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Post by V6 on Aug 1, 2016 10:17:03 GMT
The reliability is really important if you are touring in another country and don't speak the lingo! So I may have talked myself into NA tuning.
I agree the trumpets are hardly essential. But when I have spare funds again, maybe next year, they will be the final icing on the cake.
My car goes to Scuzzle on the 11th onwards, if any of you are in the area around those dates.
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Tim
New Here
Your local friendly corporate shill!
Posts: 79 
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Post by Tim on Aug 1, 2016 10:19:57 GMT
Agreed, i kinda feel like N/A is what the car was always meant to be; i think its telling that on the ND they've not bothered with boost (at least as yet) unlike the Fiata. Reliable predictable N/A power without complication
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Post by bombercounty5 on Aug 1, 2016 11:45:05 GMT
It just needed a better revving engine from the factory, You forget how old these cars are and the now aged technology they use! We're talking about a car that came out in the late eighties with a 16v dohc engine, when the likes of ford/vauxhall were still knocking out hot hatches with tappy old 8v's!
So looking back it was probably a cracking little engine when it was released, only nowadays it is seen as a pretty boring engine. It's a testament to the cars design and quality though, I forget when I get into mine that it's a 26 year old car. You compare an mx5 to how a 26 year old MGB would of driven and the difference is like night and day!
They just need a little bit of tinkering to make them a little bit 'hotter' again.
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Post by myothercarsa2cv on Aug 1, 2016 14:36:31 GMT
They didn't do themselves any favours by taking a turbo engine and making it N/A... But that's what cams, head skims and high compression pistons are for  |
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Post by bombercounty5 on Aug 1, 2016 14:37:58 GMT
They didn't do themselves any favours by taking a turbo engine and making it N/A... But that's what cams, head skims and high compression pistons are for Never knew this, any info on what happened with this? Would love to know. Certainly needs more compression to bring it to life. |
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Post by myothercarsa2cv on Aug 1, 2016 14:54:43 GMT
They didn't do themselves any favours by taking a turbo engine and making it N/A... But that's what cams, head skims and high compression pistons are for Never knew this, any info on what happened with this? Would love to know. Certainly needs more compression to bring it to life. Is there anything not on Wikipedia?  Quite a versatile engine by all accounts. |
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Post by wannabe on Aug 1, 2016 15:22:25 GMT
The reliability is really important if you are touring in another country and don't speak the lingo! Now now, the Scots are almost understandable with practice listening   But anyway...  ...ignoring the OP, I've had some really fun runs recently in mine - yes, 110-ish horse power is never going to set your hair on fire, but it's enough to give you a sense of urgent(ish) acceleration if you need/want it, especially a the top end of second and third; it's enough to keep up with most things being driven quickly but responsibly in traffic or on the open road; and it means you can spend a lot more time accelerating than when in something with big power |
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Post by Rickster on Aug 1, 2016 18:39:04 GMT
Ive stayed N/A,
I fitted the ME221 and Nick @ Skuzzle tuned it, Im very happy with what we achieved with a decent exhaust, Jackson racing CAI, and a light head skim and porting. The car is more responsive with the upgraded ECU (i can switch between the two quite easily so have been able to do a good comparison). I think people think that an upgraded ECU is just for FI (or ITB) but it actually makes the standard engine more tunable with a few basic mods.
in the winter, (if i have some shekels) I'll go for a more aggressive skim and get the compression up
Im also going to give the engine a complete overhaul, rings and bearings, and fit a new clutch, hopefully she'll roll out of the garage next spring much improved (but still NA)
I nearly forgot the whole point of this ramble.
I had a heavily modded 320bhp Focus ST, it was quick and a beast but nowhere near as enjoyable a the 5 - as the last post said, with the 5 you can bury your foot and have fun without endangering yourselves and others! I had to watch out in the ST - in a blink of an eye you were in license gone territory!
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Post by V6 on Aug 1, 2016 19:17:07 GMT
I've had so many different cars, from tiny to large. I even got distracted with barges too, until I started really down sizing again. So I recently went from a five litre Merc, to turbo Alfa Mito Cloverleaf, to my mk1. I'd say this 5 is the most fun I've had. Better than my 106GTi and as good as my Lotus 111R (yet WAY WAY nicer to live with). For the money they are just daft fun.
At the moment I can't see me selling it. I just want to keep it, pamper it and tweak it. My biggest regret is that I never owned one decades ago when I started driving.
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Post by niklas on Dec 13, 2016 17:35:41 GMT
The most reliable way of tuning a car is taking away weight. Improves everything, stuff that doesn't exist on the car doesn't go bang.
That said, You can make anything reliable, but it comes at a cost. Some ways of tuning will also have the potential for too easy power, making the user extract too much and destroy it.
I had a very reliable 225whp setup (turbo), increased power to 252whp, still reliable, as in making 10000 miles street, auto-x and track / year for 4 years. About 1/3 track probably.
Then I increased the boost more and it went bang.
Now I'm building a very expensive engine and at the same time I'm changing a lot of stuff in the chassis. Will probably be very reliable, but the things I'm putting on/in costs a more than the car itself, by some margin.
The old saying of choose two: cheap, reliable, fast is old and a saying because its very true. You should also realize that track performance will affect how much effort a car takes to drive, as well as how uncomfortable it is. A really fast track car is not comfortable at all.
Oh, and as someone already said, If you are mainly doing auto-x or slow sprints, they are great power equalizers. I drive most auto-x'es almost as fast with half the work in an n/a car.
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Post by Rickster on Dec 13, 2016 18:06:16 GMT
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Post by quinvy on Dec 14, 2016 2:30:05 GMT
I'm also hoping to go the Blink stage 1 route with my car.
I owned a Focus RS Mk2 with stage 2 Mountune MR375 upgrade. Great car, but you couldn't use it on public roads. On the B roads it was just too big (wide) to enjoy, and incredibly thirsty. I spent all the time looking at the fuel gauge and working out where the nearest shell garage was. It also ate front tyres, and at £120 a corner, I just couldn't afford to keep it.
I cannot believe how these little cars get under your skin. I would never have believed it a couple of years ago.
Back on topic, as much as I love the sound of a super charger. The cost just doesn't make sense. I was attracted to the Blink stage 1 as I thought it would keep the car looking OEM. Unfortunately after speaking to Fraser about the upgrade, they recommend an exhaust manifold and inlet change to get the most out of the work. I still think that Na is the only way for reliability. I too would love ITB's, but the cost? OMG!
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Post by lowender on Dec 14, 2016 18:47:08 GMT
I'm also hoping to go the Blink stage 1 route with my car. I was attracted to the Blink stage 1 as I thought it would keep the car looking OEM. Unfortunately after speaking to Fraser about the upgrade, they recommend an exhaust manifold and inlet change to get the most out of the work. I still think that Na is the only way for reliability. I too would love ITB's, but the cost? OMG!Having just fitted the Blink stage 1 kit with Megasquirt on my 1.8, I can say that it makes a huge difference with the standard manifold. I have a cowl intake with standard airbox/K&N panel filter and maf, soon to be upgraded with an inline pipercross and iat, and may upgrade the exhaust manifold when I can afford it, but it's certainly not necessary straight off. As it stands at the moment, the performance gain is far greater than I expected. I also have a lightweight flywheel, which, bang for buck, is highly recommended. So with the Blink stage 1, you can do the whole thing bit by bit as funds allow. Can't recommend Blink's stage 1 highly enough, go for it, you won't be disappointed. |
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Post by Dweenimus on Dec 14, 2016 19:38:53 GMT
I'm also hoping to go the Blink stage 1 route with my car. I was attracted to the Blink stage 1 as I thought it would keep the car looking OEM. Unfortunately after speaking to Fraser about the upgrade, they recommend an exhaust manifold and inlet change to get the most out of the work. I still think that Na is the only way for reliability. I too would love ITB's, but the cost? OMG!Having just fitted the Blink stage 1 kit with Megasquirt on my 1.8, I can say that it makes a huge difference with the standard manifold. I have a cowl intake with standard airbox/K&N panel filter and maf, soon to be upgraded with an inline pipercross and iat, and may upgrade the exhaust manifold when I can afford it, but it's certainly not necessary straight off. As it stands at the moment, the performance gain is far greater than I expected. I also have a lightweight flywheel, which, bang for buck, is highly recommended. So with the Blink stage 1, you can do the whole thing bit by bit as funds allow. Can't recommend Blink's stage 1 highly enough, go for it, you won't be disappointed. God dammit! Now I want a blink head! |
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Post by tropical on Dec 14, 2016 20:19:03 GMT
I second, or is it third that opinion. I modified my engine in bits. Exhaust, flywheel, manifold and cowl intake made nice little incremental improvements. Fitting an ECU gave it a noticeable boost, however fitting a BLiNK head and Piper 270 cams REALLY woke the engine up, I was genuinely shocked at the performance increase. Up to 4000rpm it is significantly faster than before but after that point it feels like a whole new engine and really rips round to the limiter. (Even on a very amateur self map on the ECU)
It has really brought the car to life and made me glad I didn't go FI. Trouble is is that it is addictive and now I want more!
I haven't driven a standard car with ITBs fitted but a really surprising amount of people go to all the trouble of fitting them and then end up selling the car!
I would rather tune the engine until the intake manifold becomes a restriction ( which it definitely isn't yet) THEN fit throttles.
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Quite a versatile engine by all accounts.
le sigh