Scottish Elises

Was wondering what is the most worthwhile upgrade for my 111s to get a bit more power out of it, not talking about spending serious cash. Manifold, De-cat, ported head? Or does the outlay not justify the gains and I should just save my cash???

Pop by the showroom and take mine out for a blast if you are passing today; should help

Funny I was actually going to write "save my cash for a Honda conversion" will definitely have to take you up in the offer of going for a blast. You can take the Audi for a spin so you can fell what real power feels like.

Have been very busy in the shop this morning, which has been great. If it gets quieter after lunch I might pop over; off to put the F1 Qualifying on the Plasma in the showroom, will give you a call later.

You can get about 180 bhp with a DVA or saber head, better breathing is usually the best place to start with, a 4-2-1 manifold, sports or de-cat and a sports exhaust, add an induction kit and 52mm TB for a few more bhp. After that your into direct to head throttle bodies and ECU territory which is costly and even more so would be the Duratec or Honda converstions with the latter being the more expensive.. Oooh forgot about the Audi conversions, one of them would be my personal favorite, expensive but the power output can go as high as your pockets are deep

Some folk going down the ECU route blank the VVC off and use solid cams on a ported head, not sure what the bhp for this is though? Anyone?

mwmackenzie wrote:
Some folk going down the ECU route blank the VVC off and use solid cams on a ported head, not sure what the bhp for this is though? Anyone?

Would be better getting some cams with less lift that use hydralic as forged pistons are safer to maintain a higher rev limit.

My choice would be Cams, larger throttle body (or individual tbs if you want the intake noise)

Don't think I would recommend spending money on upgrading an S2 111S. The gains are minimal for the costs involved.

Either enjoy as is and upgrade other areas of the car or save for an engine conversion if you want more power.

Cheers

Dan

gearbox is a worthwhile upgrade...

if you want to try my vvc with CR box your welcome to as it also has the 4-2-1, de-cat, larini, pipercross induction S2 LSS suspension and Stu160 brakes with RS14's I know mine's and S1 and yours an S2 and yours has more power to start with but you'll get a feel for the CR box which I love and the cabin noise the other mods make including the brakes

Mark

Having looked into it and go actual costs I don't see the point. The "just do the head" route looks good at first until you add on all the other stuff you need by which point you are well into four figures for a semi race engine with not that much more power. You might as well put another engine in it.

The smart move, financially, is to follow the well worn path by some on here and sell it and buy one someone else has already done.

pete wrote:Having looked into it and go actual costs I don't see the point. The "just do the head" route looks good at first until you add on all the other stuff you need by which point you are well into four figures for a semi race engine with not that much more power. You might as well put another engine in it.

The smart move, financially, is to follow the well worn path by some on here and sell it and buy one someone else has already done.

I think I was one of the first on this list (old SE list) to go down the DVA route with TB's and blanked VVC head, emerald etc etc. Mine was not as extreme as Tut's, I had the slightly less harsh cams and hydraulic lifters still.

IIRC it made about 185bhp when Dave Walker finally tweaked it and was excellent to drive but I agree with the gearbox suggestion, mine had the long ratio box and I think it would have been much improved by the short ratio one. Still, I did have the needle right off the scale of the stack unit (roof off on the Autobahn) on the way back from the Nurburgring though..

Upgrading the suspension has taking the edge of my urge for more power . You can do quite a lot with the ponies supplied .I would still like a Honda .

roadboy wrote:Don't think I would recommend spending money on upgrading an S2 111S. The gains are minimal for the costs involved.

Either enjoy as is and upgrade other areas of the car or save for an engine conversion if you want more power.

Cheers

Dan

pete wrote:Having looked into it and go actual costs I don't see the point. The "just do the head" route looks good at first until you add on all the other stuff you need by which point you are well into four figures for a semi race engine with not that much more power. You might as well put another engine in it.

The smart move, financially, is to follow the well worn path by some on here and sell it and buy one someone else has already done.

I think what most people have said makes sense, I could see myself easily spending £2k for minimal gains and prosibly reduced reliability. Will try just to enjoy it as is at the moment and save up to either replace it or do an engine swap in the winter.

Yup - I've ended up with a VVC engine with throttle bodies and an Emerald. Not the way I would have gone from choice, but I had a converted standard engine with big valves and cams that ate itself, so I picked up a VVC cheap when I found I could integrate the stuff I had. Should be making ITRO 180odd BHP and drives beautifully (when I'm not screwing about with it)

The bits to do that from scratch would end up not far from that 2 grand figure and yeah, had I to spend the money I originally did all over again - it'd be engine swap time.