[-Dan-]

Engine Conversion - * Entire Section taken from GMC Motorsport

*For those wanting to increase the power of their car one of the best and easiest ways is to change up to a bigger capacity unit. For those with a 1.0, 1.1 or 1.4 engine lots of tuning mods can be done to improve performance, in fact the same ones and at the same price as on the 1.6, so why not get a 1.6 engine to start with. If you were to tune a 1.0 or 1.1 to the limit it would cost far more than a mildly tuned 1.6 and would still not have the power and to a lesser degree this holds good for the 1.4.

The great advantage of putting a 1.6 VTR engine into a smaller engine model (this can also be done on AX’s) is that as it is the same series of engine, the TU, it just goes straight in with no modifications. I know some people; especially those with 1.4’s will say that the VTR engine is only 90 hp and so very little more than the 1.4. Whilst this is true the VTR has been deliberately restricted by Citroen to make it less powerful than the 16v VTS otherwise no one would buy a VTS. They achieve this by putting on an exhaust system that reduces in size in the middle section so if you fit a good sports system like the Scorpion or Piper, the power rises instantly. One more thing that most people don’t consider is the torque of engine, they only look at horsepower. Torque is far more important, torque gives acceleration, and horsepower gives top speed. The 1.6 VTR engine has substantially more torque than the 1.4 so even if you do not tune the engine it will be far superior.

Another point worth noting is that the engine looks the same as the one it replaces so that if you do not wish to disclose the change to your insurance company it is very unlikely in the event of an accident that they will ever know.

Any one doing a 1600 engine change to a vehicle registered pre 1992 also needs the latest type of gearbox as the fixing bolts are in different positions. The later gearbox is far superior in internal specification and it is likely that the gearbox on a pre 92 vehicle is in need of attention so it is probably a good thing to replace the gearbox anyway.

Please Note: The best Engine to use for a Conversion for power gains will quite simply be a VTS Engine. GMC don't mention it as an option and focus only on the VTR, but be under no illusions, the 16v Engine WILL be better to use.