My Westfield is being tidied up..

[jouhar]

After using the Westfield that I bought from Jonathan Gates for a few events this year, I am taking it to pieces and re-furbishing where neccessary. The engine is coming out and will go to Tom New for a re-build, and maybe he can squeeze a bit more performance out of it ! It has an old ECU (DTA 48) so I am going to upgrade that, probably to the DTA S60 Pro, and I think that will mean a new loom. (Does anyone have experience of the S60 PRO with a Vauxhall motor ?)

I am going to replace the braking system and re-paint the chassis where the powder coat has worn away (any tips on paint ?) Also, I am going to get new shocks and springs.

I think the fuel injectors could do with a clean - I believe they can be done with ultrasound ! I expect I will find some more issues along the way, but hopefully it will all come together in time for April 2012.

Regards
Kelvin

[Rob Stevens]

Kelvin
Allan will hate me for saying this but unless you have some very specific requirements for your engine's ecu, the S60 offers nothing much over the EX48 so far as performance goes, you all-ready have launch control, shift cut and rudimentary data logging in a rugged little unit. The S60 gives you the icing with traction control, improved data logging, CAN - BUS, waterproofing, on dash launch adjustments and other minor improvements. But if you are not going to use these great features it is a little pointless?
Don't get me wrong, I love my DTA P8, but haven't changed myself as I'm yet to see a feature I could not be without on the S series, but I am being ground down!.

[chrislandy]

Hi Kelvin,
I have both an S80 and E48, so hopefully I can offer some experience.

I upgraded (but kept the E48 for another engine) so I could benefit mainly from the better turbo control and wide band lambda compatibility. The software is a little easier to use and I really like the increased logging, I had to build a completely new loom for it but this also meant i could taylor it to fit the car better as I previously had a more generic loom to fit most 4 pots.
The maps are interchangable from the e48 going to the S series but the ecu's do work slightly different so there is a bit of tweeking involved. Other benefits from the S series are the diy firmware upgrades available free from the website and the increased flexibility of the auxillary inputs and outputs, I'm currently using mine to log oil temp and pressure.

On the other hand, if you already have an engine with a sorted map and you are not intending on using traction control, turbo control, S-Dash/CAN, sequential injection etc etc then I would probably keep what I already had. If the loom needs work then maybe think about a new one to suit the e48 but with some future proofing built in.

If you need some help with a wiring loom I have quite a lot of info from when I built mine including a fully coded wiring loom diagram.

Chris

[jouhar]

Rob & Chris,

Thanks very much for your comments - that gives me some more food for thought !

Regards
Kelvin

[jouhar]

OK - the car is now completely in bits - the engine is with Tom New. I will be tidying the chassis and repainting where needed. New fuel lines, brake lines & master cylinders to be fitted.

Happy New Year to all.
Kelvin

[jouhar]

Progress is being made - chassis has been tidied up with a coat of paint, flexible brake lines going in, and here is the new tank, pump and filter - got to be worth a few tenths...

[grahamb]

The disposable and relatively inexpensive filter should always be before the expensive fuel pump. They're the wrong way round in the picture.

[AWarby]

Certainly are Graham.

[jouhar]

Hmmm... this is how the pump/filter combination were when I bought the car from Jonny Gates - it had run like that without any issues for many years - my understanding is that it can be either way round (as far as functionality is concerned) but I take your point from a financial perspective.
Regards

[AshM]

More importantly the billet style filters rarely flow enough fuel especially when they become partially blocked.

I'd recommend the billet fuel filter is replaced with a normal car tin filter which has a much greater capacity and probably filters to a better level.

Going against the advice above I'd leave it after the pump and filter the fuel as it goes in the tank.

Otherwise if a prefilter is chosen it needs to be to a much larger filtration microns.

Its free advice but its worth considering as this may improve power or save a fuel starvation at the engine.