Same engine available with different power outputs
Discussion
Hi all,
I've started looking into buying a car and noticed that on some models you can get the same capacity engine but with different power outputs e.g. 1.25L 60bhp or 1.25L 80bhp. If it is indeed the same engine what is actually tweaked to enable the higher bhp? Also not all adverts say which version of the engine it is, do some ads just omit the info but they do have it or potentially they don't know? In which case what's the easiest way to find out which bhp version it is?
Thanks for the help!
Matt
I've started looking into buying a car and noticed that on some models you can get the same capacity engine but with different power outputs e.g. 1.25L 60bhp or 1.25L 80bhp. If it is indeed the same engine what is actually tweaked to enable the higher bhp? Also not all adverts say which version of the engine it is, do some ads just omit the info but they do have it or potentially they don't know? In which case what's the easiest way to find out which bhp version it is?
Thanks for the help!
Matt
Get yourself an app, the MyCarCheck one will tell you what's what.
As for power, it could be all manner of things. It's possible to get almost any amount of power out of any displacement, it's reliability that suffers. Generally these days, it's the computer settings. Same throttle in each equates to different amounts of fuel+air mixture. Forgets ye non, the peak power figure is, on its own, pretty much meaningless. A graph of the curve tells you much more, so don't be swayed by numbers alone.
As for power, it could be all manner of things. It's possible to get almost any amount of power out of any displacement, it's reliability that suffers. Generally these days, it's the computer settings. Same throttle in each equates to different amounts of fuel+air mixture. Forgets ye non, the peak power figure is, on its own, pretty much meaningless. A graph of the curve tells you much more, so don't be swayed by numbers alone.
As above depends upon the car - I wouldn't trust an APP either - research the specific models and find out exactly how to tell the differences - engine code, chassis plate etc.
On older cars it was frequently different CR, cams, turbo, intercooler.
On modern ones it's frequently just mapping.
On older cars it was frequently different CR, cams, turbo, intercooler.
On modern ones it's frequently just mapping.
Hi all,
Thanks for the info. I did find an app that gives the bhp value, this is assuming the reg plate is listed on the Ad. I did think that a difference of 20bhp wouldn't make that much difference to performance but evidently from the 0-60 times it can make a difference of seconds, whether you can feel the difference when driving the cars is another thing. Especially speaking from someone who doesn't have years of experience of driving lots of different cars.
Thanks again
Thanks for the info. I did find an app that gives the bhp value, this is assuming the reg plate is listed on the Ad. I did think that a difference of 20bhp wouldn't make that much difference to performance but evidently from the 0-60 times it can make a difference of seconds, whether you can feel the difference when driving the cars is another thing. Especially speaking from someone who doesn't have years of experience of driving lots of different cars.
Thanks again
u0362565 said:
Hi all,
I did think that a difference of 20bhp wouldn't make that much difference to performance but evidently from the 0-60 times it can make a difference of seconds, whether you can feel the difference when driving the cars is another thing.
I have the 170 bhp passat. I've driven loads of 140s - the 30bhp makes a massive amount of difference to the feel and overall performance of the cars.I did think that a difference of 20bhp wouldn't make that much difference to performance but evidently from the 0-60 times it can make a difference of seconds, whether you can feel the difference when driving the cars is another thing.
u0362565 said:
Hi all,
I've started looking into buying a car and noticed that on some models you can get the same capacity engine but with different power outputs e.g. 1.25L 60bhp or 1.25L 80bhp. If it is indeed the same engine what is actually tweaked to enable the higher bhp? Also not all adverts say which version of the engine it is, do some ads just omit the info but they do have it or potentially they don't know? In which case what's the easiest way to find out which bhp version it is?
Thanks for the help!
Matt
Quite a few German manufacturers do it, 518d, 520d and 525d all use the same engine as does the e220 and e250. Not sure what they do though.I've started looking into buying a car and noticed that on some models you can get the same capacity engine but with different power outputs e.g. 1.25L 60bhp or 1.25L 80bhp. If it is indeed the same engine what is actually tweaked to enable the higher bhp? Also not all adverts say which version of the engine it is, do some ads just omit the info but they do have it or potentially they don't know? In which case what's the easiest way to find out which bhp version it is?
Thanks for the help!
Matt
If you know the reg number try entering it http://www.whatcar.com/valuations and see what comes up, or try entering it on the eurocarparts website, you might get lucky
All depends on the engines. You can remap a 140 vag 1.9 tdi to "cupra" spec, but you then have to adopt the seat intervals. On the other hand, you can try to map a 318d like a 320d, but it doesn't work because the fuel pump won't send enough fuel - and the cost of sorting that is bigger than the difference in value 318-320.
All of the above is round 05 era, back when i was researching if i could be cheeky with my company car. Turns out it was a no
All of the above is round 05 era, back when i was researching if i could be cheeky with my company car. Turns out it was a no
Can be a number of things - I had an E87 1 Series 123d.
Same basic engine (N47) as 118d and 120d but the 123d had two turbo's so major differences!
Some years back I had a 2000 Seat Leon Cupra and that engine was fitted in loads of different VAG models, but iirc in turbo form as fitted in 150 bhp applications it had no intercooler, in 180bhp models like mine it had an intercooler and in 225 bhp like TT or Cupra R it had 2 intercoolers.
V5 is usually a good starting point as it confirms CO2 which can usually confirm which version any model has.
Same basic engine (N47) as 118d and 120d but the 123d had two turbo's so major differences!
Some years back I had a 2000 Seat Leon Cupra and that engine was fitted in loads of different VAG models, but iirc in turbo form as fitted in 150 bhp applications it had no intercooler, in 180bhp models like mine it had an intercooler and in 225 bhp like TT or Cupra R it had 2 intercoolers.
V5 is usually a good starting point as it confirms CO2 which can usually confirm which version any model has.
ferrariF50lover said:
Get yourself an app, the MyCarCheck one will tell you what's what.
Yep, MyCarCheck is very handy for version checking and it's a free app 
If you are looking at a particular model of car then go onto one of the mapping sites like ELITE and look at the tuned results for different versions of the same car. For example if the 130/160 brake versions of a car both map to 190 brake then it's a good bet that they are pretty much the same mechanically but very often you'd find that they would map to (say) 160/190 in which case there is presumably other differences aside from the map.
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