Activa Turbo performance upgrades?

LeeDJC · Post by **LeeDJC** » 30 Mar 2007, 13:57

I have just bought a Activa Turbo, and was wondering if there were any performance upgrades available for it?

I ahve seen a super chip, but at £500 it's a little steep at the moment. Is it possible to upgrade the intercooler etc, or anything else?

Thx
Lee

deian · Post by **deian** » 30 Mar 2007, 14:50

Personally, i'd take it onto a rolling road first and see what bhp it outputs. If it has 150bhp as it should then take it easy and start small, I can't give u any obvious upgrades as they are all different for different cars and personal tastes.

I firmly believe the smallest things can make a difference, like strength of spark (wires/spark plug quality), fuel quality and maybe oil type make a difference, collectively you may see a small increase, there are probably the type of cheap upgrades that are quick and easy.

Also remember the turbo in an activa isn't designed for big power, it's there to keep the power going at mid range, called a 'constant torque'.

Also 'personally' i would 'blueprint' an engine if i was looking for more power, then play with the flywheel balancing and maybe see what camshafts you can get, THEN superchip it.

Good luck

KP · Post by KP » 30 Mar 2007, 17:16

Basically making it breath better would help a lot. making the pipe runs shorter with some stainless steel or alu piping made to fit would help a fair bit and be much stronger.
Getting rid of the cat would help breathing as well but isnt legal unless you LPG the car.
A livemap session would help a fair bit.
I believe a 16v head can be fitted to the engine but i cant remember where i heard it or what engine it came from.

All this is after you do as above and make sure its fuelling and running as should be

Post by **CitroJim** » 30 Mar 2007, 20:40

Hi Lee and a warm welcome to the wonderful world of Activa Ownership

My first question is why? I goes pretty well as it is, or should.

I second all that has been said before in that make sure every little thing is in order and you'll likely get a surprise. These loose boost quite easily through air leaks and duff boost controllers. Check the intercooler is intact.

The engine is optimised for low/mid grunt as it is and this is does remarkably. Torque by the bucketful but it runs out quite quickly as the revs build toward the redline.

These engines are popular now with 205 drivers as a conversion and on the 205gtidrivers forum we have discussed tuning them at length. Basically, the turbo is too small to do much with. I have done a set of flow calculations and turbo performance calculations and even at the standard 7psi boost and at high revs the turbo is running well to the right of the "efficiency Island" (i.e getting inefficient) and this gets worse as the boost is wound up. With stock management the maxium boost you can run is 15psi before the ECU cuts it back.

Breathing, as already said, is the key. The stock inlet and exhaust is a little restrictive and the intercooler not best located although it is quite efficient. Go for a blast and then feel the alloy pipe coming out of the turbo to the intercooler and then compare it with how hot the throttle body is. There is a marked difference. A big intercooler with good pipe runs, a dump valve and a less restrictive exhaust whilst retaining stock boost will make a good difference. A "decat" may help but going on the size of the Activa cat, no great gains will come from its removal. You're better off replacing from the cat back.

If your Activa is anything like mine, the engine performance will be the least of your worries for a while yet

. How is the suspension

Post by **CitroJim** » 30 Mar 2007, 21:01

KP wrote:I believe a 16v head can be fitted to the engine but i cant remember where i heard it or what engine it came from.

Strictly, yes. It is possible to put a 16V head on from any other XU engine and the tappings are present in the block to put the extra cam belt tensioners in but generally it's not a recognised mod as the 8V head is seen as perfectly adequate and there are all sorts of problems matching up manifolds and getting the compression ratio right.

Lee, some more details of your Activa please?

KevMayer · Post by **KevMayer** » 30 Mar 2007, 21:17

For 25 quid you can get a manual boost controller off ebay. You can turn up your boost to around 14 psi and that should give you a nice bit of extra power.

I tried this with my Activa and it made a real difference. It may be all you need.

Post by **CitroJim** » 30 Mar 2007, 22:40

Fuel:

Although it is dearer and the Activa is rather thirsty, always use either Shell V-Power or the BP version. It really does make a difference, most notably that it does a few more miles to the gallon. So, if you don't save a few pence using this stuff, you'll surely break even and enjoy a little more power into the bargain.

The reason is that the Activa has ECU controlled ignition timing and a knock-sensor. Running with high-octane petrol it can run more ignition advance before the knock-sensor asks for the timing to be backed off. Thus more power and economy.

I'm a dedicated Shell man and normally run V-Power but have had one tankful of the BP brew. It would be interesting to see how well it goes on the 99RON Tesco stuff one of these days and even one day perhaps, a bit of Morrisons E85 if the fuel system is OK for a bit of Ethanol.

Post by **CitroJim** » 30 Mar 2007, 22:54

Sorry, as I sit here I think of more things.

I mentioned a Dump Valve (DV) in an earlier Post. Although beloved of Chavs and Barryboys for the noise they can (but don't have to) make, they really do have a valuable role to play on a turbo engine and the Activa really does need one.

At full throttle/full boost the turbo is shifting something like 15 Lbs/min (200 odd CFM) of air into the engine and when the throttle butterfly is suddenly closed against this lot, the turbo compressor will run into surge and stall. You can hear it doing this as the compressor impeller "chops up" the static air and you get a "Phufffsst Phuffsst" sound. It follows that once you put your foot on the throttle again, the turbo will take a finite time to recover from this state of affairs. It needs to spool up to speed again. Using a DV allows the static air to be dumped and thus allows the turbo to remain spooled up.

If you don't want to be seen as a Chav, you can use a recirculating DV, which dumps silently back into the inlet tract. In fact, if you look, you will see blanked off spigots on the turbo trunking especially for a recirculating DV. Citroens were never so fitted but the Peugeot 406 SRi was I believe.

LeeDJC · Post by **LeeDJC** » 30 Mar 2007, 23:41

thanks Jim for all that very valuable help!

You wanted a bit more info about the car etc, well here it is

I've wanted an Activa Turbo for a while now, and seen the odd dodgy one on ebay etc. However, it was always not the right time, the car was ropey or it was just too expensive for me to get one. However, when I got back from work yesterday, and having a quick flick through the local car rag, I was surprised to see a decent looking Turbo a few miles away from me at a good price.

I was straight on the phone and went out to look at it. I fell in love with it straight away. The only problems that I could find with it was not quite so healthy looking LHM and a knocking drop link. I managed to knock the guy down from £650 to £570, and bought it with a qaurter tank of petrol, 6 months MOT and 6 months tax - bargain for a car that cost £20k 10 years ago.

The car it self is very tidy, and has only covered 72k, and is in the red/orangy colour

Unfortunately I have only managed to drive it the 10 miles back from the sellers house with the other half following in the 1.9D, so couldn't give it much stick.

Overall I'm very pleased and impressed with the car. The handling is on a par with (if not better than) our Mini, but a much more comfortable ride!

The only problem I have is that it is a little too "refined". I want it to bark back at me when I give it some go. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to chav it up, but just make it into a little more of a drivers car.

The plan at the moment is to sort out the droplink, and hydraflush and bleed the system, then change it for some nice new LHM and run it for a while to see how it is.

After reading the last few posts, probably what I'll do then is to sort out a cat back exhaust (any recommendations would be appreciated!), induction kit and dump valve (not decided on recirculating or not at the mo). Then see how it is.

I have read on another site that the cam is very very mild, and can be replaced with a S16 or 1.9XU cam....perhaps that could be the next step.

To be honest I don't want to go silly with it - I do like to drive my cars more than work on them (if possible), and also some reliability would be nice!

Sorry for the long post for those of you who've managed to get this far!!

(Also can't get it on the road properly now for a fortnight or so

we're going up to the Lake District over Easter, and as tempting as it is to take the Activa up there I don't know the car well enough yet, so will stick with the 1.9D until after then!)

Lee

LeeDJC · Post by **LeeDJC** » 30 Mar 2007, 23:42

With regards to the suspension, I did notice last night that it dropped ever so slightly to one side just after I parked it up. The ground isn't very even there - so possibly an activa quirk? Or maybe the not so good LHM could be attributable?

DickieG · Post by **DickieG** » 31 Mar 2007, 07:55

LeeDJC wrote:With regards to the suspension, I did notice last night that it dropped ever so slightly to one side just after I parked it up. The ground isn't very even there - so possibly an activa quirk? Or maybe the not so good LHM could be attributable?

This appears to an Activa quirk, I've noticed several do this, normally leaning down on the nearside.

LeeDJC · Post by **LeeDJC** » 31 Mar 2007, 08:22

DickieG wrote:
LeeDJC wrote:With regards to the suspension, I did notice last night that it dropped ever so slightly to one side just after I parked it up. The ground isn't very even there - so possibly an activa quirk? Or maybe the not so good LHM could be attributable?
This appears to an Activa quirk, I've noticed several do this, normally leaning down on the nearside.

Phew. I was worried it might be dodgy rams

DickieG · Post by **DickieG** » 31 Mar 2007, 09:07

Phew. I was worried it might be dodgy rams

Normally the only problems you seem to get with rams is leaking from the small return pipe due to blockages/breakage of the rubber pipe where it leads away from the front ram or just plain leakage due to wear on either of them.

If it 'shuffles' when stationary with the engine running, then its due to wear on the small rubber blocks that locate the roll corrector linkage on the front subframe near to the wishbone, new ones are only about £2.50 each side and take 10 minutes to replace

Post by **CitroJim** » 31 Mar 2007, 09:09

Excellent Lee, sounds like you have a good 'un there and I'm delighted it'll be loved and not be an engine donor for a 205

Your planned mods are good, just enough to give it a bit of an edge. Personally, I like the "sleeper" or "Q car" aspect of the car and appreciate the refinement. Must be my age

You only realise just how refined it is when you leap out of a 1.9TD straight into an Activa

I have ridden in one with a big stainless catless exhaust system and it was just too noisy for me but it did bark nicely

Suspension: The knocking drop-link is a common problem. I guess it comes from the rear and if so, it'll be the "silentbloc" bush (called an "Articulation" by Citroen) in the rear Activa Ram eye that has gone. They don't live long and they are cheap and easy to replace if you can get one. They are available according to the Stealers and pr.net but I've been waiting ages for one. They're like rocking horse manure. I've ended up fabricating one out of hard nylon until a pukka one finally gets supplied. If you want one of my nylon ones, let me know. The longer answer to the problem may well be a polyurathane bush and if enough of us need them, a small production run may be justified from one of the manufacturers of these things.

They do sink sideways and as DickieG says, it's not unusual. Mine does. I'm on a mission to find out why and when I do find out I'll post.

Check all your hydractive electrovalves are working. There is another electrovalve that controls the Activa stiffness but as yet, I've not worked out a good way to test it (next project). To test hydractive electrovalves, have a look at the excellent series of posts Simon (Mandrake) has made on the subject. he tells you how to repair them too

Also check and lubricate the little linkages from the front wishbones to the roll corrector.

Cams: I heard that some other XU cams can be used to good effect but take care. A turbo engine needs a mild cam with not much in the way of overlap. A 1.6 or 1.9 cam from a GTi engine will be far too hot!

Have a great time in the Lake District Lee

I love it up there and yes, wise not to take the Activa just yet. There is a lot to potentially go wrong with them and it helps driving confidence to be reasonably familiar with them, knowing all is healthy and also, taking a diesel will be very, very much cheaper

LeeDJC · Post by **LeeDJC** » 31 Mar 2007, 09:20

Thanks for the help

The droplink knock is coming from the front o/s. I'm assuming that there is a drop link there, like the other Xantias? If not it's some other bush, I haven't actually had time to get under and have a look yet with work, kids etc!

May have ten minutes to poke around under there this morning tho.