turbo or bodies

[mcgee.m]

thinking ove wot to do next go turbo or bodies

[pie]

what engine buddy?

whats you budget?

bodies sounds fukicking wicked :thumb:

[blue_peg_16v]

Depends on usage both have merits but for £ per bhp has to be a turbo imo

[philip]

more reliable xe, straight line LET, most lads will say let, seems to be answer to most things, but if want a fast road car or track then the xe is going to be more fun and enjoyable especially as wont be under the bonnet every other week fixing it. i know many lads who have gone back to xes over lets as nicer drive.

id say tbs but i prefer building n/a engines over let any day

[Paul]

Ive gone XE - LET - XE on TBs

[mcgee.m]

my nova is a road going track car striped out poly windows is on carbs but wont more power and reiable is the key not to botherd about price not in no rush

[blue_peg_16v]

Tbf both me and nickj have both had xe's to high specks and there's no comparison to the let the let actualy drives alot nice than a modified xe, and as for always under the bonnet that hasn't been the case in my experience, I've replaced the headgasket once on my let and that's the only problem I have had blew 6 xe's up, I do alot of drag racing when it's on the road, the power of my let on standard boost is similar to the power of my xe but due to the torque it's so much faster, and then I can spin the switch to turn the boost up and have 306bhp,

[blue_peg_16v]

my nova is a road going track car striped out poly windows is on carbs but wont more power and reiable is the key not to botherd about price not in no rush

If your already on carbs and there set up well you will get very little difference with throttlebodies, a mate has 2 xe novas one on 45 carbs and one on jenvys and there's feck all in it says it's a bit smoother round town and a little better on fuel but when the foots flat to the floor there the same

[pie]

lets aint tha much work tbh dude both my mates cav turbo are 450+bhp and one of them is a daily lol

[Connor]

Depends on function, if your wanting top bhp then turbo, if your looking for a responsive engine that power can be easi(er)ly planted then bodies.
Personally if it were me, tb's for me, as its more than enough in a nova (IMO) but its all down to personal preferences and purpose and also budget

[mcgee.m]

when u say budget wots really the diffrants in price and cars more used on tracks and then will go to meets as its my weekend car as drive van in week

[philip]

chipsets for lets are shockingly poor, come on boost like a switch. mate had 6spd, atb, tracked, 888s etc on his 420bhp let...went well on the dta, but only good in a straight line and ok on the bends. let got broke and im building it into a hi-comp xe now.

[Connor]

Well either option isnt cheap lets put it that way, bodies would be cheaper i would say, but its not just 'bodies' or 'turbo' its the matching modifications to be able to benefit either, and the turbo option is to find a decent let engine

[blue_peg_16v]

chipsets for lets are shockingly poor, come on boost like a switch. mate had 6spd, atb, tracked, 888s etc on his 420bhp let...went well on the dta, but only good in a straight line and ok on the bends. let got broke and im building it into a hi-comp xe now.

The problem is apparent straight away 420bhp is crazy it you want a drivable reliable car a mildly tuned let in a nova would be a totally different animal to that

[philip]

it was driveable, it was mapped so boost was low at lower revs and increasing up the revs, so there was no lag, you could sit in 6th at 30mph and it would pull away as smooth as you like, but i built a mates let on phs 4...completly different to drive...it was snatchy, torque steered all over the place etc, had atb, b12s, toyos, equal shafts and just horrible.

id stil stand that a let on chips drives ****e compared to a mapped tbs xe, due to how the boost is delivered.

[Alex J]

Ive gone XE - LET - XE on TBsyours is never going to see the light of day now you have a bird lol

[Andy_L]

Are you on 40's or 45's?

Playing devils advocat I'd say go supercharged.

[Stuart]

Z22SE/Saab B207 hybrid and TVS charger = 350bhp all linear etc :)

A well calibrated LET will be a joy and pleasure to drive on track or road imho.... problem is everyone just bolts on the biggest turbo they can find and either use poor chip tuning or an ecu thats setup on the cheap for full bore only and therefore poo at idle/low throttle drive.
VNT's are coming on leaps and bounds for petrol applications too, I'd seriously consider something like that as you then get all the drivability and power you want :)

[Andy_L]

A VNT is a variable turbo?

Stu any links to the aforementioned Z22 idea?

[Stuart]

Some on the vx forum and some on the Z22SE forum.
The Saab B207 engine is 'the same' as the Z22 but its got a better made head and its a mere 2.0 BUT happier to rev etc.

[Gareth_C]

for cost effective i would say Let, steveboyslim was selling reconed c20let for around £1300 iirc and you have 200bhp straight off to get that from a xe your talking that price just for the bodies (new).
The noise then bodies make are unreal, so if its noise you want then the xe is the one to choose, but take it from me it the xe route is a long and expensive path, if I knew the costs involved i would have built a let from the start and had twice the power for the money i have spent. so its what do you prefere really.

[philip]

why have twice the power when realistically cant get it down? you'll have more fun with the xe than a let, i spent best part of 6k ish on my xe and i built it and machined it all myself....decided to sell it and bought an evo best thing i ever did tbh, 400bhp goes well in a straight line and even better on the bends. unless wanting to get into drag racing where need lots of power, spend god knows how long seat time, perfecting suspension etc then have fun with the xe, i know escorts which on the track are wiping the floor with skylines, kitcars, evos etc, so there not slow if want to do track events. look at chip with his corsa in TV, hes having a right laugh now with the xe than he had wioth the let in the rear engined nova or the saab engine in it now.

[Gareth_C]

why have twice the power when realistically cant get it down? you'll have more fun with the xe than a let, i spent best part of 6k ish on my xe and i built it and machined it all myself....decided to sell it and bought an evo best thing i ever did tbh, 400bhp goes well in a straight line and even better on the bends. unless wanting to get into drag racing where need lots of power, spend god knows how long seat time, perfecting suspension etc then have fun with the xe, i know escorts which on the track are wiping the floor with skylines, kitcars, evos etc, so there not slow if want to do track events. look at chip with his corsa in TV, hes having a right laugh now with the xe than he had wioth the let in the rear engined nova or the saab engine in it now.
Yes again it's the same difference, I was on about cost effectiveness. And if your gonna spend time settin the car up for the track like you say then why not spend less money on the engine I.e a let and use the remaining on the setup? Let's are still better value for money as a road going track car IMO.
Also I can't comment on the fun around the track in either as my £12k xe hasn't seen it yet :cry:

[Mieran]

I can vouch for LET on chipped motronic not working on track, its either on or of boost lol

One more thing regarding noise: LET with external wasgate and screamer pipe >>> XE on throttle bodies

[Gareth_C]

I can vouch for LET on chipped motronic not working on track, its either on or of boost lol

One more thing regarding noise: LET with external wasgate and screamer pipe >>> XE on throttle bodies

Was it not your driving :p

[mcgee.m]

thanks for all the feed back its time to think

[gary_126]

i personally prefer the power delivery and driving style on n/a, pluss the sound!! ive a small block 16xe on jenveys, making just shy of 180bhp, (i bought the engine second hand, to build from scratch with new parts your looking at 8-10k) where as a 200bhp let can be had for £1200, BUT it wont handle as well, just depends what your after..

[Stuart]

BUT it wont handle as well, just depends what your after..


10000% bollocks.

[turbojolt]

It always comes back to this same subject bigblock novas don't handle as well lmfao

[John]

I always remember watching a video of Dave Marshal on track with his c-let gte. Was fantastic on track imho.

[Graeme]

An the handling on beasties at the 'ring looks fantastic

Regularly hits 140, looks nice and level in the bends, don't get me wrong though I know he's done the 'ring a few times but the car is only on Gaz's, so its not on mega money suspension

Clicky (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2UaVZ0VeZw)

[John]

Awesome! :)

[richi]

i agree with a previous comment, if you already have carbs, presume there 45's surley the money could be spent better else where rather than putting tb's in there, especially when you mentioned its a track car imo. dont think there will be a massive difference between the carbs if they are set up correctly, but putting tbs in there will cost a fair chunk of cash

[philip]

no dif between 45mm carbs and tbs, except maybe abit better mpg and mid range with tbs but peak power is the same.

[mcgee.m]

really so if the carbs r set up good wot sort ov power gains have people getting

[Jonlem]

Big block simply does not handle as well as the small block cars, thats a fact, but then you have to pour a serious amount of wedge into a small block to make it anywhere near as powerful as a tb'd 20xe * unless you visit jnc rolling road

FWD turbo does work, I think the current touring cars prove that.

The problem is as already mentioned people are quick to want a ton of power but don't want to pay for it so end up with a crap spec mainly consisting of a massive turbo run on a chipset, even on a decent ecu you will still struggle as the turbo just isn't responsive enough.

Half the reason the let has a bad name is that 95% of them have been thrown together, the overall package isn't great and it obviously needs to be right.

Quite simply if your planning to use a LET and its reasonably modified then fit a good ecu and let someone map it that has half an idea about laying power down on a fwd car.

If your planning going the NA route, stock engine, 1612 and a pair of Jenveys, Ollys engine was a superb budget setup that went plenty well enough for a cheapish track car IMO

[Big_Chap]

I went TB's