Are tuned engines more fragile ?

[Weekend Warrior]

still on the search for my first car I've come across this ,

https://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/westfield/other-models/2012-westfield-fw-234bhp/7179852

it looks a good car but  would you be worried about a rebuilt engine in a newish car ,does getting 234 Bhp out a 2 litre engine mean it's more likely to fail or would be less reliable than a more standard lump ,I assume that if it did go wrong it would be more costly to fix than a standard motor or am I wrong ?

Is the FW a wide bodied car,

Thoughts on price and spec from those in the know please.

 

Steve

[Terry Everall]

In a word "yes" a tuned engine needs more attention, revs higher and has higher strains on it 

[BugMan]

Remember from a famous film "The light that burns twice as bright, burns half as long"

[Onliest Smeg David]

30 minutes ago, terry everall said:

In a word "yes" a tuned engine needs more attention, revs higher and has higher strains on it 

Maybe not! Yours definitely.

Depends on what has been done.

 

e.g. Standard ford 1.8 zetec is up to 130bhp

Mine was 150bhp with Jenvey throttle bodies when Westfield factory built. Cheapish replacement.

Last year I had head ported and uprated cams by BLINK giving 179bhp.  I still think this is a reliable state of tune and I have driven 6000+ miles without issue, not mega ££ to recreate if goes bang either.

200-220 bhp can be extracted from the 1.8 zetec with lots more ££££££. Now this would be a much more fragile engine.

SO! It really depends how far / how well engine has been tuned.

HTH

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

FW is the name of the bodywork style, but handily, as they only made FW bodywork in wide versions, it does indeed also identify  wide body Westfields!

The power listed in the advert does mean it's at the upper end of the tuning options for a Ford Zetec, but Dunnel is a well recognised and respected name, when it comes to Ford tuning. For that level of power, he probably did spend around the £8000 mark though!!

Provided it's looked after and not constantly ragged to death, there's no reason why it should be particularly unreliable, but you may need to budget for periodic engineer rebuilds, Dunnel could probably advise on what to expect though.

As far as that specific car goes generally, it's tricky to get a complete picture from the photos provided, but nothing jumps out immediately at me. From the limited view under the bonnet, it generally looks neat and well executed though.

[stephenh]

I couldn't see where in the advert it said which engine it was?

A Dunnell built Duretec giving that power would likely be very reliable if regularly and properly maintained.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

It's a Blacktop Zetec, not a Duratec, quoted directly from the advert...

Quote

fitted with a fully rebuilt engine less than 500miles ago by Dunnell Engines producing 234 BHP costing over 8K.

 

[stephenh]

Oh, it wasn't in the narrative of the advert., it was in the heading!

I would have thought 234bhp from a second hand Zetec is quite highly tuned then.

[John Loudon - Sponsorship Liaison]

I maybe wrong, but I was under the assumption that tuned Zetecs are mainly done via cylinder head work rather than the bottom end. It therefore depends on what has been done apart from the head and therefore limits the cost of replacement parts in the event of disaster.

[AdamR]

Sounds about right. As far as I can gather, it's revs that kill engines - so if it breathes well and makes good torque, you can just lower the rev limit and it will still last well and have very good power!

Car looks great by the way, quite a lot of cash but if you want a relatively new car then it's a beaut

 

[Rhett Turner - Black Country AO]

this should help provide an idea what has been done to lift to that power.

[CraigHew]

The specification says "front wheel drive" which would make that Westfield unique...!

[6carjon]

Just to add that yes they might be more fragile,but consider a few comments

1)they may need a refresh every 20K miles compared to 100k in a production car, but how far do you drive in a westie every year?

2)as others comment revs kill engines so if it makes lots of power you don't need to use it all the time. If you raced it, then yes it would need a refresh but road use will make it last much longer.

3)you are not chasing lap times so you won't notice if it loses a little power over the years, they dont tend to explode after a sell by date, they just lose a little performance.

4)dunnell are well established and I would expect their tuned engines to be properly done so will last as long as any other tuned engine.

5)cold starts kill engines, if you use yours in spring and summer then it will be kinder to the engine long term.

6)it's a lovely car in the pictures if you can afford to look then go and see it maybe with a club member near you ?

[Weekend Warrior]

Thanks for all the replays so far they have been very informative and I now know a little bit instead of sod all. 

I live in Rutland and the seller is in Aberdeen couldn't be any further apart, Sod's law apparently the car is owned by a fellow member and is well known on the Scottish Westfield scene .The area organiser is called Rab any idea how to get hold of him ?

[Nic Chase (NICO) - Shropshire & Mid-Wales AO]

http://forum.wscc.co.uk/forum/membermap/markers/marker/146-robert-bombero-scotland-ao/

Is this who you are after?