We have been designing new camshafts for 1.6L EcoBoost in conjunction with Kent Cams and the first set of profiles were put into our new development engine along with new cylinder head portwork, which has been specifically designed to increase air flow whilst retaining gas speed and tumble. We spent 4 days at the dyno mapping the engine on the MBE9A6 ECU, initially using our existing turbo, which originally produced in the region of 350bhp on pump fuel and over 360bhp on race fuel. We were pleased to see significant gains over the original engine design and manage to increase the horsepower up to 376bhp running on pump fuel. We have also been working on smoothing the torque curve through adjustment in cam positioning and boost levels. We have reduced the peak torque slightly, trimmed a lot of the bottom end torque for those cars with limited grip, this is an area in the rpm range that is not normally used in competition, but it likely to be used in short-shifting in wet and slippery conditions. The torque curve can easily be changed to suit individual customer’s requirements.
We then moved on to testing a range of development turbos for Turbo Technics, their new development turbos were aimed at producing 400bhp, we wanted to not only help them with this project but use the data gained to allow Turbo Technics to build specific turbos for us for future customer developments. Over a period of a couple of days, a range of turbo variations were tested, once the final design had been decided on, which gave the best response and best peak performance, the boost level was slowly increased until we reached 437bhp. We pushed the engine as far as 2.4Bar of boost and still running only on pump fuel. The ignition advance was run well below the limit and therefore if race fuel had been used, there is potential for considerably more horsepower to come. Turbo Technics were happy with the fact that it exceeded their 400bhp.
The engine was inspected after running and our latest design of closed deck block (ENG-BLK-ECO1.6-HD-01K), which not only reinforces the cylinders but locks them together and to the block to prevent movement works fantastically, shows not only no signs of wear but barely looks as if it has been run. We are really pleased with the new development parts, but also our pistons (PIST-OM-ECO1.6-79.00XS), rods (ROD-FD-ECO1.6-01S) and bearings (BRG-ECO1.6-SP-01-R), which give the engine strength and durability to cope with high stress motorsport in all applications.
Steve, with Matt from Turbo Technics, have now run the first production turbo for our 350bhp spec 1.6L EcoBoost and as you can see from the graph, the results are even better-producing 355bhp and 351lbft torque at 1.9Bar, still using a completely standard engine from Ford with only the addition of the dry-sump system. You even see it produces 165lbft torque at 1700rpm.
Steve has spent another 2 days on the dyno at DTW Engines with the 1.6L EcoBoost testing the final pre-production version of our 350bhp spec turbo. which Turbo Technics completed for us. Steve has been developing the control strategies and software with MBE to allow the user to adjust the boost levels to suit track conditions, also to control the maximum torque level to limit the torque to reduce the stress on the transmission. It will be now possible to limit the power not only with adjustable boost settings but based on road speed as well and there will be up to 7 selectable options available.