MG ZR: Cams & Maps

[mr_fish]

Intake - 4.9 psi....thats nice

Good to see someone doing something different. I've been following your rover project(s) since the start of bluey.

My old man used to run a 1999 Rover 200 2.0TD and that would handle well. We even bought another one with the fuel pump gone which myself and darren converted it back to a VE and that would shift.

Hope the headgasket change goes well for you though

[lolsteve]

Think because it's different is why I'm keeping at it rather than just buy a gti6 and be done with it. Never heard of a ve conversion although having involved would explain why haha



Thanks, me too and do hope the new camshaft arrives in time while it's nice to have the 4 days off being that it's a bank holiday for 2 and the other is a sunday that only leaves a Saturday delivery. However phoned them up today to confirm they got it as the courier apparently delivered it friday just before 12 and there's a 3 working day turn around combined with their next day delivery im crossing fingers i can fit it this weekend

Been looking at kits to get an idea on power/how they do it. Dave andrews who is the big name with these sells a vvc kit 
"Gives a very useful power and torque increase across the range and especially between 4500 and 7200, comprising a fully ported cylinder head, retiming of the VVC inlet camshafts and improved exhaust camshaft  together with all gaskets, oil seals and head bolts necessary to fit. This kit retains the original VVC mechanisms and standard ECU. The head is provided on an exchange basis. Fitting includes work to your exhaust manifold and inlet plenum."
http://www.dyno-plot.co.uk/dyno/dynoplot.../index.htm  <--- dyno graph showing before and after although that was with a 143 vvc not a 160 which has a better head design
I imagine the retiming of the inlet/improved camshaft will be more or less what I'm doing with the advance dowels, just wish I had the money to port and polish the head while it's off. 

Assembled the rear coilovers today, lithium greased the base and top mount to ensure no nasty clunking noises when fitted and stuck in my bodged piston protectors  


Can't put the fronts together yet though as I'm missing a washer to stop the rod punching through the top mount. The washers were not in there when I took them apart as I recall so another reason to the list of "why the guy I bought them off was a c&*nt" . No where seems to stock them either, rimmberbros is out and the two other places online that had them listed contacted me afterwards to tell me they didnt have them in stock

[Piggy]

so this is bang on then at 143vvc Bhp?? I thought it was a 160?!

[lolsteve]

It's a 160 but it's making 143 power

[Piggy]

Ah right. Sorry didnt mean to pour salt

[lolsteve]

Na you didn't

In regards to the bump stop washer could I just get an ordinary off the shelf washer/2 to do the same job? Can't find the part anywhere not even the Honda version

[welshpug]

143 wheel power?

[lolsteve]

120 at the wheels so about 145 at the fly

[welshpug]

duuuude, damn :/

[lolsteve]

Indeed :/ Will be filling her up with good quality Shell oil during the rebuild along with possibly pinching blueys old injectors/coilpacks in an aid to sort out the lumpyness (idle feels like 3 and a half cylinders) and ticking noise , which is getting quieter/higher in the rev range after the redex and now tank of bp ultimate. Although watched a fifth gear video later on which pretty much said the BP ultimate was the worst of the superfuels. damn.

Been reading a tappet refurbishment guide so might give that a go while I have a 4 day weekend to be doing this especially if it helps remove some of the diesely sounds it makes, just going to be time consuming

Also dug up a old email with a Dave Andrews who is to K series like Darren is to XUDs, he claims the cat is a restriction even on the vvc engines and should be removed despite it being the general consensus in the k series community the vvc should keep the cat. The plot thickens ...

[Piggy]

get some REAL undamaging fuel injector cleaner...

Forte is your best bet.
And use some decent Shell Vpower

But I would still be wanted to know why it's down on power before modding

[lolsteve]

Nearest Shell garage is miles away all we have it Tesco & BP
Have heard people rave about the forte stuff but is it actually different to redex bar the price?

[lolsteve]

Just off phone with kent cams, new camshaft is paid for and the way should be here tomorrow in time for the weekend

[Piggy]

Well I wouldn't put redex in anything I owned, inc my lawn mower and not even a rover.
Awful stuff. Seen it do more damage than good.
However i've seen first hand the forte stuff fix injector issues

[lolsteve]

Fair, I'll get some forte stuff ordered at some point then if swapping coilpacks don't fix it

Also
Camshaft!! Been wanting this for over a year and now I have a job it's become a reality, hopefully it's everything I dreamed it to be

[lolsteve]

Interesting day to say the least


Timing up the engine to get it ready to take head off and wait a minute...the crank doesn't line up...it's about 6 teeth out but the cams are right...looks like the previous person lined it up to tdc rather than the timing mark. This means the engine has been running around 6 teeth out for god knows how long. This resulted in two things
1) very white valves
2) a slight , and i mean slight, kissing of the pistons on cylinder 3

Once head was off it was straight to work fitting new cam and the offset dowels except the original dowel in the vvc mech broke and wouldn't come out and we resorted to trying to drill it out for about 2 hours. Which didn't go very well, luckily blueys old engine was nearby and a quick pillage from that had everything back to the way it should be. Ended the nearly 12 hour day with getting the head back together and put in place ready for bolt fitting tomorrow 

Also found out i have a 143 head, not as big a deal as I thought since many 143 owners can make good power. its just the improved valve design on the 160 is better for low lift breathing. However have been reading about larger valves that are a direct fit anyway so will be looking into doing that in the future with porting and polishing providing it does well this show season 

[jammapic]

This just makes my unit so much classier.

All the VAG stuff knocking around, and then, there gleaming in the corner... A rover...

[Piggy]

Interesting stuff.
So its been SIX teeth out and on a 143 head!?

Makes the 143bhp at the fly more reasonable now

[lolsteve]

I wore a t shirt with a vw logo on it what more do you want from me XD

yea 6 teeth, looks like the previous guy timed it to tdc rather than the timing marks

[lolsteve]

4 Days work and it's sill not on the road unfortunley Wasted most of sunday trying to get the timing belt on and the timing marks correct. Helped when I realised I was setting the timing marks straight with the floor rather than straight with the engine. Also took me another day to realise that because the head hadn't been skimmed but a thicker mls gasket was fitted the timing marks would be a bit off. This results in the crank being about half a tooth out to allow the belt to fit but as seen before it somehow ran 6 teeth out so think there'll be some tolerance there. No doubt this will lower the compression somewhat although this should pay off in the reduce chance for knock in the remapping stages
Monday ended with me filling her with coolant only to have it pour straight back out the thermostat housing after that I lost it and went home

[lolsteve]

She's home Thanks to James & Ash for finishing it up, turns out the coolant loss was down to the replacement thermostat having a much smaller O ring.
Quite a shock taking it out for a spin after driving a higher power diesel for the last few days, felt incredibly flat when i first got in it and the cable clutch was a right bitch however driving it home either the ecu sorted itself out or i readjusted the car felt much better.
Just need to drop the oil to remove any bits of the new camshaft and loosen the cambelt a bit as it's got a nice supercharger whine
The engine is idling smooth as a button but has a nice hot cam rubble to it whereas before it had a sort of 3 1/2 cyclinder sounding idle

[jammapic]

No problem mate. I just wanted the workshop space :-p

When you get bored of how flat it is you can borrow the Fabia any time :-)

[jammapic]

Can we finally strap it on the dyno and get it mapped right this weekend please???

[lolsteve]

After I fix the cambelt "supercharger" noise think I left the allen keys at your unit
Although the money pot for this is running quite dry, got paid yesterday but after rent, tax, food, bills and a fat old insurance bill I'll be luckily to break even this month
Doesn't help I'm still £100 down from the llandow track day that never happened

[jammapic]

Come down on Saturday and loosen the belt a little.

You can stick it on the dyno too... ;-)

[lolsteve]

Rammys dyno?
Yea I'll come back down this weekend, help clear up the place a little. Maybe do a tip run if there's one nearby

[lolsteve]

Right good & bad on this update.

Good:
Fitted janspeed 4-2-1 manifold thanks to James and Ash
Fitted silver rocker cover which was polished up to a nice shine by CJ

Bad:
Manifold is blowing, possibly because the gasket is made of a energy drink can although admittedly it works quite well
And the inlet cam is one tooth out. This explains the lumpy running and has annoyed me greatly. Although better to find the cause than just never know.
Taking it to a garage next week to just let them sort it all out and give everyone a rest from working on it haha

[tenwierdufos]

get some REAL undamaging fuel injector cleaner...

Forte is your best bet.
And use some decent Shell Vpower

But I would still be wanted to know why it's down on power before modding

Manufacturers lie

Can't seem to find any info on it now, but I am sure a few years back Peugeot were in the news for under-reporting stats on a few cars to bump them into a lower insurance group.

[lolsteve]

Update:
Haven't seen her in a while Shes been at a garage I trust in Bradford as I can't find any decent ones nearby (see brand new fuel line bent and buckled)
She's been running a bit lumpy and had the dash lights/headlights flickering while running, asked the garage to check the timing among other things and turns out it was a tooth out at the crank. They're an MGRover specialists so I trust them. However while better it's still apparently a bit lumpy and the dash lights still flickering in time with the engine. It's not a bit flicker as in on/off just a dimming
We thinking a bad earth? Could a fuse be the cause? I'm terrible with electrics, never really got into them despite all the times dad tried teaching me
Would really like this running smooth for castle combe/pugrun and somewhat disappointed that I never got the coilovers fitted thanks to 2 missing washers >

[Seb_Ryan]

Could be the alternator going faulty