Zetec Blacktop In The Zero

[Guest James]

Hello all stupid question so I am sorry purchased a second hand bare engine, where is the best place to start? What ecu std would people suggest I want to carry out this the cheapest possible way to get it up and running and through IVA?

[David S]

Hi James, welcome to the club.

 

I am sure there will be people along soon with other options but my understanding is there are 3 or 4 options and a lot depends on whether you are using carbs or injection. I think the cheapest is the Megasquirt but I think they may only be used with carbs, but I am prepared to be corrected. The next up is the Omex ECU and then the Emerald ECUs as supplied by GBS themselves. There are others, but my memory can't recall the names!!

 

I ended up using the Emerald ECU as it was all plug and play.

[tractor]

megajolt is used for carbs megasquirt for injection but can be used for both

[tractor]

it depends on your donor cars ,age

or if you are going for a q plate

[Guest James]

As long as I can get it through an IVA for emmersions I am very open to any suggestions you may have? What is the cheapest route to go down?

[brumster]

Take your pic of the mainstream vendors. Personally I'd go for Emerald; good support from the manufacturer with good knowledge of tuning, sensibly priced, feature-rich and commonly adopted by rolling roads. But if you can get a better deal on, say, Omex then I wouldn't sweat it. You say a bare engine, I don't know how bare that means... but obviously think about all the ancillaries you're going to need. If cost is a driving factor then probably a standard inlet plenum modified where necessary.... I would suspect driving costs down will mean doing a lot of work yourself, or sacrificing ease of build and speed for one-off fabrications and so forth. What I mean is, whacking on throttle bodies on a common aftermarket inlet, with a common backplate and filter will be quick, easy and give good results but it won't be the cheapest. So if cost is the driving factor, look towards other options. Personally, I think once you factor in the time aspect (and the cost around it, particularly if you're paying for others people's time) it rarely comes out cheaper... but if you can do it yourself, or you "know someone" then it will save some funds

[Guest lotusPaul]

Welcome James.

 

So ECU. You have a ton of aftermarket options DTA can be added to the others. I favour Emerald because of Daves fantastic support, honestly is second to none. I have omex too. No complaints on either.

If you wanted to keep costs down and can find one an early Escort/Orion ecu can be used and chipped to suit, but you need to know what your doing or problems arise.

[Guest James]

Ok so I have found a carb set up from danst 40mm carb deluxe kit complete with nodiz, would this be an ok option?

[theduck]

If you want bike carbs, then yes its a good quality, but expensive way of doing it. You could quite easily do an EFI setup for the same cost.

[brumster]

It would be interesting to hear off a motorbike carb envangelist in terms of emissions and IVA. I am guessing with the correct setup and some time spent faffing with jets/etc it's possible to get a car through IVA but I'd also be guessing it's a hell of a load easier to do it on EFI (assuming you know what you're doing of course). The honest answer is I don't know, I've not attempted it (and with good reason!) but I am with Duck; I am generally unconvinced with bike carbs over EFI.

[theduck]

Back when bike carbs were £50 a set complete on ebay and you could get a manifold knocked up for another £100-150 they made sense on things like a pinto as a very cheap and effective setup. When you are talking £1600 for a kit to make them work on a modern engine that efi parts are readily and cheaply available for it just doesnt make sense to me either.

 

Food for thought, I converted my pinto to efi AND turbo charged it all at the same time, and it cost me half what that DanST kit costs.

[Guest James]

Excuse my ignorance but what is the efi? And what is involved?

[DeanRudkin]

Efi is bacically fuel injection it all depends on your budget

[Guest James]

I would say max budget would be a grand, like the idea or tb/motorbike carbs but just concerned with ref emmersions etc etc

[Matt brown]

I got a Dan st manifold and zx6r bike carbs set up for a 2L zetec and mega jolt for she of your interested?