In reply to :-
>Does anyone know anything about the replacement for the A series engine?
>A pal of mine who is an Austin Healey guru was talking about this little
>beastie called the K series engine that is supposedly an aluminum blocked
>twin cammed monster that should just sort of drops right in - It sounded
>real interesting....
>> >>Sounds neat, but in the 8yrs I've been a
>> Spridget-ophile I've never heard of a "direct" replacement
>> for the whole engine. Lotsa swaps, (rotaries, straight
>> 6s, V6, 283), and as of late there's head swaps that
>> can make the A-series block a cross-flow 8 port,
>> Heeeyyyy, wait a minute - I bet I know what he speaks
>> of. If my foggy head remembers correctly, wasn't there
>> a mfg. named KAD or somesuch that offered a twin-cam
>> head for the A-series block ? If so, that could explain
>> the k-series (as in "killer") ?
The K-series is loosely Rover's replacement for the A-series and is used
in the Metro, 200 series and 400 series cars. As far as I know it is
available in 1.4 and 1.6 litre capacities and also in 8 or 16 valve
forms although I can't be absolutely sure on this (not having the
relevant articles to hand). It is a great engine and also quite
environmentally friendly with catalyst and fuel injection. The power
figures are outstanding with the 1.4 engine producing 95 bhp in certain
models. Caterham are now producing a 7 with a K-series.
Now, A-series, my pet subject. There have been numerous replacement
heads for the A-series over the years. The most famous is perhaps the
Arden 8-port head which looks very similar to the standard 5-porter, ie.
same rocker gear, t-stat housing etc., but with 4 inlets on the front
and 4 exhaust on the rear. This is now being produced by minispares in
London. At one time, Howley produced an 8-port x-flow overhead cam
conversion which looked to be a superb, compact design, but never went
into production. I believe minispares also have the design and tooling
for this but are not doing so, nor does it look likely they will.
Those heads are good but look positively anaemic when compared to the
16-valvers that are around now. KAD (Kent Automotive Developments) have
in production an all alloy, twin cam 16-valve head for the large bore
A-series engines (1275,1071,970 and overbores on these) which comes in
either road or race form, the road going version will release around
100bhp/litre on a 1275 and the race one about 140bhp/litre (no joke).
As I remember, the price is about 1500-2000 pounds for a kit which is
really easy to fit. Recently, ie. a month or two ago, JKD (Jack Knight
Developments) has been reported to have produced a 16-valver for the
A-series although details are sketchy at the present.
If anyone wants more information on these or other A-series matters in
the UK, then mail me and I will do all I can to help. Also, I cannot
recommend enough a book called 'Tuning BL's A-series engines' by Dave
Vizard , a little pricey but worth every penny.
Thanks for listening,
Joel Haylock
joelh@uk.ac.ed.castle
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