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Komotec 430 experience ??


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Komotec 430

Please any feedback much appreciated is it a upgrade that is well worth the €6000 it's a lot of cash !  is it a good performance upgrade for the money for road use mainly ? Is it much noisier with the manifold upgrade as not wanting a crazy volume ? Any feedback from anyone that has taken the plunge I would appreciate it ?

Thankyou

 
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For road use (w/o heavy continues load) the EX430 is s good solution ... the EX460 is more sophisticated and the better thought through solution (it has a charge cooler!!) ... power wise with both you will get a different car back from KT ...

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No, but my thinkng was that given that the standard car has heat soak issues after hard use in England, living in Spain would only exacerbate the problem and it is also known that the KT upgrades cause even more heat soak. In Englad it's about a 3k difference for H111 to install the kt460 and that is what I would go with. Personally I won't touch the car while it is in warranty.

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Gadhead

cheers for the feedback I get ya ? 

Hanger 111 £4000 more plus tax then convert it to euros and it's more than €6000 !! Twice as much.. let me know if you hear of anyone that's heard or tried a 430 ✌️Cheers 

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Gavin: KT has done a lot of EX430 installations. It really depends on what you use the Exige for ... is it just pleasure driving on the road in Mallorca with limited constant full power phases?

Will ist right: heat soak is an issue of the standard engine as well as the EX430 (even more probably). If you have outside air temperatures >26-28C and start to push the car hard (on track or on a mountain road) you will get heat soak (the ECU will reduce power) quickly. With the EX460 you have a chargecooling system that will hold power much longer...

From a subjective power delivery experience (w/o considering the heat soak issue) the EX460 is better but of course not worlds appart. Its just the better engineered package.

But: to make it easy - you can always start with the EX430 and then do an upgrade to the EX460 later one... if you go that route, it is not that much different cost wise...

 

 

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Hi Gavin.

Norbert has it right. For track use, if you can go for the chargecooled solution, you will maintain full power all day every day.  For road use, where you are not using full power all the time, 430 is an excellent upgrade choice.  You can do it in stages all the way from 370 up to 460 without removing parts you have added along the way (other than a remap), it is incremental. The price difference reflects the properly engineered chargecooler solution and the extra work needed to fit it.

Dave

Edited by Hangar 111
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Dave, 

For me the perfect option would be to gain some power lowering engine temperatures at the same time. That is why I think the best option is to change Air intake + Manifolds + Cat + ECU Software and not change the pulley for not increase the air temperatures. But there is not a Komotec kits which fulfil that:

  • ex370 does not change manifolds
  • ex410 does not change air intake and changes pulley
  • ex430 changes pulley

My question is: if I go for a ex370 kit and then I add manifolds and sport cat, do you think that the engine would work well considering that the ECU software is not designed for having manifold and sport cat?

Thanks in advance

:) 

 

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Hanger 111

Hi Dave 

I work away all summer so only track in winter but mainly road use so temps not an issue, if it's bad to race above 25 degrees I'm ok.. is the car a lot noisier with the 430 kit and standard backbox ? As you know Dave I found the komotec valved exhaust too much inside the car how's the 430 car compared to that ?

thanks for the response 

gav

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Hi Gavin.

The heat issue is around sustained hard use causing heat soak in any non-intercooled forced induction engine. Ambient temps will help, but not resolve the issue.

The car is a little louder, as the manifolds are larger bore and the cats in them are gone to be replaced by single sports cat at the rear.  It's not much louder, but I know you prefer it quiet.

Dave

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  • 4 months later...

Hi Gavin - if it is still an issue -

I just had the 430 upgrade done at KT and I think it is a massive improvement . I wanted the 390 kit with additional cold air intake first to get somewhere close to 400 hp when Daniel Koblitschek  convinced me that I actually get a better value for my money going for the 430 kit. You actually pay    € 77 .- per horsepower - this is an excellent value. Now I have 426 Hp on the dyno and I did not really feel much of powerloss on track last week at 29 degrees air temp . Track times showed this. Asking him about that issue of heat soak he also mentioned that the two pre- Kats in the stock headers generate heat of app. 600 Celsius at a much less favorable spot of the engine bay than the sport- Kat.

My driving habits by the way are 80 % motivated road driving on mountain roads and about 3 - 4 track days a year.

Hope this was somehow informative or helpful

Good luck

Wolfi

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On February 28, 2017 at 23:18, NW76 said:

 If you have outside air temperatures >26-28C and start to push the car hard (on track or on a mountain road) you will get heat soak (the ECU will reduce power) quickly. 

 

@NW76 -- Norbert, my experience with my stock CupR (well, drivetrain is stock ;) ) appears to be different as far as the significant power loss/timing retard in hotter ambient temps that you are reporting or maybe I'm misinterpreting what everyone is reporting.

For example, I just ran the Cup R (yesterday) on a 35C day and turned lap times within .2 of a second as compared to running the car on the same track configuration (same tires with comparable heat cycles) on a 19C day -- in other words, pretty much the same variables (perhaps I'm driving better but I doubt it).  Of course, on a colder day the car does produce more power, but the "fall-off" I experience doesn't seem to be as dramatic as you all seem to be experiencing.  Other data also supports this …. same exit speed off of the corner leading to a long straight results in the car hitting a terminal speed of 1 mph less on the "hot" day compared to the "cold day…. yes the car is faster on the colder day, but it's not a "night and day" difference.

FWIW, I log actual IATs post-blower …. at the end of my "fastest lap" on the 19C day, they a hit 68C; on the 35C day, IATs were 76C. 

Jack
2008 2-Eleven
2015 Exige V6 CupR
Track videos ... http://www.youtube.com/jackcup
2010 Lotus Challenge Series ULTRA Class champion
2012 Lotus CUP USA OPEN Class champion

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@Jack my point was more towards the heat soak a EX430 most likely would produce.

My standard V6 subjectively felt less powerful in hot weather but I do not have data that supports this and it never became a big enough issue for me to worry about...

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@Jack: very interesting... thanks for sharing, as you always do :thumbup: ! do you also monitor your ignition timing, and if so, how much is it retarded when air is getting hot ? IIRC, it was quite huge on 4 pots Exiges ...

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Interesting info Jack, but I think the CupR has better cooling overall. Certainly better airflow around and out of the engine bay. Much better airbox too. Must help I'd have thought.

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7 hours ago, French Frie said:

@Jack: very interesting... thanks for sharing, as you always do :thumbup: ! do you also monitor your ignition timing, and if so, how much is it retarded when air is getting hot ? IIRC, it was quite huge on 4 pots Exiges ...

Oliver, I believe so with my new AIM "driver".   I will have to check.  Normally you don't get that particular info over the CAN stream made available to the general public -- you need the Lotus proprietary scan tool, but I now have access to ~125 channels of data from the ECU.

 

4 hours ago, The Pits said:

Interesting info Jack, but I think the CupR has better cooling overall. Certainly better airflow around and out of the engine bay. Much better airbox too. Must help I'd have thought.

Jonny, you may be right.   I should add that I have made changes/improvements from stock to both the water cooling  (radiator, thermostat, water pump impeller) and gear box cooling (larger air-to-air cooler) systems to cope with our hotter ambient temps during Nevada's summer months.

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Jack
2008 2-Eleven
2015 Exige V6 CupR
Track videos ... http://www.youtube.com/jackcup
2010 Lotus Challenge Series ULTRA Class champion
2012 Lotus CUP USA OPEN Class champion

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On 5.7.2017 at 15:40, Jack said:

Oliver, I believe so with my new AIM "driver".   I will have to check.  Normally you don't get that particular info over the CAN stream made available to the general public -- you need the Lotus proprietary scan tool, but I now have access to ~125 channels of data from the ECU.

@Jack did you do the Firmware Update already and are now using the new Cup R driver? I am still using the Evora driver ... is it worthwhile to change?

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Having just completed our Alpine trip I'm glad I chose the Ex460 upgrade. The Ex430 in the GTE was also good, but suffered considerable power loss in warm weather.

Heat soak is only your second issue, its actually the intake air temperature that gives you significantly lower power in hot weather. In the end the Ex460 kit actually stresses the engine less than the 430.

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