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[Peetyz]

Hey all, what is available in terms of performance parts for the Omega Mv6 years 97-99?

[TheBoy]

Hey all, what is available in terms of performance parts for the Omega Mv6 years 97-99?

All the 3.0l engines are the same.

Mtek chip, but other than that, not much for sensible money...

[Peetyz]

What is an Mtek chip? what gain does it add?

[elvin315]

What is an Mtek chip? what gain does it add?

I wonder the same thing. I tried the M-Tek site but it seems to be down.

http://www.mtek-performance.co.uk/

My question is, will the chip work on a Catera at all? The MV6 and Catera might not share the same ECM. One difference is the Catera's 125 MPH cut-off. There may be others.

[Omega_MV6]

Many of the same performance parts that are used for the Vectra GSI also yield good effects on a 3.0 Omega. If it's a manual, a Courtenay lightened flywheel will increase the engines willingness to rev by a large mount (it's nearly 10kg ligher!). This totally transforms the way the car feels. A 4 bar fuel pressure regulator and a bored out throttle body will help. Courtenay also sell some aftermarket 3.0 cams which increase BHP by 18bhp over the standard 3.0 engine. These, together with the chip, should yield some nice gains without spending too much money. I always run mine on 99RON fuel too...this makes a difference.

[Kevin Wood]

A 4 bar fuel pressure regulator

Presumably you'd change the fuel pressure only in conjunction with a chip that's calibrated for a higher fuel pressure? Otherwise, you'll just end up over-fuelling the engine.

Kevin

[Admin]

I discussed this with Mark a little while back.

The current 3.0 fuel rail and injectors are already capable of handling much more than the engine produces currently.

My concern with a lightened flywheel would be transmission jolt. The dual mass flywheel was designed to ensure gearchanges are very smooth. In my opinion I would look for gains elsewhere.

I will need to look at these cams Courtney are selling....

The real bottleneck is, the exhaust manifolds!

These are far too restrictive a design. A properly balanced pair could really free up some power (back pressure could be designed in easily enough). Cost, I suspect would be the issue here.

The Mtek chip is excellent, and using the best petrol gives a noticeable improvement.

Oh, and don't forget a healthy well serviced engine with clean fluids (transmission and final drive also), clear breathers and throttle bodies will produce considerably more power than one that has not been as well maintained.

[Kevin Wood]

Not sure I'd be rushing to lighten the flywheel on an Omega. On a very light car it can make quite a difference because not only do you lose the weight of the flywheel but also the engine doesn't have to accelerate it up to 6/7/8k RPM (depending on state of tune) with each gear. On a light car, the loss of momentum when pulling away doesn't really matter too much either.

On an Omega, the car is pretty heavy to start with so losing 10 Kg is neither here nor there. I suspect, whilst the engine might "feel" more lively when revving in neutral, the effect of the flywheel on acceleration in-gear is probably negligible. The car is also a heavy vehicle to pull away so the reduced momentum in the flywheel will probably make it less pleasant to drive in traffic.

The exhaust manifolds look really poor to me. There is no "primary" at all, with the 3 ports on each side connecting straight into the downpipe. Some tubular manifolds with proper tuned primaries would be a very interesting mod to try.

Kevin

[Omega_MV6]

Regardless of how heavy the car is, the flywheel is reciprocating mass which multiplies the effect. The Omega was designed with an overly heavy flywheel so it could pass emmision/state tests in other counteries, where the idle speed has to be set lower (hence the heavy flywheel to keep the engine turning at low RPM). It also incorporates a dual-mass system, which is designed to aid comfort (ie smooth gearchanging) rather than out and out engine response.

I speak from experience, having owned a 1999 3.0 MV6 manual with the flywheel kit fitted. The difference really is very obvious - it revs much quicker and more freely (whilst on power on the move - not just whilst sat in neutral) and heel and toe gear changes become easier due to the faster response from the engine when blipping the accelerator.

With regards to transmission jolt, yes gear changes become slightly more difficult to get perfect, buy if you're a half decent driver, it takes all of 10 minutes to get acclimatised. Really not much of a problem.

Finally, yes I agree with the comments about the exhaust manifolds. Somebody on 'Bahnstormers had a an equal length stainless tubular manifold made up for his 24V Carlton GSI - at a reasonable cost if I remember right - and good increases in power were noted. I'm currently investigating potential companies to have a set made up for my Omega.

[ChrisMV6]

Performance mods fitted to mine:

Stainless exhaust - worth doing, noticable difference if you ask for more power rather than noise
Courtney panel filter and drilled airbox - Small gain, small money
Magnecor leads - Got them free, smoother running but no noticed power gains
Lightened flywheel - Car feels a lot more lively, most noticeble at about 50mph when you want to overtake, theres no slow build up of speed, it just gets up and f**ks off. For the money/difference ratio i reckon this is the best mod to do.
Lowered - about 40mm at front and 60mm at the back, improves handling and stops the wingmirrors hitting the floor when it rolls round corners
Drilled and grooved discs - they do help stop the barge quickly when at high speed.

[M-Tek Performance]

If the exhausts manifolds are poor (which they are) then the cams arent going to make too much of a difference - remember, an engine is a pump, and if you cant pump the air out, then its going to make no improvements, only downsides.

also imo, port size would need to be increased.  again, getting the air in and out is paramount.

I looked into it alot when I owned an Omega.  For the £3k-£4k I was looking at spending it simply wasnt worth it.

Also, Spark leads will not increase performance at all, unless your leads are broken, then all you're doing is getting the performance back to how it should've been in the first place.

A spark is a spark. what the higher quality leads do is just ensure that the leads dont break down.

Upping fuel pressure is all good and well, but too much pressure can stop the injectors opening properly.

[M-Tek Performance]

Just to add, sadly in as per our reply to Elvin via email, we cant provide anything for the Catera.