There's no real upside to a 1.8 over a 2.0.
In terms of insurance costs, road tax, mpg etc etc. Even the difference in purchase price for used examples is negligible.
But the 2.0 is a much better engine. Basically it's a cam chain driven Ford Duratec with a few more bhp. The same engine which has taken over from the 2.0 Pinto as the holy grail of kit car engines.
I know a couple of guys that have transplanted them into Lotus 7 replicas.
I thought about doing the same but my very rarely seen sensible head took over.
Yes, there would be a massive weight saving of approx 400kg so the performance would be noticeably better. But with none of the handy main stream features available by leaving the engine where it is in our MX-5
Plus I was coming from a vehicle with 180bhp that only tipped the scales at 325kg (less than1/3rd of an MX-5 & with the same bhp) So no matter what I did next it was never gonna be as rapid.
