condition now though. But for some reason I prefer the shape to E30s. They'll be plenty of 328s around for £1k-ish. Next problem will be the insurance! Definitely get yourself a few quotes (Sky and Adrian Flux (15% off at Adrian Flux as a TC member) come to mind) A 328 was out of my price range when I was buying a couple years back (I'm 23 now).

The S14 is a Nissan 240sx. I've had Jap (Honda) and now German (BMW) and I've got to say the clincher was the interior. German cars are just a nicer place to be.
 
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