why do people modify small engines?

one in a million

Road Burner
Points
57
Location
kent
Car
CLIO 182 YAY!!
i dont understand why people modify small engines like 1litres and 1.2l or 1.4, no offence or nothing, its probably really great to do, but what you gain after all the modification you do on a small engine, hardly makes a difference on performance wise or does it?, because after spending all that money to do all them mods you might as well buy a bigger engine and pay the rest on insurance, at least there would be a difference in performance plus the fact the engines are made for power because there bigger, you might as well have a 2litre then stick 1.2l badge on it to trick people. Can some one explain to me why they like modifying there engines. because i see it as a risk that makes your car un reliable or to break down. thanks guys.
 
i suppose then you modify them to make people think there powerless but actually there powerful yeah? like supeing up a vtr or vts i suppose there good to do on engine mods
 
I sort of know where you are coming from, it does make me cringe when i see tiny shopping cars ( sort of 900cc - 1100cc ) done up badly, eight inch exhausts, covered in pipercross and K&N stickers. there really is no point, unless you like the noise, you are bang on the money that its often better value to buy a more powerful car to start with.

I guess they may simply lack the knowlege of what actually improves performance, and recon that an evo sounding tailpipe will give it evo like power (if only). you can get big figures from small engines, though it may not be cost effective. often it would involve supercharging or turbocharging, requiring extensive head and manifold work, plus probably heavy duty bottom end work too, lest you want to sweep the insides of the motor back to the workshop.

I can think of no other reason apart from the desire to make a sleeper car, where money is little object and the option of swapping a bigger motor in is not feasible, though most cars are able to take somthing larger under the bonnet TBH.

or they could just need the practice, unless they work in a garage how else are they going to learn?
 
Persuading little cars/engines to do what they weren't intended for, is a bit like mountian climbing, we do because their there! :lol:
My old Smart (oh no not again!) had a 600cc engine turning out 64bhp by the time I finished with it it was turning out 115 bhp, the induction noise was nuts the car went like a silly little rocket & everyone loved it! :bigsmile:
Modding little engines isn't exactly a new thing either just look what they were doing to Fiat 500's & 850 Mini's. I think there's just as much satisfaction wringing out what you can from a little engine as there is from larger units, sometimes it's not always about huge numbers. :amuse:
 
i dont understand why people modify small engines like 1litres and 1.2l or 1.4, no offence or nothing, its probably really great to do, but what you gain after all the modification you do on a small engine, hardly makes a difference on performance wise or does it?

The greatest thrill for me , especially in my younger days, was to extensively modify small capacity engines, While in England in the'60s I had a friend with a Ford 100E that could go past most cars of that era in sheer acceleration. Here in India most of our cars until the mid 80's- had 900 to 1500 cc engines, that too with just three main bearings, we used to do extensive porting work, increase compression ratios by installing home made pistons, etc, and the result used to a quick but unreliable engine, However, later on in the mid 80's the Indian version of the Suzuki Alto 800cc car commenced manufacture here, these 3 cyl engines were a pleasure to tune for high performance, and were 100 percent reliable. Though we have all the international brands now in India, the old 3 Cyl 800 OHC mill, tuned to give around 70 BHP, is hard to beat, and all this reliably and without missing a beat!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Email from a website reader, not exactly quoted but it is the general idea.

"You said that there is no point in tuning a 1.0 engine for my car model. That is rubbish, I have added a sports exhaust, fast road cam done some head work and put on an induction kit. I now make 76bhp which I think is pretty good for a 1.0 car!"

(Incidentally this power gain was up from 62bhp!)

It kind of speaks for itself, If i'd spent that money I would want a bit more than a lousy 14bhp power gain.

That said it does depend on the car and I think we all spend too much money on our first cars. A 1.0 Charade GTTi is a veritable stormer when tuned up!
 
It's not always about making big straight line power. Smaller cars often handle really nicely and a remap can get rid of some irritating flat spots in acceleration making the car smoother and nicer to drive, and although it might not actually give me any gains, there's a definite feel-good factor about bolting on an uprated cat-back exhaust system and improved air filter under the hood. Vernier pulleys, fast road cams, gas-flowed heads, all sound really nice but for me they're always just that little bit too expensive.

Sure, I'd love to just buy a Supra and make it the fastest thing in all of Europe, but on my income it's just not feasible so I have to make the best of what I've got.
 
i once got destroyed off the lights by a 1.2 corsa with 4 people in ( i was alone in my old cav sri redtop 160bhp), the thing just powered away spinning the wheels right up through third.
when i caught up (some time later!) i had a chat with the guy and a look under the bonnet. was expecting to see a red top, but was greeted by the sight of a bog standard looking 1.2 lump!

turns out the guy was a race mechanic for some amatuer racing team, and had ported and polished the head to he absolute limit, fitted larger valves, lightened and balanced everything, wossner forged pistons etc etc and reprofiled his cam. he said he'd never had it on a rolling road, and didnt care what bhp it was. but ill tell you it was bloody fast!

there IS a point in tuning small engines, but only if you know what your doing!!!
 
I understand where your coming from, but think about it from someone who has done it or plans to do its point of view.

I'll be doing it when I get my first, but I'm doing it more a a learning curve. Everyone has to start somewhere, and if you have the funds to do it on a 2.0 and add turbo's then good on you. But for those of us like that me that is on a very small income that needs to learn the basic's somewhere.

I don't think that those who fit a massive exhust and think they can now do 200mph are doing it for the experience, and are just doing it for their "street cred". I want to do it to help me learn and teach myself, depends on who the person is and their reason for it.
 
Does anyonre remember the Mini Coopers? a hotted up example would easily have most of the larger sports cars of the period for breakfast!
 
engine in my car is only 1.4 8v granted its a turbo fed engine but believe me with a few minor bits of tuning these can easily gain 35-45bhp with same torque and loads out there are 200-250bhp and its just so funny watching these bigger engined cars getting spanked by the old gt turbo :)
 
"and its just so funny watching these bigger engined cars getting spanked by the old gt turbo :smile:"

AND most satisfying if you are the driver of the small car.
 
Should see the faces of people that do not expect a 1.6 Mini Cooper S to either keep up or beat them.

Saturday night was a prime example. Quick blast down the 127, and my Mini was side by side with a friends 350z. Both of us were proper going for it! :) Good times.

The RS in front, with its 430bhp just left us standing...
 
Ask all the kids with 250bhp 1.3ltr Starlet's. Some people just don't have a clue do they.

250 ?


i think you will find thats not pushing things that hard.

350 bhp is certainly possible and 400 too without increasing the engine size.

And as for sleepers thats one very good reason for doing it to a small engined car . Just hope you dont come up against a proper sleeper - there will always be someone quicker than you
 
In mid 1960's took the Mini Cooper 'S' with its little 1275cc modded it then stuck a Supercharger on it. Not too many cars of any capacity back then could live with it. I loved the Mini & they didn't do a 3 litre version :D . You chose your car/engine & do the very best you can that's what tuning & being a Petrolhead is about of course money will dictate how far you can take it.
 
i suppose then you modify them to make people think there powerless but actually there powerful yeah? like supeing up a vtr or vts i suppose there good to do on engine mods

In fairness, the Saxo VTS motors are animals, and once tuned properly are very quick.

Ported and polished head, new cams and a remap and they rev higher then a kangaroo can jump on steroids! Good cars, shame most that own them stick a crappy £6 cone filter and cut springs then rag it from cold.
 
It's easy to spot the noise monsters. If they were as powerful as they sound then they'd be 1/4 mile away in a few seconds and thus largely inaudible. The fact that it's still struggling through 2nd gear ten seconds later suggests that it's show not go!
 
It's easy to spot the noise monsters. If they were as powerful as they sound then they'd be 1/4 mile away in a few seconds and thus largely inaudible. The fact that it's still struggling through 2nd gear ten seconds later suggests that it's show not go!

Indeed mate.

There used to be a Saxo VTR around my way that was insanely loud. I love loud cars, but that was unpleasant, the chav who owned it has since upgraded to a Clio 182.
 
Email from a website reader, not exactly quoted but it is the general idea.

"You said that there is no point in tuning a 1.0 engine for my car model. That is rubbish, I have added a sports exhaust, fast road cam done some head work and put on an induction kit. I now make 76bhp which I think is pretty good for a 1.0 car!"

(Incidentally this power gain was up from 62bhp!)

It kind of speaks for itself, If i'd spent that money I would want a bit more than a lousy 14bhp power gain.

That said it does depend on the car and I think we all spend too much money on our first cars. A 1.0 Charade GTTi is a veritable stormer when tuned up!

Are you telling me you wouldn't like to see a 23% power increase? Because that's the way to look at it rather than "just" 14bhp.

The Charade GTTI had a greater specific output than contemporary BMW M3s. Just sayin'!
 
I remember the GTTi from the late 1980s. 3 cylinders and 997cc with the benefit of a turbo, thus offering 100bhp. I always wanted to drive one but there was no opportunity available to me.

I kind of think that in these days where forced induction is becoming the norm we need to ignore geometric capacity (bore x stroke x #of cylinders) and perhaps consider mass of air drawn per cycle (forced) when the engine is running at it's peak torque and power delivery points. A 1.0 engine running 2.0 Bar of 'boost' is actually closer to a 2.5 litre engine in these terms.

Ford's Ecoboost models are good examples. I am thinking of test driving a Mondeo 1.0 just to see how well it really works in the real world.

And there is no reason why a small engine designed specifically for forced induction need be unreliable. Provided the cooling system and, equally importantly the engine internals, are designed to stand the projected power output then it should be fine for both short and long term considerations. We have to give credit to engine designers, metallurgists and chemists (lubricants, for example) alike for making this possible.

All three of these engineering disciplines rely upon computer processing power to achieve this. It's not a demeaning statement at all. If Brunel had today's computing power available he would have utilised it to the full.

The other real world consideration is whether the fuel economy is notably better than a larger engine if the same driving style is adopted. Drive an Eco car hard and it will not give it's best fuel economy returns. Drive a high performance car half sensibly and it's likely to be pretty reasonable on fuel.
 

Similar threads


Please watch this on my YouTube channel & Subscribe.


Back
Top