Hi all,

I want to show you my (and my fathers) yellow Coupe and tell you some story....some of you knows the car, as it is quite fast 16V atmo


Its a 1995 (exact date of production 23.2.1995) 2.0 16v NA in base trim which serves to first owner as "company car".(He was wery keen in sport/vintage cars, as he also had some Jaguar V12, Tatra 613, Porshe 928, Lotus 7)
During the first five years of its life it managed to cover over 160000km and experienced one small crash on driver doors.


Then in 2001 we purchased it, as there were only 3 used coupes for sale at the time (and this one was the oldest and cheapest).



However it has full service history and all keys and Cards, so there was no reason to not buy it.

First year we did ordinary service and some cleaning of engine bay and engine itself to see how much work waits for us:).



In 2002 we decided to improve audio- 2 set of Phase Linear PC 165.20 speakers and some JVC Head unid with CD changer was installed.
During the 2002 summer we disassembled front end and perform some de-rust and new paint of the front beams and some serious clean/paint of engine.





Coupe also experienced first defects:
1) worn alternator brushes so, it get new brushes and bearing+ some recondition of winding
2) worn VAE valve causing "swing" idle or steady 3000rpm at idle... changed for new one ane defect disappeard.. Later I found worn piston in defectiv VAE valce, which didnt seal properly.

2003
- first fatal failure of engine... snapped timing belt (luckily on idle) causing damage to all 8 exhaust valves.



So engine head was repairedd with new valves , sealing ETC...
during the year we visited some tuning-meetings and also tried V-MAX on ~1.5km track on unused airport... 187 and 191km/h was good for stock 140bhp car, as there were already some Civics Type-R which clocked around 205km/h.
At the end of year I moved to the back and did the same de-rust and new paint to wheel arches and panel under rear bumper.
As bonus, black lover part of bumpers and side skirt was painted to body color...





2004
I polished the valve cover and found "tuning tip" for drilled Airbox.
I drilled the airbox with 6x32mm holes and modified it to look as 16VT one... remaining parts above radiator were removed from the car.



Sound of the car was great and it feels fasterresponding...
However, something wrong early happend....:(
During one drive, oil temp suddenly rised to above 130°C and oil pressure dropped almost to zero.
This meant engine out and perform some work...





It was found that instead of one, all bearings were somehow OK (it would probably work with new oil..),
but oil pump was KO (scratched), so new one was purchased, crank grinded, new bearings and new exhaust cam (one lobe was badly damaged..) fitted.
Engine got some serious clean and blue paint, some mods were performed also on exhaust (decat, mid silencer out) to improve sound and performance - as we found there was already ANSA SPORT rear silencer fitted by previous owner.

more photo here: 2004

2005
first 1/4 race and time 15,84s - not bad for stock car with low-cost modifications...
here sprinting with Civic 1.8 VTI:



At the end of this year we decided to perform some serious modifications to engine.... so engine out.


2006
during first month of this year engine gets most of its spec. it has up today.

- Ported head
- round valve seats and valves


- reprofiled cams (294IN/285EX 10,3mm lift both)
- raised compression to 11,3:1 by block lowering
- balanced bottom end
- removed balance shafts



- raised fuel pressure to 3.6 bar
- removed Throtle body heating
- "custom" made Chip with rev. limiter set at 7800rpm...
made by some czech company with good advertisement (if only their work would be so good as their advertisement- but its typical image of chiptunig companies not only those days, but also today..)

With this specification it was capable to "fly" through 1/4mile track in 14,8 +/- 0,2s and at ~148-149km/h on stock tyres depending on conditions.

2006 gallery (engine build)

2007

"New" suspension was purchased - in fact it was used one- front FK automotive with adjustable height and rear Eibach spring and Koni Shock absorbers...



2008

I saw, some picture of black Delta integrale with interesting intake manifold...
After studying pictures of lancia engine I foud, that its Kappa 16VT intake manifol, so I purchased one, did small porting jod to match the channels and fitted it to car...
I have to say that remove stock intake with head on engine is pain




As I expected, the behaviour of engine changed, and engine breathes more freely above 5000rpm..

2008 gallery

2009
After studying some literature and easuring current one it was decided to create new exhaust..

-Header primaries remained stock (only polished from outside for better look),
-secondaries were enlarged from 42mm to 50mm, and lenghtened to 30cm with better connection (stock header has in 2-1 connection bad pipe crush, which reduce pipe diameter to something under 30mm..)
-rest of the exhaust performed in 60mm piping with 2 straight trough silencers

- engine behaviour dramatically improved... better idle quality and low-down torque...

I also bought new slicks and 16VT wheels - the difference between slicks and road tires is incredible.

1/4 mile time with road tires before instalation of new exhaust was:
~14.9s, 148km/h

1/4 mile time with road tires after instalation of new exhaust was:
~14.9s, 153km/h - increase of trap speed simply indicates increased power ...

1/4 mile time with slicks after instalation of new exhaust was:
14.4s, 154km/h , first 1/4 ride with slicks with no experience with starting at slicks

1km time is now 26.3s..wich is the same as 20VT coupe in good condition...





That year I also experimented with larger- 60mm throttle body:

I made it from standart spare one.
As many 4 cyl. engines with ~160 BHP has 60mm throttle - for example PUG MI16, Honda 1.6 VTI, Citroen Xsara 2.0VTS, Clio sport, so I decide, that the 60mm TB will be OK, for good flow and throttle response)
The butterfly was made on CNC laser cut (according to my CAD model) from stainless steel. Throttle body was milled out on CNC machine - before milling I should weld small amount of material to the bottom part, where isn´t enough material for milling.



Next I modified the throttle shaft - by reducing the thicknes of the shat by 4 mm I get next ~10% increase of throttle area. Total area increase of the area is equal to ~ 30%.
When I fitted it on the car, I noticed, that it will need some fine tuning of fuel/ingnition...
The engine miss something, but is still powerful but with poorer throttle response caused by inadeqate (lean) accel. enrichment...

2009 photogallery

2010

Fitted Walbro 255lph Fuel Pump
- started to thinking about more engine safet with wider belt, so purchased some JTD cranck with wide pulley..

- Purchased Wide belt kit, STeel-lightened FW and balance shaft elimination kit from deltaparts...



- purchased OMP paddle clutch with pressure plate..
- purchased 4,07:1 final drive from AR 1.6 TS

_ all parts lie in the stock looong time....


2010 photogallery

2011-2012.. car did not move from its place due to lack of time...


2013

I decided to improve oil cooling, so I purchased and installed 16VT engine mount and oil cooler.

During the fitment of Oil cooler and engine mount I managed to fit also Wide belt and pulleys...
I found one quite bad thing about crank pulle delivered in this kit - the nose was to wide and it caused that the pulley did not fit to the crand properly, causing sever wobble of pulley assembly ...

So some small machining was needed and now everything is now OK.

photogallery (wide_belt_change)




2014

I managed only one ride to meeting of classic italian car and remaining time of the year it stand in garage...

At the end of year I purchased FC-Performance chip for my Tipo (which will have Coupe ECU, because of 16v engine conversion from 8V..) and some Piggy-back for Stilo...



next photo from meeting:

FCC_meeting

2015

decided to try something:)

I put FC-performance chip in and was wery surprised of behaviour of car - low down and mid rpm behaviour was fantastic (better than before!), but above 5000rpm the AF ratio become hell lean...
The engine was unable to hold steady idle .. so I tried to play with Piggy-back to get AFR nearer where it should be... not much success but found the way, how to tune and what properly via "Live-MAP" to get desired engine behavior.
ALso installed 60mm Throtle body I did few years ago. As bonus I tried "road dyno" and it showed some 160hp/6600rpm at wheels with tendency to increase in higher rpm, but AF ratio was 13,7:1 so I stopped to measure at around 6700rpm.

I Also Purchased Oil separator from 16VT and 20VT wheels which I refubrished and fitted with new Federal RS595 tyres.


2016

When I concluded, that "remote" mapping with Flea will be somehow painfull (especially on idle anw low down territory) I got in touch with enthusiast (forum member Phob) who can do live map and did first mapping session to get stable idle and AFR in spot for "MOT"(emmision) test as testing methods changed.
I also purchased and Installed 200CPSI high flow cat and sucessfully passed czech equivalent of "MOT".
I was also succesfull with legalising 20VT wheels so it was good year:)

But at the end of summer we continued with mapping... but big problem ocured.. as the engine reaches max. Torque rpm at WOT it got strong misfires..
I tried to change/chceck everything - spark plugs (from Bosch FR5DP, oridinary Champions, NGK from big HP number cosworth engine, NGK BPR8ES), fitted new leads, rotor and distribur cap, tried to change rpm sensor, coil.. with no succes...
Only thing we know- the AF ratio become lean by ~1 degree and it is nod dependent on advance and injector opening time...




2017

At the beginning of the year I studied problem of misfiring and found, that the cat seems to be restrictive - that size (200CPSI, 100mm body diameter) is suitable for about 150BHP..nothing were changed on the car instead of cat..
Then I thinked about improving braking...
As employee (Brake booster designer and FEM specialist) of Continetal Automotive plant where we also produce vacuum pumps I started to search for suitable vacuum pump (because my engine has wery low vacuum level - around 0,1-0,2 bar, instead of 0,6bar - all due to cams and common plenum)
I chose pump from Volvo Xc90 from "our" competitor - Hella.. this pump is smaller, and quieter:)

After Install of pump I found serious failure - due to corrosion cracked front brake line, so car was jacked and I fitted new all brake pipes and hoses.
As the car was on the jack, I removed gearbox and fitted (finally )

the steel Flywheel with paddle OMP cluth with 228mm diameter and Lancia dedra turbo pressure plate.



When I decide to revork exhaust and remove cat (not forever, I vant to fit 100CPSI, with biggest body I can Fit..) , I also Purchased new mid-silencer from Powersprint - as big as can be fitted under the car - round HF45 (I don´t want to have so loud car as time has changed and it became cop-atractive..)


I found, that previous mid-silencer was somehow restrictive.. from 60mm bore suddenly became something around 35mm..)


I also perform some de-rust of floor...



AT the end, I went out of the garage and chcecked if everything is OK... and WAS

no engine sputter and misfire, on every gear engine could rev freely over 7000rpm (even over 8000rpm on tacho, rev limiter is slightly above 7800rpm )


sorry for some bad photo they were taken from old mobile phone and/or scanned...
2017 photogallery

this is some summarization of almost 16 years with coupe, I hope that you enjoyed the story and some updates will come (I also hope, that links to photos will work)

H.

Coupe got some paint-polish during last week...





http://hno3.rajce.idnes.cz/coupe#

last week some "design" features arrived from Itallian colleagues

- door sills
- custom key-chain


picture of door sills - laser cut stainless steel plate, installed on double-side adhesive tape..

I changed the oil and prepared it for next season by regular check of engine health... here is short vid. how its idling:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5HV1H44E8g&feature=youtu.be

(oil pressure build up slow becase of oil priming)

yesterday I did small upgrade to exhaust system



127mm diameter, 100CPSI CAT for low amount of backpressure, but high level of "polluting gases"conversion .. euro2-3 capable



wery easy to work under the car with such stiff body.. lifted only on one point



exhaust assembly



finally washed

and today I did short, but fast test drive if everything is OK

Hi all..

I spent one the best year with my coupe

did over 1000km, burned lot of fuel and made the smile on my face every time I drive it hard

I did only ordinary maintenance, and slight engine tuning - further retimed cams, and set the WOT A/F ratio little bit leaner (12,8-13,2:1), as it was on safe site (11,8-12,2:1..) .. engine now runs much happier

here are some autumn shoots ¨from last ride this year...

plans for next year - prepare it for the trip to the Italy and maybe perform some engine revision (new pistons with bigger bore - 86mm , rods, reworked head and remapping on RR)

this year is quite good... did already over 1000km and its not end of season:

... however some minor issues occured...


1) torn mid engine mount and upper one on the side of timing belt... so I´m searching for suitable replacement, if possible uprated...

engine moves more, than I accept and contact with some body parts I don´t like...




2) old, hard O-ring in oil cap... this causes, thatoil cap gets loose and oil sprays from the engine everywhere... so this is good to be checked and possibly replaced by new O-ring by every 16V/VT ovner...


by the time I asked few local companise if its possible to make exact copy of exhaust header, but from bigger piping... - I already have primary branches stock (38mm OD), but enlarged secondaries to 50mm OD and outled to 60mmm.. I want to make primaries from 45mm OD piping to free more HP from the engine..

And some "Fresh" photos from lest week trip to small meeting with friends (long term Coupe owners too)

enjoing last days of this year on the road







and even with new exhaust headers, I plan to replace end silencer with more free-flow one (and bigger -current has ~8l volume, with 2*35mm perforated pipes -approx 45-48mm ekvivalent, so slight restriction at the end of whole system , new, planed one has 11l volume and has one 60mm pipe, new total volume of silencers will be almost 20ltrs, which is almost double the volume in comaprison to the system at the beggining)....these changes will free some additional horspewer and make the engine running smoother and quieter

something serious goin on
here







for expalnation..

I´m designing long 4-2-1 exhaust manifold for my engine
parameters:

44,5mm OD primaries ~650mm long (25.5")
50mm OD secondaries ~300mm long (11,8")
55mm to 60mm collector

I plan to make the headers by mysels during this winter..it will be from mandrel bent , mild steel bends, centerline radius R=100mm.

Its quite challenge to acomodate soo long primaries with this diameter in coupe engine bay.. as the original pipes has quite small diameter and they are too short - 450-500mm... its even more challange to fit e.g 4-1 manifold in the car like coupe due to clearance issues etc, so I looked around many competition cars -mainly S2000 ans S1600 clas rally cars...

as the template I used Orque (japan company) manifold for alfa romeo twinspark.. which looks that it could accomodate really long primaries into tight engine bay (in comaprison to rest of supplier, who makes and profits from enlarged copy of stock manifold..)

just finished model of 4-2 branches I needed to know how much bents and what I need to order/make


it was little bit pain, the cooler fan will be replaced with thinner one placed in front of cooler..





pipes are around 510-540mm long..which is on the shortest side I wanted, but I hope, it will be good

first work on Coupe this year done:

1) changed oil... swithed from Mobil 1 5W50 to Motul X Power10W60 (only reason is to have one, reliable source of oil. so If I use Motul in my next cars, in Coupe its logical step)
2) changed antifreeze (after 14 years it was ugly consistence...)
3) changed radiator fan position and its type for motorsport intended, lightweight, thin SPAL... the goal was to get more space for exhaust manifold..and I got lot of space as u can see it on shot below

just finished brake system upgrade

20V/16VT/20VT coupe has 7/8" brake booster from factory, whereas 16V atmo has 8". (its like 8" single versus 10" when comparing combined efficient area of membranes in booster)

This difference is noticable in better pedal feel, and brake reaction.

I did similar upgrade in my Tipo in the past..however, in Coupe its more tricky (hell job) because of: ABS, more sound deadening, carpet, some dashboard console, gas pedal, and clutch pedal..I had to also disconnect gearbox linkage...

WHat is good - no need to disconect hydraulic master cylinder..just remove it from booster and place it somewhere the conecting pipes and hoses allows. Master cylinder is same part number for all coupe







Can´t wait for test drive (unless I solve the problem with RPM sensor probably..)

so.. after having some problem with broken wires to TDC sensor (topic here)


I finally rolled out for test drive of new brakes etc...

even if its not so fast as many newer cars, it makes me smile when I drive it hard..and this u don´t have in any new machine...

In the meanwhile I worked on my 156 busso and started to work on my Tipo Sedicivalvole to return it back to the road after 10 years, I´ve managed to improve soud quality of installed speakers.

As mentioned above, the speakers at front and rear are Phase Linear PCS 165.20. What was missing for the years was some sound deadening and closed door chamber to improve bass section of sound.

so I did it right now

everybody knows this view



some bolts are tricky to find:



as it was... not good for strong bass



material needed for 1 door:



in progress:



done:



now the sound is much stronger and car about 10 kgs heavier

quick update

- last week sucessfully passed czech equivalent of MOT so can enjoy it for next 2 years
- managed to install small ecu which drives vacuum pump for brake booster.

This ecu is designed by my colleague (test enginer of brake components and test bench programmer) and can be set to various vacuum levels - 0,4 up to 0,7 bar start of vacuum pump, 0,6-0,95 stop... after some triasl, I set it to 0,4 -0,6 as the 0,6 vacuum is normal vacuum, which can be produced by engine . With higher level of vacuum, The boost is so big, that even ABS can turn on on dry road just by touching brake pedal...

i can start to fabricate propper exhaust:)

small trip during hot saturday



1 ) smaller and lighter radiator fan is effective enough to keep water temperatures under 90°C
2 ) stock 16VT oil cooler with ducting isn´t effective to keep oil temperatures under 100°C when I drive hard with revs around 7000 rpm for more than 2 minutes,
It rose over 120°C and its not good for oil... (faster, irreversible oil degradation, lower lubrication efectivness -thus we can see scuffed pistons, worn camshafts in Lampredi engines with hard life....at 130°C its effectivnes is usually only of 75% of its original abilities, 10more degrees and only 50% ..)


so at least new oil cooler position with better airflow is next goal

just finished new headers:

primary pipes - 22" 45mm OD
secondary pipes 10" 50mm OD
rest 60mm

3 days of intensive cutting and welding.... 8pieces od 180° mandrel bend 45mm (+ 1 * 180° 50mm)













as stand for header creation was used my tipo sedicivalvole, as its same pltaform and my sedici is "in progress" ... now I have tot ake the manifold to TIG welder and let it completelly welded with TIG .... I used standart CO2 only just for "stich"

cant wait to fit them, cant wait for results after remap I think that race cams and 38mm small stock pipes don´t like each other

prepared for instalation to car

Very nice, I hope it fits in one piece like that, is there enough room?

it should, I made it on tipo sedicivalvole, which is my second project car, and engine bay is the same... however I had to move radiator and replace radiator fan to get more space

fitted:

here

need minor modifications, however, I have to modify middle section of current exhaust to get it slightly higher and forward to get more space under car..

but change is noticable in sharper response and change of engine sound..

just ordered few things:

- 19 row oil cooler setrab series 6 (0,4l volume /rated 220-300bhp) ..stock 16VT is according to info on setrab page good for something like 140bhp in long term use of top end power...
- V bands, some piping as I would like to modify exhaust - muve it upward to the tunnel to get more groung clearance and easy disassemble
- new end silencer from Powersprint (450mm long, oval body) as the corrent middle silencer ( round body powersprint) works well, whereas the current end silencer is good (homemade, long body, but still small -there are some restrictions inside it) , but could be bigger - to get less bacpressure and quiter car

just fitted new oil Cooler.

Its 1/3 bigger than original 16VT, ACC. to Setrab , Its rated for 170-230 bhp.
I mounted it with side outlets for best flow ( oil gets everywhere And utilise whole Cooler) and best air pocket prevention.











Now I have to make sufficient ducting to this Cooler and can't continue with exhaust - i want to rework connections to Vband

just revised exhaust system
- V band used for joints to get more Space under the car
- new rear silencer(bigger bore, bigger volume, So even quiter)
- revised hangers

engine Is much happier with IT, just measured engine vacum at idle And higher Speeds And values were promising (betterthan before)... I definetly eliminate all sources of backpressure (small pipe headers, small mid silencer , rear silencer with crushed pipe to 40mm..)... Now i have to check fueling And if needed perform some additional Fuel/spark Adjustment...

I have also managed to create new oil cooler ducting from piece of original ducting and from reinforced rubber plates

and also did first ride this year - to check if everything works and what are the oil temperatures seems the cooler is now wery effective -oil temp is just 90°C and no more..




from building new ducting ..


unfortunatelly dont have photo of complete duct

just returned from 200km trip and visit of friend (white brera) who also had bravo HGT, purchased years ago from me..

AFR meter wired in, fueling at WOT slightly leaner (0.2-3), but still fine... all works like it should

.. im happy, now just to clean small details in engine bay and enjoy the car...

new development... I was thinking about low cost, homemade slide plate throttles, but.. indecided to go by homemade ITBs..

first prototype will be used with stock intake.manifold and ITBs will be placed in connection in red.. both parts will be ported.. mathed to gasket and diameter ou outlet increased to 45mm

some parts are already made by cnc laser cut, other will by machined by friend on cnc milling machine

goal is to improve low down driveability and emmisions

Yesterday I cut stock IM and tried to fit plates where the TB (these are being already machined) will be bolted and flange where velocity stacks together with plenum will be bolted.

Some minor porting will be needed to open the intake to 45mm and match the gasket between IM and head

So..

Intake manifold almost finished..

3D printed plenum, ITBs bolted to modified stock first part of intake eich was ported