Omega Owners Forum
Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: Owen on 07 October 2009, 00:54:23
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Alright fellas, been away from here for a few years but am back in the market for an Omega. Those of you the recognize me probably remember me for my endless posts asking for help as I had done something to my engine, but didn’t know what.
Since I been of the Omega I have had two motors, an ST220. (I have to say that Ford must have drawn there BHP from very old horses, or maybe feral donkeys on that one) and a Saab 9-3 LPT (low pressure turbo) which I was well impressed with. Paid 2K on an 02 plate for the Saab, wasn’t like lightning but went ok, joined the Saab forum as you do with a new motor and found some guys that do mystical things with ECU,s. Got talking with one of them and he told me that he could take my ECU do some vodoo, plug it back in and it would produce 220BHP! Yup I was well skeptical about that one, but it was only gonna cost me £140 to get it done. So I thought sod it, try it out. To play safe bought an ECU from ebay, sent it to him, gave him the details from my ECU, and went to get it 2 days later, plugged it in and off I went. Noticed a difference straight away and 2 days after that got it on a dyno where it spat out 236 BHP and all for £140. :)
Needles to say for the next few weeks I booted it everywhere and took every opportunity to have a go at any motor who wanted to try, like a prepubescent teen turd with an XR3i (if you remember back that far)
So last week Im pulled up at the lights on a roundabout here in MK, a very nice looking black T-plate MV6 pulls up next to me, then I realize its an Elite, twin pipes, lowered, with MV6 alloys on it. So I thinks, try it bud, please, have had an MV6 and an elite already! Also bearing in mind this was early hours and there wasn’t much about. Light turn green neither of us flaws it, we both sedately drive off, him in the fast lane me in the slow inching past each other, exchanging polite smiles at not more the 60 mph. Come to the next round about together, pause (which is a junction with the A5 so is a fairly big one) then we both flaw it. At that point, and I have to confess, I was stunned! The Elite pulled away so dam quick and when the roundabout curved right I saw his back end slide then scramble for traction. I pushed me foot to the floor and what happened with my 236BHP front wheel drive with no traction control motor? Would give you 3 guesses but your only gonna need the one. Yup, straight line, crash barrier. The Elite driver didn’t drive off, he came all the way round the roundabout, stopped got out and checked to see if I was ok and not flapping , then amicably left the scene with a smile and when he got back in his car he would his window down and said smiling
“Rear wheel drive mate, can’t knock it”
Clearly this was no stock Elite, or MV6, or whatever the hell it was! In essence I wrote my Saab off trying to beat a guy in a Vauxhall, who was sitting in a leather armchair, listening to Radio2, with his air con cool, and his self leveling suspension keeping him nice and comfortable.
Well now that my insurance has paid out ~(after that dam dog that jumped out in the road just before I hit the barrier) I find myself wanting a leather arm chair instead of a half leather sports that makes my back ache and my nearly 40 year old ass numb.
So if you are, or you know a guy who has a black Elite with twin pipes and goes like a rocket thanks for being a gent regarding out predicament, and for teaching me a lesson. Reminding me that I’m not a teen anymore, and at my age should know better, and should have stayed in a heated arm chair that has 3 memory setting.
Which is where im hoping to be soon. :)
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Ya live'n' learn ! :y
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At least you got out with any injuries mate :y
It sure looks like you're gonna be back to the beloved mig 8-)
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Glad to see you now have your senisble head back on, FFS an ST220, what were you thinking off. (Joking) as a matter of interest what was the stock BHP on the Saab.
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Think it was 150ish stock so gained an awfull lot of power throught the ECU Vodoo thing :)
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Think it was 150ish stock so gained an awfull lot of power throught the ECU Vodoo thing :)
50%+ BHP increase for 140 quid. is that why every one says Saab's are so reliable then, then send them out in a detuned state. :-/
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Turns out they do come detuned as stock, the guy that did my ECU had a 260bhp 9-3 and a 450bhp 9000.
Got to say that the ECU was the cheapest mod for the most power I have ever had.
I could get another 9-3 and have the ECU vodood but i would rather be back in an Omega arm chair ;)
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Dunno if I would want to be in a 450bhp wrong wheel drive turbo car in the wet, as Clarkson said on TG, once you get to arround 250BHP on FWD the rest seems pointles.
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Dunno if I would want to be in a 450bhp wrong wheel drive turbo car in the wet, as Clarkson said on TG, once you get to arround 250BHP on FWD the rest seems pointles.
Well I recon i would have to agree there. Trying to keep the front end down in the wet was prety hairy at times, and no fun at all on fwd. At least with rwd you have some chance of recovering from you drive wheels loosing traction
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for the traffic lights drag , fwd has the advantage ..
on a long run rwd .. but still I prefer a 4wd japanese coke can on a rainy day.. ;D
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I still prefer my old audi S2 Quattro. Wet or dry, not much kept up with that off the lights. That was ECU modded from 220 to approx 260bhp for £180. Bargain!!! :y :y :y
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Well they say wisdom comes with age Owen - so can we look forward to seeing some pics of the result soon? :y :y
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2 days after that got it on a dyno where it spat out 236 BHP and all for £140. :)
The chances are you could have tweaked the wastegate and got the same results for £0.
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2 days after that got it on a dyno where it spat out 236 BHP and all for £140. :)
The chances are you could have tweaked the wastegate and got the same results for £0.
Wastegate? I have no idea what that is :-/
Somthing to do with the turbo im guesing. ::)
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Wastegate? I have no idea what that is :-/
Somthing to do with the turbo im guesing. ::)
You guess correctly.
Without a wastegate, the turbo would simply keep on adding boost until the engine explodes.
Car manufacturers generally set the boost pressure to around 7psi or so, which gives a good trade off for performance versus reliability.
Forcing the wastegate to stay shut for longer gives the obvious power & torque increase, but at the expense of engine life expectancy.
The same applies to "chipped" ECU's.
You will get the extra power no problem, but your engine isn't going to last as long as the manufacturer intended it to unless you really start spending money..