Notes on stage 2 above refer to swirl flaps. I have always understood that Ford stopped putting swirl flaps on the Duratec in the early noughties. Be interesting to know if you have them when the inlet manifold is removed.
I'm following this with interest. Do you have a picture with the fitted manifold?
Kind regards,
Steve.
Hi chaps,
I'll have plenty of photos to share and the answer to the swirl flaps question when I get the car back from Fusion Fabrications in just over a week.
The waiting is killing me
However, while I'm waiting I thought it would be useful to prove just how well trodden the 2.0 Duratec tuning path is. Firstly let’s look at the two (well three actually) Caterham models using this excellent engine and how they tune them, it’s actually two very simple recipes. This makes sense as porting cylinder heads and adding forged internals is an expensive business, so if you’re making cars you really just want some simple ‘add ons’ to get a bit more power out of your bog standard Ford crate engine.
1. For both their 380 and the more Morgan like Super Seven 2000 models, Caterham just take a 145hp crate Duratec from Ford exactly as Morgan did, but unlike Morgan who left the engine as it was, Caterham simply add their own plenum/inlet manifold and decent long tube exhaust manifold to make 180 bhp @ 7300 rpm.
In the world of naturally aspirated tuning that's an impressive gain for only an exhaust and an intake, and just goes to show how easy it is to get the Duratec to start breathing properly, but it's the emissions friendly cams with their next to no overlap that hide further gains, and significant gains too.
2. So to create the 420, Caterham take the exact same 380/Super Seven 2000 recipe and fit a pair of fairly mild performance cams, in doing so they add 30hp to extract 210 bhp @ 7600 rpm.
Unlike Morgan who used the Visteon/Ford ECU as found in the Mk3 Ford Mondeo, Caterham wisely uses an MBE ECU to run their Duratec powered cars.
Another vehicle that runs the 2.0 litre Ford/Mazda Duratec engine is the Mk3 (NC variant) Mazda MX5, millions of these things were made and being a sports car people tend to tune them. When you look at tuning the MX5 you soon find the market leader in the UK is BBR, they offer five naturally aspirated packages no less and delivering the following power levels:
1. 175hp
2. 180hp
3. 185hp
4. 200hp
5. 225hp
Sure, to get to 225hp they use throttle bodies, but all their other tuning packages retain the Mazda factory plenum/inlet manifold, which is better than the Ford one by the way, BBR also achieves this using the superior Mazda ECU. By all accounts their Super 200 package is much like how Caterham turns a 380 into a 420, BBR just takes their 180/185 package and adds a pair of fairly mild performance cams. From what I've read, more often than not, a Super 200 will actually produce 205hp so that's just 5hp shy of Caterham's claim of 210hp for their 420 model using an almost identical recipe to the BBR Super 200.
So as we can see a bog standard 145hp 2.0 Duratec from Ford can be easily taken to the 180/185hp mark with just a good exhaust and a decent plenum design, then simply add a pair of fairly tame fast road cams and the engine will consistently deliver 205/210hp. To be fair the Fiesta ST150 community have been doing exactly the same thing for many many years now and all this evidence just proves the hidden potential of this excellent engine.
However, back to our Duratec Plus 4 it seems apparent that much beyond adding a decent Super Sports type exhaust like the one I had built by Fusion Fabrications which will likely take you from 145hp to 165hp, the Visteon/Ford ECU starts to become the limiting factor. If you then add a better intake manifold like the one I've selected (also from Fusion Fabrications), and you really need a bit more control over your fueling to release the full potential and stay safe under full load.
Once I'd made the commitment to go with the Ecumasters EMU Black, I also realised it would open the door to a pair of fairly mild performance cams. Then after studying the results achieved by Caterham, BBR and the ST150 community and just how consistent their results are with each other, it suddenly dawned on me that a reliable and nice driving 200hp Monty was well within my grasp.
Watch this space for results
