Tuning Beta information

[Peter]

Hi Gentlemen,
would like to know about the current situation of lancia
tuning workshops in England. Is Guy Croft no longer in
the TC Business? Who is MRH Engineering? What about parts
like Intake Manifolds for Side/Dowmdrought Carbs etc?
What about Omicron, they also can supply this parts?
As in germany seems to be no one left with the neccesary experience I'd like to get as much Information as
possible.
I would like to thank you all in advance!

Kind Regards

[Hamish]

MRH Engineering took over from Guy Croft - essentialy they still offer all the same expertise. Mike Hockley (I think) is the man to speak to. By all means try Omicron, Andrew Cliffe is the best person to speak to. They aren't Beta specialists and although they acquired a substantial cache of parts from Scorpion reproductions they haven't worked out what it all is yet... Two other companies I would recommend are Betacars and Evo engineering. You can find their contact details off this site or try www.carsfromitaly.com, go to Lancia then Suppliers. What sort of Beta are you trying to tune? Hamish

[Peter]

Hamish!
Thanks a lot for your information.
Especially the supliers list in C from Italy
seems to be very helpful. When You say
MRH took over from GC does it mean they
have the same adress? And do You have
an email adress?
Regarding the car: I trie to bring a Beta
Spider 2l to something like 'fast road' specs.
Therefor I'm looking for a workshop to carry
out the porting and valve related jobs.
Because in germany we are blessed with the
TÜV (guess You've heard about) I try with
a 130TC Head and the related cams to be
allowed to use the twin Weber 40s (DCNF) to
convice these guys to have installed the
Abarth motor which was 'street legal'in its
time. Additional I have to HPEs (1VX,1ie.)so
money is short
Again thanks for your help.

[Hamish]

Peter,

Yes, MRH were still operating from GC Tunings old premises. I bought an inlet manifold for my old Beta Spyder from them. Don't have an email address (could do with it myself!).

Good luck with finding someone to do the work, I am sure there is a company in Germany who used to tune Integrales - their name eludes me at present - but they might be able to help. Was it Hormann??

Plenty of places to try in UK, MRH are good and so is EVOCARS (formerly Barry Waterhouse Engineering) but surely there is someone nearer who can do the work?

Good luck, Hamish

[squadracorse]

Hi Hamish and Peter,

I am very sorry to tell you but I found a very famous German company to tune my engine, but only because of friend of my works there!

But as far as I know, porting the original head is easier to do and Tüv will not know or do they?? You can't change the motorspecs, not even change a Lancia engine for a Fiat engine or can it?? Even fast cams should be a problem, or do I have false info??

If you like I can get my hand of a pair 36mm DCNF's, only DM300,= a pair (without shippingcosts), which will fit on your inlet manifold if you have the right one.

Peter, do you have the book of tuning by GC?? If you read it, there is a lot of information in it which you can carry out yourself, if you are a little bit a mechanic.
The German company is only porting my cil. head, probably make new cams for me, the rest I have to do myself. maybe we can change some info.

Regards, Jan-Cor

[squadracorse]

Hi Hamish,

I tried to contact Betacars, a friend of me in the Netherlands told me about it, but the internetadress I've got isn't right. Do you have the right internetadresses??

Regards, Jan-Cor

[Doug Duncan]

Gentlemen,

I have done the conversion that you have been talking about and I have a few observations which may be of some interest.

There are a number of problems with using the side draught carbs which fit on the Guy Croft manifold. The venturi for pots 3& 4 are jammed in very close behind the radiator even if you use a minimally short ram pipe. This means that pots 1 and 2 get cold air and 3 and 4 get hot air. You also can't get an aircleaner on to 3 and 4. Idling setup will be very difficult like that.

So what I had to do was get a custom radiator made which is lower and wider and mount it further forward in order to have space in front of the intakes. This was expensive and requires improvisation for the mountings.

I have since seen what appears to be a better alternative. The Monte Hospital are selling a downdraught manifold which would , if it will all fit in , solve the problems without moving the radiator and getting a custom radiator.

It goes without saying that mounting anything in the engine bay will result in blood sweat and tears. There is so little room you must remove the radiator to get to it.

Doug

[Hamish]

For info:~

The Rover 216 radiator (late 80's early 90's model) will fit the Beta, play around with hoses etc but will sit further forward and leave room for ducting/cold air box for twin carbs.

[Peter]

Hi Jan-Cor,
Hi Hamish,
regarding the suggestion to carry out the porting work
myself I only can tell you that it would mean to buy
additional tools for only to do the grinding and then
pass the head to a workshop anyway to do the valve
seat& throat blueprinting. After inserting bronce
guides (and seat cutting) I would have to grind again.
So I resort on completing the optimised parts and do
the carb setup (my favorite job) myself.
What company is involved with your job?
What kind of problems do you think exist on swapping
beta/130TC Heads?
You also can use the original distributor (inlet driven)
when fiddeling around with the mounting bar, and with
similar pistons even the digiplex.
For the cams I'd like to opt for the low down torque
range as with the Abarth types instead of surely more
powerfull wilder ones (like argenta types).
Different thoughts, let me know. regards

[Peter]

Jan-Cor,

if you follow the link in the suppliers list off this
site it will work.
regards