A Radical Approach To Performance Tuning....

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Wed 7 Nov 2007 08:02
A Radical Approach To Performance Tuning.... - rg
Folks,

The following is supposedly gleaned from a boy racer forum somewhere on the 'net.

I hope that this method catches on. It will certainly lead to quieter, safer roads.

Hey guys, I've got a 98 1.8T. I've had a k04 and chip for a while and
wanted to get more performance. I was recommended to port and polish
the intake and exhaust. We found out they used abrasive material to do
it like gritty sand. So I got with my friend that tunes Hondas and we
decided to try it ourselves. We got a bag of sandblasting sand and
hooked up into the intake and started the car. We had to hold the gas
so it would run. He wanted to let the engine suck in the sand through
the intake so it would port it out and then push it out the ehxaust so
it would port the exhaust manifold.
I was worried that it might cause problems but he figured it'd be OK
as long as we didn't make boost and it get sucked in the turbo. After
running the car and letting it suck in sand we got about half way
through a 25 lb bag. The check engine light was on and the engine was
bucking and kicking and sounding really weird. We stopped and hooked
the car back up normal and took off the sand supply. We tried to start
it again and it was really hard. Once started it couldn't idle and
kept making weird noises. We took it out and drove it and it started
to make scraping and knocking noises.


rg
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Wed 7 Nov 2007 08:09
A Radical Approach To Performance Tuning.... - Garethj
I've read that, sadly it seems to be made up but you could believe it's true!
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Wed 7 Nov 2007 08:16
A Radical Approach To Performance Tuning.... - rg
Moderators,

If this one has been seen before by the majority, please feel free to delete.

Having once just managed to stop one young driver trying to to fill up their brake reservoir with water and screenwash, I do, however, find it utterly believable.

Former close neighbours had an utterly antisocial boy racer son, ignorant of most things, especially engineering theory, so this tale is close to my heart.

r
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Wed 7 Nov 2007 08:50
A Radical Approach To Performance Tuning.... - madf
Sorry tha above warnings are the wrong approach.imo.
Surely it is the interest of all right minded people that we set this up as a link for all boy racers as a way of quick and cheerful tuning?

I will recommend it to the driver of a local Clio with big bore exhaust who drives down our road at 50 (limit 30) at 5.30am.

:-)
madf
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Wed 7 Nov 2007 08:58
A Radical Approach To Performance Tuning.... - Old Navy
Maybe we should suggest that you can increase the volume of 12 volt audio systems with 240 volts. :-)
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Wed 7 Nov 2007 09:03
A Radical Approach To Performance Tuning.... - bathtub tom
It's like the uban myth from my apprentice days, that pulling out the spark plugs, and putting a few old ball-bearings in would give a decoke. No harm would be done, because the ball-bearings would be blown out the exhaust.

And the 'old boy' who should have known better. He took some 'oil dag' (molybedenium sulphide in suspension) home, to grind in his valves, because according to him: "not many people know it contains an abrasive". That was over forty years ago. Do you reckon he's still grinding?
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Wed 7 Nov 2007 09:12
A Radical Approach To Performance Tuning.... - BobbyG
I remember years ago in my first job there was a sales guy who just loved his hi-fis and was totally gullible. One of the other guys told him you got better sound out your speakers if you filled them with sand. Now I believe there is some truth in that, however it needs to be a specific type?

However Mr Gullible went down to Ayr beach and filled poly bags of nice wet sand, no doubt with some shells and seaweed and wno knows what else, and then poured them into his Mission speaker boxes. He reported back that he didn't think it had made any improvement!
--
2007 Seat Altea XL 2.0 TDI (140) Stylance
2005 Skoda Fabia vrS

Edited by Webmaster on 08/11/2007 at 00:41

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Wed 7 Nov 2007 09:27
A Radical Approach To Performance Tuning.... - J Bonington Jagworth
"better sound out your speakers if you filled them with sand"

It's the stands you need to fill with sand... :-)

I made a few column stands this way, using (really!) the cardboard inners from rolls of carpet. They worked very well.
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Wed 7 Nov 2007 10:08
A Radical Approach To Performance Tuning.... - Altea Ego
I will recommend it to the driver of a local Clio with big bore exhaust
who drives down our road at 50 (limit 30)


I didnt know you knew my son? Actually a 1.2 clio with a big bore exhaust makes a very agreeable noise



>>at 5.30am.

Ah cant be him then - I dont know any teens awake at 5:30am
------
< Ulla>
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Wed 7 Nov 2007 09:41
A Radical Approach To Performance Tuning.... - J Bonington Jagworth
"I do, however, find it utterly believable"

I'm sorry to say I do, too. However, consider how you know what you know - you probably read a bit, tinkered with old cars or motorbikes, possibly a lawnmower, and soaked up a fair bit of practical knowlege - maybe even decoked an engine. These things aren't done any more, partly because the maintenance requirements of cars and bikes are so much lower, but also because modern education concentrates on breadth, not depth. School leavers with 10 GCSE's still can't wire up a 13A plug...
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Wed 7 Nov 2007 10:01
A Radical Approach To Performance Tuning.... - Tomo
At one time some people tuning air cooled two-strokes for performance/racing would run the bike at increasing power output up to maximum with metal polish in the fuel; this was intended to lap the piston and bore together with the metal hot, hopefully to go quicker but particularly to thwart the two-strokes awkward tendency to lock up solid due to thermal distortion, just as one maxed it.

It was best to strip and thoroughly clean out the motor after.

Perhaps some folk memory of this survives to inspire crackpot ideas.
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Wed 7 Nov 2007 10:49
A Radical Approach To Performance Tuning.... - bell boy
i know that cars will run on neat thinners,so if 25 litres of gunwash is £12 0r even less if you make your own from the spoils of paint shops,maybe this is the start of a new cheap fuel?

(dont try this at home kids)
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Wed 7 Nov 2007 19:21
A Radical Approach To Performance Tuning.... - Another John H
I believe one Colin Chapman used metal polish (for 50 miles or so, then drain, clean, replace bearings...) in a back axle where the crown wheel and pinion didn't belong together (to achieve the desired ratio) as a way of making them fit together...

Not much new under the sun - this is from the 1950's.
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