performance upgrade

[garfys s3]

how can i uprate the performance of my s3 and please dont tell me to buy a v8s as i dont want to sell mine as i have got it looking superb also i have already spoken to someone about putting a cossie in it but dont like the price, gary

[Le TVR]

Have a look here:
www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=65374&f=11&h=0&hw=austec

[V8Smith]

If you havent had it remapped this is a pretty cost effective way of improved power I am told. Aks bridgdav and podie, both had it done and were very happy with the results in increased power/torque and drivability much improved.

Mike

[bridgdav]

Taken from my previous posting....

bridgdav said:

She's Back... What a difference, the drive is much smoother, pulls in every gear like never before. POPS and BANGS.... As soon as you lift off - Rumble rumble pop squirt bang..!! Blackwall tunnel was such a laugh yesterday... Paul told me he has set the car up so that the torque delivery is concentrated more on the 30mph and 70 mph areas, I can definitely feel the difference. Hard acceleration is smoother too, the power is delivered with no lag or catch up between gears, the car pulls right through the rev-range, before the car was done, there was a slight stutter as the car accelerated from 50mph up to 80-90 mph. This speed range is now probably the most exciting when driving. Hearing the exhaust tone change and the extra fuel being dumped in, followed by the push in the back (cue Podie) brings that very first TVR smile flooding back….. Paul said that the car was pretty well set up before, delivering reasonable Power and Torque figures. He suggested that there was an element of spiking with the trace caused by some minor breakdown of the leads (next job-Answers at the ready please). He also suggested that cleaning and setting up of the injectors would probably give improved figures as well. Figures Before :- Max Pwr Speed.. 5729 rpm Power............. 161.5 bhp Max Trqe Speed. 3030 rpm Torque............ 206.1 bhp Figures After :- Max Pwr Speed... 5547 rpm Power.............. 172.5 bhp Max Torque Speed.. 3030 rpm Max Torque........... 224.1 bhp Max road speed reached - 121.5mph @ 6044 rpm Max Torque speed - 2810 rpm ( 56.5mph in gear used) Max Engine torque (Corrected) - 224.1 lb ft Graphs like everyone else’s scan pretty poorly :- POWER TORQUE Over all I am very pleased, even after all the hassle on Friday…… Dave

[spivvy]

make sure your engine is up to a rolling road, as it buts a lot of stresses on the engine as foxy found
out

[longers]

garfys s3 said:

how can i uprate the performance of my s3

I'm also currently planning what work to do on my S2 over the next couple of months and having searched the forums it's interesting how often questions on "performance" are answered by increasing power.....

I don't know what spec your car is at the moment or whether you intend doing lots of track days etc so what follows may be irrelevant!

I'm sure the power from my engine could be increased from a rolling road session but it seems to be ok to me at the moment. My view is that I'll get from A to B quicker and with more smiles by changing the springs / dampers and uprating the front brakes before looking at the engine. I'll then consider investing in some proper tuition (Ride Drive or similar) to get the most from the car - I think a well handling well driven car will out perform a more powerful less well handling car.

Longers

[Wildfire]

You could do the following:

Uprate the Suspension and all the bushes to make sure that the car is handling well for your style of driving.

For the engine you could:

Bore out to 3.2 (I think it's 3.2)
Port and Flow the heads
Lighten and Balance
Change the Cam to a hotter one
New Injectors
Get it all remapper.

I believe Burton Power, and another company that advertises in Kit car do Engine Kits for the Cologne to various stages.

I think I was looking at around £2K for a modified engine which had been rebuilt.

For Cossie power Claire and Shnozz have just had it done.

Best thing you can do is pop down to Austec and have a piggyback ECU put on the car and it mapped up correctly before you decide to modify more.


Then get a V8

[foxy600]

Yes, I found out the hard way that sometimes a rolling road session is not the best thing for a 15 year old Ford engine! The best (and cheapest way) to get more power and generally get the car running properly is to take it to someone who's an expert on the 2.9 Cologne engine. I took mine to a guy in Northampton who worked for Ford and has worked on them for 15 years. He re-setup the timing, tappets, airflow meter and mixture. All of which has transformed the car, giving more power, and has made the engine run smoother... all for around £80 !!

>> Edited by foxy600 on Thursday 20th October 20:39

[bugsy]

This holy grail of finding power without switching to a V8 seems to have been running for ages, I'm not convinced that remapping on its own is the best bang per buck and am going for the Cossie.

However I would be interested in seeing what could be done on a budget for a decent spannerman who could do some of the work, how about these options.
1)whip off the heads and get them Re-ported
2)Fit a hotter cam

Probably need a re-map afterwards and always assumes that the bottom end can handle the increased stress.

What are we looking at after this : 180/185 maybe?



>> Edited by bugsy on Thursday 20th October 22:50

[S2 Giles]

I too have had the Austec Unichip and am now reading a true 171hp & 224 lb/ft torque. The figures are not what its about tho.

A friend of mine drove my S2 a couple weeks ago & couldnt beleive the consistancy of the push from the torque, it just doesnt peak and keeps on pushing. In reality i reckon i'm looking at a 0-60 of 6.5 now and a match for any of the 3.5 V8's (wedges)

Driveability is key.
Only have it done if you can afford it, but you will see a difference.

[Wildfire]

bugsy said:

This holy grail of finding power without switching to a V8 seems to have been running for ages, I'm not convinced that remapping on its own is the best bang per buck and am going for the Cossie. However I would be interested in seeing what could be done on a budget for a decent spannerman who could do some of the work, how about these options. 1)whip off the heads and get them Re-ported 2)Fit a hotter cam Probably need a re-map afterwards and always assumes that the bottom end can handle the increased stress. What are we looking at after this : 180/185 maybe?

But how much will the Cossie power cost??

Fitting the Cam isn't difficult, a days work or so I think. Do the heads at the same time.

But I've heard that the Big End Bolts are the weak point on the Clognes so you may want to fit some ARP bolts.

Then you're looking at around 200bhp from a good engine, cost wise around £1000.

But to fit the bolts you're looking at taking the engine apart, then you may as well go for a lighten and balance, a crank regrind, new compettion clutch and bore hone. Possibly new rings if you can stretch to it. Probably £2500 - £3000 if you do the work yourself for a properly sorted 200bhp+ engine. But it will rev higher and more free thanks to the lighten and balance. Then £600 to take it down to Austec for a remap.

Even if you go Cossie you will still incurr the cost of the remap and RR time.

[garfys s3]

im looking at £6000 for cossie so in the end it would be cheaper to get a v8 but i dont want to sell mine. i think ill look at a new cam and bigger valves to start with.

[bugsy]

Wildfire
I agree with your comments but the Cossie is not quite the nightmare you think.
The areas I see as problems are wiring and manifolds but there is a man in Guildford who will sort out the loom and use the Cossie ECU for about £300, so no remap required.I think he did the car mentioned above and it went first try and would be quicker next time.

As for the manifolds, the jury is out on this one, there are special manifolds for C£500 but some say the ACT ones will fit, I'm waiting on this one because I have the S/S ones in stock.

Anyway I'm looking to do the job for under £2500 and I will (mostly down to my mate Steve Howard who has just snatched 3 engines for not a lot of money)

[trackcar]

that's a big jump from what you told me the cost was at cream bugsy.

are you sure 2500 pounds of cossie is the best way forword? It's a beautiful looking install when finished as Boosted has shown though .. but ..

in fact here's an inetersting idea .. put a V8S with slightly down on power std 4litre but well sorted suspension against a cossie engined S2/3 with the suspension of your choice .. see which is faster around a circuit with straights and bends .. say Donington?

see you there next summer? maybe a small wager to make it intersting? you'd just need to take your ards test so we could do some proper timing on a test day

[GreenV8S]

You'd need somebody impartial to drive both cars to keep it fair ...

[trackcar]

Or even better .. you bring your car Peter and we all swap between each others? Thay way we all get to know how teh others are so fast

then hand them all over to someone like Steve Lewis (TVR CC champion and all-round great guy) for the performance timed laps? Just so we can see how slow I am in comparison! lol.


I'm itching to get our two cars back on track together after all the mods though Peter .. I've got to close the gap to you and yuor car somehow I'm going to force you onto the Nankangs I use

[bugsy]

I suspect my motives for fitting the Cossie are being questioned, probably because of my association with bargain basement shocks

Unfortunately I have never tracked a car and totally rely on my network of experts for all things technical on these cars.

I am however very keen to have a go on a trackday and will give it a try next year (probably look like a right idiot though)

Joo has brought up an interesting point on what difference twin tube shocks would perform like against De-Carbon principle shocks like Nitron and Ohlins and the TVRC next year will have a Chim with Gaz Shocks fitted. Lets see if it goes round coners OK.

[GreenV8S]

trackcar said:

Or even better .. you bring your car Peter and we all swap between each others? Thay way we all get to know how teh others are so fast

Well you know how squishy the suspension is on mine and how much torque it has so we know what makes that go fast, and I've seen you drive so we know why yours is so fast despite the alleged lack of power, god only knows what you will be like when you have some serious grunt to play with. The question is what happens when you stick a hair drier on it? I've been reliably informed the chassis won't cope with more than about 220 bhp.

[trackcar]

GreenV8S said:

trackcar said: Or even better .. you bring your car Peter and we all swap between each others? Thay way we all get to know how teh others are so fast Well you know how squishy the suspension is on mine and how much torque it has so we know what makes that go fast, and I've seen you drive so we know why yours is so fast despite the alleged lack of power, god only knows what you will be like when you have some serious grunt to play with. The question is what happens when you stick a hair drier on it? I've been reliably informed the chassis won't cope with more than about 220 bhp.

lol .. well with more power i'll be more dangerous, that bit is a given hehe

yeah I was wondering about the chassis bit anyway .. seeing as mine is so floppy the roof actually falls off around corners

[trackcar]

bugsy said:

I suspect my motives for fitting the Cossie are being questioned, probably because of my association with bargain basement shocks Unfortunately I have never tracked a car and totally rely on my network of experts for all things technical on these cars. I am however very keen to have a go on a trackday and will give it a try next year (probably look like a right idiot though) Joo has brought up an interesting point on what difference twin tube shocks would perform like against De-Carbon principle shocks like Nitron and Ohlins and the TVRC next year will have a Chim with Gaz Shocks fitted. Lets see if it goes round coners OK.

lol your choice of engine has nothing to do with what dampers you sell bugsy, lol. I did say suspension of your choice so you could have 2k per corner ohlins if you like you've also got the best in the business to go to for set-up and tuition so I think it could be quite interesting.

race chimaera .. yeah that should be fun too .. rumour on the street was that they were double adjustables, but you know what racing rumours are like