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XE Tuning

Sim2cool

Sim2cool

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I know this has beeen asked millions of times before.

The other day i couldnt out run a mk4 astra sri turbo(didnt realise it was a turbo!!!!!).

I have a totally standard Gsi & am looking at things like.

NOS (what sort of brake do you guys use)

Superchip,Unichip,decat pipe, maybe cams.

Any one with any experience of these mods on a XE i would like to know your thoughts.

I would like to keep it on standard injection no throttle bodies or turbo.
 
im now rebuilding a red top, so far iv had the flywheel lightened, cams reprofiled, tweaked head, performance exhaust manifold, and a power cap. soon to get s/s cat back system and some sort of chip/remap. cams and flywheel was done by courtenays, power cap came from them too, and will get them to chip/remap it once iv finished putting it all back together. Also will be adding giggle gas in the future, dont know much about it though so will need to do some research. i think this is the basics, i dont know much about all this realy, so if any one can add anything, tips and hints etc?
Neve'o
 
Have been speaking to Dave from BBPT about this matter, i'm going to build up an XE to a fairly decent spec to drop in to my merit - here's his suggestions:

Option 1, buy and fit an XE, airfilter, exhaust, power boost valve good service, 160bhp ish for not much dosh and quite a bit of go. Est £1000 all in.

Option 2, Buy and fit XE but rebuild first. New pistons, followers, gaskets some mild cams, airfilter, exhaust, power boost valve for around 170bhp ish.
Est £2000-£2500 all in (dependant on cams)

Option 3, As above plus forged pistons, steel rods and even wilder cams. Will need a chip for raised rpm limit (sure I can find one). Est £2300-£2800 all in.

Option 4, The max with throttle bodies, MBE management etc etc etc, kiss good bye to £4000 big ones!
Click to expand...

It all depends how much you want to spend! Obviously Option 4 isn't for you! I'm going to be going for Option 3 - with manifold, straight through exhaust etc.

Check out the site!

http://www.bbperformancetuning.co.uk/selector.asp
 
Sounds good i am looking at cams & chip exhaust & airfilter first i think got about £300 burning a hole in my pocket.LOL!!!

I am going to get a replacement element filter & decat pipe to start.

When it comes to cams & Chips who do you think supply the best equipment

e.g Camshafts (Piper, Courtney, Kent cams)

Chips (Unichip or Superchip)

I would luv throttle bodies the noise and that. but i do to many miles just not economical enough.
 
Bloody Ell! Al! Any more free plugs and Id better put you on the pay roll!!! haha.

Seriously though, XE tuning can be a mine field at the best of times so to follow on from the Quote Al has noted above, this applies to most people who maybe dont fancy going as far as taking the cylinder head off....

Green Panel filter £48.99 (induction kit for £79.99)
Exhaust and de-cat £350 ish

These parts on their own jumped my old XE to 164BHp and 158lbFt and YES I have RR graph round here somewhere to prove it. Now it wasnt so much the extra power that was best, it was the extra shove the car picked up through out the RPM range that made the car much more fun to drive.

On top of this Id add :

Chip £ Not sure yet
PBV £100 ish

This wont add much in the way of BHP but the chip will increase ignition advance a tadd and the PBV will add a little extra fuel to help cope. Again, rather then huge increases, the car will feel faster and more lively.

Ive not seen much proof that porting the head out will do much. Having examined a few heads I reckon the throats are already deep enough and are a lovely size for the 2.0 engine. On the 1.8 16V Clio, Clio Williams and Clio 172 that we do a considerable amount of testing on with cylinder head deisgns, we found that for ROAD cars (a race car is completley different and not always better) it wasnt worth touching the head. If anything it made it worse. As the Vauxhall XE head and the Renault F7 head are comparative in flow rates, cam profiles, layout and design so this would seem to back up my theory.

HOWEVER...

There is no harm at all in sending the cams away to Piper for a mild regrind for not much cash if you happen to be changing head gasket or followers or something like that. When they come back, simply adjust the PBV and bingo, a bit more shove at the top end.

After this we start going into wild cams, throttle bodies, Nitrous etc etc and I see from your orginal question that you didnt want to go that far so at this point I will just shut up......

Dave www.bbpt.co.uk
 
nos is a great ,quick and cheap way to dispose of someone in a race . but it will not last long ,depending on how much you put through it. i was running about 60-70bhp on a standard xe and it went well for the time it lasted, but eventually bent 4 valves.still run a 14.4 at pod and use to catch alot of people out.i'd say get nos and dont put to much through it 50bhp and have fun. :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:
 
Well hopefully i will be speaking to Dave over the winter as, insurance permitting, i will be XEing the Astra in March.
I want to look at a full re-build, de-cat, induction kit and maybe cams and chip.
 
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