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 Building a fast 16v Allegro (maybe)Moderators: Jump to page : 1 2 3 Now viewing page 1 [25 messages per page] | |
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edk83 |
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| Member Posts: 62  | I bought an Allegro 1500 Super from Kieran on here, it was setup pretty much perfectly - Bike carbs, polished and ported head, aggressive cam, custom manifold, individualised mgf hydragas etc  Drove it around for a while, great fun. Had to change the steering rack after a bearing died, put a stereo in it and refitted Ford esc ignition to the existing trigger wheel that Kieran made. The electronic ignition gave it some more power, but made it harder to start to the point where I had to use jump leads and another car if it was cold! Nothing wrong with the battery, just the starter pulls a lot of current and its not quite big enough. I spotted someone selling a completely rebuilt 1750 engine, rebored to 1.8, new pistons from New Zealand! This bloke had gone mad, must have spent hours and hours cleaning everything, replacing everything else. He was asking for £500 but needed it gone due to moving house, I got it for £170! Here are some pics of his build, you get half an idea of the amount of effort that went into this! New bearings, new valves reground, new pistons, every gasket new. Even came with new spark plugs, but I used those! New heater matrix and other bits too.         This is how it sits at the moment, I have painted the block to stop it rusting as it was so spotless, also left the head on it to stop the surface getting crusty. I changed the water pump for an Allegro one rather than Maxi. Put a nice blank on the fuel pump port as I would be using electric not mechanical. I might swap the oil filter assembly over to use the disposable type rather than paper element.  All this is now plan B, I was going to use the new 1.8 bottom end with the current modded head and cam shaft. Plan A is make it 16v K series but it could go either way at the moment. I have been searching online quite a lot and can only find two other threads where people have thought of putting a K series in a Allegro, neither of them have attempted it though from what I can see. I don't want this to be a third failed try, but I think I have got a little further along. It just depends how much help I can get with the welding and fabrication. So far I have taken this nicely setup car and taken it to bits!     Some rust to sort out, I'll take the brake booster off and clean it, I think its only surface where brake fluid has taken the paint off.  Started cleaning up the engine bay...    I bought myself a rover 114 as a donor car, £230 quid with a full mot! I have done about 500 miles in it now and its nippy! 38K miles on the clock, rusty back arches and front hydragas is totally flat! It has just had the head gasket done and runs perfect, noticed a coolant leak due to split top water pipe yesterday so fixed that this afternoon.  I also bought myself an MGTF front subframe that has just come out of a Rover 100, it has metro hubs and arms, engine mounts already attached. Got myself some TF rear shocks for it too.  Did some measuring today, couldn't offer it up fully but it looks possible on just about every angle! The distance between the top of the suspension towers is the same +/- 5mm. The rear mounts would end up level with the bottom chassis which is open and easily accessible. The front mounts would end up either side of the tie bar mounts at the front of the car. I don't think much of the firewall would need to be cut, looks like the existing steering rack could even be used. The subframe would end up just in front of the firewall as on the metro.  All the front turrets will need to be cut away, all the sides of the inner wings, battery tray is currently where the left engine mount would end up. Front valance will probably need trimming and rad would be tight. But those are all the main problems I can see at the moment, pcd adapters could be made to keep the stag wheels and get the offset right, if I use a pg1 box or Rover 45 r65 I could keep the hydraulic clutch hopefully. Other than that the dimensions are so close its begging for it, the TF turrets are not as tall as the Allegro so it could end up quite neat and it's even asking for a custom strut brace where the top engine stays used to be! The endgame would be 1.8 vvc, I'd probably get an MGZR as another donor. I just need to find someone local to come and do the welding and fabrication. If I can I'll crack on the taking all the suspension and hubs etc off, if not I'll clean it all up and fit the 1.8 Maxi engine. Any advice would be helpful at the moment! Edited by edk83 13/1/2016 11:30 PM | ||
| Marv_666 |
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 '88 MG METRO 1300 Posts: 1117   Location: Dudley, Midlands | |||
| petrol_head |
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 drive it like its hired    | |||
| 111Sli |
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 Transport Guru MP Moderator Posts: 4947 Location: Bromley, Kent | |||
| 100Vi |
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| Expert Posts: 1228 | |||
| edk83 |
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| Member Posts: 62 | Thanks lol  The handling on mine isnt bad, its on mgf cans which make it fairly stiff. The brakes are the main issue, tiny pads, may as well try putting your feet out to slow down! Hoping a thicker metro anti roll bar and maybe a custom strut brace will help! | ||
| DotMatrix |
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 Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | super cool allegro! makes me want to buy a 1750 allegro, tune it and race it  | ||
| edk83 |
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| Member Posts: 62 | |||
| edk83 |
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| Member Posts: 62 | On it with the grinder today, more came out than I was planning but the TF frame looks very close, no going back now!       Drilled me a new hole in an alternator bracket, just needs a trim.  Frame looks good from here but still needs to go back an inch and up an inch, more cutting needed.  Stripped the front end, looking sorry for itself! Frame definitely needs to go back and up!  | ||
| DotMatrix |
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | |||
| edk83 |
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| Member Posts: 62 | |||
| DotMatrix |
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Expert Posts: 4458 Location: Jelling, Denmark | glad to hear you thought about it you could also make tubular support from the bulkhead to the front subframe mounts and then weld the whole front in one removable piece? | ||
| edk83 |
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| Member Posts: 62 | |||
| edk83 |
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| Member Posts: 62 | Decided my 13" steering wheel is too small, couldn't see the top half of the speedo before. Ordered a 14" one with a bit of dish, also a slim quick release collar - may or may not use that. Need to order a kk154x boss now, like the idea of it being crushable. As for the speedo - MGF clocks?  Should have kept the top cover  Or this is my preferred solution Got his Acewell this week, the mount can go the other way up.  going to take the entire dash out I think , the car's wiring is pretty good but I will have to change a lot of it. | ||
| edk83 |
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| Member Posts: 62 | Post man has been This stuff came direct from China in a week, tax free  Pump, filter and Alloy 30 Litre tank.  The brackets on the tank took a beating through the Airport sorting! They are fairly thick though and should bend back easy.  Hmm the sender float is only about half way down at it's lowest point, will have plenty of fuel left when the gauge says empty. It has about 2" of foam in the bottom, was expecting more. Is that enough? Was thinking I could try and add a block with a cut out for the sender. It has a lower part inside the tank so shouldn't need a swirl pot, will mount it with the outlets towards the rear of the car, maybe at a slight angle so there is always fuel at the outlet.  | ||
| glyn-ellis |
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| Elite Veteran Posts: 697 Location: leigh | |||
| glyn-ellis |
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| Elite Veteran Posts: 697 Location: leigh | |||
| edk83 |
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| Member Posts: 62 | |||
| edk83 |
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| Member Posts: 62 |  At least my floors are good, ordered some ally seats today | ||
| edk83 |
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| Member Posts: 62 | Had to cut into the steering rack mount section but that will get remade, rear of the subframe now fits!  Started cleaning up the subframe today, got rid of all the bits of brackets where the front arb used to be - thats something else I have to sort down the line.    | ||
| edk83 |
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| Member Posts: 62 | Frame fits! Just a small amount of welding to do now lol!    | ||
| Jin |
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| Regular Posts: 159 | |||
| edk83 |
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| Member Posts: 62 | A bit more progress on the Allegro today, rear subframe mounts roughly made, but in the right place this time! Cut out the rear of the front panal for extra room, plated that off and whats left of the front of the chassis rails ready to accept brackets to bolt up the front of the subframe.    | ||
| edk83 |
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| Member Posts: 62 |  Got these back today, a little bit of drilling work! Just need to find someone with a big bearing press now! | ||
| edk83 |
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| Member Posts: 62 | Added some webbing to the front subframe mounts, this might foul the alternator on one side so may have to mod it later.   Gearbox mount back from bead blasting  | ||
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