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Question: I'm starting to plan the next upgrade on the engine as the shell is coming on.. As you know i run have the 208kit with the type A exhaust manifold.. and a internally standard XE. Without going silly and still keeping the car useable, what would be a recommended route? I was thinking along the lines of, Cams/Pistons/headwork/verniers/Type C manifold?/metal head gasket/better oil pump...
Answer: Have a look at the TP235 kit. Please look our price list to give you an idea of the cost. The 235 kit is a nice kit, drives well, good all round torque. If you went up to the 250 kit which has a bigger inlet cam, it would be less road friendly. If you were to add cylinder head work to the 235 kit and possibly some steel rods, I think the bhp would be pushed closer to 245bhp, but you would be adding about #1600 to the cost. So it just depends on whether that pushes your budget up too much.
Question: What are the options to increase power without affecting driveability. I am also keen to avoid expensive engine work, as it is very smooth at low revs, I have a 2.0L 16v XE which has been fully rebuilt on twin 45’s in my Westfield.
Answer: The best way to go & to maintain drivability is the injection route. The standard engine on 45's should produce about 180BHP, however the same engine on taper throttle bodies will give you 208BHP and is still very reliable & driveable.
Question: I have a 2.1L Pinto, twin DCOE 45s, Kent FR33 cam, flowed head, big valves... - about 160BHP and I want to convert it to throttle body injection (I know it's old-tech, but I like it!!!). Would the MBE ECU be suitable, is there a suitable crank sensor available etc?
Answer: There is not a problem in making any engine run on fuel injection. Unfortunately the earlier engines, which do not have existing trigger wheels, require a trigger wheel to be fitted. Also because the engine has not been used on fuel injection that often, your engine would need to be mapped which also adds to the cost (I do have a programme for 220bhp 2.1L Pinto, which is the only Pinto I have previously mapped).
I will certainly list all the basic components you require and although you say you like the Pinto engine, you must remember that by the time the engine is fully programmed and up and running (with huge improvements over what you currently have), it would still cost you a lot more than putting a similar injection system onto say an XE or Zetec engine or the New ford Duratec Engine.
A list of
the components I recommend you would require:
1. MBE 9A4 ECU for fuel and ignition
2. Wiring harness completely self contained and made to very high quality
with built in relays
3. Wasted spark distributorless coil pack
4. Coolant temp sensor
5. Air temp sensor
6. Crank speed sensor
7. Universal crank trigger wheel
8. Throttle bodies (pair of twin 45s or 48s with idle bleeds)
9. Fuel rails for above
10. Throttle position sensor
11. Injectors (you could either use second hand 2.0L 16V XE injectors
which can be picked up from a breakers, or we could supply a high flow
injector which will cope with all your needs)
The ECU will come with a base programme, which allows you to start the engine on, but it would need to be mapped to match your engines requirements on the road, rolling road or dyno.
Finally, don't let anybody tell you that buying a few bits and pieces, such as an ECU and wiring harness and you will be up and running with a fantastic engine within a couple of hours. You will find yourself connected to one of those machines that appears to keep emptying your pockets of money, with the words you are almost there, every time some money leaves your pocket. By the time you have finally finished and got your engine completed, although it won't appear to have cost as much in one go, over the long term you would end up spending more money than you have ever intended.
Would your basic MBE unit be sufficient? Can it be supplied with a 'map' to get me started?
Answer: I would think the cam profiles you are currently running are about the most aggressive you can safely use on the standard intake and management system. If you were to fit the MBE management system, this would give you the ability to tune the engine still further without the problems that you would get from the air flow meter on the standard system. But if you were to pick a too aggressive cam profile, lets say over 290 degrees and still retain the original intake manifold with a single butterfly, the engine would become difficult and unpleasant to drive. The effect would be similar to what was achieved on group A engines, in the early to mid 90s. You would have to set your idling speed higher and higher and the engine would pull much later up the rev range. If you intend on achieving over 200bhp, I would suggest you add throttle bodies to the MBE management system in the very near future. As the four individual butterflies would overcome the problems mentioned.
By adding the management system now, at the very minimum you would be able to optimise what you have currently got. This would make the engine far more driveable and should give you good improvement in torque and bhp. I would then suggest you went for throttle bodies, followed by a larger camshaft at that point.
I was interested in the 250bhp kit in particular and with further reading it says that your exhaust manifold should be used and a dry sump kit too. I would like to know if it would be undrivable on the road as one power graph on show started at 4000rpm and I was wondering if this came across the entire kit ranges. Please could you help me know a little more and the prices involved.
Answer: As you tune any engine to produce more power, the power band moves further up the rev range. This occurs in steps, i.e. the standard throttle body kit TP208 produces a stronger torque curve from 2,000rpm onwards over the standard engine. The TP225 engine produces an increase in torque from 2,700rpm onwards. Once you get to about 250bhp, the engine spec does become less driveable if used as an everyday road car. I would say 250 should be considered as the maximum to use as a reasonably comfortable road car. Normally the maximum I would suggest would be a 235bhp as this retains much of the driveability of the standard road car. Also because the engine doesn't need to be revved as high, the oil system can be simpler since less stress is applied to the engine itself. Fitting a dry sump system to a road car can be done, but is quite difficult due to packaging the system around components such as power steering. If you give me an idea of your intended budget, I could price you better, however the kits prices are available on the downloadable price list. We always try and achieve maximum reliability and will not compromise this over performance.
Answer: The first thing I would say is that I notice that you intend on running in the 1400 - 2000L class, but intend on using the 1600L engine. There is no reason why you should not compete in the 1600L engine and in your car it gives perfect balance, whereas using a 2.0L engine would significantly impair the balance of your car. The reason I have mentioned this, is that to achieve 250bhp out of a 2.0L engine is relatively affordable in comparison with achieving 250 out of a 1600L. Effectively, the components you would require to fit to a 1600L are the equivalent in specification to those you would need to fit to a 300 bhp 2.0L engine. If you look at our web site on the TP range of kits, this will give you a better idea of what performance can be achieved and which one suits your budget.
Again, going back to my original point, if your budget would not stretch as far as a 250 spec 1600 engine, I would suggest you reduce the level you were looking for to say 220bhp which is a considerably cheaper upgrade. Rather than looking at fitting a 2.0L engine, because even if you did produce the extra bhp, the loss in handling from the heavier engine in my opinion, would outweigh the gains in bhp.
Once you have had a good look through the web site and downloaded the price list and have got a better idea of what you are looking for, send me an email with a broad outline of what you think you would like to run. If you could list kits and part numbers this would help. I would then come back to you with a full break down of costs and if there is anything that you have grouped together that isn't compatible, I will advise you accordingly.
Answer: Unfortunately once you get to the level of engine approaching 300bhp, the parts within the 2.0L XE engine become very specialised and the components you already have such as your existing camshafts and racing pistons would not be suitable. Also using carbs on an engine of this level would simply restrict the engines performance. You would need to run the complex injection system that we fit to our TP290+ kit. This uses a system, which has 8 injectors of which the ECU varies the amount of fuel going to either the upper or lower set of injectors according to engine speed. To achieve these sort of figures, everything has to be taken as light as possible to help the engine produce more bhp and for it to stay together. The TP290+ kit starts from approx. £10,500 +VAT. You would then need to have the appropriate clutch, flywheel and accompanying oil system as well as the transmission to cope with the engine. To give you an idea, if we were to build an engine like this for you, we would base it on a new head casting and block and depending on final accessories, a price of between £18k to £25k.
If you wish to progress slowly, which is what many of our customers do, we use the same throttle bodies on most of our fuel injection kits and as I am sure you can appreciate, as you try to obtain more bhp, you get smaller returns for ever increasing cost. Obviously I don't know the exact specification of your engine, but as a rule of thumb, if you convert from carbs to fuel injection, we would normally expect to see between 10 & 20 bhp gains (this depends on carburettor and choke sizes) with a huge improvement in driveability. You could then improve your engine in stages as your budget allows. To give you a rough idea, to supply fuel injection system and injectors is going to cost approx. £2,000. The system could then be programmed on the road, rolling road or dyno to achieve the optimum from your current engine.