Hello all,
I have recently spent a great deal of time, effort and money on a new engine and supercharger kit from Vmaxscart. Engine is originally a 1275 from a Metro. Car is LHD. Spec is as follows:
- A+ Block bored to 1293
- Head skimmed, rebuilt with fresh parts
- Vmaxscart EVO140 kit with water cooled manifold
- ARP studs and bolts
- HIF44 with Vmaxscart supplied needle
- Standard Metro electronic distributor
- Omega +20 forged pistons 18CC
- Standard connecting rods
- Swiftune SW5 camshaft
- Swiftune duplex timing kit
- New turbo oil pump
- No decompression plate (not required according to Stuart)
- Maniflow manifold
- RC40 exhaust
- Guessworks rebuilt gearbox
- X-pin differential
- 2.76:1 FD
- Standard helical gearset
- Economy primary and input drop gears (0.9333:1)
- Minispares 2 core radiator
- 88 degree thermostat
- Facet fast road solid state pump (SS502, 4-5.5 PSI)
- Valvoline VR1 racing 20W50 oil
Car is intended to be as modern and quite as possible mainly for highways, thus using these gear ratios and camshaft etc. This is also why it is supercharged, soundproof has electric windows etc. Meant to be a daily car with extra puff.
As it stands I have a couple of issues with the car:
1. It overheats when idle and under load. I believe this is due to the old 8 lb rad cap it has that I will be replacing soon with a 15 lb type. Also it hasn't been tuned on a rolling road yet so obviously timing and fueling are out.
2. Supercharger pully and belt contact the clutch master cylinder under light or more acceleration. This I will be solving by fitting an engine steady that attaches to the water pump bolts instead of the thermostat housing (had to be removed due to the supercharger).
Also I will be fitting a Filter King fuel pressure regulator for the Facet pump (I understand current pump pressure is excessive) as well as a mechanical oil temp gauge that reads from the sump plug to see if oil temp is causing overheating.
I'm considering fitting a Cinquecento front mounted radiator. Not because of the cooling issues, but because it would cancel the mechanical fan lowering noise levels even further. Obviously this would aid cooling as well.
I have read on the forums that forced induction requires different ignition properties than on naturally aspirated engines and that fuel injection improves pretty much every aspect of the engine.
Right now the engine feels weak when comparing to its performance before the project, Maybe 80 HP. It also feels "cammy" in low RPM and idles erratically, which is completely against the point of the camshaft I have chosen and the purpose of the car. I have checked the cam timing and it's spot on.
I know this is due to ignition and fueling, which is what I'm trying to solve.
Unfortunately where I live (Israel) there are 2 rolling roads and both I believe know nothing about carburetors and distributors, so going fuel injection seems like a logical step forward.
Questions:
Which system should I opt for? I have asked Stuart about this and he has said that he no longer works on minis and that fuel injection projects based on Emerald systems used to cost about £2500. This is way over my budget.
What are my other options? Preferably a system that uses O2 sensors to tune itself?
So far I have found Megasquirt from trigger-wheels.com, the Specialist components engine management kits, and the Emerald K6. Which is best for my needs?
Which parts do I need to complete the conversion?
Thanks very much!