[junglejustice]

Hey Spence - sorry - I wasn't trying to imply that you were "bothering" me in any way by posting in my thread - I was simply suggesting that you start a new thread, so that we can all look at your project and provide specific input, based on your needs!

Email me directly with questions ANY TIME - [email protected] - or call me here in the US at 091 425.941 4747 and we can chat more. Any way, this is good - now we know where you are on your car;

On the brakes and suspension my suggestion would be to spend some time researching what is out there and set your goals on what you would ultimately want (even if you have to do it piece by piece!) Look at complete, turn-key, TRUE bolt-on options - specifically engineered for these cars! Modifying to fit is one thing. Engineered as a balanced setup or spec'ed out and planned from scratch (from a front/rear bias stand-point), is quite another!

Just because you can, doesn't mean that one should! For example, much has been written and argued here about engineered brakes versus modifying to fit brakes from Porsches, Volvos etc. Much has also been argued here about the validity of bolting on more advanced components such as coil-overs, versus "fixing" things such as roll-centers via modified drop-spindles etc.

At the end of the day, I have personally burned THOUSANDS of dollars on different setups, only to arrive back at a final investment in a good brake and suspension setup (that is truly remarkable!) I sometimes whish that I could have the money back that I wasted on trying different things along the way.

 

[junglejustice]

I know that budget is an issue (you can spend that whole 3K Sterling just on brakes and suspension, have an awesome setup and no motor installed yet), so you are going to have to leg-in to it all - piece by piece! My suggestion is simply to go with pieces along the way that would comprise a complete setup in the end, of what you ultimately wanted to begin with!

If you have not purchased the Konis or the Brembos yet, consider doing the full RSRacing suspension in stages (you can buy it direct from Alex Jupe there in the UK, or just order it from Ron directly.) Here in the US Group 2 Inc is the agent, but that's going the long way for you. You don't have to do it all at once - Keep the stock torsion bars, do just the coil-overs and front bar for now for example - or - we have even had great success JUST doing the 30mm front bar and the Watts-linkage at the rear as a start!

Same with the brakes - look at www.girodisc.com and www.group2inc.com - they offer and amazing bolt-on setup that gives you floating aluminium hats, front AND rear (with the rears now also vented) and here I would start with the rears to get them working and make the thing balanced a bit!

You can do just the front anti-roll bar, the rear RSR shocks and springs and Watts and the rear G2/GiroDisc brakes for a little over 1,200 pounds and have HUGE fun already! You inspect and clean the front brakes for now, tighten up the front suspension a bit - make it safe - and stop there until you have the cash to do the front coil-overs, the front brakes, the rear anti-roll bar and the castor-rod conversion as a 2nd phase!

On the motor, Sam offers a good suggestion; the GoTech is a very affordable, fully-programmable professional stand-alone engine management system (that you can have for peanuts as compared to Motec, Autronic etc.) The middle of the road "Pro" version is right for your motor. The beauty is that with your 24 valve engine, you already have the 60 minus 2 (60-2) crank-pulley timing ring-gear on there and there should be a Bosch crank-angle sensor already mounted to the motor (down on the left-front!) The GoTech Pro comes with a custom harness that plugs right in to it!

If you don't already have the coil-packs, you can just run some Alfa 155 coil-packs - mounted remotely away from the vibration and heat of the motor! The GoTech comes with a good starting map for your motor! Later on you can do cams, larger intake runners and bring it up to 260-270 horsepower without even opening it! The beauty is that the GoTech can be mapped along the way to compensate for modifications to the mechanical unit - even turbos or suspercharger or big-bore rebuilds etc!

I have some custom headers available to fit that motor in the transaxle chassis!

Also, you don't need to rebalance the motor! Unbolt the 3 litre 12 valve Milano Verde/75 Americano flywheel from the back of your blown motor, bolt it directly on to your 24 valve motor! (Just use longer NEW high-tensile flywheel bolts and you're done!) Bolt your starter and tail-housing on - put power to it and make sure that it engages! Then it is on to the oil-pan, oil-pump and intake plenum conversion!

What you should end up with is something that looks kind-o like this...