Red Flash Posted April 25, 2014 Posted April 25, 2014 Hi everyone We'd appreciate any advice/recommendations on increasing the performance of our pinto powered Westy. After blowing the head gasket on our first track day at Oulton Park , we've been considering increasing the performance whilst its being repaired. It's a standard 2.0ltr with 40 Delottos, with a 134 Sig Erson cam. I'm hoping there's someone out there that can help. The next track day at Outlon on the 20th May, & we'd like to be there but with more grunt! Cheers Will
ALLADDIN Posted April 25, 2014 Posted April 25, 2014 All the power of a pinto is in the head, good head 45 carbs and a cam to suit 10.5/1 compression. Get over to turbosport for best advice. 1
peet Posted April 25, 2014 Posted April 25, 2014 I have a 2.0ltr Pinto with a fast road cam, group 2 head and twin 45s. Revs to 7000 rpm. I am thinking of trying bike carbs for more progressive acceleration. Not the most modern engine but solid esp knowing if the cambelt snaps the heads safe!
KugaWestie Posted April 25, 2014 Posted April 25, 2014 Jeff C was selling an uprated head not long ago, big valves etc........
Red Flash Posted April 25, 2014 Author Posted April 25, 2014 Thanks for all your replies How much money do you want us to spend for you? Enough to unleash the beast All the power of a pinto is in the head, good head 45 carbs and a cam to suit 10.5/1 compression.Get over to turbosport for best advice. Thats interesting to know, a big valve head sounds like the way forward. Do they have a website? I have a 2.0ltr Pinto with a fast road cam, group 2 head and twin 45s. Revs to 7000 rpm. I am thinking of trying bike carbs for more progressive acceleration.Not the most modern engine but solid esp knowing if the cambelt snaps the heads safe! This might be a daft question but is a stage two head a step up from the standard head..? Is there a noticeable improvement on 45s Peet? Jeff C was selling an uprated head not long ago, big valves etc........ My father spoke to Jeff earlier today, unfortunately its been sold. Cheers Will
ALLADDIN Posted April 25, 2014 Posted April 25, 2014 Turbosport.co.UK. is a website/forum. Best pinto info and help you will get ( ask Jeff) Stage 2 is just words .... Means nothing specific. 1
peet Posted April 27, 2014 Posted April 27, 2014 Are you sure Alladin? My experiences in the past (minis & vw) I thought a stage 2 head was usually ground out and had different valve and springs fitted, minor upgrades for fast road use. The engine pulls so well I cant believe it is standard. Roling road print out shows 153hp. I'm not sure whats been done but I found the receipt so I'm intrigued now so will email the builder which is a race builder. And sorry I havent anything else to compare the 45s against i've come from the Vw scene and there bigger Dells seem to work better than smaller carbs but we have flat fours to contend with!
Speed Freak Posted April 27, 2014 Posted April 27, 2014 easier and cheaper to buy another pinto already done, and fit- with opened up head, decent cam, higher compression pistons I would think you could make 160-170 fly hp- If youre wanting to get anywhere near 200, then might be worth looking into a duratec conversion- as although youll need new exhaust/engine mounts etc etc, the engine will make 185-190 as standard on tbs (and exhaust will exit car on same side, so no extra holes!). So could work out more cost efficient for that sort of power.... Plus having a duratec will add more value (imho) to your car, than a tuned pinto engine---- duratec powered westys are simply worth that bit more.
ALLADDIN Posted April 27, 2014 Posted April 27, 2014 Sorry Peet the comment wasn't aimed at your engine, if it's 150 bhp it's obviously been fettled. What I am saying is that stage1 stage2 etc are very vague descriptions with no fixed values S1 may be std valves, cleaned up ports, s2 may be more porting and big valves, s3 full race etc etc but there's a dozen more stages from std to full race, never mind the quallity of the work . 1
Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman Posted April 27, 2014 Posted April 27, 2014 In the old days, when most head castings weren't overly good or well developed as standard, say those designed pre the early eighties, (roughly). The old Stage 1/2/3 thing used to mean more. As pretty much all production heads off non exotic cars responded to the same things; three angle seats, tidied up ports, stronger valve springs, etc all the way through to really opened up ports, bigger valves, re-shaped combustion chambers etc. Though the detail of sizes, and what material needed to come off from where, would change, all were much of a muchness. Engine design has moved on vastly though. By the end of the eighties, we had a production engine in the shape of the XE with around 150 bhp as standard, that could with the right mods be taken to nearly 250 WITHOUT head work as we previously knew it. Indeed, some popular engines now, actually have almost too large ports as standard. Others have long since had three angle seats. So while it's still possible to modify them for different levels of performance, there's no typical magic formula anymore, and the "stage" approach to naming mods has got very vague and variable engine to engine. Though ironically, Pinto's are one of the old generation engines, where you would, back in the seventies, early eighties, know pretty much what you were getting! 1
Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman Posted April 27, 2014 Posted April 27, 2014 One other thing to note, on the engine swaps. Be careful assuming that just because the exhaust is on the same side that it will come out in exactly the same spot! It's by no means guaranteed, unless you have a custom manifold made. Carbs or throttle bodies too, if they exit through the bonnet, most likely won't be exactly in the same spot. 1
Speed Freak Posted April 27, 2014 Posted April 27, 2014 sorry dave, yes regarding the exhaust- I did mention new exhaust, but didn't specify custom one to fit. all in all though, I do believe that installing a standard duratec on tbs probably wont cost a lot more than developing a standard pinto. afterall you can get hold of tbs second hand quite cheap- and the engines them selves are pretty cheap/easy to get hold of.
Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman Posted April 27, 2014 Posted April 27, 2014 Brand new Durabangs are incredibly cheap nowadays. got to be a big contender compared to running a highly tuned Pinto... (Lighter, too)
peet Posted April 27, 2014 Posted April 27, 2014 No worries Alladin I knew it wasn't meant meanly my reply wasn't meant as a knock either funny how a conversation is different to a written word! Agree with all the above points too. I like this engine, i'm going to play with it and enjoy driving it, I think further tuning will result in failure or at least that worry is always in my head! My ideal Westy now doesn't run a pinto anyway, a duratec is a good possible upgrade but mine being a SDV I think i'll run as it is as and after reading a certain Mr Eastwoods and others build threads I now have me hankering for a Mega S2000 kit...
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