Hi all,

I'm not sure if I'm the problem or the car is. I'll explain. The car is a 2.0 zetec blacktop (from a 1997 mondeo) running single throttle body into a plenham which has each inlet thingy trumpeted. Stainless 4 into 1 exhaust with the internals of the catalyst gone. Single silencer. I'm using the standard ford ecu which the donor engine apparently makes 128bhp. The car weighs 650kg with me in it.

Why does it feel so slow? I came away from a roundabout yesterday and could not keep up with a VW Passat

I'm using the standard clutch and flywheel. When motoring it does pull ok and makes a nice noise, but I'm somewhat at a loss as to how this thing goes, and how I expected it to go. been on the road for 2 years and done about 4000 miles but as time goes on and I get more used to it I can't help feeling really disappointed.

There are no fault codes in the ecu (expect the speed sensor and egr valve which are not connected anyway and no limp mode), everything works as it should, always starts on the first turn of the key, temperature runs fine, drinks fuel at a normal rate. So I'm wondering.......

Is this the kind of performance a 2.0 engine should give on my inlet setup?
Am I missing something obvious?
Do I upgrade?

Been thinking about a turbo conversion but don't really want to bolt on a load of second hand parts and risk reliability. I have seen a bike carb kit which claims 175bhp would that really bring this thing to life?

Any advise or help as always gratefully received.

get a power run on a dyno, or time yourself to 60. That'll tell you something in the first instance.

Diff ratio?

I've also seen cams out by a tooth (from new) resulting in poor performance so worth checking.

It might be worth checking that the brakes are not binding.

also have you checked you get full throttle, when peddle is fully down, done that the other day on mine then realised was only getting 50% throttle, big difference after that,

Go for a power run on a rolling road. That way you'll get the figures and the operator will tell you what he thinks.

From your description it sounds like it should be a lot faster than it is!

Mine's a standard 2.0 blacktop with a very budget bike carb setup and seems to go well enough [it didn't feel slow with a 1.8 CVH] and I can't imagine the carbs make much difference over standard EFI.

Might be worth having a spin in a similar car to see if it feels much different. Chances are something isn't working right if it feels slow.

Stu

As above what diff ratio and gearbox?

Also as above checking your getting full throttle is worth it.

I've got pretty much the same set up. 2.0L silver top, Home made plenum with internal trumpets and blacktop throttle body,R1 chimney. Mondeo DEEP Ecu. I easily kept up with a Type R a while back. I think I can get 0-60 about 6.5ish seconds. I was expecting it to be faster when I got it on the road but it's still in lose your license territory.

I'd check the mechanical stuff first such as compression,cam belt timing etc. What colour are the plugs?

I thought the 2.0L flywheel was too big to fit a type 9?

diff ratio is a 3.92. Clutch fits fine and is bolted to a type 9 box. I did see the other day when I had my obd reader plugged in that the TPS reading was 21.17% at idle and 94.50% at full throttle.

I have checked the throttle pedal and it does give full throttle.

As far as I'm aware the timing is ok but I have lost my sprocket holding tool so hard to check that

Do you have the MAF between the inlet filter and the throttle body, got a feeling if the ECU is not seeing the right MAF then it will go into limp home mode. Note ECU, MAF, Injectors and throttle body are not interchangeable between Zetec's of different sizes and need to be from the same engine (or type of).

Hope this helps.

At that weight you should have close to 200bhp per tonne, which should defo no feel slow.
Apart from a check over of timing and firing order, flow of exhaust, air filter just get it on RR to see what its making.

I've come across a lot of cars over the years that the throttle didn't open fully

quote:

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Originally posted by Ugg10
Do you have the MAF between the inlet filter and the throttle body, got a feeling if the ECU is not seeing the right MAF then it will go into limp home mode. Note ECU, MAF, Injectors and throttle body are not interchangeable between Zetec's of different sizes and need to be from the same engine (or type of).

Hope this helps.

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Description

I half expected you to say it was a 3.1 diff. I'd expect it to fly with that ratio. Must be something wrong.

You don't need a sprocket holding tool to check the cam timing. Take the top cover off, turn the crank to the timing mark and check the slots in the back of the cams are both in line with the top face of the head (they're off set so you might have to turn the crank 2 revs to get them the right way). A piece of steel bar that fits the slots is all you need (or a good eye).

How much clearance is there between the end of your trumpets and the plenum. You want at least 1 1/2times the inlet diameter?

It's probably not the root cause of the problem, but the MAF sensor is too close to the throttle body. This can cause significant errors in metered air due to turbulence; check out how far from the throttle body Ford located it.

Hi

I have absolutely no useful suggestions on how to fix the problem,! but I had a striker (not very heavy) with a 1.6l very old twin cam producing in the region of only 100bhp
That was plenty quick enough to keep me on my toes!

Was it just the incident with the Passat or do you generally feel the car is slow?

Some of the passats are quick off the line with turbo diesel or V6 engines.

Not just the Passat incident, but in general ever since I finished it, it has seemed a lot slower that I imagined

Will check out a few things and report back

In the mean time if anyone else has any suggestions keep em coming.

Thanks

Andy

TPS knackered?
Coil pack/HT leads old enough to go on a model T?

Not much I can think of that hasn't been said, but it should be at least entertaining fast, not embarrassed by a passat.

Got new coil pack and leads a year ago along with new TPS. It's been like this from day one.

Anyhow, might get a bit of digging time in the garage later so will have a real look around

Cheers

Andy

Try taking most of the exhaust off too, mostly just because of fun noises, but maybe there's half a squirrel stuck up there.