Fil M Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 Hello All, I have an 1800k series engine with roller barrell fuel injection glued to a five speed box on 14 inch wheels. She has a standard CC exhaust and no verneir pulleys at this time. She does have upgraded rover s/sport cams. Light weight flywheel. A supersport R upgrade. I am getting 22 to 24 mpg. This is from country road driving with some spirit sprinkled in here and there . The engine runs very sweetly . Whilst appreciating all the variables is that level of fuel consumption typical for country A/B road driving? Is she thirsty? I am aiming to tour (modestly) in my first summer this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myothercarsa2cv Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 I suspect verniers and a remap could improve that. But it sounds reasonable to me. I know FatVik used to get, and maybe still does, about 8 gallons to the mile, in his R400 - forever stopping at petrol stations Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stationary M25 Traveller Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 Thirsty roller barrels. I have a 1.8 VVC k-series 160 bhp with the aluminium plenum, 5-speed box and 15" wheels and average 32mpg blatting and 36mpg touring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Area Representative Nick Chan Posted February 15, 2011 Area Representative Share Posted February 15, 2011 I reckon that's a bit thirsty and as suggested a remap could do you a favour. My R400 was around 25-27 and improving to about 31 on a run and TC's SLR does 32 when touring with a mixture of fast A roads and usual motorway miles and these have 6 speed boxes so no benefit of your overdrive 5th Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Durrant Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 I would look to get a set of verniers fitted to optimise the cam timing and then get the roller barrels balanced followed by a remap by Steve Greenald at Track N Road in Rainham in Essex . The overall performance will improve including driveability plus you will get increased mpg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fil M Posted February 15, 2011 Author Share Posted February 15, 2011 She has a Superlight R500/230BH ECU fitted ( red casing.. fitted by Caterham along with the full upgrade in 2007). I assume this is a more mappable management unit than the standard Rover one? Will this make it easier re configure? Fil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Durrant Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 Fil The ECU is an MBE and can be remapped by Steve Greenald. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prangerman Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 My R300 K series is on roller barrels and has verniers fitted and the timing sorted by Dave Andrews ( ) 2 years ago this month. It is on 13 inch wheels, CR500s and has the standard R300 4-1 exhaust, and a 6 speed box. I rarely get less than 32-33mpg, and on the blat down to and back from Classic Le Mans last year, when we may have added the UK and French NSLs together to set our own limit, I easily averaged over 30 mpg. When Dave Andrews got his hands on my engine, he showed me just how far our the timing was. Getting your timing sorted might be a good starting point. Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stationary M25 Traveller Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 I recall Dave said to me that all k-series engines were built with the timing about 8 degrees out. He fitted a 6 degree offset dowel on mine (can't fit verniers on a VVC) which made it so much smoother Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheds Moderator Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 Ouch, it should be better than that. I'd be getting it set up. IMO the verniers/cam timing issue isn't likely to cause the problem, plenty of SS cams have a standard cam timing layout like yours and it's OK. Maybe not perfect and it's not helping but OK. RBs I'm not familiar with so this won't help but you should be hoping for 30mpg. I'd have it on a rolling road for their comments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sigmamark Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 I get between 4 and 5 mpg out of my high spec 1800K series - albeit on track On the road, I don't think it does much more than about 18-20, even bimbling along in traffic. Fortunately it's in a SV, so the extra fuel capacity is very handy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fil M Posted February 15, 2011 Author Share Posted February 15, 2011 Forgot to mention mine is an SV 'roadmaster' too. I have e mailed an enquiry to Mr Andrews to see what it would cost to vernier and map. Not sure how much more spec yours has got Sigmamark so its hard to compare. On a tank i am getting about 151 miles .. full to start of red on the guage (31 litres). There is no real open road on that ie no wide fast A roads or dual carriageway where you can consume miles in 5th gear for an hour at a time. Thanks for the responses so far peeps. Much appreciated. Fil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Durrant Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 Dave Andrews can supply and fit the verniers and if you ask nicely balance the T/B's however, you will need a rolling road for a new map. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prs Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 That does sound rich to me, my 230bhp 1.8k easily returns 30mpg when autoroute cruising in France. A road driving is about 25-27mpg. Had mine mapped by Dave Walker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Team Escargot Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 Totally agree with Mark - sort the cam timing then get down to Track n Road. Steve Greenald will sort it for you. The money you will save in increased mpg will pay for the re-map in next to no time + you will find the car much more enjoyable to drive. Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark w Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 My R400 used to do about mid 20s . Had DVA fit verniers and then had it mapped by Steve G . It made 218BHP 😬 not bad for a standard R400 and now does about 30mpg . At the current price of petrol it will have paid for itself in 8 years Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mecacy Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 Hi Phil,Why not give Jim a call at JKM,in portsmouth,not only he is very knowledgable,and has a rolling road for mapping ,he is a lot closer than milton keynes.Quite happy to give support, if you would like to give me a call.Cheers Dennis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mecacy Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 Hi phil,why not give jim a call at JKM,he is very knowledgeable,and is a bit closer than milton keynes.they have a rolling road ect, also once known they are 7 friendly regards mot. cheers Dennis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fil M Posted February 18, 2011 Author Share Posted February 18, 2011 Thanks for the advice and the blat yesterday Dennis. JKM cannot map an MBE ECU which is a shame. I have contacted the Road and Track team and they can help. In view of my considering an exhaust upgrade and verniers in the future I have decided to leave the mapping until last. It would not make sense to have it done and then make changes. So for now I will wait it out until the time is right to do the whole lot in the right order. That way I can sort my mpg and get more performance at the same time. Thanks All Fil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7 Sevens Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 I've got a 1.6 K series on piper cams, Jenvey throttle bodies and Emerald. On the carrot blat two years ago driving in a convoy of more powerfull stuff I barely reached the lunch time petrol stop. A mates similar k without throttle bodies had over half a tank left and I needed 33litres. Since then I had it remapped by Emerald which showed large overfuelling at the top end and on part throttle. Its transformed the fueling and I'm now not much different to a standard k. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vine Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Hi Fil, I ran an SS-R for several years. Mine had a 6-speed box plus verniers, but had the standard CC map and flywheel. I've just totted up the average MPG from an old spreadsheet, and it came out at 24.6 over 21K miles and 4.5 years. That included around 12 trackdays -- oh, and a permanently heavy right boot. I'd say that, with a 5-speed, yours should be more economical than that, so I'd agree that verniers and a trip to Steve Greenald would be money well spent. JV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fil M Posted February 19, 2011 Author Share Posted February 19, 2011 Thanks for the last two comments, I am tempted to go straight for a re map but know that if then go and get the upgrades it will to some extent throw all that detailed effort ... and expense ... out of the proverbial window. In the meantime I will track my fuel use and type of mileage so that a clear comparison can be made between before and after. that info could be of use to another 7er in the future. Thanks all. Fil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myles Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 If you're getting into serious touring, mpg is all very well, but the real measure of interest is the overall range you can get out of your tank... I know the latter should just be a factor of the former, but the total range is a more useful number to carry around in your head, I find. My 1.8k (183hp) aeroscreened Caterham is 'safe' to 180 miles on an average se7ens.net Tour7 touring day - my Westfield Blackbird has managed just over 140 miles from its 25-litre tank - but it's safer to reckon on 130 as a safe number (especially two-up). Unfortunately, the car I've always tagged along with for the last few years has two tanks totalling around 42 litres - and can therefore outlast both cars comfortably. Luckily, we have car-to-car comms these days, but many the time has seen me trying to keep up whilst nursing an 'empty' gauge and with no idea when or where the next fuel stop will be! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fil M Posted February 20, 2011 Author Share Posted February 20, 2011 Thanks for that thought Myles. I have been hammering the keys of the calculator and on my last fill up I used 31ltrs covering 164mils (24mpg) that left me 44 miles of fuel in the SV's tank in the 'red zone'. I now know fairly accurately my 'reserve' mileage on the red as a result. That consumtion is mainly with two up and blatting around locally .. not steady long distance runs on the open road with more 5th gear use. It may be that a proper open road tour will improve the mpg. I worked out how long in fuel saving cost it would take to re coup the cost of re mapping the car on a rolling road. Based on a 6mpg improvement ... a litttle over two years!!! So the mapping has to go hand in hand with an upgrade (verniers/exhaust) to be fully viable so I can afford to bide my time. Being a newish owner I am exploring the touring aspect this year. I have been on track in another 7 but the open road calls loudest at the moment. Its fun learning and seeing everyone elses experience in their own individual cars. Thanks again Fil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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