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Engine tuner recommendations


Ainsley

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Premier Power and Northampton Motorsport seem well respected when it comes to tuning Caterham engines, but am I missing anyone else before spending my money.

Im specifically aiming to improve the road performance of a 420 R, Duratec.

So I will already have a Dry Sump, LSD and lightened flywheel.  My most likely spend will be on the inlet side, cams, springs etc with an ECU to suit.

Anyone not too far from these two geographically that I should go and see ?

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Where are you based?

Luke at Team Leos (Team Leo’s?) via one if the two Steves can remap standard Caterham ECUs as well as advise on other related stuff.

The chaps at PGM really know their stuff too.

Personally, I have made my own contribution to the profits of Stuart Cresswell (Premier Power) and am happy to rave about his work (💰💰💰but value!)

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There are mant good RR operators around, if your looking to run an Emerald ECU then take it over to Dave Walker at Emerald, the very latest MAHA single roller set up with massive amounts of experience.

unless RR's are regularly checked and calibrated then accurate comparable figures are not reliable, there are too many variables and operators can manipulate the numbers to artificailly inflate them by various means.

when used correctly they will accurately measure the wheel torque over a predetermined acceleration run and then using a run down phase in order to measure the tranamission losses to offer a flywheel figure.

large diameter single rollers like the MAHA are accepted to be more accurate than the old industry standard twin roller SUN RAM 1212 small twin tollers which served many companies well for decades.

but they only measure whats there on the day, they are a tuning tool, theres no magic involved, temperatures etc can and do vary these numbers, chose a reputable company with skill and knowedge of your ECU and you won't go far wrong

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I may well go and see them on Saturday, if the weather is as crap as it has been recently I wont be busy doing anything else.

I've spent the last few miserable days on YouTube watching head porting and velocity stack videos - Im a (YouTube) expert now !

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Couldn’t agree more. I only had a cam belt changed at PP (although there is a lot to remove so not to be underestimated) and it was a joy to watch them working on the car. Such care and attention from all the staff.

Edited by StevehS3
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On 04/11/2023 at 18:11, Ainsley said:

What did you get Premier to do to your car ?

I went for the F190 upgrade with his ultra-light flywheel and an oil/water heat-exchanger.  

Stuart suggested a couple of other things too (repositioned coolant header and oil breather plus rad bobbins and steering rack gaiters) but time was tight and I have done those things myself since.

I had already had a bit of work done to my original Sigma (head work, cam timing, throttle bodies, remap by Steve G), so Stuart sourced and worked on a fresh engine and I sold my other one on.

 

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1 hour ago, Ainsley said:

I did wonder about his lighter flywheel.  The 420 comes with a lighter flywheel than standard, his is claimed to be a few kg's lighter than that. 

Can you have a flywheel that's too light in the 7 ?

Yes, you can. Though I doubt that Stuart would take you in the wrong direction if you’re clear in what you want from the car. 

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Flywheels are there to smooth out the pulses of the individual firing of the cylinders. It stores rotational energy to allow a smooth idle. Lightening the flywheel too much can compromise this idle smoothness. Standard production engines tend to have heavier flywheels to give production engines this smoothness as they are are more concerned with driver experience than performance . Flywheels in our sevens can be lighter as we are  more tolerant of higher idle rpm which sometimes is required to maintain a smooth idle.  My recent lightened flywheel gives an idle speed of approx 1000 so as it moderately lightened  does not appear too extreme. 

Edited by Beagler
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  • 7 months later...

I’m based in the North East and looking for local tuner options for 210bhp Duratec with MBE ECU, and standard CC map I think.  No particular problems, just keen to have it running as sweetly as it possibly can.

Options seem very limited, but anyone have experience of DayTuner in North Yorkshire?

https://www.daytuner.co.uk/services/mbe-ecu-mapping-mbe-motorsport/

Their website and generic reviews read well to me. 

Thanks

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