Anyone had any experience of...

Ok... I think he's decided to replace it soon anyway, so I shan't do anything drastic to it until I know either way.

-- JackH

New tuning boxes for my donk come in at an average of £150 on ebay. I've been led to believe some offer a bit of adjustment once on the car - and this is the one to have.

-- JackH

I dunno - at least this feels like it's worth revving past 3k... ;-)

I don't do PSA cars any more, if I can at all help it.

-- JackH

Well go on then... post a list of said cars.

-- JackH

Indeed excellent movie. The shape of the piston is to form the combustion chamber. It's a direct injection engine so the combustion chamber is formed in the top of the piston - just like most heavy trucks. The performance is enhanced by the tangential inet ports, turbo-charging and the high pressure common rail injection system plus, no doubt, some clever engine management electronics.

Nothing particularly new in the engine design - I looked at these things in 1980 when I was working in the motor industry - but evidently 20 years of development has produced some excellent results. I was intrigued by the semi-solid casting technique, I haven't come across that before.

ernest

Eh? I introduced you to the idea of drinking water from the fuel filter? And I had a diesel mondy? Or am I misreading things. Or are you just losing the plot? :-)

Ford nicked my idea about the ST-TDCI. Dunno when it comes out though.

Peter

No, one of the earliest was probably the Perkins Prima. One of the first proper "performance" diesels was Audi's 5-cylinder 2.5TDI, as first use in

115bhp guise in the Audi 100, and later uprated to 140bhp in 1995. Yet in the recent Auto Express survey of lots of different motoring landmarks (best cars in various categories etc.) it was the VAG 1.9TDI engine among the top 5 engines, with the 2.5, which came along first, nowhere to be seen. It said something like "the VAG 1.9TDI changed people's view on diesels". Well surely it was the 2.5TDI, as that came along first. Though I can sort of see why they mentioned the 1.9, as it was much more widely used, but still they should have mentioned my engine :-(

I've a good mind to complain :-)

Peter

You want a diesel, you do.

Peter

"AstraVanMan" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

How about the 120bhp/188lbft Cit CX 2.5 turbo diesel? Launched in '84, then uprated with an intercooler and a few other changes in '86ish, they did a publicity stunt in '87 involving Motor magazine - A marathon stint at Millbrook which broke all 42 of the diesel speed records (between the CX and a BX) they aimed at including a 24hr average of 118mph - Shortly before, though, the *exact same CX* had done a Lands End-John o'Groats run at just under 65mpg average.

Not bad for a car that - by '87 - had been in production for 13 years.

Nope. I know the engine code, but a Google search reveals next to nothing apart from other folks asking the same question.

Oh puh-leeze. It's a Honda - it deserves to be red-lined on a regular basis and I am not scared of pushing it. However you have a point in that if there was a real change in power output, it should be noticeable. What might not be quite so noticeable is a smooth transition to a *different* power curve. For example, if power (ok, torque) was just about to tail off on one cam profile but would be extended on another, then there would be no perceptible effect.

I think the answer to that is in his choice of car.....

And referring to you as a friend. That's scary.

Well, it's easy to forget when you're trying to blank a complete brand of car from your mind (working with them for 6 yeas does tend to do that for you!!)

Indeed. Although it's stoichiometric (seeing as we're being pedants here now :-)).

Only that I've never seen a direct injection motor that wasn't common rail!

Never worked on those, I stand corrected.

Ford, Fiat....

As I said, I've only seen direct injection used with common rail feed.

Hmmm, well Honda have historically been much better with suspension setup than Nissan. As far as handling and feedback goes the Civic is pretty good - get a Type R out for a track day!

Yes, the VTi badged Civic's had the full 160bhp engine in them. There are only two stages to VTEC, a standard performance cam runs at low revs

- up to 4000rpm on the low spec, then it jumps to a high lift cam and retunes accordingly.

There are other variants too, the VTEC-e switched from 8 valves to 12 valves, and was designed for economy driving - it switched from a low performance setting and a mixture of 15:1, to a normal setting at

2500rpm.

The full VTi engine switches over at 5500rpm, but red lines near to

8000rpm. This one does give a hoog kick when it cuts on.

Later engines also use a variable cam timing as well.

Ooooh, you've never driven a VTEC engine have you?

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember snipped-for-privacy@spamcop.net (Andy Hewitt) saying something like:

In this case, it distinguishes the later engine from its predecessors, which were indirect injection into a pre-combustion chamber.

Andy Hewitt ( snipped-for-privacy@spamcop.net) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Yes, a couple of the earliest (L-reg?) full-fat 160bhp 1.6 Civic VTis. Cracking engine, brought out the utter hooligan in me, as you just *had* to get that second profile, the banshee wail, and the kick in the arse. In every gear. Including fifth.

You just couldn't miss it changing, but it wasn't the ecoVTEC.

Shame about the rest of the car, though.

If there was a part on those cars that wasn't bland, it was actively crap.

The message from "JackH" contains these words:

The owners club may be interested if he's selling. At least put it up on eBay so people can have a chance at keeping it.

Oh, I know this... It wasn't so long ago that I was hanging around there due to my then trusty steed. a Montego TD estate, and I posted up about this particular car when I unearthed it for him. Much 'ooh, I'd like that' kind of responses were received ;0)

Depends - if someone offered enough elsewhere, 'no need, no need'. Anyway, I'll let you know if he does want to get rid.

-- JackH