Best Bang For My Buck.

[Nbettley 4]

hiya new member and i have a 205gti 1992 1.6

i am a student studying automotive engineering at uni, and because of this i have very little amounts of money.

what route would be best to take? i dont want anything crazy fast due to insurance,

i dont know wether to change the engine over summer or to tune a good fast-road spec engine.

thanks in advance

[Cameron 16]

GTi6 engine. No point messing about, you'll never get good gains out of an 8V unless you do a lot of work and / or spend a lot of money.

 

An engine conversion should cost you £500 at the most, obviously it depends on how much you get the engine for. If you can't afford that the next best thing you can do is put a 1.9 8V in, as you'll get a few more bhp and absolutely nobody will ever tell the difference from looking under the bonnet.

[welshpug 1,661]

best bang for your buck?

 

spend your cash refreshing the suspension, leave the engine as it is bar a service and make it run as intended, have fun without wasting all your cash on insurance.

[Nbettley 4]

tbh that was the gti-6 was the route i thought of, but how hard is it?

i mean i have built up old ford crossflow engines and gearboxes but i am not to handy at fabricating mounts and wiring etc.

thanks again

[harryskid 193]

If you are a young student, i would advise you to check out the insurance first!

[Baz 421]

Buy a decent set of tyres, service brakes, renew suspension & brakes, perhaps using uprated pads/fluid/braided brake lines and lightly uprated dampers if budget allows. In that order.

 

You'll end up with a fantastic car providing you've got a half decent engine.

[Cameron 16]

Why? The question was what can he do to get extra performance from the engine! If it was what should I change to get a better handling fast road / track car then yeah I'd agree with you, but it wasn't.

[Nbettley 4]

yeh ano,

but unless your on a track you cant really reap the benefits of a good handling car because you cant race down back lanes because its not worth the risk.

and i am fed up of getting smoked by "chavs" in vts's and renault 5 turbos and having to make the excuse of ill beat you round a track.

because realistically all you do is plant it on A roads!

 

but as far as the gti-6 engine do you need to fabricate mounts? or can you buy mounting kits?

also do they mount straight up to the gaerbox or will i need to put the 306 6 speed in it?

thanks again

[SurGie 54]

Welcome

 

TBH as you are a student, im sure you do a lot of research and studying. So most of your questions can be found out if you did some research via the project threads on here.

[tomcolinjones 26]

Lower engine and gearbox mounts are the same, you can use your 1.6 gearbox. you need to get a top engine mount off another pug/cit but i dont know which.

a 1.9 would be cheaper i think, you can pick up engines and gearboxes for next to nothing. im not sure but i guess it would use the 1.6 8v loom, fit a 1.9 ecu, 1.9 injectors and afm?

 

is the main reason for the conversion to stop getting overtaken by chavs?

[Nbettley 4]

oh right okay cheers.

haha no i was just messing around with the chavs just want something more tunable and faster.

because peugeot did a really good job of making a tuned drivable 8 valve engine to start with, i dont want to put big cams on it and 40's because it will drink fuel and will be horrible to drive unless your going flat out!

[tomcolinjones 26]

What condition is it in? if it is not a tidy one why not strip away some of the interior?, get a 4.43 cwp fitted to your gearbox, good service and some good tyres? you will see massive improvements. and you should see those chavs off! 306 gti6 dampers are a budget upgrade and i hear good results. i know you said you wanted to fit a more powerful engine, but have you considered this option?

[Anthony 1,003]

An engine conversion should cost you £500 at the most, obviously it depends on how much you get the engine for

And the rest! A good engine package alone is nearly that to begin with, another couple of hundred quid by the time you've done the cambelt, clutch, fluids etc, and then there's the manifold reangling/downpipe shortening to sort out (which I'd say most people could not do themselves) and loom to wire up.

 

Assuming you pay around the going rate for a GTi-6 engine package, you'd be hard pressed to do the conversion to a reasonable standard for less than about £800-1000 IMO.

[Cameron 16]

Welcome

 

TBH as you are a student, im sure you do a lot of research and studying. So most of your questions can be found out if you did some research via the project threads on here.

 

OOOOOOOOHHHH Alright Mr "If you don't have anything constructive to say, don't say anything", calm down!

 

[Cameron 16]

And the rest! A good engine package alone is nearly that to begin with, another couple of hundred quid by the time you've done the cambelt, clutch, fluids etc, and then there's the manifold reangling/downpipe shortening to sort out (which I'd say most people could not do themselves) and loom to wire up.

 

Assuming you pay around the going rate for a GTi-6 engine package, you'd be hard pressed to do the conversion to a reasonable standard for less than about £800-1000 IMO.

 

Not sure I agree with that! It depends on what price you get the engine for, but if you look outside of the forum you can get an engine for £350-400 quite easily. Then if he can weld or has a friend that can weld the manifold mods are straightforwards and shouldn't cost more than a few beers. Cam belt I'll agree is a good idea but clutch isn't always necessary.

[SurGie 54]

OOOOOOOOHHHH Alright Mr "If you don't have anything constructive to say, don't say anything", calm down!

 

 

calm down no sure why you said that. The poster asked a very very simple question about engine mounts, so i just advised him to research a bit, cause as he did not know the answer to that Q then researching is a good place start.

 

 

ps i dont use hand bags, i have a man-bag

[Cameron 16]

Well, no he asked an open question about what people reckoned his best options were.

[welshpug 1,661]

a hoon through some good lanes does not need 167 bhp, 115 will do just nicely IMO, and you don't have to be driving like an utter wanker to have fun either

 

 

Baz Anthony and I suggested, sorting the suspension brakes and making the existing engine work properly is your cheapest option, especially begin a skint student.

[Cameron 16]

Pfft.. I managed an Mi16 conversion in my first year despite being a povvo student. It all depends how much work you do yourself (also my engine was a steal! ).

[SurGie 54]

Well, no he asked an open question about what people reckoned his best options were.

 

 

Originally yes, but i was on about his question further down the thread.

 

I think if newbies are not that clued up with 205's, they should research the site as a first step, then post a thread.

[GLPoomobile 958]

yeh ano,

but unless your on a track you cant really reap the benefits of a good handling car because you cant race down back lanes because its not worth the risk.

and i am fed up of getting smoked by "chavs" in vts's and renault 5 turbos and having to make the excuse of ill beat you round a track.

because realistically all you do is plant it on A roads!

 

Did you think about how that post could be interpreted before you hit the Add Reply button? I'll tell you how it reads to me - you think it's too risky to race down lanes but it's acceptable to race on other public roads. You refer to those other drivers as chavs, and yet you are demonstrating chav behaviour by wanting to beat them racing on a public road I'm not trying to be arsey about it, but that kind of mentality does not wash around here, and I'm surprised I'm the first to mention it.

 

We're all hypocrites though really. We're all guilty of a little sport, sometimes in inappropriate conditions when the inner teenager comes out, and we all like to feel like we've got the superior car. But it's a social taboo, and will get you branded a chav too, so keep it hushed

 

If straight line speed is all you're after, an XU10 turbo would probably be the best bet. A lot of people don't like the lazy power delivery aparently, but if you don't care much for the 205 GTI character anyway then it would probably be the cheapest route. I've not experienced one myself, but I'd assume they'd be better suited to your "needs" due to being a torquier engine.

 

Personally speaking, I'd stick standard 1.6 8v. I miss my last one. I felt the need for more power, and have an Mi now. Yes it's fast and fun, but I kind of feel it's too fast to enjoy on the road. The 1.6 might not be able to out-accelerate the typical rep-mobile these days, but they are an absolute hoot.

 

As for the best bang for buck? There's no fun in a 205 that doesn't work, and it's a waste of time spending £££s making it go faster if it spends most of it's life parked up waiting for replacement parts. So spend your money refreshing anything that's worn and give yourself a headstart to long term reliability. Sensible upgrades to the basic areas will make it more fun than simply going fast in a straight line (good tyres, fast road front pads, eibach springs with Bilstein shocks, solid rear beam mounts, uprated gear rods). With all due respect to Cameron, take his comments about cheap conversions with a pinch of salt. Too many people on this forum will innocently lead you down the garden path because of their own experiences that are not necessarily the norm. Go in to any engine conversion expecting it to cost a lot more than people tell you it will.

Edited March 11, 2011 by GLPoomobile

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

As for the best bang for buck? There's no fun in a 205 that doesn't work, and it's a waste of time spending £££s making it go faster if it spends most of it's life parked up waiting for replacement parts. So spend your money refreshing anything that's worn and give yourself a headstart to long term reliability. Sensible upgrades to the basic areas will make it more fun than simply going fast in a straight line (good tyres, fast road front pads, eibach springs with Bilstein shocks, solid rear beam mounts, uprated gear rods). With all due respect to Cameron, take his comments about cheap conversions with a pinch of salt. Too many people on this forum will innocently lead you down the garden path because of their own experiences that are not necessarily the norm. Go in to any engine conversion expecting it to cost a lot more than people tell you it will.

 

 

Good advice here from GLPoo.

[harryskid 193]

Good advice here from GLPoo.

 

Quite true all you get for peanuts is Monkeys!

[Daxed 7]

As has already been suggested, check your insurance options prior to popping a GTI-6 engine in.

 

At 19 years old and with the current insurance market conditions I think the cost of the engine change may well be the least of your worries.

[Batfink 201]

I've just driven a 205 gti again for the first time in a few years and to be honest I never once thought about how fast it could go, instead enjoying the power delivery, handling and bags of character the car had. Be the better man and enjoy the car for what it is rather than willy waving.

Get some good suspension (not spax), maybe an air filter to make the right noises. Make sure its running in good condition and enjoy it. I bet you have the biggest smile, and probably the bigger bank balance as they throw money at making their cars accelerate the fastest from one queue of traffic to 100 yards up the road to the back of the next one.