my v8s keeps getting better.

[trackcar]

okie dokie here's the final installment on the v8s .. it's last outing running on the clockwork lucas system before going over to the megasquirt ecu system.

the first run as you may remember had a chronic fuelling problem, the fuel regulator wasn't holding the line pressure .. it made pityful hp and Darren at nobles said he didn't know how it was holding together lol! .. strong engines in std form obviously! I'd blended the trumpet base and moved the filter but nothing too radical in engine terms .. then ..

after that and with clamping the return pipe off to generate more line pressure it made just 198bhp which i was very pleased with. It showed the power was there if the fuelling was right.

I fitted an adjustable regulator and finished all the inlet mods I wanted to do .. ie the blended trumpet base (threw the std trumpets away) with larger butterfly, short silicone hose to the AFM, and a short pipe to the large green filter .. the result is just shy of 209bhp on a 106000 mile engine .. i think that's terrific It also proves that the short inlet hoses and blended base both work really well, peak power is still under the 6k rev limit and the torque curve is still flat and not full of lumps and bumps like many people had predicted after losing the trumpet length.

The previous best I'd got with the std trumpets and a carbon plenum and no fuelling issue was 178bhp .. obviously there must be something else contributing to the 30bhp difference here over and above my mods .. ie the 178bhp figure was artificially low for some reason, but i've never worked out what it is and now it doesn't matter anyway lol .. but even more intersting is that the car now makes the highest midrange too .. something that wasn't expected.

anyway the end result is what matters and the final outcome is 208.6bhp. I'm a happier bunny than ever now

thanks to Nobles once again for providing independant testing of my cars, top people as ever



final result:

[Mrs BlueCerbera]

I don't understand about 50% of what you said but I get the impression you're happy.

In that case Good work !

[pies]

Very nice torque "curve" well its almost flat

Point of correction its never the "final installment"

[TimW]

Wheres the corrected torque? Very healthy figure, for the mileage

[S2 Giles]

Is that figure a good or average output for the standard V8S ? I have a V6 S2 and expected the output to be more like 240Hp on a V8 ?

I know all about reality Vs TVR quoted figures and ive had the Austec chip done to mine, just thought i'd ask as i always thought i'd prefer a V8S to a chim/griff when the time comes to change, however there may not be as much difference as i first thought ?

Cheers
Giles

[V8Smith]

S2 Giles said:

Is that figure a good or average output for the standard V8S ? I have a V6 S2 and expected the output to be more like 240Hp on a V8 ? I know all about reality Vs TVR quoted figures and ive had the Austec chip done to mine, just thought i'd ask as i always thought i'd prefer a V8S to a chim/griff when the time comes to change, however there may not be as much difference as i first thought ? Cheers Giles

Giles, having gone from a S2 to a V8S myself you certainly see a lot of difference, its the torque that gives it the umphh.....? With a few mods mine has just put out 263bhp & 283lb ft so there is a lot to be gainedwith the V8, go on you know you want to?

Mike

[Hoover.]

V8Smith said:

S2 Giles said: Is that figure a good or average output for the standard V8S ? I have a V6 S2 and expected the output to be more like 240Hp on a V8 ? I know all about reality Vs TVR quoted figures and ive had the Austec chip done to mine, just thought i'd ask as i always thought i'd prefer a V8S to a chim/griff when the time comes to change, however there may not be as much difference as i first thought ? Cheers Giles Giles, having gone from a S2 to a V8S myself you certainly see a lot of difference, its the torque that gives it the umphh.....? With a few mods mine has just put out 263bhp & 283lb ft so there is a lot to be gainedwith the V8, go on you know you want to? Mike

Are they your new figures with your new cam Mike ???????

[Hoover.]

Trackcar..... I know you've had it independantly done..... how does this compare to your new rollers. (I guess these are the people you normally use, and having seen a few cars run at Austec which have been run been set up by you I know the they record v. similar figures ... give or take 5 - 10 bhp)

Just wondering what variance is... I know no rolling road gives the same results.

I'll probably be giving you a bell in the next few months on a Griff re: rolling road set-up on car (inc ECU re-prog/change).

[trackcar]

well it was the figure off my rollers that prompted me to take it to Nobles .. it made 213 on mine and i thought it was waaaaaaay too high .. i was expecting under 200 like it made before .. but at Nobles it made a rounded 209 so only 4bhp in it. going on what we know so far it seems mine are about 2% higher than nobles so about 4% higher than SRR .. but i need more cars on mine to get a more accurate picture (I have a sample of one, hardly a good statistical baseline lmao!). I do know mine are repeatable .. done 10 power runs on the S and they're all withiin 3bhp of each other at peak which is nice

PS my sister's fiesta 1.1 made 43bhp

[Hoover.]

Interesting all the same........

how is it that SRR has become the bench mark RR, .... is it because it is totally independant of the tuners????????

[HarryW]

Good to see joolz, there is alot of fun to had with the V8S, the best bit is all the power is still pretty useable.
If it is my place, I would seriously try the smaller bore primaries and blended Y piece (again smaller bore), you must be able to get it cheapish trade .
I'd be interested to see what you think, personally if I was brave and had the time and the RR I'd come another size down again as I think it is still over bore (well thats what my sums tell me). Not sure whether it is suitable without redoing the fueling though .

[trackcar]

Well the next two stages Harry will cost much less than the manifolds .. megasquirt and trumpet base isolator that i've got to test.

There'l be no gains on the fuelling from the MS .. I've yet to see a TVR that has fuelling issues as long as it's in good order .. remember my fuelling issues were down to the regulator, and every other good TVR i've seen hasn't had any fuelling probs either.

There will be gains to be made from the ignition though, and once i've tried the isolator i can see if that's worth selling aswell .. but the next stage is still the turbo route, but without mappable fuelling on that i'm a bit stuck .. however now the rollers are here it makes it all do-able

I don't know what sorts of gains people are seeing from exhaust changes but i would expect mapped ignition to be far more beneficial and masively better value for money .. if you have u/s manifolds though then the exhaust change route becomes far more attractive of course. Also as Steve Heath rightly points out, never underestimate the power of Bling shiny bits are worth 20bhp in one's mind ....

[the gazman]

V8Smith said:

having gone from a S2 to a V8S myself you certainly see a lot of difference, its the torque that gives it the umphh.....? With a few mods mine has just put out 263bhp & 283lb ft so there is a lot to be gainedwith the V8, go on you know you want to? Mike

Am I right in thinking you have gained about 50BHP Mike,I seem to recall 210bhp last year.

BTW its going to be really interesting to see how all these tuning experiments will end up in the bang for bucks stakes.

[V8Smith]

the gazman said:

V8Smith said: having gone from a S2 to a V8S myself you certainly see a lot of difference, its the torque that gives it the umphh.....? With a few mods mine has just put out 263bhp & 283lb ft so there is a lot to be gainedwith the V8, go on you know you want to? Mike Am I right in thinking you have gained about 50BHP Mike,I seem to recall 210bhp last year. BTW its going to be really interesting to see how all these tuning experiments will end up in the bang for bucks stakes.

No 32bhp gain as last May it was 231bhp, see the original thread about my Cam its now updated with power graph etc....

Very happy though.....

Mike

[V8Smith]

Hoover. said:

V8Smith said: With a few mods mine has just put out 263bhp & 283lb ft so there is a lot to be gainedwith the V8, go on you know you want to? Mike Are they your new figures with your new cam Mike ???????

Well yes, but I had more than just a new CAM fitted, ported heads, larger 5ltr ported inlet manifolds and larger flared trumpets goes like a train, doesnt run out of puff, due to the better breathing........ Have a look at the original thread its now updated with power graph etc.

Mike

[V8Smith]

You have had some great gains there Joolz, you must be happy as I remember the figures from a few months back, nice one... As someone that is always looking for improvements what exactly is the megasquirt and what does it do? what are the normal/expected gains? and are there any risks?

Cheers and well done.

Mike

[Psychobert]

IIRC, the car felt pretty quick to me anyway. Certainly showed my old V6 its heels well enough. Could be a certain weight advantage that you had, not to mention a fair degree of driver skill.. You must be well chuffeed with the gains..

Must pop in and show you my new(ish) toy.. Hardly been around of late but feel the need to exercise the old girl sometime soon..

[HarryW]

trackcar said:

Well the next two stages Harry will cost much less than the manifolds .. megasquirt and trumpet base isolator that i've got to test. There'l be no gains on the fuelling from the MS .. I've yet to see a TVR that has fuelling issues as long as it's in good order .. remember my fuelling issues were down to the regulator, and every other good TVR i've seen hasn't had any fuelling probs either. There will be gains to be made from the ignition though, and once i've tried the isolator i can see if that's worth selling aswell .. but the next stage is still the turbo route, but without mappable fuelling on that i'm a bit stuck .. however now the rollers are here it makes it all do-able I don't know what sorts of gains people are seeing from exhaust changes but i would expect mapped ignition to be far more beneficial and masively better value for money .. if you have u/s manifolds though then the exhaust change route becomes far more attractive of course. Also as Steve Heath rightly points out, never underestimate the power of Bling shiny bits are worth 20bhp in one's mind ....

Funnily enough there is a school of thought that the original big bore manifolds are a form of bling . Agree if you don't have an issue with your exisiting exhaust then leave alone. I think you have the cat version like I had and thats a bit of an inmprovement over the precat in areas, mine were partially blocked so went for a pre-cat arrangement. Whilst changing I decided to get it made to my spec, smaller bore and blended Y albeit in in mild steel. Take one look at the standard pre-cat Y piece arrangement and tell me it's helping . I firmly beleive that a change just with that will be felt and not a lot of bling.
I'd be interested to see how the small turbo goes, as if the S stays, then I'll be looking to the next thing to do, be it turbo/SC or NoS, not too greedy but 350hp would be nice .

[greenv8s]

Psychobert said:

IIRC, the car felt pretty quick to me anyway. Certainly showed my old V6 its heels well enough.

It seems obvious, but the key to going fast round a track is not slowing down, and that's largely down to driver skill (and bottle), car setup and tyres. Last time I saw him the tyres were nothing special, obviously being a suspension specialist you can take it as read that the car is set up carefully, but I think a large part of the credit has to go to the nut behind the wheel (despite what Joolz says to the contrary).

[S2 Giles]

V8Smith said:

S2 Giles said: Is that figure a good or average output for the standard V8S ? I have a V6 S2 and expected the output to be more like 240Hp on a V8 ? I know all about reality Vs TVR quoted figures and ive had the Austec chip done to mine, just thought i'd ask as i always thought i'd prefer a V8S to a chim/griff when the time comes to change, however there may not be as much difference as i first thought ? Cheers Giles Giles, having gone from a S2 to a V8S myself you certainly see a lot of difference, its the torque that gives it the umphh.....? With a few mods mine has just put out 263bhp & 283lb ft so there is a lot to be gainedwith the V8, go on you know you want to? Mike

Yeah but hang on - if its the torque that makes the difference, why is my V6 putting out more torque than TRACKCAR's V8 ?
I understand an equally modified & chipped V8S will be quicker but i thought a standard one would be too.