Possibly tuned at some point?

Bish1999 · Post by **Bish1999** » 21/02/21 20:56

Having been out on a little drive today with my dad and sister (mainly to get out of the house for a bit) I've got some thoughts on the state of the engine currently in my 2.
My dad was in his westfield (1.8 zetec about 130ish BHP) and obviously that's about half the weight of my car but despite this I Kept up with him (didn't pass him or lose him but stayed level essentially) on the straight roads.

This has led me to wonder, could my car have been modded in the past(cams, injectors, some sort of lighter internals)?

PO had this car garaged for ten years and as I've already discovered didn't understand the concept of changing oil, he preferred aesthetic stuff like the TRD wing, spray painting the cam cover and surroundings gold and sealing the throttle body and ISCV together with paint in the process.

But I noticed while doing the timing after changing dizzy oil seal this week that I've got an alloy crank pulley on here (still can't decide if that's good or not from previous thread searches) and can't seem to get my head around my 91 NA being fast enough to keep up with a super lightweight kit car?

What do y'all think? Maybe I'm just overthinking and the 30 or so BHP more I have than the westy is enough to compensate for the weight difference.
Suppose I'd have less drivetrain loss too with it essentially being a FWD drivetrain but in the middle of the car.

Only way to know for sure will be when I get around to checking my valve clearances, internals and such for now I'll never know...

MR2DI4 · Post by **MR2DI4** » 21/02/21 22:01

Not much scope for tuning the N/A to get more power without spending absolute mega bucks and I'm sure you would notice a bit more than a bad paint job when you lift the lid if it had been seriously modified.

My partner drives a 2010 Ford Focus with the 2.0 zetec engine, not exactly a rocket ship that motor.

Probably comes down to who wants to push it harder. The MR2 turbo will keep up with an expensive Porsche on the track but you need to drive it like you stole it and he probably doesn't want to smash his car into the wall and is just cruising around the circuit.

jimi · Post by **jimi** » 21/02/21 23:11

I doubt it's been tuned, as Carl says tuning on an N/A is limited, getting any noticeable gains is neither easy or cheap.

MR2DI4 · Post by **MR2DI4** » 22/02/21 0:56

Yeah why don't you swap cars ?

But seriously nobody else is allowed to drive my MR2. Not sure how that going to work out when I try and sell it.

"MR2 for sale, no tyre kickers, no test pilots, no you cannot drive it you get to sit in the passenger seat, buckle up, shut up and hang on !"

nick · Post by **nick** » 22/02/21 11:47

Better traction, as you go above 60 better aero as well.

jeff · Post by **jeff** » 22/02/21 12:52

Bish1999 wrote: ↑21/02/21 20:56 s and such for now I'll never know...

only way to tell for sure would be a rolling road test

Bish1999 · Post by **Bish1999** » 22/02/21 18:28

MR2DI4 wrote: ↑21/02/21 22:01 Not much scope for tuning the N/A to get more power without spending absolute mega bucks and I'm sure you would notice a bit more than a bad paint job when you lift the lid if it had been seriously modified.

My partner drives a 2010 Ford Focus with the 2.0 zetec engine, not exactly a rocket ship that motor.

Probably comes down to who wants to push it harder. The MR2 turbo will keep up with an expensive Porsche on the track but you need to drive it like you stole it and he probably doesn't want to smash his car into the wall and is just cruising around the circuit.

We were both sort of giving it everything we had, all be it I was shifting at just after 6K after reading that the NA’s don’t really benefit much at all from shifting last that point aside from blowing pistons.

Paint job wasn’t necessarily bad just done on assembled components rather then the individual parts

Think I just over thought the weight difference, it’s not the be all and end all at the end of the day

Bish1999 · Post by **Bish1999** » 22/02/21 18:30

MR2DI4 wrote: ↑22/02/21 0:56 Yeah why don't you swap cars ?

But seriously nobody else is allowed to drive my MR2. Not sure how that going to work out when I try and sell it.

"MR2 for sale, no tyre kickers, no test pilots, no you cannot drive it you get to sit in the passenger seat, buckle up, shut up and hang on !"

Well I’ve driven his westy a few times, he managed to send it into a hedge on a Sunday drive at one point though so I’m not sure id trust him with the snappy rear end of the Mr2...

Especially not on my NA with no LSD.

Bish1999 · Post by **Bish1999** » 22/02/21 18:31

nick wrote: ↑22/02/21 11:47 Better traction, as you go above 60 better aero as well.

True I suppose, weight over the driven wheels does help some.

Point taken about aero though, Mr2 are pretty good I’m this department and I’m not sure an open top kit car is particularly streamline.

jimi · Post by **jimi** » 22/02/21 20:59

Bish1999 wrote: ↑22/02/21 18:28 We were both sort of giving it everything we had, all be it I was shifting at just after 6K after reading that the NA’s don’t really benefit much at all from shifting last that point aside from blowing pistons.

Never heard of that one before, where did you read that fairy story ?

MR2DI4 · Post by **MR2DI4** » 22/02/21 22:46

Sounds to me like you should just be really happy with your car. They are pretty underrated and as long as you get your corner entry speed right and don't touch the brakes mid corner they are great.

Bish1999 · Post by **Bish1999** » 23/02/21 1:34

MR2DI4 wrote: ↑22/02/21 22:46 Sounds to me like you should just be really happy with your car. They are pretty underrated and as long as you get your corner entry speed right and don't touch the brakes mid corner they are great.

Oh I absolutely am! Loved every moment of owning it since I bought it, eve the month and a half spent diagnosing and getting it running right

This post was just purely speculation and getting some external input on a Sunday drive fuelled thought I had.

SonicSW20 · Post by **SonicSW20** » 26/02/21 11:27

Bin the single piece alloy crank pulley. It offers no performance gain, and at worst can cause your crank to fracture. The stock pulley is a harmonic damper.

As for power from the NA engine, there's a little bit on offer from adjusting advancing base ignition timing, but you're talking single digit bhp gains there. Stock intake is not a restriction, and the stock exhaust manifold is a pretty good design, and the the rest of the exhaust isn't particularly restrictive on an NA. Cams / ECU / map would see one to somewhere around the 200bhp or so mark, but no one takes this route due to cost. Looking at the best part of a grand for the cams + supporting parts like gears, springs etc, another grand for the ECU, and mapping costs on top of that. Good few hundred in labour too if you want to pay someone to install and set the cams up properly.

By the numbers, there should be no competition in acceleration between the two cars. Westfield weights vary depending on engine, spec etc (as much as 670-700KG for one fully loaded with all the luxuries, as far as Westies go), so lets call it 650KG with driver assuming its a pretty slimmed down variant. A 3SGE powered SW20 varies a bit depending on if its sunroof, t bar, hardtop, and on spec / year so lets take a middling value including driver and call it 1300KG.

Bit of quick maffs puts the power to weight of the westfield at 200bhp/ton. If we put the weight at 700KG, that power to weight goes down to 185bhp/ton. The MR2 assuming it is making ~160bhp (Rev1/2 3SGE's make less than Rev3+) has a power to weight of 123bhp/ton. To compete on power to weight, the MR2 would need 240bhp or more.

There are of course other factors, faster you go the more aerodynamic drag affects things and the MR2's cd will be a fair bit lower than a Westfields. A Westfield with "only" 130bhp shouldn't be struggling for grip on a dry road, but they are more intimidating to drive fast by virtue of them basically being an oversized go-kart. Gear ratios are a factor too.

Its unlikely your 3SGE is making anywhere near the power needed to compete on power to weight.