Turbo Elise?

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Discussion

spunagain

Original Poster:

756 posts

265 months

Wednesday 30th April 2003
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I was visiting my local MG Rover Dealer, looking for a family car (ho hum), and saw the ZT 160 is a 1.8K series with a turbo charger (thought it was a detuned V6) could this be the way forward for a VX220 turbo Elise rival?
I would guess that Rover have done the hard work developing the reliability. Come to think of it I wonder if it would drop into my S1! Anyone got any gossip cos Lotus I guess will need to match the VX at some point.

Captain Muppet

8,540 posts

272 months

Thursday 1st May 2003
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No turbo on that engine according to the MG website.

Did you see a turbo or was it salesman bullshit?

madasahatter

374 posts

274 months

Thursday 1st May 2003
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Agree with C'pn Muppet. I don't believe there is a turbo on that car.

n209385

42 posts

270 months

Thursday 1st May 2003
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"MG Rover has introduced a less thirsty 114bhp CDT turbodiesel, and a 158bhp four-cylinder 1.8 Turbo petrol version in place of the V6 160"

From 4Car.co.uk

Captain Muppet

8,540 posts

272 months

Thursday 1st May 2003
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n209385 said: "MG Rover has introduced a less thirsty 114bhp CDT turbodiesel, and a 158bhp four-cylinder 1.8 Turbo petrol version in place of the V6 160"

From 4Car.co.uk


From 4car.co.uk search engine:

"Sorry, no features containing "1.8 Turbo petrol MG" could be found.
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Why bother with a 1.8 turbo k-series if the VVC makes tha same power? It doesn't make sense.

B19GRR

1,980 posts

263 months

Thursday 1st May 2003
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Why bother with a 1.8 turbo k-series if the VVC makes tha same power? It doesn't make sense.


Was going to say the same. It certainly seems like a pointless - no doubt marketing led - move by Rover. Bet it'll sound wikked wiv a big dump valve though

Arno

349 posts

285 months

Friday 2nd May 2003
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Captain Muppet said: Why bother with a 1.8 turbo k-series if the VVC makes tha same power? It doesn't make sense.


Yes it does.

As it is meant to replace the V6 and give lower CO2 emissions, it has to give lots ot torque at low-ish rpm's for 'comfortable cruising'. Only way to do this is with a (low pressure) turbo.

It probably produces about 150 to 200% the torque of the VVC at 2000-4000rpm.

The low HP number (which basically is a calculation of torqe, RPM and a constant) comes from a few sources:

- low redline (usually 6500)
- small turbo (quick pressure build, but runs out of steam at higher rpm's)
- very conservative cam timing (great off-the-line torque, but drops like a stone around 5000 rpm)

If you were to install a higher flowing turbo, raise the rev limter to 7000 and maintain the same boost pressure up to the limiter then it would probably push close to 200HP.

Bye, Arno.

Captain Muppet

8,540 posts

272 months

Friday 2nd May 2003
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Torque is for people who don't know how to change gear

Edited to remove huge quote.

>> Edited by Captain Muppet on Friday 2nd May 08:29

CVP

2,799 posts

282 months

Friday 2nd May 2003
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n209385 said: "MG Rover has introduced a less thirsty 114bhp CDT turbodiesel, and a 158bhp four-cylinder 1.8 Turbo petrol version in place of the V6 160"


Less thirsty has to be the key doesn't it. As Arno said a low pressure turbo could give better torque than the outgoing V6 at lower revs, meaning less people ragging the arse off the car to get anywhere. Thus MG get two selling points;
1 - New engine is less thirsty, good from a "what car" point of view
2 - Now it's a turbo, good from a marketing point of view.

Question is, how long until the Max Muppets get hold of it and the MG becomes the boy racer's car of choice?

Could you put it in an S1? Well, turbo technics have got their conversion so it can easily be done. I don't think it would be a straight forward replacement as you have all the extra plumbing for the turbo which will probably need to be rejigged to get it into the Elise engine bay. Also you now have to deal with the extra cooling loads required by the intercooler and also that lovely turbocharger running in the region 800 to 1000 degrees C. Don't know if the standard Elise radiator is up to this.

Overall, I'd say if you want to go the turbo route talk to Turbo Technics. They have a proven kit for the Elise and will have gone through all the teething troubles in getting it to work successfully.

The other option would simply be to get your S1 seen to by one of the recognised experts in normally aspirated tuning. You can get a good reliable 160bhp here and let's face it, not much can live with an Elise with that kind of power. Obviously I'm only talking acceleration up to about 100mph. After this DeR and Daz will scream by in their uberpork wagons

All IMHO of course

Chris

spunagain

Original Poster:

756 posts

265 months

Thursday 8th May 2003
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I guess I will wait for my first engine rebuild and go for the PTP head and cams (160bhp) or so with sports exhaust and filter. Done 50k so far so a reckon a few years to go. How long do K's go between (involuntary) rebuilds, anyone had any experience?

bogie

16,611 posts

279 months

Thursday 8th May 2003
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Spunagain - i would recommend a DVA head + cams ...more power for half the price of the PTP kit...also more likely to deliver what it says on the tin

samn01

874 posts

275 months

Thursday 8th May 2003
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You can get a good reliable 160bhp here and let's face it, not much can live with an Elise with that kind of power. Obviously I'm only talking acceleration up to about 100mph. After this DeR and Daz will scream by in their uberpork wagons

All IMHO of course

Chris


You mean upto about 60mph don't you?? OK, granted from a standing start they will impress to 100 but that is more todo with the 0-60 rather than 60-100 bit.

CVP

2,799 posts

282 months

Thursday 8th May 2003
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samn01 said:

You can get a good reliable 160bhp here and let's face it, not much can live with an Elise with that kind of power. Obviously I'm only talking acceleration up to about 100mph. After this DeR and Daz will scream by in their uberpork wagons

All IMHO of course

Chris


You mean upto about 60mph don't you?? OK, granted from a standing start they will impress to 100 but that is more todo with the 0-60 rather than 60-100 bit.


I was trying to illustrate that an Elise with 160bhp should really be able to out accelerate pretty much most machinery when driven in the real world, so there is not a lot of point in spunagain going to all the troubles of trying to squeeze the 1.8 turbo into an S1 Elise as a one off project when he could easily go to someone like DVA Power and get enough power for what we can do in the real world.

I guess that the magnificent chariots that some PH'ers have (such as DeR and DAZ) will always blitz the Elise at the top end but in outright initial acceleration a 160bhp Elise should not lose too much. Maybe I was optimistic with my 100mph and 60mph would be closer to the mark.

Chris

bogie

16,611 posts

279 months

Thursday 8th May 2003
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I agree - 160bhp with 140ft/lb torque in an Elise, with the CR box can give 0-60 in 5secs and 100 in say 13secs and top speed of 140mph. Thats pretty respectable for around £1800 outlay on top of a std car. 180bhp/150ft/lb for another £1500 ish is very useful too - after that your looking at big dollars for lost of steel bits to hold it altogether and it gets expensive.

In the real work on A/B roads having fun I find 160-180 plenty for the Elise to hold its own with pretty much anything...the more twisty it is the more the Elise comes into its own....bottom line is though your money is still better spent on upgrading the driver !

The DJ 27

2,666 posts

260 months

Sunday 11th May 2003
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I could be wrong, but don't Turbo Technics also do a supercharger kit for the VHPD engine? I think there was a thing in EVO ages ago about an Exige with one fitted. Dunno if it would fit an Elise or not.

The DJ 27

2,666 posts

260 months

Sunday 11th May 2003
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I could be wrong, but don't Turbo Technics also do a supercharger kit for the VHPD engine? I think there was a thing in EVO ages ago about an Exige with one fitted. Dunno if it would fit an Elise or not.

bogie

16,611 posts

279 months

Sunday 11th May 2003
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Yep - they do...I think the TT on top of the VHPD gives 260-270bhp nice ...AlanN over on the BCBBS is currently having his 340R kitted out with it ...should be quick !

DanH

12,287 posts

267 months

Monday 12th May 2003
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AlanNs car is going to be either extremely quick, or extremely stationary as reliability hasn't been its redeeming feature so far.

Then again I've become less convinced about TT reliability the more I pay attention to them.

atom290

1,015 posts

264 months

Monday 12th May 2003
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I went for a supercharger. I bought a system from a company called Force One.

The engine took a great deal of strengthening, and I have to say the majority of components in there have been changed.

I had QED build the engine for me, and then stick it on the dyno. The first issue we had was cooling, so we had a matrix added to the supercharger. We added water injection at the same time. Next we ran out of fuel so added another 4 injectors and whilst there added another water injector.

The result 290 little horses, oh and a big hole in my bank balance.

http://uk.photos.yahoo.com/bc/atom290/vwp?.dir=/Atom&.src=ph&.dnm=Engine+Power+Graph.jpg&.view=t&.done=http%3a//uk.photos.yahoo.com/bc/atom290/lst%3f%26.dir=/Atom%26.src=ph%26.view=t

>> Edited by atom290 on Monday 12th May 20:10

MilesForrest

47 posts

269 months

Tuesday 13th May 2003
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I've had my S2 fitted with the Turbo Technics 230bhp upgrade. 2 months and one track day (Bedford) with no problems so far. Fingers crossed.

The supercharger (and for that matter turbo) is not a simple installation. The TT190/230 has an extra water radiator for cooling the charged (compressed) air and an oil cooler to feed the supercharger with cool filtered oil. It is a very neat job but quite a lot of work to install.

I had an S1 with an upgrade of cams, exhaust, ECU, air filter and it produced about 165bhp. Very quick yes but you had to keep it at 4000+. I've got a graph showing a standard 120, sport 135, 111S, Lotus 190 (VHPD), TT190 and TT230. The Lotus 190 has less torque and acceleration than the standard 120 below 5000rpm. The main advantage of the Sport190 is that it revs to 8000 so you can stay in a lower gear slightly longer. So if you are predominantly using it on road, stick with 160ish and before you upgrade ask to see a rolling road graph. Following Bogie the other day his upgrade seemed very good (DVA I think). If you go with a supercharger you get more torque from 2000rpm all the way to the red line.

The TT260+ upgrade is a complete engine rebuild with all sorts of modifications to strengthen the engine and supply enough fuel.

There aren’t many turbo Elises out there for a good reason. The power delivery of a turbo is not linear and has lag. No problems in a heavy normal car but with a lightweight rear drive car it is bound result in expensive visits to the scenery. Has anyone tried the VX220 Turbo on a wet road?