ianht71 Posted November 21, 2015 Posted November 21, 2015 Hi All I have a nearly new Zetec black top engined Westfield I am wondering if I should purchase the Westfield supplied "Throttle body upgrade kit" It claims to add 20BHP. Is it worth it?? its a lot of money and I am keen to hear from other owners who have chosen this option Thankyou Ian Quote
GuitarmanUK Posted November 21, 2015 Posted November 21, 2015 I would also be interested to know. I have the same 2.0lt Blacktop Zetec in my Zero running on the GBS plenum that gives me about 150bhp. Upgrading to TBs should take it up to about 175bhp at a cost of somewhere around the £1200 mark. It is a lot of money for 25 bhp but if it makes the car more driveable and a bit more fun, it is not a lot, if that makes sense. Quote
Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman Posted November 21, 2015 Posted November 21, 2015 Throttle bodies can sometimes make big headline power gains if the original inlet system is somewhat restrictive. Vauxhall C20XE's are an absolute classic example of this - a good, especially good for its day, flowing head, restricted by the manifold and single TB. But the true story with ITB's is as much about other areas of the performance than the peak figures. The significant growth is usually the area under the curve; giving a boost to power and drivability right across the range. In addition, and always one of the driving factors for me, is the position of the individual butterfly's in the inlet runners, and the design of those runners, gives much better throttle response than the OEM set up it replaces. Quote
guyeds Posted November 21, 2015 Posted November 21, 2015 As the Westfield kit is Omex bodies it maybe worth buying from Omex direct to save a few pounds?? Definitely worth doing though as it also gives you more capacity for more power in the future! Quote
jonjh1964 Posted November 21, 2015 Posted November 21, 2015 20bhp seems reasonable, I fitted the Westfield/Omex TBs to my standard Zetec Blacktop and it was mapped at Northampton Motorsports at 172bhp and slightly more torque across the whole rpm range- Troy thought the Cat in the exhaust was probably limiting the bhp slightly . Mapping was ~£250 and drastically improved the drivability of the car and I had also fitted at set of ARP big end cap bolts at ~£70 (plus £20 for a new sump gasket). Since then I've fitted a TTV lightweight flywheel (~£260 incl ARP bolts) and a cat-less carbon exhaust (~£400) both of which seem to have improved the drivability. Engine and gearbox are both currently out of the car to have a BGH long 1st gear and heavy duty upgrades fitted plus an AP Racing Clutch to support up to 240bhp for future cam and head work. Quote
Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman Posted November 21, 2015 Posted November 21, 2015 If buying a kit from Westfield, it may come ready mapped - worth a check, many of them do. Quote
jonjh1964 Posted November 21, 2015 Posted November 21, 2015 I bought mine from Westfield and it came "mapped" - it was much improved after Troy had played with it... To be fair I got mine in 2012, when the option first became available, so the Westfield/Omex map might be better now. Quote
Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman Posted November 21, 2015 Posted November 21, 2015 I know on the Honda demo car, it was an on going tweaking process with Omex, I believe from speaking to Simon at the open day the other week, (I happened to bring up some of the "kits" they'd done for going itb's) that the same is true of the Zetec offering too. Certainly on some engines, there's often scope for fine tuning to an individual engine, I guess in part that depends how consistent the base engine is. I know from previous stuff Omex have done for WSC it's not uncommon for them to have a development car for a week initially to get things like cold start and warm up optimised alongside the actual mapping. As I say, I know the Honda demo car then went on to have tweaks added over the coming months, based on feedback from those driving it. Quote
RoyH Posted November 22, 2015 Posted November 22, 2015 Ian I bought my TB kit from Westfield last year just before Christmas for my 2.0l Black top. I was replacing the standard injection system but had already installed the OMEX 600 ECU when I built the car in 2010. I got a cracking deal by using a Westfield 20% discount offer which they ran just before Christmas. The kit was delivered direct from OMEX (at my request) as I wanted to do the work over the holiday period. The kit came fully assembled and only really required the injectors transferring from my 'old' manifold. At the price I got it ( with discount) OMEX couldn't beat it and Troy at NHS looked surprised when he told him the price I paid, when I had it set up later in the year. To be fair also, the map was putting out close to 170 BHP as delivered from OMEX and ended up at 172 BHP after Troy's fine adjustments. May be worth seeing if Westfield hold there discount offer again. Roy Quote
ianht71 Posted November 22, 2015 Author Posted November 22, 2015 Thanks Roy (and all) I will try and hold out for nearer to Christmas and see if they run the offer again Seems like its not probably worth having the Westfield supplied map tweaked if it only gained another 2bhp. Perhaps they have improved it, in answer to jonjh's thoughts What are you thoughts on how the extra power 'felt'? Does it make a difference? I find it hard to imagine how that power increase would feel Many Thanks Ian Quote
RoyH Posted November 22, 2015 Posted November 22, 2015 Ian It clearly made a difference the engine is more responsive and crisper through acceleration. Fuel consumption ( although not a real issue on our cars) does go up slightly if you decide to be 'sporty' with right foot. I'm glad I did the upgrade and you do get a bit more access around the engine bay. Roy Quote
Rhett Turner - Black Country AO Posted November 22, 2015 Posted November 22, 2015 Does it make a difference? Yes if does, I would not have believe the difference had I not experienced it my self, as Dave says that 20bhp feels more, once fitted (with standard map) the car seemed to rev, harder faster and longer even with the same rev limit. In fact the first time I really opened it up I was surprised by how much more quickly it gained speed. I was focusing on the road and driving based upon previous feel, it was only afterwards that my son, who was in the car, asked how fast I had gone, I was wrong and very surprised when he said how fast we had been going, I've since had to adjust to the additional go some what. Quote
Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman Posted November 22, 2015 Posted November 22, 2015 As I said further up the page, try not to get too wrapped up in the headline figures of peak torque and peak power, they won't tell you the full difference. If you have access to graphs from the power runs on the dyno, then the shape and smoothness of the curves will tell you so much more. In numbers terms, how much more area there is under the curve is way more important than the single peak figures. In real world terms, these things can combine into how much stronger the car feels to pull, how quickly it responds to throttle inputs and so on. Oh, and usually a sound track to die for, reminiscent of twin Weber DCOE setups etc. Quote
Doug Dastardly Posted November 22, 2015 Posted November 22, 2015 Additionally I have been told that it frees up enough space in the engine bay to swap from a 3 piece steering column to a 2 piece, which I'm told feels much better. Maybe someone can confirm this, as I'm still on original set up? Quote
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