Supercharger would be the best path imo.. but I have no idea how far downt he strengthening route you would need to go!

remember the Kv6 was designed for efficiency and lightness now outright power.

I seem to recall people saying that 210 220Bhp was about the limit on standard internals. If your plans were for Big Big power then maybe a kitted ZS120 would be the way to go and then work on an engine swap... I know its basically an EG Civic underneath and well the swap the K20A motor in all the time.. Light, Powerful (Nearly 250bhp N/A with some tweaks) and once you get into Forced Induction then 300+ is the base point

 

i wasnt aware the kv6 was designed for efficiency and lightness.

thing is im a honda guy, and coming from hondas which are great and all, i wanna do something different. something outside of the box.

all manner of honda engine swaps have been carried out on hondas.

b16, b18, k20, h22, j30, they all have been transplanted into a honda chassis one way or another.

yes 220+hp is attainable with the k20, but it costs circa £4-5k to complete the swap. and i dont fancy spending that amount on a car. considering the base car doesnt even cost £4k.

so it leads me back to my initial idea. building a torquey honda. something different, something no one has done yet.

 

The ZT190 engine has different cam profiles/timing also..

 

are the cams interchangeable? i would have thought so.
does anyone know the cam data for both the engines?

 

Hmmm, KV6 is really not than tunable. You can get 190 bhp fairly cheaply, decat, intake, fuel regulator. Anything more than you are talking £1000 to get 200 bhp and that is not going to be that torquey.

You can do an engine swap from a ZT 190, but all the programmable ecus need to go along with it. There are a few other issues. I am currently doing the swap backwards in my ZT.

One thing you might consider is going down the route of a T16 engine as this would give around 250 bhp for not a lot of money and buckets of torque. My ZS 180 now has a T16 and finally was able to spin it around Oulton today. I am over the moon with it and for just power and its delivery, it is fair better than a kv6.

 

coming from honda 4 pots which have 120-140lb ft tq @ 7000rpm, 170lb ft from the kv6 is torquey no matter which way you look at it.

if i were to do a t16, i'd much prefer to stick to the honda 4 pots and boost that, sooo much better.

 

saying that though mate my K20 is putting out 160ft-lb of torque at just over 6000Rpm and that is with just over 225Bhp max too.

 

I don't think the supercharger option is available these days for the ZS180 KV6. It was offered by Sprintex and their agents in the UK a good few years ago.

It was relatively expensive (around £3k) and unreliable and has only been fitted to a very small handful of cars, most of which had to have engine rebuilds afterwards.

There was a guy on XPF who had a sorted supercharged ZS180 which was running 260bhp, but he has now sold it on.

Most of the tuned ZS180's have gone for mods such as better induction and exhaust mods - ranging from complete Janspeed systems with manifolds, decat (or sports cat) and system which has put them at about 190bhp, to catback systems and variations on the induction theme.

Some have had Piper 270 cams fitted and superchips or remaps and those have made 210-220bhp NASP. Basically it isn't worth trying to get more out of the KV6 as it's not a very powerful engine.

Stamford who posts on here and the various ZS180 forums has a dyno'd 200bhp from his ZS180 with induction, exhaust and remap mods.

I had a ZS180 which was dyno'd at 190bhp with ITG Maxogen induction and a Piper catback exhaust. The standard induction really holds the engine back.

These is another guy on XPF (DaveV6) who has a ZS180 fitted with the VW/Audi 1.8T engine running 300bhp. His is a track car mainly.

 

ive got a BMC filter, janspeed manifolds and exhaust with decat

Drew

 

It is front wheel drive too, so getting too powerfull and steering at the same time on rubbish roads could be trouble....

 

ive found my zs180 very predictable even at my currant 193 bhp on the road and on track dont forget its got equal length drive shafts so torque steer is minimal and the standard suspension setup is exellent even by modern standards

 

But think of those poor tyres.......

Do you remember how they slated the new little Alfa for having too much power for FWD and that runs at 250bhp.

I'm sure running at 200bhp is fine but with the supercharger must be a little tricky....

 

roverdose,

what mods did you have before and after the 2 dyno runs, as you have about 10hp and 10lb ft of gain between the 2 runs.

xs, i aint worried about gettin power down, wide semi slicks, traction bars and some trick suspension sorts it out.

i've had a 250hp turbo civic before, and never had a problem in putting that power down.

 

BMC air filter, decat, janspeed exhaust are the mods for the lower of the 2 power outputs on the graph. i started with 175bhp on those rollers so iro 10bhp for them isnt too bad.

the only difference from one power run to the next on that graph is the janspeed manifolds. excellent mod, definatly worth doing.

Drew

 

197bhp is very good for those modifications i would say, so having a custom re-map designed for 100RON fuel carried out after all that could quite feisably push that into the 205-210bhp range.

I think that some of the people on X-power forums that have done this and had some performance cams and vernier pulley's fitted and timed in, have made close to 220bhp. I have a theory that adding a set of ITB's and an ECU to run them could add 10-15bhp to most tuned KV6's, especially when around the 200bhp mark.

I also think that a well designed supercharger or single turbo conversion running around 4psi on the std CR and internals could be quite reliable, and add something around 40-50bhp to the std power figure.

 

197bhp is very good for those modifications i would say, so having a custom re-map designed for 100RON fuel carried out after all that could quite feisably push that into the 205-210bhp range.

i think 205 - 210 bhp might be a tad optimistic, would be nice to be a member of the 200 bhp kv6 club though

 

The KV6 is essentially the same headwise as a VHPD so there is plenty of scope. A good port on the heads and BP270 cams would give a substantial increase, the best I have seen is 225BHP, a lot more obtainable from hotter cams and throttle bodies if you are keen to go that way.

Dave

 

The questions to ask are what figures are you hoping to obtain? and how much have you in mind to spend to get there? With the KV6 as we know it we will always be chasing small amounts of power for silly money. I'm still short of a few things myself but drew a line at the costs to get those few more horses, I just couldn't justify the costs involved. Still a great car with 200bhp, shave off some kgs to make it worthwhile, it doesn't cost anything

 

Hi All

just a word of advice regarding any one wishing to fit an ITG Induction kit to a ZS KV6 180 as the inlet tube is fitted quite low with this kit,it is very easy for the engine to suck up water should have to you drive through puddles when it rains (and i mean small puddles not floods!) i found this out the hard way as it seized the engine forcing the piston and con rod through the back of the sump kist under the rear exhaust manifold so be warned


on another note does any one no if ptp (power train products) who do mg tuning stuff still are any good theier in hinckley leicestershire

 

I had a ZS180 with the ITG Maxogen fitted and never had any issues in the rain. If fitted correctly the air entry point into the tubing is a similar height to the standard resonator box in the left front wing which is roughly level with the top of the bumper.

Maybe yours was not fitted correctly, or maybe you underestimated the depth of the lake you drove into.

PTP advertise on this site in one of the banner ads, and they are a decent place to get stuff from.

I got a 52mm TB and another ITG MAxogen kit for my current Rover 200vi from them a year or so ago.

 

it was a rainy day with no really deep puddles certainlyy not a lake! lol just standing water really

who ever fitted the kit on mine got it wrong then, the air filter and its box was in the correct place but the inlet pipe had been forced through the bottom of the wheel arch liner where it goes horizontal under the front bumper unfortunatly i didnt notice this when i bort the catr so i was left with a choice of pay 3 grand for an engine rebuild (the cheapest i found) or flog the car so it went!