Performance upgrade-chipping

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Performance upgrade-chipping

Postby cyc0140 » Wed 10.10.2007, 08:24

Hi all, after many years of eyeing the beautiful elan M100, i finally bought myself a 1990 Elan SE. I am hoping to upgrade the performance and is aware of 2 after market chips available, BBR and Mountain Everest chip.
Some qeustions that need advise :
1. BBR - was quoted 220bhp but seller does not know torgue or 0-100 figures claimed. Any idea
2. more important how reliable is this fitted into M100?
3. What is specs for Everest BHP, torque and 0-100 figures?
Comparing the BBR and Everest, what is the pros/cons?
4. what options do I have in upgrading the brakes stopping power along with performance, assuming I do not change the brake caliphers(make sense?)
Thanks and all advise will be highly appreciated !
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Postby Sy V » Wed 10.10.2007, 08:29

Brakes

Willwood, if you can get an entire kit.
AP Racing if you have £1400 to burn
Hi Spec for about £700 IIRC.

If you have £400+ to waste buy a BBR kit (it's not a chip).
Everest is the only dedicated Elan chip and has been painstakingly developed by an Elan owner of the highest magnitude. Available for ~£100.

No-brainer really...
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Postby rip » Wed 10.10.2007, 08:51

:agree:

The common view is that you are better off changing the brake calipers for something better. All of Sy's recommendations above are for alternative caliper setups.
If you really do not want to do this, then you can try Pagid Blue RS4-2 pads. These are about £120 a set and squeal a little but do grip the disc a lot more effectively. The stock brakes allegedly work reasonably after an overhaul, but it sounds like you are after something better.

For more info on ESM's Mountain chips, click here
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Postby abmunro » Wed 10.10.2007, 09:22

Also the common opinion is that the Mountain chips are a safer option than the BBR kit.

My car has the BBR kit and apparently it responds faster than the Mountain chips.

The BBR kit gives the car 205 bhp. According to the reciept I have from Lakeside garage who fitted it to my car.
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Upgrades

Postby cyc0140 » Thu 11.10.2007, 01:33

Hi
Thank you very much. With the BBR, did you noticed significant increase in pick up or turbo lag etc? Has it been reliable so far. Thanks.
For the brakes, I will probably try the Pagid Blue RS-4 options first. Sounds like the brakes upgrade is the killer.
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Postby nitroman » Thu 11.10.2007, 06:29

The brakes upgrade is a killer in the sense that if you don't, it may kill you!
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Postby Nige » Sat 13.10.2007, 18:58

Don't even think about the BBR kit, it is not a chip it is simply a bleed from the wastegate side of the turbo and a fuel cut defeater that prevents the ECU seeing an overboost and cutting the fuel. In its favour it seems to be reliable and is unlikely to damage your engine (based on the number of people here who have has them from original fitrment.

The mountain chip is far more recent developed by one of our most respected members and will deliver as much performance as the BBR kit with none of the downsides of inoperative overboost fuel cut etc. It is both less risky and cheaper. I have a simple Everest in my car (not a switcher, yet) and it does very nicely indeed.

You should seriously consider the full brake upgrade if you can run to it (spend the money you save buying a Mountain Chip instead of a BBR kit). I agree the Pagid blues are a good upgrade but the original calipers are still a limitation.
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Postby John_W » Sat 13.10.2007, 19:09

:agree: :goodposting:
Wot Nige said.
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Postby GeoffSmith » Sat 13.10.2007, 21:05

I agree with the three wise sages above, but would recommend you spend a bit of time getting to know the car before you upgrade the performance. Frankly, I think that half the BBR kit belongs in the plumbing section of B&Q and the chip is a crude mod at a rip off price that does away with safety features that could save your engine: I know I had a 'Superchip' and a stuck wastegate which gave masses of power but she was obviously running dangerously lean and some people have experienced burned out pistons. As to 0-100 figures, I don't think even Sy has got a garden that big.

To summarize:

1. Brakes.
2. Get to know the car.
3. If you want to fit the best, fit Everest.

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Re:

Postby Scott » Mon 21.05.2012, 14:11

Sy V wrote:Brakes

Willwood, if you can get an entire kit.
AP Racing if you have £1400 to burn
Hi Spec for about £700 IIRC.

If you have £400+ to waste buy a BBR kit (it's not a chip).
Everest is the only dedicated Elan chip and has been painstakingly developed by an Elan owner of the highest magnitude. Available for ~£100.

No-brainer really...


so willwood is better than ap racing you mean? and when it comes to chips, everest is above average i think,best choice for elan right?
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Re: Performance upgrade-chipping

Postby bobbrown » Mon 21.05.2012, 17:48

Brakes

there are probably 4 options, listed in terms of costs

AP racing around £1400.00. expensive
WIlwood not sure of costs as it is not an off the shelf conversion although it can be done. parts would need to be made.
Hi Spec from £420.00 to about £630.00 easy and I can supply complete kits for less than Hi Specs own conversion.
Vectra/Saab conversion. around £200.00 cheap but does have a weight penalty as the calipers are steel.

Pays your money and takes you choice, but I personally do not think you will notice much differance in terms of stopping power all require less pedal input compared to the originals and do not suffer the same heat issues.

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Re: Performance upgrade-chipping

Postby racerstev » Mon 21.05.2012, 20:08

I have the Vectra/Saab conversion, it completely changed the car for the better. The price is right too...

I don't have either chip but built my own fuel cut defender, manual boost controller and wide band
air/fuel ratio gauge. With the boost up it's fast, and to be honest it has too much low
end torque to be fun. When the boost hits at 3000rpm (1.1 bar) the car either spins the tires or
changes lanes..The car is far more drivable and balanced with stock boost levels.

I think what the car really needs is a good boost controller that controls boost via throttle position and
rpm..

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Re: Performance upgrade-chipping

Postby HJ2 » Mon 21.05.2012, 20:23

That's exactly what the Mountain chip does (changing the map)
there is an entire world between stock boost level and 1.1 bar, a world where you have a lot to play with, without suffering too much in terms of drivability.
You should try it! 8)
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Re: Performance upgrade-chipping

Postby theelanman » Mon 21.05.2012, 21:26

HJ2 wrote:That's exactly what the Mountain chip does (changing the map)
there is an entire world between stock boost level and 1.1 bar, a world where you have a lot to play with, without suffering too much in terms of drivability.
You should try it! 8)



:agree:

steve you need an everest chip......its a doddle.....
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Re: Performance upgrade-chipping

Postby HJ2 » Mon 21.05.2012, 21:33

Yeah!

Ask some of the Exige drivers who were unable to shake me @ Ypres Lotus day :-)
Talk about drivability :bananasex:
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Re: Performance upgrade-chipping

Postby Scott » Tue 22.05.2012, 00:12

so AP RACING is best choice...ok..
i think im gonna need that everest chip too.. but iahve seen the catalogue..why there are v4 v5 v4 switcher etc? what are all these?
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Re: Performance upgrade-chipping

Postby rip » Tue 22.05.2012, 13:39

Scott wrote:so AP RACING is best choice...ok..

Why?
Certainly the most expensive by a long way, but I didn't see anyone comparing this with any of the other upgrades.
They may well be better. I've not tried them.

Scott wrote:i think im gonna need that everest chip too.. but iahve seen the catalogue..why there are v4 v5 v4 switcher etc? what are all these?


If memory serves me correctly:

Kilimanjaro: 0.8bar boost max
Everest: 0.9bar boost max

These are available as standalone chips (now v4.5 I believe)
The switcher contains several mappings including both of the above plus v5 of the same mappings. v5 has a smaller margin of fuel enrichment so ESM will only provide this on a swtcher...so if you have a problem, you can use a safer map.

The switcher also contains the below:

Elysium: 0.95bar boost max (I believe you need the smaller safety margins of v5 to achieve this level of boost)
Standard: 0.65bar boost
Garage: 0.4bar boost
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Re: Performance upgrade-chipping

Postby bobbrown » Tue 22.05.2012, 14:02

The only time you are likely to see any benefit from the AP racing upgrade is if you do some serious track time.
The calipers may well be the best out there as are the discs but at a price that I do not see justifiable for a road car, others may disagree.
I think the most common upgrade out there is the Hi Spec front and I do not think there has been any major problems with that upgrade if any one knows differently I for one would like to know.

But as with all things depends on how much you are willing to spend.
As for the chips I can not really comment as my Elan does not have a turbo but I think it is all explained quite well here
http://ealanach.co.uk/elanchips/index.p ... &Itemid=14
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Re: Performance upgrade-chipping

Postby JIMBO » Tue 22.05.2012, 16:17

I have the willwood front brake calipers and no restrictions on the rear. This give a better bias to the front but also brings the rears into play. I have tried the mountain chips and although they gave a good safe performance improvement, I prefer the BBR that Gerald at GST convinced me to try when he was removing the LGM turbo to refit the original. So far I am very pleased with the gains provided even though it can spin the tyres in all gears if I try too hard, especially in the wet.
My advise to anyone wanting to improve the performance of their Élan is to upgrade the brakes and suspension (including bushes) before considering any engine upgrades.
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Re: Performance upgrade-chipping

Postby jHamshaw » Tue 22.05.2012, 17:46

bobbrown wrote:I think the most common upgrade out there is the Hi Spec front and I do not think there has been any major problems with that upgrade if any one knows differently I for one would like to know.


My Hi-Spec front calipers were both leaking at MOT time and have gone off to Hi-Spec for a rebuild but they were fitted by the owner before last (Andrew Ennis, around 5 or 6 years ago IIRC from the document file) so I guess this is about right? :?
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