Hi,
Anyone on here done any power upgrades on these? I was looking at Courtenays stuff, particularly the phase 2 upgrade to 238bhp. Anybody had any experience of this? What do you think of Courtenay (seem quite expensive!)
Cheers,
Dave
Expensive yes. The other offerings available are much the same. beware of quoted power outputs, I know for a fact one major vauxhall tuner cannot live upto their claims, possibly the others too..
Courtenay charged some guy £5k to put the same engine in a Vectra, promised him 215bhp.. the best he ever got was 200 after various rolling road runs at different locations.
Courtenay's power quotes are actually correct, but its not measured at the wheels, its at the flywheel.... which I believe is very misleading of them and they are stupidly over priced....................
There used to be a company local to me called RnD and there vauxhall work was the mutts nutts and cheaper, they had quite a few of their cars featured in mags ! ! !
uh huh, funny that.. seen alot of their stuff that doesn't meet either.
They are not alone of course.....
Who else would you recommend? Would I be just as well off to look at superchips or are there any cheaper tuners than courtenay or regal?
Doesn't sound too good :-( Care to say who to avoid?
Sounds too much to be out by does that! 7.5% power loss...
Cheers.
I wouldn't find that too misleading. Don't manufacturers quote outputs at the flywheel? I would've thought it normal to quote this.... (or maybe i'm missing a point?)
Do you know if these still exist and do vauzhall tuning? Where were they based?
Thanks for the advice,
Dave
Do a search for wallace performance,and send gavin an email on the phase kits he does
Thanks, I've found them and I will contact them.
Cheers,
To be honest... not many. You've really got to pick the best of the worst if you see what I mean. Have a look at
you just mentioned them.
Indeed, it start out about 180 IIRC.
There are too many people out there willing to take you money and not deliver whats promised.
All acquired via regal as they have soile importer rights on the EDS products....
Is that a bad thing? I like the idea that the upgrade is done via the diagnostics port for the remap. I suppose that as long as the quoted outputs are correct, then there should be nothing to be concerned about?
I've had an email back from Wallace performance and they do a 235bhp upgrade for £499 and he states that other tuners quote higher on the standard turbo, but the turbo will not last more than 2000 miles on these. Does that sound a fair comment?
On the standard turbo
Courtenay do
"CS 1 Upgrade* Software upgrade.224 BHP & 239lb ft torque .... £499.00 Fitted
CS 2 Upgrade* Software Upgrade, Cooler running spark plugs, and air box modifications. Increses up to 238 BHP & 270lbs ft torque .... £680.00 Fitted
CS 3 Upgrade The CS3 package consistes of Cooler running spark plugs, the air box is deristricted and our massive high flow 9 litre intercooler is fitted. With these items installed the CS3 sofware is downloaded into the ECU giving Increases up to 250 BHP & 285 lbs ft torque .... £1190.00 Fitted"
Regal:
Phase 1 - Gains to 234bhp and 274ftlb torque. The NEW enchanced Phase I Kit now includes Iridium Spark plugs and a K&N Panel Filter £680
Phase II - Gains to 247 bhp and 290 ftlb torque, this also includes a 9 litre intercooler placed in the original fitting area with only bolt screws to hold it in place as per original. Fitting is minimal 1 hour. This enhances more power by reducing the overall intake temperature thus creating cooler air into the intake. £1229
With these in mind, the Wallace stuff looks better value, although I don't know if it is just a software change or if there are more components changed, yet.
Do Wallace have a better reputation than the other 2?
Cheers,
Dave
No, it sounds like the comment of someone who is trying to get you to spend money with them rather than one of their competitors.
Never trust the word of someone who is trying to sell you something by putting down their rivals... :)
You're probably right. It looks like there are no trustworthy vauxhall tuners left! :-(
talking out of his arse.
Wallace is doing all of this part time ( or was a while ago anyway ) he was a school teacher. Did have a cav turbo that he broke more times than it went, think he broke it for spares in the end.
What you say is true.
Just interested why you are going for Courtenay ? they can't map and are strictly "bolt on brigade" like most Vx tuners.
So why did the mighty Vauxhall choose them to be their official tuner, producing special performance editions of cars such as the VX220... ?
Money, and the fact that previous incarnations of the company were a vauxhall dealer. And the fact that they have been tuning Vauxhalls just about longer than anyone else. Means nothing of course. I've seen one of their turbo engines that the guy had paid *alot* of money for running 16v management and an ecotec MAF. Nice. Their current answer is to bung a turbo on an NA car with stock pistons and fit water injection to stop it pinking, hardly tuning is it ?
Personally I put them in a drawer with so many other names who are just "bolt on brigade" merchants. Generic tuning sucks, especially for turbo cars. There are alot of tuners out there that do know their stuff and do things properly but you need to do your research to find them. The bolt on brigade are responsible for all the bullshit around today.. how many tiems have you talked to someone.. "nice car", "thanks" "done much to it?" "loads, I've got a chip and an exhuast and an air filter and wheels and ..." etc etc "So what power are you running ?" "about 350bhp, 150 up on stock"
cue you walking away having a quiet chuckle to yourself. Some of the guys actually *believe* what they're saying because they've been told that to buy the products...
In any case they don't tune rovers so why you going there ? :)
What for.
Astra gsi turbo then ?
Nah, Lordy's more of a Nova man :P.
ATC?? What do you mean? (am I being thick?!)
I've haven't checked anything. I assumed (maybe silly to?) that the ECU would adjust the mixture accordingly...
Glad to hear that, so it would obviously benefit from an intercooler upgrade... (like courtenays?) I presume there must be a cheaper place to get intercoolers from too. With courtenay charging the earth for the flywheel stuff, I would expect such a hugh price markup on all their gear...
Would the EDS software be a standard map for all engines? I get the gist that you're saying that the tuners we've talked about aren't capable of producing maps, so I presume that these are mapped for all engines... I presume then that it would be better to go to someone who could tune it individually? What sort of kit would this involve? Unichip? Superchip? Something else?
Cheers for the top advice, really appreciated
Dave
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