Looking at spending some money on upgrades for my s2 once it's back from having all the welding done, I was thinking of getting a piper cam kit, evo chip and a airtec rad. What's people's thoughts on these? Cheers

 

I've got an airtec rad and its been good for 4 years. My car came with a piper cam kit in and that's been ok too although a lot of people on here don't rate them. Don't overlook a good brake setup too.

 

Which airtec rad do you have? The half rad or full with fans?

 

I wouldn't bother with a half cooler mate

Get a alloy rad, front mount kit, and when running it use a Motorsport developments up rated fan switch and low temp thermostat, will make such a difference when you up the boost

Then genuine ford spark plugs fitted and gapped by who ever is tuning it along with a decent chip and "brand new "
-31 actuator as I garranty your old actuator won't hold boost

Then you should have the perfect road set up with around 17psi boost aslong as you have a decent exhaust and air filter


A tip for you, if you can find a turbo systems chip then in my opinion it's the best chip, and it's a lot cheaper to buy a second hand ecu with a chip than to buy a new chip

 

Cheers mate, got a full mongoose system n k&n filter on it, what price would I be looking at for the above plus setup? Cheers

 

As already said if tuning then upgrade brakes which can be done cheaply with mk3 mondeo front calipers, sierra/escort cossie front calipers, focus st/rs front calipers and disks to suit the calipers you decide on for the rears either rs2000 rear beam or sierra rear calipers/disks/handbrake cable

 

Kent CVH34 is a better road spec cam.... it's an Ahmed Bayjoo profile

 

I personally would fit a genuine ford can kit over a Kent/piper, both are crap

If you go for second hand bits you could get the intercooler and rad with fans for Ł250/300

Fan switch and thermostat new Ł35
New actuator Ł70
Chipped ecu's can be had for Ł40
Genuine ford plugs are Ł10

Then I would only use the following company's for set up:
Motorsport developments
Ma developments
Jamsport
Oddkidd creations

Always best to travel for the best tune up, last thing you want is to fit all your new bits and it blow up due to a dodgy set up

Some sound advise is too give the car all new fluids, fuel filter and plugs, leads, cap and rotor arm, I will put money on it something along those lines will need changing so for the sake of Ł80/100 for a full service it will make all the difference

 

Or if you do fit a new cam like piper or Kent just fit the cam with new lifters and don't buy the valve springs with their kits because they are crap

 

I have an msd evo chipped ecu.....

 

Cheers for the info

Would you recommend using Norris Motorsport?

 

If you do go for Norris let me know how you get on mate, I'm in Nottingham and have considered them myself

 

NMS Are pretty much the best CVH tuners in the country!

As for upgrades...
Leave your cam alone unless it's noticeably worn, so many fall apart these days I just wouldn't risk changing it unless you have to, plus a stock cam is good for around 250bhp.
Why do you want to change your rad? A new/good copper RST rad actually cools better than an ally one.
An intercooler on the other hand is an essential upgrade, so Airtec, Radtec, GRS, etc. will do nicely.
As for ECU chips, 99.9% simply remove the boost cut so it really doesn't matter which one you get.
Brakes as mentioned are well worth doing (front not rear).
You may also need a clutch so an AP Racing CP2000-8 is the best choice if you don't want to go paddle.

 

Yes mate sorry totally forgot about nms, great tuner mate