Cheers mate!
To me it sounds like, yet another Murena is about to give up its life (fins?.. Gills?) and end its days as a heavily modified track racer…I guess this would be ok had it been in “classic” or even “vintage” racing.. but that’s not what you have in mind is it?..
I’m really not sure we should encourage this kind of behaviour, as Murenas really are WAY too good, and rare cars to use for this purpose.. shame on you!!
As for difference between the 1.6 and 2.2…. well the 2.2 is 50kg heavier, has better brakes, larger anti roll bars, and wider tracking. (this and the different trailing arms might accommodate a larger engine/gearbox?)
To the best of my knowledge the front suspension is the same on both versions
I find it interesting, how much trouble they went through to add a modest 20-40 hp..(2.2 and 2.2s)
surely they must have had much bigger ambitions for this car, as the components of the 1.6 easily holds up to this power.
Just ask Lennart.. he has been running a 1.9 gti engine that’s easily 10 hp more the a standard 2.2 in his 1.6, with no problems at all.
So far he hasn’t broken anything… well… except the engine itself of cause…
Anyway….the standard 2.2 should be able to cope with 200 hp. (I believe the 180hp 2.2 16 valve wasn’t reinforced in anyway ?)
Even 250hp doesn’t sound as too much if you use aftermarket shocks/springs and keep the rest well maintained.
But this is just me guessing
What ever you do, a brake upgrade is a must…. Even with light tuning and on a track car in particular, since the standard murena is fitted with solid rotors.. be it on all four wheels.
Either way with the power you are considering you will need to do some serious modifications, thus its really not that big a deal if you start out with a 1.6 or a 2.2.
In the process of buying my own Murena I did some investigation into alternative engines as, to be honest,NEITHER of the old Simca engines do the rest of the car justice.
I like the idea of engine swaps myself so this was my first choice in the quest for more power.
My ideal candidate as a replacement would have been the Opel/Vauxhall xe20 in some form of tuned or turbo charged version.(if it's good enough for the new lotus Europa... It good enough for me!
)
However for practical reasons (on a road car…in Denmark) you need an engine with similar layout at the original.. (inlet in left side exhaust in the right) otherwise you would end up with the exhaust manifold right up against the fuel tank, and the exhaust having to run underneath the oil sump.
I quickly learned that unless you are ready to do some quite intrusive surgery to the car (and if you want the car to have just the slightest chance of passing inspection in Denmark), you are more or less stuck with two choices.. one for each car.
The 1.6 is well suited to make use of the pug/citroen xu series engines, as they share some of the same engine mounting points. This gives you a huge range of engines to choose from, and some of witch can be tuned quite dramatically (like the one in Lennarts car….though he will probably just break it again if he does)
With the 2.2 you can’t really change to another engine at all since it has the special sump engine mount.
But the turbo engine from a pug 505 is the same block as the Murena one so it is more or less a perfect match.
This it the option I have went for in my on going project.. only I am building a true Murena 2.2 engine to 505 turbo specifications as I have simply been unable to source a real one.
But, this might be irrelevant since you might already have an engine in mind?..
2.5?.. turbo? With lots of potential for power?
Sounds like another Volvo engine to me
5 cylinder if I’m not mistaken.
If so, you should be aware of the length of the engine/gearbox.
The 4 cylinder 2.2 is already a very tight fit, as I’m sure anyone who has had to change the water pump will agree on… anything even slightly larger simply will not fit.
Apart from that, I think Lennart is wrong… space will not be an issue.
If you are to use the car as a track day racer, you will most certainly want to move the fuel tank to the front of the car!.. if not for safety then to get a better weight distribution. (Standard is roughly 40/60)
And, since you will not be using it for anything practical, you have a huge boot to invade in the back.
One other issue will be cooling… both water and intercooler.
The radiator on the Murena is small and the very low front of the car makes it hard to improve on this.
For my project I have bought a water/air intercooler as I think this is the only practical way to do this. I have seen various forms of ducting, but that is too “intrusive” for me
But all this is seen in relation to DANISH rules and regulations (witch pretty much can be be written down on one page on one word.... NO!!!!)
Depending upon where you live and how much you are willing to spend, things might be alot easier..