Looks like another one of my dream cars has shown up for sale not too far away - a SAAB Sonnett III (yes, I have weird dreams).
IIRC the "power"plant in that thing makes about 70bhp on a good day with a tailwind, is there anything that can help it hustle a bit better. Of course there is the question if the gearbox is up to more power anyway, but I'm ignoring that for right now.
I would suggest asking over at SAABRally.com. I know they are the best place on the web for 99 performance expertise, and there are a few V4 experts too.
well, before this past weekend I would have had nothing, but the guy paddocked next to me at charlotte motor speedway had a beautiful sonnet GT3 car.
So, if you want to get a billet crank, custom pistons and rods, and run 14:1 compression, plus a few thou in head work, rev to 8500 you can have a car that will almost keep up with an improved touring civic.
Oh, and he was using a porsche 914 transaxle behind it (literally - the engine sits fully in front of the front axle like a 911 except err backwards), so obviously the trans problem is also easily solved too 
The little v4 sure did look cool though - like a tiny little small block chevy!
Didn't those grow into one of the ford V6s, perhaps the 4.0 explorer motor?
Kenny_McCormic wrote: Didn't those grow into one of the ford V6s, perhaps the 4.0 explorer motor?
Yes, the Taunus V-4 grew into the Cologne V-6 that was eventually used in vehicles such as the Explorer, Ranger, and even the 2005-2010 Mustang. I don't know much about the Taunus other than that, but if the Cologne is anything to go by only cubic dollars or $200x Challenge ingenuity can make it faster.
In reply to RexSeven:
The 4.0 came with 160hp and 225ft lbs, though I doubt the stock trans would handle that. Maybe a Subaru box? This also give AWD, though at that point you'd probably be better off bolting some small light 4(Honda K series?) to said Subaru AWD setup, yeah, that'd be interesting.
Having a set of headers made would help a lot. Team Blitz sells a set for the 2.6 V6 (for the Capri), not sure if they'd sell just the plates that bolt to the head, but it'd be worth a call if you didn't want to make your own. I doubt anyone has a set of headers off the shelf for these things but it's possible. You cannot skim the head for much of a compression boost, the deck surface on the head is kind of thin for that sort of thing. I'm pretty sure Team Blitz has high compression pistons available for the 2.6 and those may work in the 1.7 V4. Ditching the points in the distributor, assuming it still has them, would probably be a good idea as well. Nice Bosch dizzy so I bet there's something from Pertronix as well as others. The stock Ford cam is kind of a broomstick if the 2.6 is anything to go by, so you know, maybe have one shipped from Europe if you really want a full-tilt V4 build.
All my knowledge comes from Capri 2.6 V6 ownership which shares a lot of engineering with the V4 as previously stated. The Ford V4 has to be one of the earliest mass-produced engines with a balance shaft, or at least, I can't think of anything earlier. They're a pretty simple engine really with the oil pump driven off the bottom of the distributor drive gear like the SBC mentioned above.
I had one of those about 20 years ago. At the time there was a guy out west somewhere that specialized in them. He had some pretty radical parts for them. I liked mine just the way it was. Had a TVR and a couple of TR8s at the same time and the car niched in there nicely. Kind of reminded me of the TVR in that it was scary light and nimble. Wife spun it once taking an off ramp, so it could get away from you if you pushed it too hard. It was a blast to drive on hard tires, because it would slide around and you had to rely on driving skill to go fast. Not that the car was fast, but it felt like it was. I'd take another one in a heartbeat.
I'm not too sure that these assumptions of interchangeably with the Cologne V6 will hold true. Although the SAAB V4 came from a Ford drawing board, SAAB made numerous design changes, in fact I think that SAAB was building them themselves in their own foundry.
There's a joint in Blimey called Burton Power that does a lot of Cologne engine stuff.
http://www.burtonpower.com/tuning-guides/tuning-guide-pages/ford-taunus-cologne-v4-v6-tuning-guide.html
Pistons, bearings etc are easy to find. Somewhere out there are cams etc for the V4. A bud here has a Sonnett that he's planning to hop up, I'll pester him for sources when I get a minute.
I've had 6 V4-powered SAABs and currently still have one.
I'd recommend starting with a carb and exhaust. The Weber 34ICH and Jetex exhaust on my car felt GREAT, and the Jetex sounds better than the MSS offering, IMO. Of course, I do have an extra NOS MSS exhaust laying in my basement, so maybe that's what you need.
The transmissions aren't exactly robust in stock form, but hey, I've not managed to pop one yet. Of course, my V4 cars have been daily drivers and cruisers. I have other cars for going moderately fast(er).
I had a Taunus V4 powered sports racer way back in the day.
Like almost any engine, improvements in output are possible, but gains are modest.
Reminds me of the old Fiat Abarths (based on the 850 engine). The stock engines put out around 35 bhp while the 'race' Abarth version had maybe 12 more bhp. Decent percentage gain, of course, but in the end, still a 'racing' car you could drive with foot to the floor all day in traffic without anyone knowing you were playing race driver.
I wonder if Sven Pruitt's V6 book can be adapted "down" to the V4???
I had a SAAB 96 with the V4 back in 1968. Engine was great as a daily driver and I even Auto-Xed it a few times. Combined with the centrifugal clutch in the SAAB transmission I could get gas mileage that even todays economy cars can't match.
I know a racer who races one in our vintage class. The car is quick and will keep up with cars with bigger engines on a tight track. If it rains then he's gone. The skinny tires that these cars use just cut right through the standing water on track.
You're not helping with reasons why I shouldn't be looking at the car on the weekend .
Thanks for all the help.
I hate you for buying one of my vintage dream cars, but since I'll probably never be able to complete my bench racing version of this car, I'll let you know what I had in mind in my dreams for one of these.
A KMV4 from the Motus Motorcyles group. 160HP Direct Injection V4, they are intending to have a crate version which would only make this easier, I'm guessing some sort of Porsche or VW Bug Transaxle could be used to harness the power. But damn does this thing sound sweet.
Skip the Ford crap and do this for me.
Subrew could probably help with this as well, his step-father ran a Saab restoration business, and he raced a few. ( Jack Ashcraft )
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