Additional Power

Danny T30TUS · Post by **Danny T30TUS** » Sun Jul 20, 2014 4:10 pm

Hi Folks,

Received my letter from work this week advising me how much I will get for my annual bonus. I have managed to convince the wife to let me use some of the money to spend on my K series S2.

Okay I have only had the car for a few month so don't want to go crazy. Basically I have 2 grand to spend as I wish. So thought what better way to spend it other than on the car.

I've thought about doing cosmetic upgrades to the interior and exterior but just wondered what I could do with 2 grand to add some additional horse power to the car.

I don't have another car so ideally it would need to be an in and out job for whatever I do.

Any suggestions?

Cheers

Danny

tut · Post by **tut** » Sun Jul 20, 2014 4:43 pm

Danny, I still have my 190hp cylinder head from N1 TUT when it was a K series, cost around £1,800 to convert, meant to put it up for sale but never got around to it, so you are welcome to that as an Xmas present.

You would need an Emerald ECU, Throttle bodies, and vernier pulleys, around £1200, Ricky who did all my upgrades before I went to Honda could do all the work for you, so you could achieve that for under £2,000.

Not recommending that you go that route, many of us would suggest that you leave it as standard, and you can achieve 160hp for less, but not much.

tut

j2 lot · Post by **j2 lot** » Sun Jul 20, 2014 6:42 pm

Power should probably be the last upgrade, driver training, refresh suspension and brakes then power upgrades. Bear in mind too that you probably won't get much/ any of the investment back if you sell- doesn't matter if it's a keeper but every keeper I've had has since been replaced

I tend to enjoy the cars for what they are are spend small amounts making them mine but only upgrade when parts need replaced and there is an obvious upgrade rather than stick with standard.

mxvx · Post by **mxvx** » Sun Jul 20, 2014 6:48 pm

I agree with the above comment but having more grunt is really rather fun indeed!

Danny T30TUS · Post by **Danny T30TUS** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 8:31 am

Thanks for the advice. Not looking for excessive power. Perhaps around the 160 horse mark. What would be required for this?

Thanks

Danny

woody · Post by **woody** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 2:38 pm

Danny T30TUS wrote:Thanks for the advice. Not looking for excessive power. Perhaps around the 160 horse mark. What would be required for this?

Thanks

Danny

The easiest way would be the 160 VVC engine from an MG TF or ZR but keeping the elise gearbox). You can pick up whole cars with these engines relatively cheaply.

Then spend the rest on Pagids or similar & a refresh of any worn suspension components.

Dominic · Post by **Dominic** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 2:56 pm

j2 lot wrote:Power should probably be the last upgrade, driver training, refresh suspension and brakes then power upgrades. Bear in mind too that you probably won't get much/ any of the investment back if you sell- doesn't matter if it's a keeper but every keeper I've had has since been replaced
I tend to enjoy the cars for what they are are spend small amounts making them mine but only upgrade when parts need replaced and there is an obvious upgrade rather than stick with standard.

Well said.

I think (no reflection of your own skills) that usually, the driver is the weak link in the car set up. Improve the driver for a quicker car

IanD · Post by **IanD** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 3:23 pm

To get an idea of what can be done tuning K-series wise power vs costs check out this site, head work could all be fitted locally, mentioned lots on SELOC.

http://www.dvapower.co.uk

To get some car improvements probably worth getting someone else to drive it and take a look to see if suspension, steering, gear linkages are getting worn and could be improved, know that this isn't power but can make a big difference.

Kelvin · Post by **Kelvin** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 3:30 pm

160bhp or thereabouts with a good torque spread does make the Elise a bit better to drive on the road and safer for overtaking.

mckeann · Post by **mckeann** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 3:39 pm

It's your bonus, tell the Missus to feck off, get a Honda.

Post by **Shug** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 3:41 pm

Kelv hits the nail on the head WRT percieved power. Lots of ways to cook this, so maybe best establishing how hands-on you can or want to be? Is it a drive-in drive-out option you want - this limits the scope of your couple of grand a bit.

Two main ways to achieve it. As Woody says, the hands-on route would be to purchase an MG TF160 and pull the engine out, whack it in the Elise and mate it to your gearbox. Complications will ensue though, as the S2 doesn't use the original MG MEMS ECU, like the S1 does. So you'll need a way to control it and drive the dash.

Other way is some headwork. You could buy some cams and put them in, which might raise the HP on a dyno to somewhere near 160 BHP, but IME, this won't make the car feel much faster in gear. It'll rev out better, as the cams essentially shove the torque curve higher, meaning the calculated HP is higher. To get better in-gear shove, you need to actually swell out the torque curve, not just shift it about the rev-range -and for that, you need to port the head, or fit one with bigger ports. This can be achieved with a VVC head with a solid cam conversion, or by machining your existing head.

The short version of this is that there's several ways to go about it, which depend not on which is "better" but which better matches what you want from it, and your level of confidence spannering yourself (which is where you really increase the gains vs cost)

Best to speak to a few folk. Kiwi Rog, DVA, etc - give them an idea of what you're looking to use the car for and what changes you want to feel. Better to give up 10hp at peak to get a better torque curve lower down on a road car IMO.

Post by **Shug** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 3:48 pm

Also - reading that it's a daily driver complicates the headwork option in that it's traditionally a case of sending a head away, although I believe DVA (and perhaps Rog as well) will source a K head and do it on an exchange basis. Just leaves fitting and setting up, which isn't the work of ten minutes either.

Kelvin · Post by **Kelvin** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 4:00 pm

mckeann wrote:It's your bonus, tell the Missus to feck off, get a Honda.

lol. Said our spokesperson from Relate.

Post by **campbell** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 4:21 pm

A Sabre Heads stage 1 would work nicely, and get you near to 150bhp depending on the condition of the engine. This keeps a good torque spread and also enables the car to rev more easily to the limiter. Kiwi Rog is the guy. Usually v busy though. For daily driving I'd stay away from cam swaps etc.

Also look critically at brakes and suspension before adding any more power. These could use your £2k quite easily!

Alternatively, stash the bonus, enjoy the car this summer by enrolling in a driver training event like Carlimits.com, and trade up to an S2 111S next year. 156bhp from the factory.

mckeann · Post by **mckeann** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 5:08 pm

Kelvin wrote:
mckeann wrote:It's your bonus, tell the Missus to feck off, get a Honda.

lol. Said our spokesperson from Relate.

Homer Simpson by day, but hostage negotiator is my dream

Scottish Elises