I’ve been looking for a way to add a little more power.
The evolution so far has been
Donor 1.8 ( 115BHP)
New 1.8 ( 115 Bhp )
2.0 from ST170 ( 165 BHP ish )
The step from 115 to 160+ was noticeable and welcome but, well, I want more. There is a whole discussion around needs and wants, but it's simple, I want more power.
So over the last year I’ve been pondering on how to get a bit more power without spending a fortune.
I refined my criteria as follows
Able to produce 250Bhp ( with remapping if necessary )
Donor must be a 4 pot transverse FWD only arrangement as these are the only donors likely to fit the engine bay.
For a long time I was thinking about the ford ecobost , a 2.0l from a 2010/11 Mondeo, or SMAX but there have been two problems, first while the 2.0 ecoboost was an option on the Mondeo and S-Max for 2010/11 ( also in Volvos and Mazdas, briefly) they are as rare as hens teeth and very few come up at the salvage auctions. In 18 months I saw 1 Mondeo and 1 S-max , both with auto boxes come up on copart. What I did see were a few of the new 2.0 Focus STs but they were far too expensive for me. The second problem was that my power aspirations just kept growing with time. Is 250Bhp enough when some hot hatches are close to 300Bhp now ? That got me thinking…
In talking with friends I kept getting the same question, “can’t you just buy a new engine built to your specs” and the answer is yes I can but I’ll have no change from £10k and then I’ll have to add engine management, a gearbox and a hundred other bits that will cost another £5k+. Not forgetting that I have to line all the bits up and make all the bits work together. The 2nd hand donor route is by far and away the most cost effective and simplest route if I buy well from the salvage auctions. I’ll borrow from an earlier post and put it like this “ Buying a crashed (salvage ) donor I am paying for what I want and not for utility I don’t need “. There are risks with buying at auction , you can get a real stinker but if you watch the auctions long enough you can start to spot those that are not right for you.
I spent a long time looking for a ford ecoboost donor and got nowhere so I started looking around at other donor candidates and VW have some attractive options.
The conclusion was that a 2007 onwards Seat leon Cupra would be just the ticket. This is a 4 pot 2.0 litre turbo engine that produces 240 Bhp with a stock map and can be tuned comfortably to over 300Bhp at minimal cost.
It took a while, I missed a few that went for too much, but in early January 2016 I bought this donor.
The donor cost £2,230 at a salvage auction near Oxford. It’s a 67,000 miles insurance write off that runs and drives.
Now it is on my drive and as far as I can see the damage is expensive but minimal.
All the airbags and seat tensioners have gone off,
the windscreen is smashed where the airbag deployed,
the bonnet is crumpled
OSF front light cluster is smashed
Bumper is smashed
Air con rad is holed, Main rad and Intercooler are fine
OSF wing is bent at the front.
Plastic frame that holds the radiator and bonnet catch in place is smashed into a hundred pieces.
I guess all this damage costs more to fix than the car was worth.
It drives fine on my drive and sounds just perfect.
Actually it is better than I expected, the previous owner ( 2nd owner) had the car for 6 months and had just picked it up ( less than 500 miles ) from its mot test ( PASS with emissions cert ) and a major service including timing belt, oil , filter and water pump at a main franchise dealer. I have the complete service history and a wad of service docs, everything down to new wiper blades and tyres since new.
It also has just over half a tank of fuel in it. Probably £30 pounds worth at today’s prices.
4 nearly new tyres with 6mm tread that are an exact match for my Mondeo, result…
I picked it up and brought it back on my trailer. I hired a Toyota Hilux 4x4 with towbar for the day at £66.00 all in as my Mondeo has a 1800Kgs trailer limit and my trailer and Donor was going to weigh in at 1,975 KGs. I knew I should have gotten the 2.2 litre Mondeo with 2200KGs towing capacity.
I want to keep the following features from the donor
Cruise Control
EPAS
( I think it is EPAS )
Servo Brakes
ABS
Traction control
Some of those will be easier than others and I might not manage all of them but I’ll try.
I plan on the following upgrades
Solid flywheel, high pressure spring plate and organic clutch.
Quaife LSD for the gearbox
Sports Cat and custom exhaust
High flow air filter
ECU remapping (Considering a Revotec remap)
I'll need custom drive shafts making up
This list will come in around £3.5k to £4.k
So the total upgrade cost is going to be around £6k.
I hope to realise about £1k selling parts of the donor I don’t need, starting with Interior, doors, rear bumper, stereo with phone prep and eventually callipers, wheels .
The plan is to strip the donor down and build it up in a mock engine bay frame during the summer and make the swap next winter for summer 2017 on the road. The mock engine bay frame will allow us to make custom engine mounts and an exhaust before the main transplant. There is no way we can get it done for this summer so we'll just take our time.
more to follow....