Internals

As with most modern engines, the good news here is that the crankshaft is more than adequate for most stages of tune, and people have yet to find the limit at which the standard crank will become an issue. One thing that Burton Power does insist on though, is that the crankshaft and all associated pulleys have keyways cut into them. As standard they just rely on friction washers, so for added reliability we keyway the whole lot. However, the rest of the internals aren’t up to much. The stock pistons are pretty poor, but the standard rods are absolutely rubbish.The pistons are cast alloy and are fairly weak — especially when you start to increase the power and revs. But the con-rods are notoriously weak. They’re made from powdered metal construction and aren’t suited for anything over mild tuning. Both the pistons and rods are the first things to go in the bin when building a decent SE. There are various suitable upgrades available from other suppliers, but naturally Burton Power use their own rods (produced by Farndon) and pistons (produced by

Omega). For most engines, standard length rods will be perfect, but Burton have recently started experimenting with slightly longer con-rods to see if this has any positive effects. Other than that, the internals on an SE are pretty much bob-on. Burton sometimes increases the oil pressure by shimming the pressure control spring, but the standard pump runs at high-pressure anyway so this is only really needed on race engines. High-end racers will have a dry sump system — something else that Burton is working on.