Alamo Focus SHO Turbo Kit - Follow Focus-Dyno Cell

The Focus SHO engine requires an upgrade to Haltech E6K engine management from the Stage III Turbo's Alamo-reworked OE Focus engine management system with 02 simulator. The Haltech E6K incorporates special new firmware to interface to the stock Ford crank-position multi-toothed wheel and Hall-Effects pickup. Alamo's strategy is to install a Haltech E6K Engine Management System and piggyback it on the stock ECU, which continues to control basic functions unrelated to performance, such as A/C, idle, dash instruments, and the stock fuel pump (augmented at high-boost with a Kenne-Bell Boost-a-pump).

"The stock fuel supply limitations probably slowed this project more than any other single thing," says Yingling. "To properly convert to a traditional fuel rail with pressure regulator and fuel tank return loop, you need the European Ford ECU, the Euro fuel lines, the engine fuel rail, and the fuel tank from the European Focus. Alamo uses a Kenne-Bell Boost-a-Pump to jack-up the stock fuel pump's maximum fuel supply at high boost, which also easily provides fueling for a 40-shot fogger nitrous injection available for turbo spool-up purposes, when required on the Phase II Turbo Focus.

"The SHO turbo system is very responsive," says Yingling. "We installed the twin-bottle nitrous system prior to turbocharging the car, and it's currently less a performance necessity than an interesting conversation piece. At this point, the bottlenecks currently limiting Focus SHO power in the range 350-400 fwhp," says Yingling, "are the intake manifold, the 'potato-chip' throttlebody, maybe the cams, and the fuel system."

Alamo equipped the SHO Focus with a Quaife limited-slip differential to keep the engine from routinely boiling the tires in lower gears when you hammer the gas pedal. At the same time, Alamo disassembled the transmission gear stack to strengthen it cryogenically.

Dyno-tuning and Road-Testing the Alamo Focus SHO
Once Alamo had interfaced the Haltech E6K's wiring loom to the stock Focus electrical system and engine management sensors and actuators (including the cam trigger), the main challenge was to keep an eye on fuel supply while super-tuning the E6K on the Alamo Dynojet chassis dynamometer. The E6K is a programmable speed-density computer system that does not directly read Mass Air Flow from a hot-wire or film sensor, but instead determines ignition timing and fuel injection pulsewidth based on extensive internal tables of numbers that approximate the volumetric efficiency of the engine. These VE tables must be developed based on exhaustive dyno and/or road-test experimentation at all achievable combinations of speed and manifold pressure.

The process of scratch-building Haltech E6K ignition and fuel speed-density maps begins when you supply a set of engine parameters to Haltech's auto-mapping software. The Haltech builds "startup" maps based on mathematical models that predict engine fueling and ignition timing parameters based on the displacement, injector size, maximum turbo boost, and other factors. This "SWAG" (scientific wild-ass guess) map is typically quite good and is designed at the very least to enable the engine to start. At which point a tuner must laboriously manually optimize best torque (LBT) across a matrix of "breakpoints" of engine speed and manifold pressure on the dyno with a laptop interface program connected to the on-board computer and the help of a sensitive wide-band air-fuel ratio meter or gas analyzer. Following which, the tuner must then verify driveability on the street and track; once tuning is close, the car typically becomes the daily-driver for the chief tuner for a while, with a laptop riding shotgun for minor drivability adjustments, particularly during cold-start and warm-up cycles.

This sort of tuning is routine for dyno-shops like Alamo, but in the case of the Focus SHO, the main trick was to keep a close eye on fuel pressure to make sure that (with the help of a Boost-A-Pump when the turbo is working) the Focus' partially-disconnected stock computer was kept happy enough. It had to continue commanding a reasonable fuel supply from the variable voltage fuel pump under both naturally-aspirated and boost conditions without going into a coma or something while the E6K took over fueling and timing tasks.

What we want to know is, what can this bad boy do when you whip it good? To get some idea, look at the dyno chart. Moving 3,200 lbs worth of inertial dyno rollers, beginning in fourth gear at 15-20 mph and wide-open throttle, the car takes roughly 10 seconds to reach peak power near 75 mph. With the turbo working at full howl, the Focus SHO explodes from 4,000 to 7,000 rpm in fourth gear in four seconds. This "SHO" may be a "show" car, but it is capable of cleaning the clock of a Corvette Z06.

Name: Focus.301
Title: Alamo Focus SHO Turbo
Run Date and Time: 10/6/2001, 1:29:50 AM
Acceleration from 1500 to 7300RPM, interval = 100.00 RPM
Absolute barometric pressure: 29.61 in.Hg.
Vapor pressure: 0.26 in.Hg.
Intake air temperature: 55.8 F
Gear Ratio: 58.51 RPM/MPH
Correction Factor: 0.97 SAE

Name: FOCUS.003
Title: baseline
Run Date and Time: 1/8/2000 10:12:00 AM
Acceleration from 2600 to 6800RPM, interval = 100.00RPMAbsolute barometric pressure: 29.61 in.Hg.
Vapor pressure: 0.17 in.Hg.
Intake air temperature: 50.6 F
Gear Ratio: 80.40 RPM/MPH
Correction Factor: 0.96 SAE

The Alamo Autosports Focus SHO turbo system pulled a triple play on the Zetec four banger by tripling its output. The kit generates 254.4 hp, pushing output from a commuter friendly 111.1 to a Corvette killing 367.7 Torque peaks out at 322.3 lbs-ft.