How do various 160 engine upgrades compare?

The Oily Bits S1 Specific Topics
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Hi all,I’ve just been told my S1 Elise’s engine has to come out to change the cam belt as they can’t get the damn bolt off the end of the crank :frowning: so I figured I’d look into various upgrades whilst it’s out.I’d love, but can’t afford a 190 conversion, so I’ve been looking at 160bhp kits (about 3 grand + VAT). I’ve found info on the Minister 160R, Raceline 160 and Bell & Colvill (which I believe is actually Minister’s), but I’m interested in your thoughts as to how the kits compare. Can anybody help?CheersChris

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Raceline…It does what it says on the tin…all the RR’ed cars have spit out an average of 165bhp and you get good customer support from the guys and Lakeside.I have a raceline 160 conversion and it has run quite happily for 12+ trackdays and 10000 miles. I have since fitted DTH to the raceline kit but have yet to RR the carEdited to say raceline have a fully buildt up raceline160 engine sitting on the bench, call them and make an offer for the lot…Other option is to go the DVA route, ie mix’n’match all the parts. It would be cheaper but drawback is lack of customer support from a provider of the whole package.[This message has been edited by LRdriver (edited 30 March 2003).]

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Ta for the info. I’ll give Raceline a call in the morning. I hadn’t heard of Lakeside before, so my car’s in the usual place of Motorway Sports Cars in Canterbury. Hope they’re up to the job :slight_smile:

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Chris,Are they charging you extra to remove the engine ?The reason i’m asking is that my Porsche needed the crank seal replacing and of course the “book” time was 3 hours and �180 the funny part was it actually took them 3 days to remove the bolt !!! but i was still charged the book time [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif[/image]So, maybe it would be worth checking at a Lotus dealership to see if they have “book time” for a cam-belt change [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif[/image]

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The cam belt change was part of the service I was having done, so I suppose it shouldn’t really cost me anything extra. They said there are other things that could do with being replaced whilst the engine’s out, like leaky oil seals and part of the exhaust and quoted me �800 parts and �900 labour (on top of the service).It sounds a bit much to me, so I’m going to clarify everything tomorrow. I think when they said ‘engine out’ I started thinking ‘tuning’ and switched off [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif[/image] I suppose I could have argued that it’s not my fault they can’t get the bolt undone.