anyone done any tuning to a 1.9 SDI if so what and how much gain and costs?

The best way to tune up an SDI is....

Take it to a dealer and trade it in against a TDI.

I'm afriad there is very little you can do without great expense to increase the SDI much, and even then a TDI 90 will outdo it and probably still be cheaper to insure.

Unfortunately, the cheese monkey is correct.

I suspect a crude resistor type tuning box may give a few extra bhp, but only single figures I'm sure.

How different are the SDI and TDI blocks? Surely the bulk of the engine will be common to the TDI and SDI, so it would be a case of fitting a turbo, manifold, intercooler and remap? :confused:

Chris

How different are the SDI and TDI blocks? Surely the bulk of the engine will be common to the TDI and SDI, so it would be a case of fitting a turbo, manifold, intercooler and remap? :confused:

Chris

Agreed. However as someone has said already, that would be a waste of time/money. The better option would be to part-ex the car for a TDI.

As I am new to the fabia am I right in saying that the SDI is a non turbocharged diesel?

Yes that is correct. It is the same basic unit as the 1.9 TDI, but without the turbo. It's not very fast(!), but very economical.

Agreed. However as someone has said already, that would be a waste of time/money. The better option would be to part-ex the car for a TDI.

Like most modding is a waste of time/money I'd wager that if the blocks are the same, fitting a hybrid turbo, manifold, intercooler and remap would be better value/performance for money than a TDI

Chris

Thanks for your help guys.

It looks like the SDI is the one for me, good mpg and no turbo to go wrong.

I Just thought that might be tweekable.

still it must go ok quite a big engine for a little car,

and I can only wonder what 170bhp TDI would be like in a furbie AWESOME.

I currently drive a 205 Diesel 1.8 non turbo that shifts ok.

If you want to learn from the experience then modding is not necessarily a waste of money (it's not all about the money). However if you want the cheapest approach then changing the car is often the way to go. It's a decision that only the individual can make.

Personally I think that trying to upgrade an SDI is probably a bit extreme. It's the same basic engine, but I'm pretty sure that some of the engine innards are stronger on the TDIs. The cost of strengthening the engine, fitting a turbo, intercooler, etc would not provide very good value for money!

Thanks for your help guys.

It looks like the SDI is the one for me, good mpg and no turbo to go wrong.

I Just thought that might be tweekable.

still it must go ok quite a big engine for a little car,

and I can only wonder what 170bhp TDI would be like in a furbie AWESOME.

I currently drive a 205 Diesel 1.8 non turbo that shifts ok.

If you're happy with the performance, then you really can't beat these engines. They are VERY reliable (just ask any taxi driver) and very economical.

The XUD came in 1.7(not quite 1.8) and 1.9 both with or without a turbo.

The difference here is that the 205 weighed approximately nothing, but the furby is a lot heavier.

I would definitely be looking to test drive one before you buy. If you do want better performance and a low price the 1.4 TDI is supposed to be quite a good engine.

Just because an SDI won't remap to give 20-30 more BHP dosen't mean that its not worth it.

There was an interesting letter in last months Diesel car from an SDI owner who had recently had his engine remapped - he was amazed with the results, the car was more drivable with all the power avilable spred out over smoothly over the rev range, his mpg had also shot up as well.

There is a bit more to it than just gaining massive increases in power, and is well worth investigating in my opinion

Got Vag Com to get rid of the stutter on my VRS, no go but. Found out on a pals SDI you can turn down the EGR settings as per VRS Stu`s webby. Does indeed make a subtle difernce.

Fabia-vrs.com - Home Page

SDI doesn't do much more MPG than the 1.9 tdi ...it does go OK (better than a 206 diesel) but don't expect miracles

The XUD came in 1.7(not quite 1.8) and 1.9 both with or without a turbo.

Both were lablled as a 1.8 in the Rover MK1 200/400 series, Turbos were 1769cc/88bhp and NA's were 1905cc67bhp IIRC

SDI doesn't do much more MPG than the 1.9 tdi ...it does go OK (better than a 206 diesel) but don't expect miracles

hmmm... not sure about that! In my experience the SDI is a bit more efficient (certainly in smaller cars like a Fabia), however it is a lot slower than any TDI.

Just because an SDI won't remap to give 20-30 more BHP dosen't mean that its not worth it.

There was an interesting letter in last months Diesel car from an SDI owner who had recently had his engine remapped - he was amazed with the results, the car was more drivable with all the power avilable spred out over smoothly over the rev range, his mpg had also shot up as well.

There is a bit more to it than just gaining massive increases in power, and is well worth investigating in my opinion

I'd agree that a re-map could well even out the power delivery, but I still question whether it's worth the money on an SDI? I would also question the mpg claims as I can't see how such a difference could be gained on a non-turbo diesel?

Not that much if any differnce in fuel econemy between a sdi and tdi, as the sdi alot of the time has to be driven hard just to get up to the speedlimit and for overtaking etc

Not that much if any differnce in fuel econemy between a sdi and tdi, as the sdi alot of the time has to be driven hard just to get up to the speedlimit and for overtaking etc

I would recommend not using the SDi for overtaking it isnt really designed for that its a very very slow car so overtaking = spending a lot of time on the worng side of the road

:eek: :eek: :eek: :sofahide:

Dont forget there are lot of other differences between the TDi and SDi. Not to mention they didnt fit a non PD diesel to the Fabia other than the SDi.

New looms, ECU, intake manifold, pipe work and the fact there is no where in the block for the turbo to drain into (custom sump maybe?).

and I can only wonder what 170bhp TDI would be like in a furbie AWESOME.

Well, 220 is pretty cool. 250+ is even better.

Welcome. Probably with the SDI you could stick a freeflowing exhaust on, uprate the intake, and maybe do some fuelling mod through a resistor thing, but essentially it's not a tweakable car (compared to a pd100 tdi which can go to 145bhp with just a remap)

I got the SDi that I had remapped to see what difference it made (the advantages of having friends in the trade, no charge!!!!).

To say I was suprised is an understatement, I wasn't expecting a monster and obviously I didn't get it, but it made the car a lot nicer to drive. The power was more spread out, and the mpg did go up as well, although that may have been because of the driving style I aopted when I was driving it!! I knew that I couldn't overtake much, so I just contented myself with cruising along, and if that's all you need a car for, then by all means go for it!

Without forced induction it'd be like chipping an N/A petrol. Smoother power delivery, a slight increase in power but all very subtle.

Do they fiddle with the injection timing aswell as fuel flow?

I know on the old XUD activating the A/C pulled on a solenoid that advanced the injection timing slightly to compensate for the extra load.

Both were lablled as a 1.8 in the Rover MK1 200/400 series, Turbos were 1769cc/88bhp and NA's were 1905cc67bhp IIRC

Yep spot on on the sizes, but PSA classed them as 1700's

Depending on the car you could get a 1700 & 1900 N/A, a 1700 & 1900 charge-cooled engine and a 2.1 charge-cooled engine.

Oh for a 2.1 in a BX, that would definitely have gone some