The famous “classic”, which at one time was the pride of the Soviet automobile industry and brought joy to its owners. This is not just a car - it's history. How many days and nights did our fathers and grandfathers spend in the garage with this miracle unit, trying to bring to life the product of Russian designers, which passed through the “skillful” hands of AvtoVAZ assembly line assemblers, whose canonicity is legendary.
Over the past years, the rather simple and low-power motor of the “classic” has been studied far and wide. And everything that can be done with it to increase starting power is no secret.
Story
The VAZ 2101 engine is built on the basis of the engine of the Italian concern FIAT, but has its own characteristic features, in particular, Soviet engineers increased the distance between the cylinders in the engine.
This is what made it possible to further expand the line of standard engines and increase the model range, remaining, in fact, within the same base, only making minor technical changes. Tuning the VAZ 2101 engine is precisely these small changes. But first things first.
Simple tuning of the VAZ 2101 engine with your own hands
The first VAZ 2101 car rolled off the assembly line more than 40 years ago. Despite this, there are still a lot of them driving on our roads. Moreover, every year these cars become almost rare. Everything would be fine, but the years are taking their toll - the body is gradually deteriorating, the engine is exhausting its service life, and the interior looks unattractive. For these reasons, most owners of VAZ 2101 cars come to a reasonable conclusion - it is necessary to modernize them. An inconspicuous car can become much better if it is fully tuned.
But no modernization is possible without improving the internal combustion engine. The simplest option is to install an engine from more modern models. There are individuals who install engines from Priora, nines, dozens. Do not forget that when changing power upwards, it is necessary to change all vital organs and systems, in particular, the brake and clutch. The article will tell you in general terms how to tune a penny engine. It will be much cheaper than installing a motor from another model.
Technical data
Engine 2101 has the following characteristics:
This is a carburetor unit, the cylinder block of which is made of cast iron. The four cylinders of the engine block are located on the same longitudinal axis. Each cylinder is equipped with two valves, the diameter of one piston is 76 millimeters and the stroke is 66. The engine creates a compression ratio of 8.5.
With a torque of 89 Newtons, its volume is almost 1200 cubic centimeters, and its power is 59 horsepower, at five and a half thousand revolutions. The characteristics of the engine clearly indicate that this is not a racing car, and the maximum speed of the VAZ 2101 cannot, by definition, be high.
The weight of the VAZ 2101 engine is not very large; the mass of the engine is 114 kilograms.
Possible breakdowns and their elimination
The VAZ 2101 engine is quite capricious, difficulties constantly arise in operation, this happens so regularly, and breakdowns are so stereotypical that you can make a list of causes and effects that will be accurate in 99% of cases:
- If dense smoke comes from the exhaust, this indicates a malfunction of the bushings and guides, and may also be a symptom that the seals have failed;
- Large oil leakage from the engine. In the case of the classic, for which the consumption of 700 grams of oil per ten thousand is the norm, great care is an elastic concept. However, if the oil “leaks” the reasons for this are wear of the piston group, or wear of the sealing gaskets. If during a visual inspection no leaks are found, the situation is bad, this means that the 2101 engine needs a major overhaul;
- In cases where the engine overheats, we are talking about a failure of the cooling system: you need to check the fan, water pump and thermostat. One of these units needs to be replaced;
- Also, the engine may knock, and this knock will be heard even from the side - this is due to loose valves. It is necessary to disassemble the engine and carry out their adjustment.
Touching upon such a topic as repairing a VAZ 2101 engine, one cannot fail to mention the carburetor and ignition system. These two wonderful units fail so often that you can devote more than one wonderful evening to adjusting their operating parameters. It is best, in the context of tuning, to install an electric ignition system on the classic engine to save yourself time and nerves.
By the way, decreased power absolutely indicates wear of the piston group.
Engine tuning
There are several basic tips on how to carry out internal tuning of this internal combustion engine, the main and perhaps almost the only way to do this is to increase the engine capacity of the VAZ 2101, which will, in turn, lead to the fact that the power will also increase.
The starting characteristics of the VAZ 2101 show us a volume of 1198 cubes, with a cylinder diameter of 76 millimeters. The work schedule should be as follows:
- First of all, it is necessary to bore the cylinder block, but not too much, because it is known and scientifically proven that the desire to excessively increase power is fraught with the fact that such a tuning engine will not work for a long time. The most optimal would be to set it to “three”; such changes to the design will not affect the engine too much. To do this, the cylinders are bored to 79 millimeters;
- We will take the pistons for the converted engine from the older brothers, that is, from VAZ 2103 and higher, and we will grab the crankshaft from there.
Thus, the internal combustion engine does not weigh much less, the walls of the cylinder block are still strong enough to withstand at least seventy thousand mileage, and the internal volume has increased. Consequently, the power has also increased. How much depends on the specific work, on how much the cylinder diameter has increased, and therefore the engine volume.
Engine preparation
You need to have a lot of patience, because you will need to completely disassemble the VAZ 2101 engine, literally piece by piece. You should have not only tools and spare parts, but also measuring instruments, in particular calipers. In the garage you need to have an inspection hole, as well as a winch, with the help of which the VAZ engine will be removed from under the hood. Carrying out repairs on your own will be very difficult and will take a lot of time.
If you have a competent assistant in mind, it is worth involving him in the repair. Now let's look at what tools you will need to carry out all the work on the VAZ 2101. A good set of wrenches, consisting of box, open-end, and socket wrenches. To rotate the crankshaft, you need a special ratchet wrench, size 38. You can find one in any auto parts store, its price is no more than 200 rubles.
A reliable and lightweight jack, a set of feeler gauges, a drill or a screwdriver. It wouldn't hurt to have a grinder, as some bolts and nuts may simply not be able to be unscrewed. And also many small things, for example, hexagons, drills, hammers, chisels. To center the clutch disc, you will need either the transmission input shaft or a metal blank. In addition, to successfully modernize the VAZ 2101 engine you need to buy some parts.
In particular, the crankshaft of a more modern VAZ 2103 engine. Along with it, you need to purchase new connecting rods, they should be slightly shorter than the original ones. It's everything you need from other engines. Everything else is original. If you don’t have a professional turner among your friends, then it is advisable to find one, since you will be handing over a lot of work to him. Without such a specialist, it is almost impossible to improve the VAZ 2101 engine.
Final word
Strictly speaking, the whole idea of boring the cylinders will cost a lot of money, while reducing the service life of the engine, which is not new anyway. And is it worth demanding anything from a 50-year-old engine? A much simpler way of “tuning” a penny would be to install the entire engine in it, removed, for example, from a five.
Less fuss, more accurate results. And certainly such an engine will not heat up, leak, knock and bring other surprises that the products of the Volzhsky Automobile Plant so love to give to their owners.
Installing a turbine will help radically increase power, but wait, are you serious? Turbine for a penny? For what? Perhaps for night drives in the company of like-minded car maniacs. Moreover, such a modification for a classic is a direct route to the landfill. Not even 20 thousand miles will pass before it will be finished, and such an engine will no longer be subject to restoration. So it’s hard to call this tuning - rather murder.
To summarize, we can say that it is easier to rearrange the engine of a VAZ 2101 than to engage in expensive overclocking for the sake of a dubious result.
VAZ 2101 engine power - advice from experts on increasing the power of carburetor engines
How to increase the power of a VAZ 2101 engine and is it worth installing a turbine for this?
At one time, the VAZ 2101 car was very popular and its acceleration from zero to 100 km/h in 20 seconds was also considered good, but today, compared to other cars, these are far from the most outstanding indicators, so car owners increasingly have to think about how to increase engine power VAZ 2101. Options for such modifications can be different, some drivers are trying to make some changes to the design, others install special tuned spare parts on the VAZ 2101, and someone even thinks about how to install a turbocharger on a VAZ 2101 or a compressor. It is the last version of modernization in order to increase the power of the VAZ 2101 engine that we will focus on.
The VAZ “kopek” is equipped with a classic carburetor power unit, and it has such features that equipping it with a turbine will be extremely difficult and expensive. Let's try to explain.
To install a turbine on a VAZ 2101, you need an intercooler designed to cool the air. After all, the turbine increases pressure and, together with other factors, contributes to heating the air, it turns out that working without an intercooler, the turbine will of course give some effect, but with an intercooler this effect will be more noticeable.
Compared to a compressor, it is dangerous to install a turbine on a carburetor. Due to high pressure, an explosion may occur through the exhaust manifold. But on injection engines, a fundamentally new intake method is used, so it is more preferable for them to use a turbine, but this is also a more expensive option. Another feature follows from this: if a car owner wants to increase the power of a VAZ 2101 engine using a turbine, he will be forced to convert the engine into an injection one or purchase one. Today, the market offers a large number of injection classic engines and other spare parts for tuning the VAZ 2101, so there will be no problems with finding and purchasing the necessary parts, which is good news.
But all of the above requires a lot of money, as a result of which the price of a “penny” tuned in this way will be 2-3 times more expensive compared to used foreign cars. So is it worth doing this at all, because to get a good start from traffic lights, a carburetor engine and a compressor will be enough. But true connoisseurs of VAZ products do not listen to the voice of reason and try to increase the power of the VAZ 2101 carburetor engine by installing a turbine, but, as a rule, such alterations are either done incorrectly or cost the owners too much.
21.04.2015
