General: Help Me Please!!!!!!!!

[bdthompson]

At the last check I`ve had 67 people look at my last thread - I know immediately that this will upset some of the purists out there - SORRY - but we all have our own tastes!!!!! I need to show you what I am trying to achieve.....
A great car...... something that goes as well as it looks 'see the pictures' - I have had it tuned properly and it puts out 89bhp on a rolling road at the wheels...... I would love to double it but I'm not that greedy..... another 50-60 bhp would be fine...... does anyone have any suggestions? I love my car to death and if anyone asks me if I would sell her the answer is NO! You cant afford her! I have had a hunt about to see what other people have done - but I am not that technically minded to be confident enough to make that decision. Turbo? Intercooler? V8? Keep the current engine? Change it? What I do know is that reliability is key, does get used everyday - well at least 200 days a year...... I will end up doing something - let your minds run wild with sensible suggestions - sleep on it - do whatever you do but please help me out!!!!!

[jayhl7]

Good looking car!! an intercooler will give little power increase on it's own! and are normaly used with turbochargers, to cool the air prior to combustion! a supercharger could work well some people are using the toyota estima 2.4 sc superchargers as an "easy" bolt on mod! I dont know myself how much work is involved but they give about the same power increase as a turbo I am led to believe! I wish you luck finding what you want Cheers Jay

[bdthompson]

Many Thanks!!! You're hot off the mark!!! Who and where can I read further info........

[Burdekin]

It depends a lot on your budget and if you want to keep originality.

Turbo/supercharger - you'll have the E engine which has the higher compression so not sure how well that would be. TBH I don't know how many successful B20 turbo and supercharger conversions there's been and probably a lot of effort, cost and headaches.

A B20E is supposed to put out 130Hp so seems like your engine is down a fair bit on HP. Is it about 10% loss from engine to rear wheels? If so based on that you're about 30Hp or so low on what it should have, so where is the engine loosing power might be your first port of call. You might want to do a compression test, get the injectors cleaned, give the head a clean up, check over the ignition system (new spark plugs, leads etc) and is the Djet ECU working properly etc? I don't know how tuneable the old D-jet system is to any engine mods so if you want to tune the engine you might also need a new ECU like megasquirt but that will also mean new injectors (in my opinion high impedance injectors are the better way to go with megasquirt) and ignition etc. Or you could go the carb route with twin SUs or Webers. In my opinion a high HP B20 isn't going to be that nice an engine though and I would keep it under 160Hp. For a 160hp rebuilt engine expect to pay at least £3k with the parts, worked head, machining and labour. 180 to 200hp will be more expensive and will be quite a revy B20 and not that nice for a road car, in my opinion again.

You haven't got a lot of room for a V8 conversion, can be done. I'd go for a Volvo T4 myself if doing an engine conversion on an ES but again a lot of work.

Canuck on the Turbobricks forum would be able to give you some advice on building a better B20 if that is the route you decide.

[bdthompson]

Thanks again!!! The car was originally an EFi engine that is now running on 42 webers.... from that do I think that compression tests etc are the best way to go still? Is there anywhere else that the power could be going?

[Burdekin]

The webers could be limiting things, have they got chokes in them and how are they set-up etc? I know stuff all about webers so someone else might be able to help out with how they should be set-up. For higher HP I think you'd need larger carbs though. I'd do a compression test, giving the head a good ole clean and polish is going to beneficial and checking over the ignition system. Checking the current set-up is working as it should is the first step. Things like worn rings, worn cam and passing exhaust valves are all possible on an old B20 which might be restricting how much HP you have. Then you can plan on what you want to do. The easiest option is to keep the original engine and tune it but depends on what you want and how much you've got to spend.

[bdthompson]

Ref. The webers - yes they have been set up right........ rolling roaded - 3 different jets to ensure correct flow of fuel, emulsion chambers sorted, manifold work to ensure a smooth flow of air, chokes have been fitted...... "I hope my lingo makes sense!"

It sounds like the engine is the next step as suggested, but I am mindfull that I would like to spend money once and I have a feeling I have failed to that so far!! If the engine is poor then if I am likely only to pull another 30bhp from it then I ask myself isn't that money better spent looking at the alternatives again? What is the next step...... in your experience would it be cheaper to bore and port etc or doing the engine swap.......

[classicswede]

Nice looking ES

The engine does need checking tow ork out why it down on power. As already suggested check compression and check for uneven cam wear.

If it does need a full rebuild then you need to decide on if you want to stay NA or forced induction. And then carbs or fuel injection.

If you are wanting to stay with carbs then it will best to stay NA. Rebored to 2.1 a reasonable cam head work and fitting either 45's or even 48's would give some good results. If going forced induction with carbs then a supercharger is the only way and I've no personal experiance with supercharging the B18/20 engines.

If going Turbo then there is quite a bit fo work involved with manifolds and plumbing in etc but worth the effort if you want turbo power. Building up the EFI system is normaly the biggest put off with doing a turbo conversion. Turbo and carb can be done but a pain to get working right.

Engine conversions have there own issues but it all depends on what your goal is.

[Derek UK]

42 Webers were spec'd for sports conversions on the B18, before the B20 came out. The B20 really needs 45's. The 42 is rare and chokes for it may not interchange with those for a 45 so you will be limited for flow on a B20. Ruddspeed used 42's with a high cr head and headers plus their own cam which some say was the pattern for the C cam. I think they got about 125bhp with Webers. Adding the Webers got about 5 extra horses over the SU's. Not good value for money when the mpg dropped at the same time. If your engine is standard ES you'll have a D cam which is better than a C cam but if it's original, likely to be well worn by now. As Mitch says, your rolling road 89bhp is poor and a reasonable B18B with SU's should make more than that. Whatever route you take will mean spending money.
Tell us about the history of your engine and give us the compression test numbers.
Check to see if you can afford £1k for a decent rebuild, less if you can provide your own labour. Rings, big end bearings, cam and lifters plus some valve work are about as little as you can expect to do. Consider new timing gears.
If you have a rolling road read out perhaps you can post it here. What revs was the 89bhp made at?

Dai posted while I was writing this between bites of my dinner! We seem to agree though. Unfortunately, the RHD steering column gets in the way of turbos and superchargers so not an easy conversion for us. An SU equipped B20 can be built to give about 150bhp with good driveability and still look like an original engine. You'll need to spend some serious money inside though. IMO the best way to go.

[Volvo Canadian]

It sounds like you have already spent money on the webers, but IMHO you should add switching back to FI to the list. Better mileage, better power.

Meanwhile, I will say don't get horsepower greedy - if I had 0.01% of all the money wasted on trying to make a Porche out of a Volvo I'd be a rich man. You have got a flashy car, it doesn't sound like you are going to be able to do any fancy mods yourself (if any at all), so the price of going from a slightly souped-up stock engine to a Porche wanna-be will be --- Porche-like. If you drive it 200 days a year, the cost of petrol and maintenance will constantly pull $$ out of your wallet.

Add a header too - better power, better mileage. Nice pipes behind that, and it will at least sound like a Porche, even if it only drives like a well... pretty-fast Volvo which a smart man owns.