Budmanstl Posted July 25, 2006 Report Share Posted July 25, 2006 I have a 00 Esprit V8, and I was looking to get the Johan ECU upgrade. What are the safest upgrades out there to increase acceleration? I've heard pro's and cons about upgrading the Turbos. But I also heard if you upgrade the ECU, you should upgrade other things as well, like the Turbos. Is this true? My main goal is to increase acceleration while already going 60-80 mph. I want the back of my seat to feel like the Mission to Mars ride at Disney! Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_sekinger Posted July 26, 2006 Report Share Posted July 26, 2006 I have a 00 Esprit V8, and I was looking to get the Johan ECU upgrade. What are the safest upgrades out there to increase acceleration? I've heard pro's and cons about upgrading the Turbos. But I also heard if you upgrade the ECU, you should upgrade other things as well, like the Turbos. Is this true? My main goal is to increase acceleration while already going 60-80 mph. I want the back of my seat to feel like the Mission to Mars ride at Disney! Andy I Quote 1996 Esprit V8, 1998 Esprit V8 GT, 1999 Esprit S350 #002 (Esprit GT1 replica project), 1996 Esprit V8 GT1 (chassis 114-001), 1992 Lotus Omega (927E), 1999 Esprit V8SE, 1999 Esprit S350 #032, 1995 Esprit S4s, 1999 Esprit V8 GT (ex-5th Gear project), 1999 Esprit V8SE ('02 rear) 1999 S350 #002 Esprit GT1 replica Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paula&Marcus Posted July 27, 2006 Report Share Posted July 27, 2006 I have a 00 Esprit V8, and I was looking to get the Johan ECU upgrade. What are the safest upgrades out there to increase acceleration? I've heard pro's and cons about upgrading the Turbos. But I also heard if you upgrade the ECU, you should upgrade other things as well, like the Turbos. Is this true? My main goal is to increase acceleration while already going 60-80 mph. I want the back of my seat to feel like the Mission to Mars ride at Disney! Andy Andy, Since the V8 is a (really detuned) turbo engine its quite simple to raise its output. A very elegant and simple way is to install the Red ECU (you can get one from Johan or from me). This new ECU is able to raise your max. output to around 450 HP. If your car really will get 450HP continously is a different matter, because there are some other restrictions that should get adressed, too. 1). max. output depends very much on ambient temp. The hotter it is outside, the lower your max. HP will be. This has to do with turbo efficiency and with high MAT-sensor readings that will tell your ECU to reduce max. boost and retard ignition. On a hot summer day you will "only" get around 380HP with the Red ECU. On the other side on a cold day in Spring/Autumn (if you live in Scandinavia ;o) you will see 50 HP more 2. The brick-like cats are VERY restrictive. These rob around 30 HP vs. a good high flow metal cat setup 3. The stock turbos are quite small/tiny. They can support max. HP only some seconds before the whole scenario will get quite inefficient. This is also dependent on ambient temp -> the lower the temps the better ! Additionally the stock wastegate capsules are very weak. Some are not able to hold higher pressure than 0.7 bar 4. The paper Air-Filters are taken from a production car that has 1.2 litre displacement ... A good high flow K&N (or similar) should not be a bad idea You see if you like to get some performance, here is my personal list what you may do. You dont have to do all this ... I just put it in a nice listing 1. Step - K&N filters - RED ECU 2. Step - High flow metal cats - reflowed turbos with better efficiency and better wastegate capsules (0.4 - 1 bar) Cheers Marcus Quote Marcus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cliff Posted July 27, 2006 Report Share Posted July 27, 2006 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paula&Marcus Posted July 28, 2006 Report Share Posted July 28, 2006 Huuuuuuuuuuu ... seems to me he added some lightness Quote Marcus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DBredS4 Posted July 28, 2006 Report Share Posted July 28, 2006 Remember these cars had to pass strict emmissions rules to be exported the the states etc. One easy way to get them past those regs is to strangle the airflow which lots of car companies do. Most engines on the market can easily have power freed up just by better breathing. Also, the weak link is the gearbox which will be less stressed with less power through it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rydning Posted August 17, 2006 Report Share Posted August 17, 2006 Thats the quis:The gearbox... I have heard that they had to restict the V8 torque and pwr to get the gearbox to last.It looks like they where not aware of how week the gearbox was. Or did they intend to use a other gearbox but "ran" out of money??? I feel if this car was delivered with a proper gearbox it could easily give 500bhp on a twin turbo 3,5ltr in stock form and outrun most of the supercars in productions from 96-04.Even to day it would be a damn quick car.... At least they should have tryed a other gearbox.I gess the car new price would be Quote 89 Lotus Esprit Turbo S Very fast road and trackday car. GT3076R+ a lot of other modifications. http://lotusespritwo...inZzdningz.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Basset Posted August 21, 2006 Report Share Posted August 21, 2006 And yes the V8 is easy to get more power. I belive (dreaming) that if you buy the gearbox upgradingparts to it, you can get 600bhp easily and have a lot of FUN. I wish I could by a V8 I would not be so sure, Lotus had problems with increasing the power much beyond standard. Also even if the engine can be uprated don't be so sure about the rest of the car being up to it. We had John Miles at one of our Club Lotus meetings last year and he told us that the torsional stiffness of the Esprit was many times less than an average family saloon and it really was at the limit of it's design with the V8 power. Apparently they built a prototype with bracing between the bulkhead and the rear suspension top mount in the flying buttress and it made the world of difference to the car. It would be interesting to see if some of the aftermarket tuning companies could come up with a viable method of doing this, then it really might be worth exploring the tuning potential of the engine. In terms of tuning I had Lotus remap my ecu to sport 350 spec, it makes it accelerate far better. As Marcus has said reducing ambient temps would be good so water injection might be worthwhile. Regards Fred Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bernie Posted August 22, 2006 Report Share Posted August 22, 2006 Andy, Since the V8 is a (really detuned) turbo engine its quite simple to raise its output. A very elegant and simple way is to install the Red ECU (you can get one from Johan or from me). This new ECU is able to raise your max. output to around 450 HP. If your car really will get 450HP continously is a different matter, because there are some other restrictions that should get adressed, too. 1). max. output depends very much on ambient temp. The hotter it is outside, the lower your max. HP will be. This has to do with turbo efficiency and with high MAT-sensor readings that will tell your ECU to reduce max. boost and retard ignition. On a hot summer day you will "only" get around 380HP with the Red ECU. On the other side on a cold day in Spring/Autumn (if you live in Scandinavia ;o) you will see 50 HP more 2. The brick-like cats are VERY restrictive. These rob around 30 HP vs. a good high flow metal cat setup 3. The stock turbos are quite small/tiny. They can support max. HP only some seconds before the whole scenario will get quite inefficient. This is also dependent on ambient temp -> the lower the temps the better ! Additionally the stock wastegate capsules are very weak. Some are not able to hold higher pressure than 0.7 bar 4. The paper Air-Filters are taken from a production car that has 1.2 litre displacement ... A good high flow K&N (or similar) should not be a bad idea You see if you like to get some performance, here is my personal list what you may do. You dont have to do all this ... I just put it in a nice listing 1. Step - K&N filters - RED ECU 2. Step - High flow metal cats - reflowed turbos with better efficiency and better wastegate capsules (0.4 - 1 bar) Cheers Marcus I looked at K&N filters and they are none for the V8...Do you use a filter from another kind of car??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fmxa Posted August 22, 2006 Report Share Posted August 22, 2006 The K&N Part number is 33-2547 ~$30 each at http://shop.knfilters.com/knshop/ - see cross-reference guide in the V8 technical section. I looked at K&N filters and they are none for the V8...Do you use a filter from another kind of car??? Quote Paddle Faster, I hear Banjos! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pred247 Posted August 22, 2006 Report Share Posted August 22, 2006 I looked at K&N filters and they are none for the V8...Do you use a filter from another kind of car??? LOL, That's funny! I have two sat on my desk right now with 8.5mm magnecor leads I got mine from sj sports cars LTD. Good fast and friendly service. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FastMatt Posted September 24, 2006 Report Share Posted September 24, 2006 My car has been running fine with 511.5 HP at the wheels for quite some time. Still running strong and nothing has broken yet. I beleave these cars are MUCH stronger then given credit for. As long as you tune the car well, and dont power shift. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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