hay guys complete novice when it comes to tuning engines... thesis my first turbo and first diesel engine so you might need to explain things a bit clearer for me... right I've just fitted a boost gauge and k and n air filter to it the boost gauge is telling me I'm getting about 13 psi ... i want more power out of the engine and i don't know where to begin any help would be greatly appreciated also as many pics as possible I'm no mechanic cheers all

 

There's a few things you can do, I've been playing around with an escort tddi estate over the past month or two and aside from the cost of getting a custom stainless exhaust made, achieved some surprising gains for relatively little cost

I think yours has the same or similar engine as mine, which is an endura de (stamped on top of the engine), there's a few different versions according to year but most of this holds true for any turbo diesel anyway

Two cheap mods, block off the egr valve, I got a blanking plate off ebay for something like two quid, easy to fit. Decat the exhaust

I bought a length of steel pipe for three quid from a local metal goods place, cut the flanges off the cat and welded them onto a suitably cut length of pipe, took the cat to a scrappy and got eighteen quid for it

I since got the stainless exaust made but you might not wanna go to that kind of expense (if you do, be careful where you get it from, ask knowledgeable people for recommendations), if you don't wanna spend that much a de-cat is definitely worth doing

I had good results from doing away with the stock air-pipe and fitting a 45 degree silicon elbow straight into the maf straight into a heat-shielded stainless cone induction filter (you went the k&n panel route I think)

Two free mod and easy mods, take any slack out of the throttle cable, you just pull off the metal clip holding the rubber grommett on the throttle cable in place, pull the grommet back until there's no slack in the cable and replace the clip

On mine I was amazed to find over two inches of slack, took this out and it very nigh transformed the car!

The second of these cheap easy mods is idling speed, if you wanna be able to take off quicker at lights, roundabouts etc then this is a popular mod for achieving this, on many guides people recommend setting it to around 1100rpm, I think that's excessive, mine's set at a thousand and coupled with the other bits I've done it's plenty quick enough off the mark

If you need quicker than these tweaks I'm giving ya then you're a greedy sod with no business driving an escort van ;p

For idling speed adjustment look at diesel pump tuning guides, yours should be a lucas diesel pump and there are lots of guides on the web for tuning these, off the top off my head a concise and simple one can be found on fordwiki, a more in-depth (and perhaps better) one can be found on the turbo diesel owners uk club website/forum

You mentioned a boost gauge, when you look at tuning guides, certainly the turbo diesel owners club (tdocuk.co.uk) one you'll note two things

Increasing turbo boost alone won't make your car noticeably faster, fuelling has to be increased to match the extra boost, this is what the diesel pump tuning guides will show you how to do

Increasing fuelling should also result in a turbo boost increase, might be small but the ecu will increase the boost to some degree when it learns about the extra fuel availability

For more boost either move the actuator arm (free but least precise), fit a manual boost controller (cheap, precise enough and not hard to fit) or an electric boost controller

I'm using a manual one (mbc), works brilliantly. If you do fit one though, be prepared to spend time playing with it, I've found that a high boost setting (from 20-23 psi) is great for low to mid range grunt, but I found speed dying off quite a lot at motorway speeds especially if I floored it on hills

I wouldn't run it at more than 20psi on the standard intercooler anyway (if you even have one, but if it's already at 13 psi you probably do)

I have it running on around 18psi at the moment with only the idle-throttle-boost-compensator adjustments done, you'll understand that if you read the pump tuning guides, with those adjustments I've found this setting to be the best for all-round driving

The boost compensator is a ****** to get at on the escort, might be easier on yours, without a ramp I have to get a mate to assist, but there's another one I ain't mentioned that's harder to access so I've not done it yet, also explained in the guides

It's a screw inside the pump that controls the max fuelling rate, adjusting this one will provide more on-boost fuel, which in turn will increase your boost a little bit more, but not only that, the power loss at high speed I mentioned?

From what I've read, it seems to be down to not enough fuel going through to match the amount of air provided by the high turbo boost, adjusting the max fuelling screw lets you run it at higher boost without that power loss in the higher rev ranges, wouldn't go more than 20 with the standard intercooler through

Want more boost now your fuel pump can handle it but your intercooler ain't eficient enough? Get something like a focus st intercooler and front mount it behind the bumper grille, not a job most people could do themselves and could be costly, but with it done you're good for up to 25psi, which I have read read is about the limit you can take this engine to before the head gasket blows, so probably safer to stay a bit below it

I've done egr, air filter, exhaust, throttle cable slack, idle speed-throttle travel-boost compensator adjustments to fuel pump, fitted mbc and with set boost to around 18psi

The cost has been:

egr blanking plate, two quid and half-hour of my time

de-cat, three quid for pipe, eighteen quid return for scrapping cat, say an hour to cut away the cat and weld in some pipe, probably less

Filter, tenner for the elbow, eight quid for the cone filter, paid for by the cat, so far in total I've spent a fiver and some time

Boost controller and boost gauge, about thirty-five quid, took a few hours mostly cos of fiddling with where and how to fit the gauge so I could see it while driving without being 'in your face'

Diesel pump/throttle tuning, free and WAY more hours googling and reading info than actually doing it!

Total spent, forty quid, and the difference to the car with those things done is well surprising, after doing that and general service stuff it went from sounding and driving like a doddery clattery old diesel to purring along at thirty then becoming a snarling beast that throws you back into your seat when you've a need to give it some stick

As you've already got a gauge and k&n to take it to where mine was at before the custom exhaust job, which was damn quick, cost you 2 or 3 quid for an egr blanking plate, three quid or so plus what if anything welding costs ya for a decat, twenty at most for a boost controller, potentially as little as thirty quid even if you pay for welding

If you do those things, you'll be amazed at what thirty quid coupled with some time and effort can achieve, if you want more than that, be prepared to shell out some serious money

 

Hay nice one for the reply ..... Couple of things though ... Mines not got an inter cooler fitted can you fit one to this engine if so how hard is it to do ... And if I go for the de cat what happens at mot time do I need to replace the cat to get through the emissions test ... All in all brilliant reply cheers fella