Getting more out of my 480!

[afaman1]

Hi,

I have a 1994 2.0 litre 480, as fast as it is, i'm wondering how I can get more out of it! I'm open to any suggestions, any help will be great!

Thanks in advance!

[jifflemon]

Depends how you want to do it; as it's not the popular engine in the world, off the shelf tuning parts are going to be few a far between.
Decent air feed and exhausts will free up a few horses, but nothing that you're going to notice.
Lightening the car by removing trim, sound deadening etc is going to improve your power to weight ratio (but make it less habitable)

[brinkie]

How about a good service, i.e. changing oil & oil and air filters, adjusting the valve clearances, cleaning the injectors, maybe moving the cranshaft sensor a bit so the timing will be earlier. That will usually restore the power almost up to the level it had when it left the factory, unless your engine is in bad health anyway.

[glasgowjim]

Upgrading performance then the best way to go is get a 480 turbo and upgrade the ecu then the little car will fly + 140mph . Put it this way at those speeds raising the popups will lose you at least 10mph through increased drag . (dont ask me how I know this as I couldnt possibly say )

lower the suspension and it will corner like its on rails.

stiffen the front with a crossmember.

Then burn all the boy racers at the traffic lights . Watch BMW drivers implode with frustration as they try to lose the little old volvo thats stuck to their tail on a twisting road .

Believe me when you put the foot to the floor with a richmod you are pushed back into the seat the Robou mod will get you the same top speed but it is so much more smoother.

Trying to upgrade the 2ltr is really a waste of money very little improvement for a lot of bucks.

[Ade]

I would agree with jim that the turbo is the engine to tune if easy power is what you're after but if you wanted to stick with the 2.0 then how about megasquirt + a set of throttle bodies? Ok, not the most straightforward thing but I'm sure you'd get good power. Standalone management and throttle bodies is a common way to go for max power on N/A engines. To give you an idea, a mate of mine has a pug 106 track car with the 1600 saxo VTS engine, running megasquirt with a set of triumph throttle bodies onto a custom inlet manifold and a set of BIG injectors, supplied at high pressure spraying directly into intake trumpets (3D printed) mounted on the bodies, a pretty wild cam (I helped him mod a set of pistons with some cutouts to allow the necessary clearance) and he's making around 200hp

If you like playing with engines, this is viable, if you want it easy, buy a turbo!

[dragonflyjewels]

Yeah, we put a Robou in one of our turbos and its name changed from Eva to Evil.

Tried lowering the front of the GT, looked great and cornered on rails, but sadly found speed bumps had to be tackled diagonally. Back on ordinary springs now - perhaps we should have just taken the lower lip off the front spoiler.

BTW, has anyone else noticed a difference in performance between red and green dipstick versions of the 2litre ? Apart from gobbing oil, my red dipstick ES leaves the green dipstick GT trailing one gear behind. Maybe mine was tweaked by a previous owner somehow ?

[WRDendy]

Never owned a red dipstick 2.0l, but it seems there are two different versions of the engine. To quote chris1roll from this thread:

New version of the B20F engine:
The code numbers of the new B20F are 208 (for manual transmission cars) and 209 (for models with automatic transmission).
The changes by comparison with the B20F 118/118 engine are as follows:
-pistons and piston rings
-camshaft
-crankshaft and bearings
-piston rods
-no under–crown cooling
-inlet manifold
-throttle valve housing without basic setting screw (running change)
-5.7 litres oil capacity (incl. filter)
-Oil dipstick with green coloured handle and 2.2 litres difference between max and min marks.

In the same thread, felyx mentions 'mod 2371', which depending on who you talk to, refers to a complete engine change performed by the dealer at a service, or a modification to the existing engine to reduce oil consumption. In either case, the replacement or reworked engine was given a green dipstick to enable mechanics to easily differentiate between the two versions. Or so the legends say!

[dragonflyjewels]

aha - I wonder what they did to the camshaft.....that might be the answer. thanks Jaster