Race Engine Forum UK

Hello Guy,
The aforementioned car is a 1989 Delta HF Turbo i.e. which i have fitted a 16v Integrale T3 turbo to. It was a very tight squeeze and needed a clearance cut out of the front cross member to give the compressor housing clearnace (see photo). Along with a supersprint exhaust, cone inlet filter and boost tweeked up to 0.9 bar it made 191.8 bhp on the rolling road (see photo), which i was very happy with considering the low budget.
For my next move I have been pointed towards the non turbo GT i.e. throttle body, which has a 56mm bore compared to the stock HF turbo bore of 52mm. I thought this made pretty good sense. The other thing that was suggested was to try which i'm not so sure about, is to fit the inlet cam from the GT i.e. as it has a greater lift than the turbo cam. I know lift isn't everything, but i was wondering if you can shed any light on this idea. With your guidance, I am willing to try it out (at my own risk of course!) if you think i will get any kind of gain.
Thanks for any help you can give me,
Guy

You won't find any difference from a bigger throttle body but the cam change will be very beneficial. You can't just swap in situ - you need to measure piston to valve clearance. The n/a cam will have more lift around tdc (not just at tdc btw)

G

My job isn't just give advice - it's to advise too.

I don't like the look of the old clips and plain rubber hose in the picture. It's going to be pretty hot there.

May be wrong, just being 'GC-ish' about things.

G

Thanks for the advice, its nice to hear at least the cam will make a difference.

I shall have the whole head off as i want to upgrade the gasket to something a bit more hardy (recommendations?), despite changing the cambox gaskets i'm convinced my standard head gasket is weeping oil on the offside front corner (is this possible as i'm getting no water/oil contamination?). I'm hoping to get the car trackworthy as its going on castlecoombe in april, i'm not sure the officials would appreciate little drops of Lancia oil everywhere!

With regards to the hoses/clips you are absolutely right and I couldn't agree more. Those photos are from last summer when I gave it its first shakedown maiden voyage with the bigger turbo. The aforementioned scabby clips have since been replaced with new items and you'll be pleased to know I've just bought some SFS air/water hoses which should be fine with some heat shield wrap around the turbo feed/return.

Thanks for your time and I will of course be documenting the cam swap, and if successful be showing you some new rolling road results.


Guy

Hi Infectus_guy - i have read a full post on your car, some awesome engineering has gone in there. Did you ever carry out this swap ? i have been told that 130TC cams are the way to go. Did you ever do the cam swap using Delta GTie inlet cam ? Do you know if any of the cams in question work ?

Thanks, yes i used the GTie inlet cam and it certainly felt a lot perkier on boost, but no before and after dyno charts i'm afraid. Unfortunately I have no idea about any other cam swaps though. I've actually changed to a much smaller turbo now, T25 from a Saab 9000 with a Fiat coupe 20vt T28 hot end because i wanted the V band to aid forgiving exhaust design.
Guy

Nice - makes sense. Mines the mark 1 HF turbo with the carb turbo engine, so its the same, but different. I had it dyno'ed about a month ago @ 130 front wheel hp (they are spec'ed at 130 flywheel hp from factory) so i was really happy with the result given that i haven't modified much apart from a front mounted intercooler, a 2-1/2" mandrel bent exhaust, a boost tap, and cold air box with pod filter running 10psi of boost on a factory T3. I've just had the head off and cleaned everything up, polished and port matched the intake/exhaust ports in the head and manifolds, and had the carb rejetted to flow more fuel where it was running lean up top, so im hoping that with 11psi and the port matching etc, i might get to 140 front wheel hp which would be nice. Like you i've set the car up as a tarmac/hillclimb car - full cage, big brakes, 15" wheels with sticky tyres etc etc. I have been offered a couple of 2 litre dohc NA intake cams of which i understand are all very similar, so was hoping that might be the next cheap upgrade.