Been asked before...

[Red SLR]

I know I know I know - but I have about 7 posts left so I thought I had better get rid of them quick.

 

Throttle Bodies.

 

I saw a DIY set today for about £1700. The set contained a Luminton (?) ECU, TB's, trumpets, fuel rails / lines, fuel regulator and bits and bobs.

 

Has anybody had experiance of this kit - is it easy to fit? The ECU also comes with lap top link etc - is this hard to get your head round C7 KJT will vouch that I am not that good with computers... alright with Unix though for some strange reason.

 

Any way I was considering buying the kit today but then I thought what if it needs more bits etc, the instructions sounded simple enough but they always do.

 

Also will my warrinty go donw the pan if I fit them?

 

Any comments welcome, p*** off etc I am thick skined.(my missus would just say fat)

 

Later

 

Simon.

 

 

X777CAT

[Fast Westie]

I bought mine from Scholar Engines NEW for UKP1300 inc VAT and that was mapped for my Zetec.

 

I looked into the Luminition system and thought it was a bit complicated, particularly since the software is linked to the ECU by the ECU serial number.

 

Neil

[Red SLR]

So you got a TB kit for £1300 inc vat - was it hard to fit?

 

What other bits where needed.

 

What BHP gain was to be had.

 

Luminiton say they take it from 138 to 160.

 

X777CAT

[Alex Wong1697456877]

Simon,

 

I fitted a pretty similar kit to my car. Although it's a Vx, some of the hidden difficulties are applicable to a K-series installation. Give me a call if you want to discuss further.

 

0121-440 6972

 

Alex

[Red SLR]

Alex

 

Yeah I saw the kit in your pics you sent me a while ago, looks very impressive.

 

I will give you a call, when I wake up.

 

Simon.

 

X777CAT

[Alex Wong1697456877]

I'm awake.....

[Andrew Dent]

So am I ..

[Red SLR]

Hi this is Alex, I am not in right now etc etc etc.

 

DOH!

 

X777CAT

[Tony Martyr]

I saw the advertised kit in the Demon Tweeks catalogue. If it is plug compatable with the existing MEMS unit and it comes with a good throttle connection mechanism it should be easy to fit. I ran DT and asked about buying the throttle quadrant alone but they would only split the package to include all of the throttle bits at £67. I would like to here how others have rigged this as I'm not happy with direct connection to the supplied arm from above.

You will still have to make a bracket for the fuel regulator but that isn't difficult.

[Red SLR]

Yeah it is the DT kit.

 

What do you think about the warrinty?

 

Simon

 

X777CAT

[Jason Plato]

Tony ,

I ( and Rob ) just fitted the QED throttle boddies to my k series . The luminition kit I believe is the same boddies as QED - that is made by Jenvey with a different label on them .

The throttle linkage is quite cumbersome on the supplied kit so I've used an excellent design from Rob Walker wich uses the original throttle cable and comes in from above . Rob also had design drawings for the plates to attach the original feul rail , injectors etc to the Throttle boddies . These look very neat and not "DIY" .

If you want a copy of the drawings e-mail me off line with your address and I'll send them on . :-)

Or they can be viewed on Dave Andrews web site ( an unbeliveable quantity of information ) on Robs car .

I would have thought that ther bhp gains to be had from the fitment of DTHTB 's would be dependent upon other mods made , I would have thought that 10 - 15 bhp ( tops ) would be about right on an otherwise std engine . This gain works out at quite poor value ( £1700 = 10-15bhp ) when compared to other work ie cams , head porting etc on std plenum .

If you were to buy the Emerald ECU ( K compatible ) and QED boddies , whilst keeping the existing feul rail , feul regulator and injectors this costs about £1100 which leaves enough for a pair of cams . All you then need is gaskets and rolling road tune = less than £250 .then you are probably looking at 160 bhp on std head for an outlay of £1700 . :-)

The Emerald ECU is dead simple to set up on a lap top , Emerald even load the ecu with a map suitable for your application before posting out to you , all you then need to do is get the fine tuning done on the rolling road . It took me less than 10 minutes to connect the system and have the engine running .

 

Dave

 

[Red SLR]

Dave

 

I have a 1600 Superlight, so the engine already has cams etc... so would I need to still use a harsher cam?

 

Also what about my Warrinty?

 

Simon.

 

X777CAT

[Jason Plato]

Hi Simon ,

I also have a 1.6 S'light .

The cams fitted as std are 260 degree , which are quite mild .

It is possible to fit slightly wilder cams using the hydraulic lifters . See Piper Cams web site , or Dave Andrews site ( all 38 pages !!! ) .

the original cams would do the job OK but you would be better off with different cam .

As for warranty - guess it would be void for the engine only following any changes .

How much more warranty do you have left ??

dave

[Fast Westie]

Simon

The kit I bought came with the throttle bodies, ECU, loom, high pressure pump, thottle position sensor, air temp sensor and lamada sensor. I was originally running carbs so I didn't need the inlt manifold (standard Weber one) or air filter. The Zetec also has sensors fo the water temp and crank position as standard.

 

I made a swirl pot (to avoid fuel surge in corners), but found I could have bought an alloy one for UKP65. Anyone with standard injection would not need this.

 

My engine is a standard 105PS 1800cc with 130PS cams. It gave approx 145bhp on the carbs and 160bhp on the throttle bodies. Pulls away at 1000rpm in 5th with foot on the floor.

 

The only problem I had fitting it was welding the boss on the exhaust for the lamada sensor (because I couldn't get the manifold out without removing the engine) and the map was originally the wrong one.

 

[Mike Bees]

>>>>I saw a DIY set today for about £1700. The set contained a Luminton (?) ECU, TB's, trumpets, fuel rails / lines, fuel regulator and bits and bobs.<<<<

 

1700 is an awful lot. If you've already got an injected K-series then you won't need extra fuel rails/lines/regulator/throttle pot etc. A much better bet is to look at the direct-to-head bodies that QED sell. Dave J's post regarding the QED bodies and Emerald ECU is spot-on. There are plenty of Emerald maps around for K-series in all sort so specs, so you wouldn't require a lengthy rolling road session to get it tweaked, a couple of hours or so should suffice.

 

Mike

[Red SLR]

Thanks Mike - As I have never been involved with K- series engines before then I am a bit unsure of the best route. It was easy with turbo cars, just get a bigger turbo!

 

I am assuming that you have a lot of experiance with K's - what would you recomend?

 

Dave - I have 8 months left to go! What power do you get from your engine?

 

Thanks

 

Simon.

 

X777CAT

[Mike Bees]

I've got a reasonable amount of experience since mine has been incrementally upgraded over the last 3 years.

 

"Best" way to go is an impossible thing to identify. It depends how much you want to spend, how dirty you want to get your hands, whether you want to take the cylinder head off and whether you want to rebuild the bottom end.

 

Leaving the existing Supersport cams in place and the head untouched you should see a moderate increase in power by switching to throttle bodies (and a programmable ECU). Not a particularly good performance increase per pound at this stage, but you will then have the 'right' bits for the next stage which would be to remove the cylinder head to have it reworked. I would recommend the Jenvey direct-to-head bodies and the Emerald ECU as being the most cost-effective solutions. I don't believe there is much point in changing the (Supersport) cams without reworking the cylinder head.

 

Or you can approach it from the other direction and get the head modified, leaving the plenum in place and putting the throttle bodies on the future upgrades list. This approach will also yield a reasonable power increase.

 

Getting the head modified and fitting TB's does put you in a position where a more extreme cam will yield useful gains, although to go much further than the Supersport cam you will need to junk the hydraulic tappets and get solid ones which are expensive (300-400ukp plus fitting/shimming) but are a good idea for track work (all the race cars use solid tappets irrespective of cam profile).

 

Once you get to 170+bhp you really need to think about replacing the pistons, which means a bottom end rebuild.

 

Hope this helps. Feel free to email me if you have questions etc.

 

Mike

[Red SLR]

Mike

 

Thanks for all the info - an E-mail should be zipping through hyperspace as we speak.

 

Simon.

 

X777CAT