Zetec Cam Upgrade - Will standard ECU be okay ?

[thos]

Hi,

I've got a 1.8 16v Zetec, 105bhp and I'd like to upgrade the cams in it to either some Kent or Piper ones. Will these be okay with the standard Ford ECU ?

Is anyone here using either of the Kent or Piper items ?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Tom

[fordy]

if your running injection, then you'll need to do a re-map to get the most from the new cam as it will open the valves earlier and for longer but the injection will still stick the fuel at the same time as with the previous cam, so you wont see much change.

If your on carbs, then you may need to adjust ignition timing, which will mean a re-map aswell.

So to summarise - yes you need a re-map

[thos]

So, I need a remap. Thanks, back to the drawing board ...

[fordy]

Having said that though - if your running the original ECU, then it may be using the inlet vacum and air flow meter to meter the fuel in, in which case it will automatically sense the new cam, and will put the fuel in earlier - not to sure on this - maybe someone with more knowledge of the ford ECU can help.

Give westfield a call, they may be able to answer this.

Alternatively, call someone who supplies the cams - they will know.

cheers

Chris

[Kevin Wood]

If you have the original Ford injection system I would say that the inlet will be too restrictive to allow you to fully benefit from hotter cams anyway. You'd be better off changing to carbs or TBs before changing the cams.

Having said that, the 1.8 Zetec was available with several different standard cams, of which the 105 is not the best. I think there were 115 PS cams which are basically the same as the 2.0L ones. These would probably give you some improvement even with the standard injection system (you ought to get the ECU from a 115 PS engine while you're at it because the mapping is probably different). That would be quite a cheap and worthwhile upgrade.

Hot cams can confuse air flow meters so I think if you wanted to upgrade beyond the 115 PS Ford cams you might want to change the injection system. Have a word with Piper, Kent cams, etc. though. They'll know what you can do with the standard injection system.

Kevin

[thos]

I plan on spending a couple of quid of the engine to get a bit more power out of it, so maybe starting off with a new ECU and TB's would be the best place to start. At least then I'll have a remappable ECU to take advantage of future cam, head, exhaust, etc changes.

[adhawkins]

I plan on spending a couple of quid of the engine to get a bit more power out of it, so maybe starting off with a new ECU and TB's would be the best place to start. At least then I'll have a remappable ECU to take advantage of future cam, head, exhaust, etc changes.

I think it'll cost more than a couple of quid to change to TBs...

More like a couple of thousand...  

Andy

[thos]

I think it'll cost more than a couple of quid to change to TBs...

More like a couple of thousand...  <!--emo&<!--emo&

Andy

Yeah, I've seen the prices alright    

But, I need more power. It's only 105bhp at the moment, and it just aint enough to keep me happy. Gotta stick with injection to meet Irish emissions.

[Ian Podmore]

The differences between the 105bhp and 130bhp 1800 Zetec's was as follows:

Cams - 130 spec / 2 litre cams

Throttle body - larger diameter (65mm?)

ECU - different map - mine has code AQUA on it for 1 1995/6 vintage engine.

To upgrade you can do the above to get err 130 bhp.

You can also change the standard restrictive air filter for a K&N RU2710 which is a cone filter that will go straight onto your MAF sensor (diameter 85mm). This  is worth a couple of bhp.

You can also replace the temperature sensor connected to the ECU with a 5k ohm (that's the value from memory anyway) resistor.  This will advance the ignition by a few degrees by fooling the ECU that the engine is only at about 40 degrees instead of 90 degrees, and will release a couple of bhp (RR proved for those that don't believe me! for only a few pence.

You would now be at about 135bhp.

After that you are better off going to a proper TB set up with fully remappable  ECU which would give you 155bhp with 130 cams, and up to 180bhp with porting.