Does anyone know how far the valves open on the 1.9SDI? My housemate loves tinkering with cars and although he's not a skoda man, he's fascinated with the challenge of trying to squeeze more power out of my car. His latest suggestion is looking into whether fitting a larger camshaft would allow the valves to open further and therefore introduce more air into the engine... but he also said he has no idea if it's even possible on a Fabia. Any thoughts?

 

(For those wondering why I don't just buy a TDI... insurance costs!)

Forget camshaft.

Uprate the fuel pump and give it a good service. Remap. 80 horses!

Does anyone know how far the valves open on the 1.9SDI? My housemate loves tinkering with cars and although he's not a skoda man, he's fascinated with the challenge of trying to squeeze more power out of my car. His latest suggestion is looking into whether fitting a larger camshaft would allow the valves to open further and therefore introduce more air into the engine... but he also said he has no idea if it's even possible on a Fabia. Any thoughts?

 

(For those wondering why I don't just buy a TDI... insurance costs!)

 

Unfortunately the problem is rather more complex than your friend suspects, keep him away from it. The SDI is an economy engine, leave well alone.

Does anyone know how far the valves open on the 1.9SDI? My housemate loves tinkering with cars and although he's not a skoda man, he's fascinated with the challenge of trying to squeeze more power out of my car. His latest suggestion is looking into whether fitting a larger camshaft would allow the valves to open further and therefore introduce more air into the engine... but he also said he has no idea if it's even possible on a Fabia. Any thoughts?

 

(For those wondering why I don't just buy a TDI... insurance costs

Strangely enough - the 1.9 is a lower insurance group than the 1.4TDI- strange ,but true according to Parkers, but where does the groupings come from . 10 more BHP and a higher top speed of 8PH for  for the 1.4. BUT- look at insurance group of the 1.4 /16V PETROL - same as 1.9 SDI- top speed a1 MPH lower than 1.4TD, and same BHP. ( Although I believe that the 1.4/16v is 100BHP VS 75 on the 1.4TDI). But then a simple remap ( to 100BHP) ,might seem a ice step. Along with a breke upgrade on front discs to VRS discs and callipers to hanfle the power, as 1.4TDI  brakes are not too nice at 75BHP, never mind any more.

Edited 21 April, 201511 yr by VWD

Does anyone know how far the valves open on the 1.9SDI?

 

Here's a serious answer to the question:

 

Just enough so they don't hit the piston crown and anyway a custom camshaft would be horribly expensive since no-one bothers to make a 'hot cam' for your engine.

Its not the valve lift that is important, its a proven fact that opening a valve by more than 25% of the diameter of the head has no effect other than accelerated valve train wear, the lobe centre angle is very wide on diesels due to there being zero overlap, it might be possible to increase the duration of the cam but it wont gain you anything... the power out from the engine is purely a product of how much of the diesel that is injected can be burnt so to see any positive gain you would also need to add more fuel at the same time.

for a cheap thrill you could try fitting nitrous oxide system, but the only realistic option would be turbocharging and increased fueling.

my best advise for your friend would be to leave it all well alone if he understands so little about diesel injection theory, its a very fine line bewteen it running nice and being a total dog that's difficult to start.

in the long run i'd say ditch it for a tdi model rather than trying to reinvent the wheel. Hth.

Thanks all. We've learned new things tonight! He did say he thought it was rather a long shot. May have a look at re-mapping as we know someone who can do it for us.

 

Cheers for the advice.

Strangely enough - the 1.9 is a lower insurance group than the 1.4TDI- strange ,but true according to Parkers, but where does the groupings come from . 10 more BHP and a higher top speed of 8PH for  for the 1.4. BUT- look at insurance group of the 1.4 /16V PETROL - same as 1.9 SDI- top speed a1 MPH lower than 1.4TD, and same BHP. ( Although I believe that the 1.4/16v is 100BHP VS 75 on the 1.4TDI). But then a simple remap ( to 100BHP) ,might seem a ice step. Along with a breke upgrade on front discs to VRS discs and callipers to hanfle the power, as 1.4TDI  brakes are not too nice at 75BHP, never mind any more.

 

I've heard bad things about the 1.4 petrol, and the road tax is twice as much as the 1.9SDI which was another factor I took into consideration.

 

I've been looking at the figures for the 1.4TDI - might look into it if I can find one in my price range over the coming months. Is it a good engine?

To be honest, I didn't see one for sale at the time I was looking (the car I've ended up with happened to be a good deal after I caught the seller on a good day so I just kinda went with it as I needed the freedom) so I had no idea that there was one or I might have held back to wait for one.

The 80BHP 1.4TDI is group 10 so would need to check quotes but the 75 is group 6 which would be fine for me.

Stick to the sdi. Great little engine, very economical and cheap to tax... Only downside is it's abit slow and usually poor spec.

An elegance sdi would be perfect!