Elise powered by HONDA?

[Greg Z]

A friend of mine just got back from the Toyko Auto Salon show with 500 pics, and as I was looking though I came across.

Please do not flame me if I'm behind the times, but I have never seen a Honda powered Elise before.

[Jonathan]

Comon mod, the Honda lump is widely regarded as a better engine than Toyota's.

You wanna see the Audi one !!!

http://www.auto-teknix.co.uk/audi-conv.htm

[Advantage]

Yep, the K20a lump is very popular engine to stick in Elises. It can be made to produce around 230-250 bhp with a few simple mods (remap - exhaust manifold etc) and isn't significantly heavier than the K series. (The Honda 6 speed gearbox is used and weighs around the same as the Rover PG1) A supercharged Honda engine will comfortably develop well over 300 bhp reliably.

Engine bay heat can be an issue and care must be taken to protect driveshafts, but that's about the only drawback. There are numerous companies offering kits to convert your Elise, around 200 cars have been transformed so far.

The Audi Turbo engine isn't quite so popular (under 50 cars) due to the way in which it delivers it's power doesn't always suit the Elise's driving characteristics. Monster horsepower is available, though (400BHP plus) - and that's a good thing!

There's also the Ford Duratec which in 2.0ltr form can produce about 210bhp (up to 240 with extra torque in 2.3ltr - bored/stroked) but it's not a common swap. The engine's weight and low state of tune coun against it, although it is a reliable workhorse.

[Greg Z]

Man, that is great. I would be all over that, matter of fact, what am I doing here. Time to go Elise shopping!!!!

[V8Esprit73]

Lots of engine swap info on here:

Exiges.com