power upgrades for 4l chim

[jonny car roll]

i'm aware of chip upgrades for the v8 engine but are they worth it? my car has done 96k,although runs will has full service, good oil pressure etc is it wise to tinker at this milage or worth givingit a final blaze of glory.....debate. oh yes forgot to mention i don't mind spending a few hundred quid but i'm not in the well if you spend £1000's you could do this brigade!

[Boosted LS1]

Air filter it is then and plug leads are always worth replacing after 12 months or so.

[thegman]

You are not going to get a power difference you will notice for a few hundred quid, unless there is something wrong with your car.

You could try changing the induction elbow for a smooth one, and try cleaning (or changing) the air filter but I don't really think you will notice any difference at all. You might gain a couple of hp at 5500 on the RR but nothing that you will notice when driving

Upgrade your cam, have the chip remapped, change the heads, change the exhaust etc etc etc will all probably give you more power but are going to cost > 300 quid

[blitzracing]

I would not go for the rechipping route, there is a lot of hype about its effects. TVR have already remapped the ECU, and any improvements will only be subtle, as its already set up for maximum power.

[Ubernoober]

So, to turn the question around - how much and what would it take to raise the output by, say, 30 hp or by 50hp?

[Dave81]

jonny car roll said:

i'm aware of chip upgrades for the v8 engine but are they worth it? my car has done 96k,although runs will has full service, good oil pressure etc is it wise to tinker at this milage or worth givingit a final blaze of glory.....debate. oh yes forgot to mention i don't mind spending a few hundred quid but i'm not in the well if you spend £1000's you could do this brigade!

You don't say anything about existing mods.....But this is the route i'm going as mine is completely standard.

1) De Pre-cat.
2) ACT smooth bore induction pipes
3) Possible Cheery bombs (unsure now due to recent events)
4) Cam (MC1).

Thats as far as i'm going.....and i've had prices for 1,2 and 4......=£1500 +.
I'll do them a stage at a time (when i have the money), but i recon i'll be lucky to see 20 - 30 bhp. 99% of this will come from the new cam. Taking the pre-cats out and smooth bore induction should improve responsiveness and have little effect on horses.

Pays your money takes your choice!!

[900T-R]

The induction system on an RV8 is where the easy gains are. Trackcar did achieve some very worthwhile gains on a 4 litre (V8S) with a blended trumpet base, smooth bore air mass meter-throttle body elbow and a bigger throttle plate (also a bigger air mass meter?).

Edit: and a plenum insulator spacer (£40+P&P from Magna Parva) - stock AMM if I read trackcar's post correctly

Edited by 900T-R on Tuesday 20th May 17:33

[funbobby]

regarding cherry bombs what has happened recently?

[thegman]

a tvr garage well known for their 'cherry bombs' admitted that they aren't cherry bombs but rather straight throughs. they said they never claimed they were CBs, but rather sports exhaust.

[Dave81]

Ubernoober said:

So, to turn the question around - how much and what would it take to raise the output by, say, 30 hp or by 50hp?

Yours sir, is already producing more than it should.....so 1.20 a litre of V Power should do it!!

On a serious note......it depends on how healthy the engine is. If its got a knackered Cam then 30 bhp should be easy with a cam change. If your talking over the apparent standard 240bhp....Just over £2.5k i'd guess??

[jonny car roll]

so to recap then, several poss mods but a new cam looks fav. so as i'm a little wet behind the ears on this who would you recommend for such mod,roughly how much and does anything else need to be done as well? my brother is a fully qual mechanic so presumeable he could do the job?

[thegman]

yes he could. these engines are old as the hills.

cam kits available from V8D have everything you need.

you may want to consider new rockers if you car has done a lot miles.

a decent non-specialist indie should do the swap for < 1500 including parts and labour and VAT

[Dave81]

On the flip side....i thought my cam needed changing (metallic sounds when warm etc), took it to a local specialist and was told it was slightly noisey, i've also seen no drop in performance compared to other TVR's.

I was ready to spend the £1300+ for the new cam, but after reasurance that it is'nt really needed at the mo, i've decided to delay by 12 months.

The Cam is a good place to start, but for me it will be last on the list (most expensive). I'll do smooth induction and de-pre-cat first, enjoy the summer then save throughout winter and have the Cam done next spring.....ready for another summer of driving. If it aint broke (or making the car noticebly slower) don't fix it is my thoughts!!

My 2p's!

[blitzracing]

Heres my simple tuning bit with Piccys. I dont know if TVR ever reworked the heads / inlet manifolds on the smaller engines, as on the stock RV8, they are a terrible match.

http://www.g33.co.uk/tuning.htm

Mark

[munky]

Dave81 said:

On the flip side....i thought my cam needed changing (metallic sounds when warm etc), took it to a local specialist and was told it was slightly noisey, i've also seen no drop in performance compared to other TVR's.

I was ready to spend the £1300+ for the new cam, but after reasurance that it is'nt really needed at the mo, i've decided to delay by 12 months.

The Cam is a good place to start, but for me it will be last on the list (most expensive). I'll do smooth induction and de-pre-cat first, enjoy the summer then save throughout winter and have the Cam done next spring.....ready for another summer of driving. If it aint broke (or making the car noticebly slower) don't fix it is my thoughts!!

My 2p's!

I just bought a new cam (MC1) from V8 developments.. it was a lot less than £1300. £375 IIRC for the kit, then just the fitting (about £160, something like that)

[900T-R]

£160 For a cam replacement definitely sounds cheap to me...

[daz the plumber]

dave ,i have done all those things you want
complete smooth bore induction kit with k&n air filter
mc1 cam hydrolic lifters etc
carbon trumpets
removed pre cats
i did not want to spend any more money so i went for a ajustable fuel reg as the chip seemed alot of money .i would say the car drives better but it will never match the 4.5 as it runs out of power at the top end .what i like about it with the mc1 cam is the power delivery from standstill, it rips by any car up to yet .

[munky]

900T-R said:

£160 For a cam replacement definitely sounds cheap to me...

Will get verification on that. I will say it was cheaper than would otherwise be as all electrics & ancilliaries were already disconnected as the body & engine had been off the chassis for a chassis repair. Pretty sure the engine had already been put back in by the time I'd got the cam bought & delivered but nothing had been connected back up yet

[GreenV8S]

900T-R said:

£160 For a cam replacement definitely sounds cheap to me...

Parts alone will cost the thick end of £500, and if you're paying somebody to fit it you could easily spend the same again on labour.

At 96K miles I don't think the original engine owes you much, it's a testament to the way it's been looked after that it is still going strong at that age. However, it's probably not a good base for tuning work at that age. Far more sensible IMO to keep it standard and keep looking after it, meanwhile save up to drop a 4.6 in when it does eventually give up the ghost. That gives you a brand new engine and represents about the best bang-per-buck you will ever find. It also gives you a *very* nice torque increase (far more than you'd guess just from the capacity increase) and will completely transform the car.

[daz the plumber]

can you tell me the power increase with a blended plenum on the 4 l