190 Kit - (official Lotus?): what parts included?

Hi there

Here everyone is talking about the ‘‘190 Kit’’ but no one seems to know what parts are included and what exactly the benefit is…

Can you help pls?

Is it just the motor management which allows the engine to rev up to 8000rpm?

Reason for my question is, I bought an Exige MKI in perfect stock condition and I was wondering what mods would be appropriate to optimize the engine a little bit

I’ve got the 190 motor management box which will be installed next week. Thought an emerald would be better, but I wouldn’t get warranty on that modification then…

As I’ve bought the car with a 12 month full warranty, I’m not planing to do any hardcore tuning on the engine (and I think 180-200bhp is more than enough for this fantastic car - out of this eingine - )

Will test the car on a motor power testing station in two weeks and hope to find out if it’s more a 160bhp or a 190+ car then… no matter what figures will come out, it is a fantastic, gorgeous, stunning and unique car anyway.

It makes me smile and grin anytime I look at it/I drive it

As well as the remapped ECU the 190 kit includes a revised inlet pulley to retime the inlet cam by advancing it 6 degrees. The instalation also involves removing the IACV.

Dave

Mine is a 192 but it still has the IACV

TBH… the 190 kit is a waste of money. great if you bought it with it, but nothing I would spend ANY money on. It just seems to overfuel the car and makes sod all differnece to your car. Money would be better spent on an Emerald,set of verniers and some time getting it mapped. This would make more sense than spending money on that rather crap mapping job lotus do along with that cam-pulley that has been handcut by eye measurement.

Dont waste your money and save up for a more cost-effective mod. (as mentioned above or suspension bits if you want to track the car)

IIRC the 190 kit comprises of several items.

190 ecu
110 degreee cam pulley
cat replacement pipe
new stat?
remove noise/airfilter valve thing used for noise (type-approval certification requirement)?

Luckily I got my bits for free when upgrading to 190…as otherwise I would have felt very pissed off with wasting cash.

Hi carsten,

It should be a 101 pulley I think…

Dave

Those of us who have been around since the beginning of the S1 debated the 190 upgrade at length in the early days. If you do a search on “190 Upgrade” you’ll come up with enough reading to keep you going all day. There are two of the best threads from those days, the latter having a direct link to a really useful description…

ONE
TWO

Incidenatlly, many of us lost our original log-in at some point. I used to be plain old ‘83man’ but had to re-register as ‘the83man’ to effectively rejoin. If you look at these threads you’ll see how long some of us have been posting on here…

thanks a lot for the infos and links

Did not know that this was such a big issue back then.

True, I could have used the search first

thanks anyway and have a nice weekend

IIRC the 190 kit comprises of several items.

190 ecu
110 degreee cam pulley
cat replacement pipe
new stat?
remove noise/airfilter valve thing used for noise (type-approval certification requirement)?

Luckily I got my bits for free when upgrading to 190…as otherwise I would have felt very pissed off with wasting cash.

As Carsten says the 190 kit really is a waste of money.

Have a look here:
http://www.exiges.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB1&Number=32465&Forum=All_Forums&Words=dva&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&Main=32447&Search=true&where=bodysub&Name=1460&daterange=1&newerval=3&newertype=y&olderval=&oldertype=&bodyprev=#Post32465

Save up and spend the money on DVA’s kit insted, it will actually deliver on its claims

I must be the lucky one.I had the 190 kit fitted by JCT and mine will pull from 1500revs with real torque from 5000.Pulls clean to 8000 but I will agree it is a touch overfuelled but no more than a set of Webbers.

I must be the lucky one.I had the 190 kit fitted by JCT …

They were the main dealer when mine was new and fitted the 190 kit. No complaints here.

My point is that the conversion is a waste of money to spend if you intend to retro fit it to your car. I also got a cheap 190 ecu and the pulley to add to my car because I was blinded by the bhp claims( I had the rest of the bits). Fact was my car drove basically the same before and after, althoughwith some slight more “vigour” up high in the rev range. To me, with hindsight, the mod wasted money even though I got the ECU for free but having spent money on labour to fit the pulley.

I certainly wouldnt make it a deal breaker when buying a used Exige if it had or didnt have the 190 upgrade. Just that its not worth the hassel and cost to retrofit.

I agree with Carsten - Emerald & Vernier pulleys is the way to go with the VHPD.

The most dissapointing thing for me about the 190 kit is the number that I have seen that have the modified inlet pulley fitted in the original timing slot rather than the revised one. I have upgraded around 15 from 190 kits to Emerald/verniers, more than half had the pulley fitted on the original timing slot, thus negating the effects of the timing pulleys modification.

Dave

I must confess to having the vernier pulleys fitted by Pat at Kelvedon after a couple of years and that made a noticeable difference to the way it revved to 8000.