Focus RS mk1 power?

I know it's nothing to do with a GTIR but my mate has a mk1 focus RS and he doesn't know a great deal about modding cars, he's sent it to some dude who's going to be putting on a front mount and an air filter relocation kit etc and up the boost. Their trying to get 400bhp out of it.

I said to him don't go crazy with boost unless your going to go fully forged and pay good money setting everything up right but his mate that's doing it said that his mk1 ran 400bhp on a stock engine and was extremely reliable, now I know fook all about them RS's but 400 sounds like its pushing it a bit from stock internals, I suppose if rueling was set up properly it would be ok but sounds like its pushing it a bit.

I've just got a feeling it's going to end in tears for him, personally I'm the kind of guy that if I'm going to run a lot of power I would want to do it properly but I don't know about these mk1 focs RS 2.0 engines, maybe they're bullet proof, along with everything else on the car such as clutch and gearbox etc if they are super duper reliable at 400bhp lol I think there's more to it than my mate realises, I could probably get some good power out the R if I just whack the boost up but I know it would be on thin ice all the time.

Maybe some ford nut can shed some light on the cababilitys of a stock mk1 RS engine

That's a lot of power, not sure on what the engines can handle but as they only had 212hp as standard. Found this:

http://www.fastcar.co.uk/2013/03/07/focus-rs-mk1-buying-guide/

the volvo engine is probably good but id guess it was never made to handle that sort of power

That's what I thought, sounds a lot, and to claim excellent reliability? there's other things to think about too like clutch and extra strain on the gearbox etc, I just think there will be more to it for good reliable power at 400 bhp than just extra boost, exhaust, filter and front mount kit. I'm sure it would take it but this guys claiming super reliability, just sounds a bit of a bold claim to me I suppose it depends how you drive, drive it hard at about double stock power and any car will start to show its weaknesses

I don't think the mk 1 have a Volvo engine do they? I thought it was a ford 2.0 4cyl engine

Its the later rs and st models than run the Volvo lump

pulsarmoley wrote:That's a lot of power, not sure on what the engines can handle but as they only had 212hp as standard. Found this:

http://www.fastcar.co.uk/2013/03/07/focus-rs-mk1-buying-guide/

According to that link it says they have foged pistons as stock but it also says it makes stock power at 1 bar so you would be running. Lot of boost on a stock tubby at that power!

It had a two litre  four cylinder engine i really dont think it would make that kind of power without going boom ... most ive heard  them running is 350bhp ... that was remapped different manifold  exhaust ...filter ... fuel pump ... etc so not really just a case of  upping the boost ...

I said to my mate on Facebook wouldn't 350bhp be more realistic and a better compromise when it comes to reliability but I don't know those focus engines so I wouldn't know and that guy that's doing his car was being a bit of a dick with me to be fair. Probably just an idiot with a bleed valve and an eBay front mount kit thinking he knows it all

I'll keep an eye out for the mushroom cloud bill lol

Bones wrote:I'll keep an eye out for the mushroom cloud bill lol

I'm guessing he would have to run that turbo at about 4 bar for any hope of breaking the 400 bhp mark and if he did his turbo will become a shrapnel bomb

Been having a look into this abit more ... id like to know how he is going to achieve such bhp figures alot of companys offer tuning packages stage 2 being 285bhp  stage 3 being 300bhp  anymore than 350 is having to uprate internals  fuel rail ... injectors ... turbo ..etc .... so i would be very dubious on the 400bhp figure if i was your mate .id want to know how he is going to set about doing it before id let him touch it ...

Like you said Leighton seems very optimistic figures with the kind of mods he's talking, I'd not looked into them before but what you say you have found doing a quick search is what I would of expected.

It's laughable really if you imagine some idiot with a bleed valve thinking he can take get 400bhp and all will be hunky dory
But im worried he's gona completely fuck my mates car up and it's a bloody nice car to be fair, you don't see many of those mk1 rs's and its a pretty clean original car by the looks of things

NO NO NO... No offence to the guy whos doing the work but if that was me & he said he can get 400 ponies out of the stock engine id of laughed & walked away...

The internals might be forged from factory but there not 100% forged if you understand me, Subaru do the same with the STI engines, but still not reliable for big power.

If I was you id ring a professional ford tuner like (M.A Developments or Graham Good Racing) etc & get some advise from someone that knows focus RS's & works with them day in day out before your mate gives his car to a daydreamer

Well when I questioned it all I got in response from the guy was "don't advise someone on something you know nothing about" because I admittedly don't know much about the focus but I know a bit about cars in general to know doubling the stock power on any car is going to have an adverse effect on something. To claim ultra reliability at that power is a bold call!

At lest the advice I give is sound, I might not know much but at least I don't think I know it all like that guy!

We will see in time what happens to my mates car when he gets it back and plants his right foot, apparently all he needs to see 400 now is the exhaust manifold and extra boost Haha

Like you say Gaz I would take it to a proper for tuning specialist and be prepared to part with some good wedge to get bullet proof reliability at 400bhp

If I was him I certainly wouldn't be giving somebody who's middle name on Facebook is "boostjunkie" and who thinks he can get 400bhp with a bleed valve and a front mount

but it's not my car so I dont really give a shit but it will be shame if he destroys it because he will find out the hard way how much it's going to cost him to do it properly

There are a few mk1 rs running 400 my mate was running 380 on his that's with a gtir hybird turbo and front mount and the other stuff to go with it .. On a standard turbo they see 300 some has seen 330 but it's all to do with the guy who mapping it there a company called sabra who tunes rs and getting some good figures and they have mapped my 20v turbo

I don't doubt they can run that kind of power but like I thought, it sounds like there is a bit more to it to get the power figures than what this guy is making out and I doubt if it was at 400bhp with minimal modification it's bou d to have an adverse effect on reliability because it's a lot more than some of the parts on the car were designed for.

They do sound like the come with some decent spec from the factory and would be a good car to mod

That guy who think he will be at 400 is dreaming he be lucky to push over 300bhp .. He needs to be thinking of a bigger turbo bigger injector and even then pushing over 360bhp anymore and you are just waiting for the engine to go pop .. They need to be forged to run 400 safely .. I was out with 3 rs mk1 on the weekend and they had 330bhp with a hybird .

Thats pretty much what i was saying lenny .... i certainly wouldnt want to push it beyond its limits by that much it will defo let go ... then it will be an expensive build ...

That's exactly what I though and tried to tell my mate who owns the car, but I admitted to know knowing what I was on about wit the RS then the guy gave me that cocky comment "don't advise on something you know nothing about" lol

I mean we're actually debating the fact that it's not possible to get that kind of power without spending good money on all the right bits, not only does this guy think its possible with just an exhaust manifold and a front mount he's claiming bullet proof reliability and that's the bit that I found laughable, I suggested aiming for less power to keep some reliability and be realistic about it but that guy tried to make me out to be some kind of fool lol.
that's the thing with the Internet, it's so easy to copy and paste and quote others to make yourself sound cleaver but I saw right through it, I know you can't take a 2.0 ford focus to 400bhp by basically bolting on an exhaust and turning a screw lol and if you could it would go pop.

I'll say it again it's the reliability claim that made me chuckle, 400bhp fair enough but bullet proof reliability on stock turbo, injectors and internals etc would just never happen.

To be fair I would imagine it would be fairly cost effective and they would be plenty of fun and still relatively reliable at up to 330bhp, but I believe in being conservative, I want a forged engine in my R but big power is not my goal, I just want the stronger parts and I will run about 330-400bhp tops and be happy at that, I could probably run 330bhp+ without going forged, I've seen R's run a lot more on stock internals but I'm not going to with mine, if a jobs worth doing its worth doing right and I like everything to be within its comfort zone not strained to the point where it's on the verge of destruction everything you put yor foot down lol

Ask him did he know the inlet manifold let go with high boost . Where my mates are all ford boys I do most of the work on there rs when it goes wrong I know the problems .. I'm not saying they he can't run 400 on standard engine because they can but it's all to do with who maps the car .. My fiat coupe is 420 on standard piston and rods running bolt on mods but my guy who mapped my coupe done my plusar and believe me a good map will save engine from going pop

I dont think he is aware that the inlet manifold is a weak point. Tbf my mate that owns the car knows very little about this kind of stuff and I think he's putting his faith in the guy who will be doing the car for him and by the sounds of it he doesn't know what he's on with, when I questioned what he was doing to the car and 400bhp sounded abit high he just fobbed me off instead of backing up his claims with what he intends to do to get the 400 bhp.

I just said to my mate I'm not trying to tell anyone how to do their job or anything I was just interested to know what the car was capable off with simple mods and I was just suggesting to him perhaps don't aim so high and keep it more within the "safe zone" by all means I wish him the best of luck with it and I hope they do crack 400bhp and not an engine component lol

I suggested if it was possible and affordable could he not run an ecu with switchable maps and a boost controller with two settings for two diff maps then he could switch from high boost to low boost but that guy said multiple maps do not work and why change the map that the car was set up for.
Well I thought that was the idea of the switchable map so the car is set up for either map. Say for example one at 1 bar and another at 1.5 bar? I didn't think it would be a bad thing if both maps were done by a professional mapper, I've seen a few cars with selectable maps and I never heard of it being a problem, I can see why some would deem it pointless but I can't see how it would make the car run bad?
Again the multiple maps thing was just a suggestion to my mate but the guy doing it for him just said it was a stupid idea

He said you don't need a boost controller, just run straight 400bhp for now lol what's he trying to do to my mate, kill him? He's never had anything anywhere near as quick as the stock RS before so at 400bhp it's going to be brown trousers time

By the way that's impressive power from the fiat coupe on stock internals, I've got to admit I've always wanted a fiat coupe turbo ever since I played grand tourismo on playstation 1 lol at the time my mum had a punto gt which was a rapid little car and I can remember reading up about the coupe turbo on gran tourismo, 2.0 20v turbo fwd with 250 bhp as standard!    the car sucked on the game but I can remember saying to my mate they will be one crazy car in real life, he actually ended up having one a few years back and he loved it