Zetec Performance Question

[CASwede]

I recently looked at a car advertised with Zetec's performance package, built around the year 2000. My understanding was the package included upgraded heads and cams for a near 200hp output.

 

The model I saw appeared didn't appear to have a modified head, and nothing on the cam cover seemed to indicate an upgrade. My concern is that it is a stock Zetec with about 130hp or 140hp.

 

Does anyone else have this setup original from the dealer? I've attached a couple of pics. Sorry to not have more specifics. I'm a noob, so perhaps ford applied the upgrades in a fairly stealth manner.

 

All thoughts appreciated.

[jlumba81]

Why is there a leather belt on the exhaust side of the engine? The head upgrades might just be mild porting on the stock head with upgraded cam and valve springs. Can you get them to take of the nosecone to see if adjustable cam gears are installed? Ask the seller if they have a dyno sheet. The intake is an aftermarket ITB setup so it should have at least more hp than a stock zetec.

[CASwede]

Pic of nose cone off, but blurry. Not sure I got far enough back in the photo to see what you would want to see.

[CASwede]

Leather was holding hoses in place that they said were moving around.

 

They had it dynod when they had the engine installed. Sadly they kept none of the paperwork when they bought the engine, nor do they have the paperwork from the dyno.

 

The ITB setup would be consistent with the super sport performanc package at that time, so that would be good news.

[jlumba81]

Well the front cover is covering up the cam gears. Where's the location? Hopefully a forum member near there will know about it.

[James A]

The engine appears to have the intake and headers needed for some serious horsepower, but... To get 200 hp at the rear wheels is a lot for the Zetec, you would need to up the compression and get some serious cams with more duration and lift.

I would ask the following:

What is the compression and how was it arrived at (name the components;rod, pistons)

What Cams are in the engine (make and grind number)

What size valves are in the engine and what springs are being used?

What head studs, main studs, and rod bolts are being used (if it has 200hp it better be ARP)

What porting has been done to the head and by who?

What ECU is being used and who has tuned the ECU for the claimed hp?

I see a lot of claims about 200 hp on a dyno from a Zetec, I think 90% is BS, it takes a lot of work to get 200 reliable hp from a Zetec.

Yea, there are a few out there but those engines are very well built and developed.

[MoPho]

I recently looked at a car advertised with Zetec's performance package, built around the year 2000. My understanding was the package included upgraded heads and cams for a near 200hp output.

 

The model I saw appeared didn't appear to have a modified head, and nothing on the cam cover seemed to indicate an upgrade. My concern is that it is a stock Zetec with about 130hp or 140hp.

 

Does anyone else have this setup original from the dealer? I've attached a couple of pics. Sorry to not have more specifics. I'm a noob, so perhaps ford applied the upgrades in a fairly stealth manner.

 

All thoughts appreciated.

 

 

There would not likely be anything external on the motor to indicate that it has the performance package. From the pictures there is nothing to say it doesn't have it though, especially since it has throttle bodies and headers.

It looks just like my motor which dyno'd at 204hp (crank) but it only achieved that after some dyno tuning (orig 175hp), it seems Caterham sent the cars out with some rather conservative tunes and optimistic hp rating.

[MoPho]

The engine appears to have the intake and headers needed for some serious horsepower, but... To get 200 hp at the rear wheels is a lot for the Zetec, you would need to up the compression and get some serious cams with more duration and lift.

I would ask the following:

What is the compression and how was it arrived at (name the components;rod, pistons)

What Cams are in the engine (make and grind number)

What size valves are in the engine and what springs are being used?

What head studs, main studs, and rod bolts are being used (if it has 200hp it better be ARP)

What porting has been done to the head and by who?

What ECU is being used and who has tuned the ECU for the claimed hp?

I see a lot of claims about 200 hp on a dyno from a Zetec, I think 90% is BS, it takes a lot of work to get 200 reliable hp from a Zetec.

Yea, there are a few out there but those engines are very well built and developed.

 

 

I don't think any of those claims are supposed to be horsepower at the wheels (?). We did a dyno day here in SoCal a while back and everyone with this set up managed 200+hp (+/-170whp + an estimated 15%), but it took some ECU tuning to get there.

 

.

Edited June 6, 2013 by MoPho

[Klasik-69]

My 2004 Zetec was built by Jon @ Caterham & was claimed to have 205 HP at the crank. After some tuning (remapping fuel & installing correct high imp injectors) rwhp came out to 183. I would say Caterham is conservative in their ratings & understates HP.

[Klasik-69]

Also, claim that it's hard to get 200 reliable HP from a Zetec is wrong. I've raced mine for 2 years now in SCCA TT events & it has never even hiccuped. I watch my track friends work feverishly on their cars between runs while I lay back in my easy chair & relax. These cars w/ Zetecs are very fast & very reliable. 2012 SEDIV Championship, 2013 very likely too.

[James A]

Klasik, so you dynoed 183 at the wheels and are racing SCCA, what E production? Can you share what your preparation is? compression, cams, ECU, etc.?

That is some stout hp.

[James A]

Oh, here is a good article on the Zetec SVT engine and all that was done to get 170 brake hp (I am using Bhp as crank shaft hp which is not exactly correct but works here) , not rear wheel hp, hp at the crank shaft.

http://www.myfordfocus.com/svt/

Compression at 10.2:1, larger valves, much better intake manifold, cam lift of .431 intake and .388 exhaust, headers, larger intake ports, on and on. All this to get 170 brake hp which would translate to what at the rear wheels, 150hp?

So taking a stock Zetec that has 145 brake hp and getting it to 200+ brake hp is no small feat. Of course the most common way to get hp is to use a very optimistic dyno, which a lot of tuners use to prove what a good job they did. First thing you should ask if you are trying to determine your real hp is when was the dyno last calibrated to SAE standards.

Again, I see a lot of (hear about a lot of) Zetecs that have a claimed 200 hp, yet the engine has the stock bottom end with 9.6:1 compression ratio, stock valve size, mildly improved cams, and of course the nice Caterham headers, some have an improved intake manifold. 40% hp increases take some work, and on the Zetec the work is increased to get the reliability most of us expect.

100 hp/liter is not easy, look at the specs of normally aspirated engines that achieve this.

[Kitcat]

The Focus forum called focusfanatics.com has several dedicated forum sections on the various iterations of the Zetec engine and how to get the most hp. They are active and inforamtive tho talking smack seems to be part of the posting ethos there, unlike here. Klassics car was helped along by one of the top posters there, aka TurboTom, who also posts here occasionally under 1Turbofocus. As his handle suggests, he belives adding a turbo is the fastest way to reliable Zetec power. But his tuning skills helped Klassics naturally aspirated Zetec, per previous posts.

[James A]

Yea, I use the Focus Fanatics forum and post there and know Tom Lesperance well (AKA TurboTom and 1TurboFocus) he in fact has both built engines and does the tuning on engines for me and two other Caterham race car owners here in Houston. And Tom does like to force feed Zetecs!

Tom has the ability to tune remotely and that has been a big benefit to us in that we send him data runs and he e-mails tunes to us. He can also take over your computer while your car is on the dyno and look at all of the parameters and tune your engine remotely. It's a real nice service.

[Klasik-69]

Klasik, so you dynoed 183 at the wheels and are racing SCCA, what E production? Can you share what your preparation is? compression, cams, ECU, etc.?

That is some stout hp.

 

First and foremost, I am NOT a Zetec expert so please take what I have to say with that in mind. Many others here are, specifically 1TurboTom who has a shop near Charlotte and who has helped me a lot in getting mine dialed in.

 

I race in TT events in the SEDIV SCCA and am in the SSP (Super Street Prepared) class. I race 4 or 5 times a year and also join in on 2 or 3 HPDE events during the year. I don't drive my 7 much on the streets although it is registered and insured so completely street legal. The 7 is set up for racing but does not have a complete roll cage. And yes, we pulled consistently 183.7 rwhp on a very reliable chassis dyno. We actually pulled 187.5 rwhp but did so with a dangerously lean condition, which is a very good way to blow it up. I remapped the ignition and fuel maps with my laptop while we were running on the dyno. almost 3 hours later, we got what we wanted.

 

Apparently the big risk with the Zetec is the stock oil pump failing if run at rpm above 7200 rpm, according to some people who seem to know. There is opposing argument that the motor with stock oil pump can rev to 8000 rpm without issues. Being a chicken, I set my soft rpm cutoff at 7200 and hard cutoff at 7400 to keep me on the safe side. I usually don't need to run it hard up there except when going into a straight and I need to squeeze all I can get to keep the faster cars from walking away.

 

I think the Zetec motor is a fantastic motor but apparently the Duratec is a better motor. I know of several people who have pushed a NA Zetec to beyond 250 crank HP safely. Tom says this motor can be turbocharged to a power level exceeding 350 hp or more, and I think he's quite correct.

 

Making a motor last, either on the street or the track, largely depends on how you treat it. If you abuse it and fail to maintain it, it will likely crap out. If you treat it like it's directly attached to your wallet, it will last. It's a wonderful little motor that just keeps on giving. Good luck.

[CASwede]

Many thanks all! Great information.

 

I did end up purchasing the car. If there is more horsepower to be gained, I'm not sure what I'd do with it! Fantastic drive.

[Guest speedcraft]

congrats and enjoy !

 

also dont forget gear ratios [rear end+ tranny combo] has a big impact on real on road/track performance. well chosen ratios for your application with less power can indeed be 'faster' than more power with less well chosen ratios.

 

its all fun to play around with.

[Klasik-69]

congrats and enjoy !

 

also dont forget gear ratios [rear end+ tranny combo] has a big impact on real on road/track performance. well chosen ratios for your application with less power can indeed be 'faster' than more power with less well chosen ratios.

 

its all fun to play around with.

 

I definitely agree with that. It can make a world of difference. I found that by going back to the 13" wheels, I was able to use 5th gear to gain speed rather than lose speed as was the case with the 15" Spec Miata wheels/tires. These cars like very light small wheels, especially with the 3.62 rear end ratios. Others run the 3.92 rear end and likely have a better time of it. Changing wheels sizes is easier than changing rear axle ratios.

[CASwede]

I had noticed the bogging down in 5th, and I am running 15 inch wheels.

 

I had also considered changing to the 6 speed transmission to help, but I have a lot of research to do there before proceeding.

[Klasik-69]

I had noticed the bogging down in 5th, and I am running 15 inch wheels.

 

I had also considered changing to the 6 speed transmission to help, but I have a lot of research to do there before proceeding.

 

On the highway when you're trying to keep the revs down and max out the mpg, 5th may work out OK with the 15" wheels. However, on the track it seems to hamper the choices. When I went down to the 13" wheels, the unsprung weight went down and it seemed like the car was more settled. Also, like I mentioned before, I had 5 useable gears instead of just 4. Most noticeable was the acceleration out of turns. It took almost a full 5 seconds off my lap time at Talladega GPR and almost 8 seconds off Road Atlanta. Road Atlanta still intimidates me to some degree so I'm really pretty slow there but gained confidence with the better response of the car with the smaller wheels.

 

One major drawback: road clearance under the engine is dangerously minimal. So much so that I put the 15" wheels back on the front to give me a little cushion over the rumble strips. Weird looking....13" on the back and 15" on the front. I still managed to post the 3rd fastest lap time of all that ran the TT event and was faster than every formula car there, but still way too slow considering what I should be running.