I've got what appears to be a 1.5 liter form of the Opel derived E-tech (not ecotech) engine. This engine is similar to the 1.6 Aveo, the 2.2 in the Suzuki Forenza and a bunch of Opels.
General observations so far.
1. Bone stock the engine had barely acceptable low end torque, a bump at about 3000 rpm and a big bump at 4300 rpm. My butt dyno put peak torque at about 4500 rpm and a shift point of about 6200. It would begin to peeter out by about 6k, but shifting too early put me below the 4k bump. Redline is 6500, fuel cut is 6600.
- We opened up the airbox and discovered a maze of baffles and channels. When we cut it all out and smoothed the box the engine's behavior changed noticeably. The low end torque got even worse but the engine seemed to bump a little harder at 3000 rpm and the big bump moved down to 4000. It also didn't peeter out at all as the revs climbed. My butt dyno puts peak torque at about 5000 rpm and the shift point is now solidly at the fuel cut. If not for the fuel cut and fear of breaking stuff, I probably would have shifted at 7k.
Here are my questions.
- Am I wasting my time with NA upgrades?
- How high can I spin one of these before it pops?
- How likely is it that GM reused the cams for a bigger e-tech (2.2 or 2.0) on my 1.5 and then baffled the intake in an attempt to get low end power?
I think I'd like to stick with an NA setup and the 1.5L displacement. There's a race series here in Korea (Korea GT Racing Championship) that I'm aiming for. They have two classes, 1.5L for stuff like Accents and 2.0L for stuff like Tiburons. I don't think I have a shot against the Tiburons.
Nowadays, when you see an air intake that is overly baffled, it is often an attempt by the car manufacturer to reduce/tune the engine noise. As a side effect, it can cause weird torque curves/peaks.
As far as parts interchangeability, I have to admit I am not well acquainted with these engines. If you were in Europe, specifically the U.K. or Germany....or for that matter, even in Australia, I imagine you could find books/magazines dedicated to these cars and/or their engines.
If you can take a pic of the valvetrain, I might be able help.
I ground some Lanos and Aveo cams, and they were the same.
Try getting rid of the filter housing altogether, and measure the throttle body diameter. You might be able to get something a little bigger from a related motor.
zomby woof wrote:
If you can take a pic of the valvetrain, I might be able help.
I ground some Lanos and Aveo cams, and they were the same.
Try getting rid of the filter housing altogether, and measure the throttle body diameter. You might be able to get something a little bigger from a related motor.
I found this with google. http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/9551/daewoonubiracylinderhea.jpg
http://acdc-service.ru/images/nubira/212.gif
So it looks like the 1.5 (Korean/Australian base version) and 1.6 (US base version) use the same cams/valvetrain. I was actually wondering if the parts sharing extends into the 2.2 and 2.0 versions. If not, it might do some good to swap in Lacetti/Forenza cams. If they're the same, clearly I won't.
I'm building a custom cold air kit with a dedicated hood scoop right now, so check. The throttle body's outside diameter is 70 mm.
I could be wrong, but isn't the throttle body's INSIDE diameter the critical measurement?
I don't know, but I doubt very much that they would use anything capable of being 2.2L for something as small as a 1.4, so I wouldn't count on it.The cams from the other 1.5/1.6 motors are probably the same, but it never hurts to look into it. In budget applications like that, they ussually recycle as much as possible.
integraguy wrote:
I could be wrong, but isn't the throttle body's INSIDE diameter the critical measurement?
You're probably right, but I know the outside diameter off the top of my head due to the aforementioned custom cold air project.
I'll get the inside diameter tomorrow, and try to find some part numbers too.
