I'm curious

[tallgeese]

I was talking with a friend today who has retro fitted a turbo to his little French diesel car and it got me thinking could this be done to a 120 zs? Or the other extreme could a super charger be installed on one? Has anyone tried this? Is it even possible?

[Lukeus101]

Anything is possible, depends on how deep yoir pockets are.

[henocsr]

Turbo charging the ZS 120 is not really that differcult. Made a lot easier by buying a Rover 75 1.8t to swap bits over from. You would need to be able to match the ECM to the lucus 5as unit, and fiddle about with the exhaust

Would probabaly be much easier though to do some simple tuning things to the standard engine like


Remove the standard pre cat style manifold for an earlier one (from a freelander or 218
Fit a VVC spec head with standard cams (VVC heads have better flow rates and larger valves
Fit MGF 135bhp cams, would need the MEMs unit too
air box from a 160 zr
Fit diesel exhaust centre section ( no silicencer box = less back press)
Fit a VVC stlye inlet manifold ( higher air volume, better flow)


all of the above will give more power and much more cheaply as most of the stuff can be got though scrap yards / ebay.
Of course better results could be got by buying from tuning companies etc, but then the price is always more

[tallgeese]

I would of course love to do all the above but as I said it was a curiosity thing. I'm just wondering what extremes the 1.8 could be taken to ;) same with the zs V6 could it would it work lol

[tallgeese]

Has anyone done a remap on a standard 1.8? If so was there any big increase in power?

[MG mad]

Turbo charging the ZS 120 is not really that differcult. Made a lot easier by buying a Rover 75 1.8t to swap bits over from. You would need to be able to match the ECM to the lucus 5as unit, and fiddle about with the exhaust

Would probabaly be much easier though to do some simple tuning things to the standard engine like


Remove the standard pre cat style manifold for an earlier one (from a freelander or 218
Fit a VVC spec head with standard cams (VVC heads have better flow rates and larger valves
Fit MGF 135bhp cams, would need the MEMs unit too
air box from a 160 zr
Fit diesel exhaust centre section ( no silicencer box = less back press)
Fit a VVC stlye inlet manifold ( higher air volume, better flow)


all of the above will give more power and much more cheaply as most of the stuff can be got though scrap yards / ebay.
Of course better results could be got by buying from tuning companies etc, but then the price is always more

I'd be surprised if you'd get more than 160bhp with 135 cams, even on a VVC head. You'd need it remapped and you'll still be well down on torque compared to a turbo, which is half the point of doing it in a car like the ZS. Not to mention a remapped turbo gives you 200 hp and 200 lb.ft on standard internals. Considering the effort, the 1.8T conversion in a ZS would be well worth the time and money.

As for supercharging, I've got a supercharged 1.9L VVC K series in my Midget. Supercharging was a lot of work (I had done the K conversion previously), but worth it. I have massive torque from everywhere (it will accelerate uphill in 5th gear from 1000 rpm, quite quickly) and quite a lot of power, with no lag.

[tallgeese]

I'd be surprised if you'd get more than 160bhp with 135 cams, even on a VVC head. You'd need it remapped and you'll still be well down on torque compared to a turbo, which is half the point of doing it in a car like the ZS. Not to mention a remapped turbo gives you 200 hp and 200 lb.ft on standard internals. Considering the effort, the 1.8T conversion in a ZS would be well worth the time and money.

As for supercharging, I've got a supercharged 1.9L VVC K series in my Midget. Supercharging was a lot of work (I had done the K conversion previously), but worth it. I have massive torque from everywhere (it will accelerate uphill in 5th gear from 1000 rpm, quite quickly) and quite a lot of power, with no lag.

Sounds like a monster!

Turbos seem the cheapest way for a power increase but still not cheep :(
The pipe dream continues ;)