Any alternatives to L.A.D.?

8th May 2006, 20:47

Hi
My head gaskets gone and Im due a cambelt change... After getting a quote of £750 from a Citroen garage for the work I rang L.A.D. motorsport and they said they would put in an uprated head gasket and cambelt and do some work on the head for £960... He said I would have an easy 170bhp at the flywheel after which is really hard to believe!??
Has anyone had this tuning package done?
If so whats it like?
And does anyone know of any other company that would change my head gasket and cambelt and also do some headwork aswel?
Ideally I dont want to spend over 1k

Thanks Joe

8th May 2006, 21:20

i live round the corner from lad and my mates 106 gti has had the pacage done and he told me not to bother he has had to go back 3 times were its fucked up he has had to pay 1300 futher to rebuild the enigne because they basacly tune the bollox of it and then you rag it about and its just to much work for the little engine thats what he says anyways plus everyone around my area will say never go lad but its your car your money m8

8th May 2006, 21:31

To many BAD things I've heard about L.A.D in previous posts.

Not heard one good thing said about them. I'd stay well clear.

They talk SHIT and dont give a FUCK as long as you pay them. Once you've payed they will screw you from behind and fuck your car up.

Thats the kind of vibe im getting from what others have said !!!!!

8th May 2006, 21:34

Cant get link to work but look at it your answers probably already their.

http://www.sax-p.com/forum/forum_pos...TID=34132&PN=2

8th May 2006, 21:40

yep the term "dry bummed" springs to mind

8th May 2006, 21:55

Thanks.
Do you know what happened to your mates 106? On the L.A.D. website it says that...
All work carried out by L.A.D. for both parts and labour on our conversions carries a full 12 month warranty.
Does anyone know what power gains are realistic from some headwork and what price i should be paying?
And anyone who would do the work apart from L.A.D?

8th May 2006, 22:12

citroen quoted that for me untill one of mechanics came out and did it for 250. there must be some local garages that could do it. trouble with lad is the naive, dont now alot type of person sees the figues and jumps at it expecting massive gains. with head work alone you prob wouldnt hardly feel any difference. headwork has to go with cams and throttlebodies. stay away

8th May 2006, 23:26

i have got a saxo vts san remo produced by l.a.d, citroen supplied l.a.d with a few vts s so they could do work on them and turn them into a limited edition. i have had the car about a month now and it drives great and the previous owners haven't had any trouble with the car whats so ever. l.a.d say that it should be 160 bhp. i have had it on a mobile rolling road and it got 135bhp but the road was out but not by 35bhp. the work that l.a.d have done on the car was all done properly but it would have to be because it was citroens name on the line. wouldnt like to comment on the work that they have done on other cars cause i heard some bad feed back of people. performance of the car is good thought i ve got a g - meter which measures 0-60 and 1/4 mile times mine got and average 0-60 of 6.3 and 1/4 mile 15 seconds. and these meters are know to be pretty accurate

9th May 2006, 00:46

Is that 135bhp at the wheels? I think a standard VTS is about 95bhp at the wheels correct me if im wrong? So that may very well be 160 at the flywheel? And do you know exactly what they did to your car? Did they skim the head?

9th May 2006, 01:18

i'd just use a local good quality garage mate and save your dosh. Does your head need skimming or is it just the gasket that needs replaceing. Any half decent garage would replace the cam belt anyway if removing a head. Why would you need a uprated head gasket?

9th May 2006, 02:39

no i think that was at the fly.got to get it re-mapped at motorsport development then will get it on a fixed rolling road and see what it is at.
phoned them up and they said that they did extensive head work. but i thought the more head work u had done then you will have less flb of torche than bhp and mine is the other way around

9th May 2006, 03:10

Just thought if I was spending £750 getting my head gasket done I might aswel get some headwork done at the same time! No dont think it needs skimming I was just trying to work out how L.A.D. were getting the power they quoted out of the engine. Surely there are loads of people who have had the L.A.D. treatment done. I just cant think how a company can quote a figure like that and give a full warranty! Surely thats illegal? I cant even see how making the ports bigger would give that much of a gain? Surely you would need bigger valves aswel? I want a uprated head gasket as I heard that the mk 1 VTSs had a paper/fibre one that tends to fail? Does anyone know any more on this?
Thanks for all the advice I'm going to stay well clear of L.A.D. and Ill ring them back and ask some questions about their power figures!

9th May 2006, 23:13

Give jamie a ring at jamsport and ask him about the head on my car that lad had done.They completely f***ed it up he couldn,t even exchange it for the new he fitted due to the work being so bad.I have now replaced everything on my car that lad fitted .Its a shame that they are allowed to carry on trading And keep ripping everybody of i bet not even one of the conversions they have done has even made anywhere near the power they qoute.

10th May 2006, 00:06

best alternative to lad is

.seriously mate dont go there try ringing round a few places