Steves Almera SR20 NEO VVL

[Fusion]

<p>I should have added this to the site ages ago, but back in the year before summer we had a new customer Steve bring along his VVL converted Almera GTi.</p>
<p>Although my memory is now a bit rusty on the specifics Steves car had a genuine VVL Neo engine with SR16 VE cams. He also had hot-shot style headers and a Greddy switcher to control the cams. This setup seems pretty typical of the VVL fans in the UK.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://www.fusion-motorsport.co.uk/images/stories/cust/stevealmera/IMG_7377.JPG" border="0" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://www.fusion-motorsport.co.uk/images/stories/cust/stevealmera/IMG_7375.JPG" border="0" /></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">#</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">So onto the dyno we went, apparently other people are getting around 200hp and indeed Nissan quote that these engines should be around 200hp, so we were hoping to see this if not more.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">After a few checks to make sure it was safe were complete we did the the first power run. This is interesting because it shows the kind of power VVL owners are going to make if they keep to the stock ECU on their previous SR20 engine.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">The car made just shy of 150hp. Not great and not too surprisingly fuelling was all over the place, touching nearly 10:1 at the top end. After a few more runs the power was creeping up, but not as high as hoped. In the end the car would do no more than 177.3 hp, although a significant increase over what it was to begin with, and torque especially) it simply had nothing more to give. Sadly since no other work was undertaken by us on this car I cant comment on why this may be, however on a more positive note the car was transformed by the remap.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">#</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://www.fusion-motorsport.co.uk/images/stories/cust/stevealmera/IMG_7379.JPG" border="0" /></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Gone was the sluggish feel to the car, and it now felt alive. Much better, here are the dyno results:</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://www.fusion-motorsport.co.uk/images/stories/cust/stevealmera/IMG_7372.JPG" border="0" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Above: Flywheel torque and power. Pink was as the car arrived, Red is completed. As you can see the red torque curve is very flat, this results in an equally smooth power curve. Strangly there are no real signs of a big restriction, if we were heading towards 200hp, but were unable to for reasons of exhaust etc I would expect to almost see a sharp drop in top end power, which it doesn't.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">#</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://www.fusion-motorsport.co.uk/images/stories/cust/stevealmera/IMG_7373.JPG" border="0" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Above, fuelling VS power. Pink old, Red new.# As you can see fuelling was way out before remapping.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">#</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://www.fusion-motorsport.co.uk/images/stories/cust/stevealmera/IMG_7374.JPG" border="0" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Wheel horsepower. 146 at the wheels. More than this car would have done at first from the fly. So quite a nice improvment.<br />Gained nearly 25hp @ wheels from this mapping session. If only all NA cars did this so easily.</p>

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[Noddie]

do you know what was making it go so rich above 4k? amazing that cars are driving about with such poor fuel mapping.
well done with the improvements, wonder why it was down on power compared to what others were getting out of their vvl's?

 

[Ed]

It was rich because it was using the stock GTi ECU which is totally out of its depth on a VVL engine if its not re-mapped.

I have seen three of these cars on the dyno now. Today I saw one being mapped by Jez of h-dev. His particular one 'only' managed 180hp. So about 3 more than the above. Another I saw in a Primera also only made about the same power (In fact may have been less).

It would appear from these three examples that perhaps these VVL NEO engines are either not all they are made out to be OR something is up with the conversion/setup that people are doing preventing them from making the power they should do.

Since I have not been involved with any of this its hard to say for sure.

 

[Noddie]

hmmm, interesting, always thought the vvl neo was the holy grail.

 

[Ed]

All I can speak from is first hand experience of three, of which I have mapped one, and they have all been within a few HP of each other. On that limited basis they do seem rather over-hyped.

 

[mckenziecz]

interesting why it "only" produce 177. for example toyotas beams is giving 200bhp stock

 

[Ed]

Apples to pears.

The point here is that there is an expectation of the NEO VVL engines to make a lot more power than 'regular' SR20s and the ones I have personally seen on a dyno I trust simply this has not been so. Its not to compare it with other engines for which the list would be nearly endless, and world go back decades!

Hopefully at some point I'll get a VVL engine in for longer than a mapping session and see what's going on with it.

 

[Noddie]

where are the vvl ecu's? would it not be better to use one that can control the cams itself? or cants the new omex's do cam control? pretty sure they can for the honda v-tech. something must be wrong with the setup these people are using surely...

 

[Ed]

Arm chair expert, lol j/k.

The stock ECU from the GTi is perfect for this engine. Why would we want to change it for an omex besides people use the Greddy MMS to control the cams so it makes the need for the origional VVL ECU irrelevant.

The 'problem' (if there is one) is not in the mapping/ECU anyway.