How to improve low rev performance

bambam

A question for you petrol heads out there:

I have a 99 1.6 focus. Its pretty lively above 3k rpm, but up to that point its quite dull. Now, I'm not a racing lunatic, but would appreciate more acceleration at low rpms for take off from lights etc. I can only assume this low rpm 'dullness' is Ford's way of making the car more economical. So I was wondering whether there a simple way of aiding acceleration and if so, how would this affect insurance?

mucho gracious - Bam

kluivert

I have the same problem 1.4 astra 99, exact same nothin till above 3000rpm and i was only to get a 1.6 engine because i thought it would be a bit more responsive.

I think it just the age of the car. Loses performance over time. Try a few things. Increase the cool air into the engine. Get a twister fitted inside the air intake pipe sorry get two fitted actually.

Getting the car chipped ecu remapped. Get a new exhaust manifold sports one so the exhaust gases have less distance to travel to reduce back lag. Get a cat bypass (Will fail nct and polute the air.). Get a sports exhaust.

Get a i-vtec engine. Fecking insurance companies.

unkel

Nah it's just the lack of torque in small n/a petrol engined cars. The only way in getting anywhere near the performance of the official specs is to continually rev the sh!te out of them

Like the Americans say, and this time I agree: "there's no substitute for cubic inches"

IrishRover

"Ain't no replacement for displacement", except maybe turbo chargers, superchargers, nitrous, and technology.

Also, 16 valve engines tend to make their power higher up the rev range than 8v engines.

unkel

IrishRover wrote:

"Ain't no replacement for displacement"

Yeah I forgot to stick in the "ain't" bit. Prefer your quote anyway

AMurphy

Nothin' much you can do, save add a few cylinders. unless it has a vac controlled advance distrubutor you cannot change the timing any, nor the fuel injection. But again, most any ECU changes would occur above 3000rpm..

ds20prefecture

Make sure your next car is a diesel, or an electric hybrid (toyota prius, for e.g)- both deliver plenty of torque low down in the rev band.

The diesel is probably the more accessible of the two, in that there is greater choice. The Focus uses the excellent 1.6 TD from PSA - 110bhp,180lb ft of torque versus your 1.6 petrol with 100bhp and 110lb ft. The torque figure is much higher (60%) but more importantly delivered evenly across the rev band.

So at 1750 rpm, the diesel is delivering all 180lb ft, wereas the petrol is delivering about 70.

This all translates into more shove in your lower back, better economy and better low speed acceleration. The draw back is that the engine is a little noisier, and the usable rev band of the diesel is shorter than your petrol (5000 vs 6000). But if you think about it, if the petrol is useless below 3000, you end up with a wider practical rev band in the diesel.

Oh, the diesel is €1700 more expensive when new.

stratos

Buy a k+n filter and a large bore exhaust, hey the sound will make you think you got more low end grunt, and everyone else. I don't mean btw those things you could stick your head up the boys have, a modest increase in bore with a freeflow system, it will give you abt 10 hp over stock. You just can't beat the induction roar from the intake at high revs too !!

Seth Brundle

I have my doubts at a 10% (10bhp) gain from a free flow exhaust and induction kit.

stratos

Yea I doubted it too, but it was born out , I did it on an n.a. car, had to enlarge the jets also for increased fuel flow. but went from 105 hp to 115 hp, hey i never said it was a fast car !