How is there so much power??
Discussion
Been looking to swap out the 330i for something quicker at the end of the year and was weighing up other heavy german stuff (Audi b6 S4 etc) and eventually turned my beady eye to japanese machines.
Evo's have taken my fancy but my question is how is it possible to produce so much power from what is essentially a single turbocharged 2.0l and what specifically about them allows for such large bhp gains with such small modifications?
Evo's have taken my fancy but my question is how is it possible to produce so much power from what is essentially a single turbocharged 2.0l and what specifically about them allows for such large bhp gains with such small modifications?
As above, they are turbocharged and highly strung. Lots of power, but reduced lifespan through wear and tear.
I know of a guy who had a VX220 turbo; he took it to a tuning place to up the power output. Essentially they just wound the boost up until they had reached almost 2x the HP. The story ends when they wind it up a bit more to eek out that last bit of power (at the customers request) and blow the engine.
I know of a guy who had a VX220 turbo; he took it to a tuning place to up the power output. Essentially they just wound the boost up until they had reached almost 2x the HP. The story ends when they wind it up a bit more to eek out that last bit of power (at the customers request) and blow the engine.
The Japanese engines in the Impreza and Evo can take a fair amount of power before they go pop. There are plenty of 2.0ltr STis that have been running 400bhp on standard internals for years and over tens of thousands of miles.
The older Impreza ran a semi-closed deck and also had forged pistons, hence the relative ease at which they can handle the power.
The older Impreza ran a semi-closed deck and also had forged pistons, hence the relative ease at which they can handle the power.
Edited by paulmoonraker on Thursday 5th June 13:51
It's all about how much air you can get into the engine, and te corresponding amount of fuel that then gets pumped in to match. Small turbos can't pump as much air at high RPM as they simply can't flow enough but do spool quicker (as they're driven by exhaust gasses) and therefore at lower RPM's can provide more torque and better throttle response. Larger turbo's by contrast don't spool as quick and so the engines have to be kept on the boil. The upside to this though is big power at higher RPM's, but at the expense of low down torque and driveability day to day (witness Clarkson's dig at the FQ400 and the Cosworth Impreza - both 2.0L engines using dinnerpplate sized turbos). Turbos are basically air pumps which allow more fuel to be burned. As long as there's sufficient strength in the internals there's nothing to prevent huge power being produced by small displacement engines (witness the Turbo'd 80's F1 cars).
paulmoonraker said:
LuS1fer said:
I think the Evo 400 was tested by Clarkson and had horrific lag and was uselessly slow unless you changed down all the time to get the big turbo to spool up.
That was classic ridiculous point making by Clarkson. You just wouldn't drive it like that. paulmoonraker said:
The Japanese engines in the Impreza and Evo can take a fair amount of power before they go pop. There are plenty of 2.0ltr STis that have been running 400bhp on standard internals for years and over tens of thousands of miles.
The older Impreza ran a semi-closed deck and also had forged pistons, hence the relative ease at which they can handle the power.
Can't comment for the Evo but the Impreza engine is a god awful piece of crap. It makes power by running more boost than it can handle even out of the factory. It eats big end bearings and was a knacker even before it got a turbo stuck on it. The boxes are also piss poor and break with monotonous regularity. To be avoided like the plague by anyone who knows anything about cars. Loved and yearned for by those who know nothing about the subject.The older Impreza ran a semi-closed deck and also had forged pistons, hence the relative ease at which they can handle the power.
Edited by paulmoonraker on Thursday 5th June 13:51
fatjon said:
Can't comment for the Evo but the Impreza engine is a god awful piece of crap. It makes power by running more boost than it can handle even out of the factory. It eats big end bearings and was a knacker even before it got a turbo stuck on it. The boxes are also piss poor and break with monotonous regularity. To be avoided like the plague by anyone who knows anything about cars. Loved and yearned for by those who know nothing about the subject.
Wow, that's great advice. I must have been one of the very lucky few who had a 2003 WRX, then remapped it and drove for another 35,000 miles without anything going pop! I'm so glad after reading your post that I'm not tempted by another!Defcon5 said:
I guess its a trade off between Power / reliability / cost of maintenance - don't Evos have very short service intervals?
8's and 9's do I think (around 4500 miles), Evo X's reverted back to 10k service intervals. I was talking to an Evo 8 owner last night and he told me that it's just oil and filter changes (which he does himself) for most of the intervals; very infrequently would it be a major service.fatjon said:
Can't comment for the Evo but the Impreza engine is a god awful piece of crap. It makes power by running more boost than it can handle even out of the factory. It eats big end bearings and was a knacker even before it got a turbo stuck on it. The boxes are also piss poor and break with monotonous regularity. To be avoided like the plague by anyone who knows anything about cars. Loved and yearned for by those who know nothing about the subject.
Edited to add - http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyI... Read this - clearly if Pistonheads has posted such an article it isn't for anyone who knows anything about cars...
Edited by PaulD86 on Thursday 5th June 14:41
fatjon said:
paulmoonraker said:
The Japanese engines in the Impreza and Evo can take a fair amount of power before they go pop. There are plenty of 2.0ltr STis that have been running 400bhp on standard internals for years and over tens of thousands of miles.
The older Impreza ran a semi-closed deck and also had forged pistons, hence the relative ease at which they can handle the power.
Can't comment for the Evo but the Impreza engine is a god awful piece of crap. It makes power by running more boost than it can handle even out of the factory. It eats big end bearings and was a knacker even before it got a turbo stuck on it. The boxes are also piss poor and break with monotonous regularity. To be avoided like the plague by anyone who knows anything about cars. Loved and yearned for by those who know nothing about the subject.The older Impreza ran a semi-closed deck and also had forged pistons, hence the relative ease at which they can handle the power.
Edited by paulmoonraker on Thursday 5th June 13:51
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