Back in a Lotus - 2006 Exige S
Discussion
It's update time:
This week I've finished off the hose routing through the sills, where I left it the hoses were available to grab via the interior cubby hole but had no route into the front clam/radiator area.
Using the endoscope I mapped out a few candidate locations for drilling. I had a choice of having both hoses come out on top of each other on the far edge of the sill, or split them up and run one down the inside and one down the outside. I went for the latter option.
I did a diagram that may/hopefully help other people in future understand where the other plumbing runs in the sill. The AC ones are the ones to watch, as they immediately kink off to the outboard direction and 'hog' the centre channel of the sill:
Green Lines = New CC lines
Blue = AC lines
Red = Oil Cooler Line
So at first glance it looks like the area beneath the two ally AC lines would be a no-go zone, but actually due to the kink it's really clear.
After a couple of pilot holes for the endoscope to peak through, I ran the 35mm hole saw through and then dropped some string down to drag the hoses out into freedom. They aren't too snaggy, I can add more slack if needed by pushing from the back and then pulling from the front - so allows me some room for adjustment once the clam goes back on.
Inside the sill I put some edging on a sharp-ish edge on the door hinge mechanism, pictured here:
You can see my CC lines here, one on the far left snug behind a brake/clutch line and one to the far right of the oil cooler line. AC hogs the centre bit.
It was a really triumphant moment when the hoses came through, by all accounts the hard part really is done. My hand isn't just for show, it's completely f
ked from doing this job.
Following this I got the chargecooler pre-rad plumbed in, and re-attached my engine coolant hoses with new jubilee clamps ready for the coolant refill.
Next up was to re-attach the oil coolers, should be an easy job but I tarted them up a bit first:
Unfortunately, I noticed that the thread on the NS one was a bit damaged. Very soft aluminium and looks like I could have damaged it during storage whilst the other work is going on. I tried to slowly/gently thread the fitting back on in the hope it would clean it up - but it just made it worse.
Luckily a fellow owner removed his oil coolers a year or so back and offered his up for a generous price so I had a backup. I collected those last night but after a chat with a local engineer decided to have a quick go at cleaning up the thread on my cooler.
It actually cleaned up really well, so after gingerly attempting to put the fitting back on - I think I can declare it fit for service once again. The fittings seal on the inside via a taper and o-ring, the threads are just used to clam that in place. I've put a bit of threadlock on it just because it makes me feel a little better - but it seems on square and flush.
That does leave me with two oil coolers I now need to get rid of
I did also consider a backup plan of simply bypassing the NS oil cooler and "downgrade" to a single cooler setup. Not just to be cheap, but because some communities feel the OEM twin cooler setup will over cool the car in most instances. They do work off a thermostatic plate but it doesn't close completely meaning there's always a steady trickle of oil through the cooling circuit. I monitor my temps and I'm fairly happy with them, but do agree that they take a bit longer than usual to heat up. Perhaps I'll come back to this plan if my fitting doesn't stand up to a few bar of oil pressure!
Other updates for the week:
- Fitted a new tow post, it came powdercoated and it's been generally coated with XCP. You can see the old one is still acceptable, but it's starting to rot from the inside - so now is as good a time as any to swap it.
- Checked my intake cam lobes.
The 2ZZ has a bit of a known issue with the high lift intake lobes wearing(wiping?). The root cause seems unknown, it does seem to be more prevalent on US cars which suggests a batching issue perhaps but there are other theories including:
- Over cooled oil (see above)
- Poor usage, ragging before warm, etc
- Poor oil feed onto the Cyl3 lobe (the one that generally goes first, but not always)
Although I've got no concerns with how my car drives, I wanted to check this as I never did on my Elise - and after selling it on, the new owner had a pretty bad engine failure on track. The root cause of that is still unknown as he just swapped the engine out, but a basic inspection showed the cam lobes to be HEAVILY worn, so may have contributed especially if the rockers got damage too as a result.
As for my Exige, it seems like the cam is OK for now. No signs of wear and all looking fairly tidy.
Whilst in there, I replaced another known 2ZZ issue - the lift bolts. Admittedly the lift bolt problems seemed to have been resolved by Toyota before Lotus ever got their first shipment of engines, but it's still worth checking as they cost pennies. The lift bolts in their original design were more stubby and through standard use could eventually snap off, making you lose the 'lift' element of VVTLI but also making recovery a PITA. The revised versions are pointy and spread the load better, apparently.
You can see the slight wear marks on the old ones removed - this is normal, but is what ultimately could lead to the old design completely failing. As you can see my (2006) engine already had the new design, so this was probably fine to leave alone, but like I say - pennies.
With the cam cover buttoned back up, I'm now ready to attach the chargecooler unit and fill both engine and CC system with coolant. I'm awaiting some engine oil so I can do a quick oil change before I kick off, as I lost a fair amount to removal/refitting of the oil coolers.
Oh, on that note - I wasn't sure what would happen if I started the car with the oil cooler circuit effectively empty. I've "primed" the system the best I can by pouring oil into the top of one of the coolers - and I'll give the engine a good few cranks without the coils connected to hopefully redistribute pressure again.
Small AC update, I've got a mobile regas engineer coming on tuesday to check out my mess. He's got kit for making pipes at the road side, so he'll either sort me out on the day or he'll take my pipe away to get a proper replacement made. We're also toying with the idea of swapping it for a rubber one too to make routing a bit easier. If he can sort a replacement out on the day, we'd really like to thoroughly test the AC system, so getting the car running properly before tuesday is my next goal.
This week I've finished off the hose routing through the sills, where I left it the hoses were available to grab via the interior cubby hole but had no route into the front clam/radiator area.
Using the endoscope I mapped out a few candidate locations for drilling. I had a choice of having both hoses come out on top of each other on the far edge of the sill, or split them up and run one down the inside and one down the outside. I went for the latter option.
I did a diagram that may/hopefully help other people in future understand where the other plumbing runs in the sill. The AC ones are the ones to watch, as they immediately kink off to the outboard direction and 'hog' the centre channel of the sill:
Green Lines = New CC lines
Blue = AC lines
Red = Oil Cooler Line
So at first glance it looks like the area beneath the two ally AC lines would be a no-go zone, but actually due to the kink it's really clear.
After a couple of pilot holes for the endoscope to peak through, I ran the 35mm hole saw through and then dropped some string down to drag the hoses out into freedom. They aren't too snaggy, I can add more slack if needed by pushing from the back and then pulling from the front - so allows me some room for adjustment once the clam goes back on.
Inside the sill I put some edging on a sharp-ish edge on the door hinge mechanism, pictured here:
You can see my CC lines here, one on the far left snug behind a brake/clutch line and one to the far right of the oil cooler line. AC hogs the centre bit.
It was a really triumphant moment when the hoses came through, by all accounts the hard part really is done. My hand isn't just for show, it's completely f
ked from doing this job.Following this I got the chargecooler pre-rad plumbed in, and re-attached my engine coolant hoses with new jubilee clamps ready for the coolant refill.
Next up was to re-attach the oil coolers, should be an easy job but I tarted them up a bit first:
Unfortunately, I noticed that the thread on the NS one was a bit damaged. Very soft aluminium and looks like I could have damaged it during storage whilst the other work is going on. I tried to slowly/gently thread the fitting back on in the hope it would clean it up - but it just made it worse.
Luckily a fellow owner removed his oil coolers a year or so back and offered his up for a generous price so I had a backup. I collected those last night but after a chat with a local engineer decided to have a quick go at cleaning up the thread on my cooler.
It actually cleaned up really well, so after gingerly attempting to put the fitting back on - I think I can declare it fit for service once again. The fittings seal on the inside via a taper and o-ring, the threads are just used to clam that in place. I've put a bit of threadlock on it just because it makes me feel a little better - but it seems on square and flush.
That does leave me with two oil coolers I now need to get rid of
I did also consider a backup plan of simply bypassing the NS oil cooler and "downgrade" to a single cooler setup. Not just to be cheap, but because some communities feel the OEM twin cooler setup will over cool the car in most instances. They do work off a thermostatic plate but it doesn't close completely meaning there's always a steady trickle of oil through the cooling circuit. I monitor my temps and I'm fairly happy with them, but do agree that they take a bit longer than usual to heat up. Perhaps I'll come back to this plan if my fitting doesn't stand up to a few bar of oil pressure!
Other updates for the week:
- Fitted a new tow post, it came powdercoated and it's been generally coated with XCP. You can see the old one is still acceptable, but it's starting to rot from the inside - so now is as good a time as any to swap it.
- Checked my intake cam lobes.
The 2ZZ has a bit of a known issue with the high lift intake lobes wearing(wiping?). The root cause seems unknown, it does seem to be more prevalent on US cars which suggests a batching issue perhaps but there are other theories including:
- Over cooled oil (see above)
- Poor usage, ragging before warm, etc
- Poor oil feed onto the Cyl3 lobe (the one that generally goes first, but not always)
Although I've got no concerns with how my car drives, I wanted to check this as I never did on my Elise - and after selling it on, the new owner had a pretty bad engine failure on track. The root cause of that is still unknown as he just swapped the engine out, but a basic inspection showed the cam lobes to be HEAVILY worn, so may have contributed especially if the rockers got damage too as a result.
As for my Exige, it seems like the cam is OK for now. No signs of wear and all looking fairly tidy.
Whilst in there, I replaced another known 2ZZ issue - the lift bolts. Admittedly the lift bolt problems seemed to have been resolved by Toyota before Lotus ever got their first shipment of engines, but it's still worth checking as they cost pennies. The lift bolts in their original design were more stubby and through standard use could eventually snap off, making you lose the 'lift' element of VVTLI but also making recovery a PITA. The revised versions are pointy and spread the load better, apparently.
You can see the slight wear marks on the old ones removed - this is normal, but is what ultimately could lead to the old design completely failing. As you can see my (2006) engine already had the new design, so this was probably fine to leave alone, but like I say - pennies.
With the cam cover buttoned back up, I'm now ready to attach the chargecooler unit and fill both engine and CC system with coolant. I'm awaiting some engine oil so I can do a quick oil change before I kick off, as I lost a fair amount to removal/refitting of the oil coolers.
Oh, on that note - I wasn't sure what would happen if I started the car with the oil cooler circuit effectively empty. I've "primed" the system the best I can by pouring oil into the top of one of the coolers - and I'll give the engine a good few cranks without the coils connected to hopefully redistribute pressure again.
Small AC update, I've got a mobile regas engineer coming on tuesday to check out my mess. He's got kit for making pipes at the road side, so he'll either sort me out on the day or he'll take my pipe away to get a proper replacement made. We're also toying with the idea of swapping it for a rubber one too to make routing a bit easier. If he can sort a replacement out on the day, we'd really like to thoroughly test the AC system, so getting the car running properly before tuesday is my next goal.
I managed to get a few bits done over the weekend, but slowing down now as I know I can't get the car properly buttoned up until the AC is sorted and I'm actually running out of jobs to get done!
With the hoses trimmed and clipped up at the front of the car I now needed to map out my routing at the rear. The shorter of the two sill hoses would be connecting directly to the charge cooler unit closest to the boot, so that was a simple route over the roll-over bar (to stop it catching the aux belt/pulleys) the longer hose would be connecting to the outlet of the pump.
To help mock everything up I started refitting the engine mounting hardware.
You might notice a funnel in the coolant header tank in the background, over a few days I had been very slowly "gravity bleeding" the system to try and get a head start on the proper bleeding process.
I also fitted the header tank, this was bolted to a supporting bracket of the roll-over bar.
With the charge cooler mounted to the top of the engine, and header tank fitted I could start mocking up my hoses. Obviously being very keen to not over-trim them... The sequence of components is:
header tank bottom port -> pump inlet -> pump outlet -> long hose to front -> pre-rad -> not quite so long hose to rear -> front port of CC -> rear port of CC -> header tank top port.
The hoses are a rather tight fit, so a nice bath before installation helped things along nicely.
The pump is a very dinky unit and is designed to be suspended by the plumbing alone, but I found a convenient place to mount mine under the top lip of the bulkhead trim. The bulkhead is carpeted so should dampen any vibrations from the pump and the highly engineered cable-tie support will stop it from bouncing around off of the inlet manifold.
With everything trimmed down, the setup started to look half decent:
I'm still not sure whether I like the CC in the brushed ally look that it comes in, or whether I'd prefer it in satin black to make it a little more subtle. I think I'll take the year to make my mind up and either paint it or leave it next winter. I think it looks a bit too blingy with the hatch raised, but when lowered it stands out just enough to let you know it means business...
The funnel part from the roof scoop will be remaining in place as I believe it's bonded in, and it's a bit of a one-way decision to remove it. I'd always like the option of returning to the air:air system in future.
With jobs running out I did a quick oil/filter change ready for the process of bleeding both coolant systems.
The plan was to leave the CC pump disconnected whilst I concentrated on getting the main circuit bled, with the heater matrix and rad being completely dry I expected this to be a bit of a pain in the arse. After a couple of sessions of running the car up to temperature I seem to have a hot heater circuit and heat in both end-tanks of the main radiator... so I don't think I'm far off now. The fans kick in as expected, when expected and they're blowing air in the right direction which is a bonus!
Next up is the CC circuit. I want to run as little anti-freeze in this as possible just to maximise the efficiency of it so I've been testing it along the way with a tester. I'm aiming for a basic -7deg C of protection and the rest will be distilled water, and a bottle of (snake oil?) water wetter for good measure. It's looking like 2L anti-freeze, 2.5L distilled water and 0.5L of water wetter being my final mix.
I filled up the header tank and allowed a bit of it to drain through via gravity. With no bleed screws or other openings, this obviously wasn't going to work well for long. Whilst letting it dribble through, I got on with the pump wiring.
The kit from Pro Alloy includes a little piggyback link which is attached to an engine bay fuse. The fuse specified by Pro Alloy is a 10a fuse in the inboard most fusebox which according to the Exige manual is for the Injectors and Ignition coils.
The harness has an inline fuse holder so the circuit is still protected, and on the other end is pinned up for the bosch pump with a final tail to be grounded somewhere.
I got everything wired up and used a ground on the ECU mounting plate, all in the same area and very close to the pump which kept everything nice and tidy. With the ignition flicked to ACC, the pump whirred away so at least something was working. I peeked into the header tank and saw no evidence of coolant moving around at all.
I left it going for *some time* and still no evidence of any coolant being pushed around. I was beginning to fear a kink or blockage somewhere so I took the top hose off of the header tank and blew an airline through the system backwards. Sure enough coolant came splashing though the other end after a few seconds - so the system seemed to be clean.
I wondered if the polarity was wrong on the pump, so took the wiring back out for a closer look and found a few questionable bits.
When the 2-core cable was stripped it looks like the sheathing on the wiring was also cut, exposing the cores. Also the rubber seals for the plug are in backwards, and not in properly at all. This made me wonder about the quality of the crimping and whether I could potentially have a dodgy connection. I can hear the pump going, so it clearly works - but the flow (when held in open air) is very very weak.
Pro Alloy support throughout this install has been amazing, so first thing on Monday morning they got back to me with some pointers for further bleeding the system as the pump is just not designed to push air, and hence it probably feels very weak. They also agree the wiring isn't great so they're sending me out another plug. Happy days.
I'm going to try and force a bit more water into the system by lowering the front end of the car to the floor and filling the system backwards with a funnel. Hopefully that combined with rewiring the plug will get the water moving around nicely.
Whilst tidying up some of the interior trim I dismantled, I came across a casualty of the install. The back-end of the door switch (that controls the alarm/interior light) had been knocked off by my hose wrangling. The back of the switch is broken, but luckily is readily available and costs <£10 - so got one of those on the way, then the interior can go back together.
Finally I've had a mobile AC guy out today, he's mapped out the route needed for my missing pipe and he'll be back another day to make one up in situ and get my system recharged. Hopefully there are no leaks and I'll have successfully retained AC on a charge cooler install.
I'm thinking of setting a date for getting my geo sorted (remember all those posts back when I fitted new suspension? Feels like a lifetime ago...) to encourage me to get a move on.
With the hoses trimmed and clipped up at the front of the car I now needed to map out my routing at the rear. The shorter of the two sill hoses would be connecting directly to the charge cooler unit closest to the boot, so that was a simple route over the roll-over bar (to stop it catching the aux belt/pulleys) the longer hose would be connecting to the outlet of the pump.
To help mock everything up I started refitting the engine mounting hardware.
You might notice a funnel in the coolant header tank in the background, over a few days I had been very slowly "gravity bleeding" the system to try and get a head start on the proper bleeding process.
I also fitted the header tank, this was bolted to a supporting bracket of the roll-over bar.
With the charge cooler mounted to the top of the engine, and header tank fitted I could start mocking up my hoses. Obviously being very keen to not over-trim them... The sequence of components is:
header tank bottom port -> pump inlet -> pump outlet -> long hose to front -> pre-rad -> not quite so long hose to rear -> front port of CC -> rear port of CC -> header tank top port.
The hoses are a rather tight fit, so a nice bath before installation helped things along nicely.
The pump is a very dinky unit and is designed to be suspended by the plumbing alone, but I found a convenient place to mount mine under the top lip of the bulkhead trim. The bulkhead is carpeted so should dampen any vibrations from the pump and the highly engineered cable-tie support will stop it from bouncing around off of the inlet manifold.
With everything trimmed down, the setup started to look half decent:
I'm still not sure whether I like the CC in the brushed ally look that it comes in, or whether I'd prefer it in satin black to make it a little more subtle. I think I'll take the year to make my mind up and either paint it or leave it next winter. I think it looks a bit too blingy with the hatch raised, but when lowered it stands out just enough to let you know it means business...
The funnel part from the roof scoop will be remaining in place as I believe it's bonded in, and it's a bit of a one-way decision to remove it. I'd always like the option of returning to the air:air system in future.
With jobs running out I did a quick oil/filter change ready for the process of bleeding both coolant systems.
The plan was to leave the CC pump disconnected whilst I concentrated on getting the main circuit bled, with the heater matrix and rad being completely dry I expected this to be a bit of a pain in the arse. After a couple of sessions of running the car up to temperature I seem to have a hot heater circuit and heat in both end-tanks of the main radiator... so I don't think I'm far off now. The fans kick in as expected, when expected and they're blowing air in the right direction which is a bonus!
Next up is the CC circuit. I want to run as little anti-freeze in this as possible just to maximise the efficiency of it so I've been testing it along the way with a tester. I'm aiming for a basic -7deg C of protection and the rest will be distilled water, and a bottle of (snake oil?) water wetter for good measure. It's looking like 2L anti-freeze, 2.5L distilled water and 0.5L of water wetter being my final mix.
I filled up the header tank and allowed a bit of it to drain through via gravity. With no bleed screws or other openings, this obviously wasn't going to work well for long. Whilst letting it dribble through, I got on with the pump wiring.
The kit from Pro Alloy includes a little piggyback link which is attached to an engine bay fuse. The fuse specified by Pro Alloy is a 10a fuse in the inboard most fusebox which according to the Exige manual is for the Injectors and Ignition coils.
The harness has an inline fuse holder so the circuit is still protected, and on the other end is pinned up for the bosch pump with a final tail to be grounded somewhere.
I got everything wired up and used a ground on the ECU mounting plate, all in the same area and very close to the pump which kept everything nice and tidy. With the ignition flicked to ACC, the pump whirred away so at least something was working. I peeked into the header tank and saw no evidence of coolant moving around at all.
I left it going for *some time* and still no evidence of any coolant being pushed around. I was beginning to fear a kink or blockage somewhere so I took the top hose off of the header tank and blew an airline through the system backwards. Sure enough coolant came splashing though the other end after a few seconds - so the system seemed to be clean.
I wondered if the polarity was wrong on the pump, so took the wiring back out for a closer look and found a few questionable bits.
When the 2-core cable was stripped it looks like the sheathing on the wiring was also cut, exposing the cores. Also the rubber seals for the plug are in backwards, and not in properly at all. This made me wonder about the quality of the crimping and whether I could potentially have a dodgy connection. I can hear the pump going, so it clearly works - but the flow (when held in open air) is very very weak.
Pro Alloy support throughout this install has been amazing, so first thing on Monday morning they got back to me with some pointers for further bleeding the system as the pump is just not designed to push air, and hence it probably feels very weak. They also agree the wiring isn't great so they're sending me out another plug. Happy days.
I'm going to try and force a bit more water into the system by lowering the front end of the car to the floor and filling the system backwards with a funnel. Hopefully that combined with rewiring the plug will get the water moving around nicely.
Whilst tidying up some of the interior trim I dismantled, I came across a casualty of the install. The back-end of the door switch (that controls the alarm/interior light) had been knocked off by my hose wrangling. The back of the switch is broken, but luckily is readily available and costs <£10 - so got one of those on the way, then the interior can go back together.
Finally I've had a mobile AC guy out today, he's mapped out the route needed for my missing pipe and he'll be back another day to make one up in situ and get my system recharged. Hopefully there are no leaks and I'll have successfully retained AC on a charge cooler install.
I'm thinking of setting a date for getting my geo sorted (remember all those posts back when I fitted new suspension? Feels like a lifetime ago...) to encourage me to get a move on.
Fonzey said:
The 2ZZ has a bit of a known issue with the high lift intake lobes wearing(wiping?). The root cause seems unknown, it does seem to be more prevalent on US cars which suggests a batching issue perhaps but there are other theories including:
Possibly oil viscosity .Lotus recommended 5w/40 oil and not 5w/30 as Toyota did. The argument was the Lotus was a 'high performance' trackable car and a Toyota Corolla T-Sport was not, also Toyota were chasing better economy figures and Lotus were not. It hss been reported that using a viscosity greater than 5w/30 can produce a fault codes. How does an oil give a fault code ??? Well in particular : OBD-II code P1349 which indicates a problem with the variable valve timing system. (This is a possible issue on both vvti and vvtli engines). The system is responsible for controlling and adjusting the intake valve timing according to driving conditions etc etc
Heavier oil grades can effect the oil control valve and hold the valve current timing by preventing oil flow from the VVT controller housing and a duty cycle less than 50% will retard the valve timing, a duty cycle greater then 50% will advance the valve timing.
Thicker oil by nature causes more pressure in the valve resulting in the oil control portion to not cycle as much. When it dips below 50% cycle, an error code is presented.
This can also cause premature cam lobe wear also.
On older K series Elise's it wasn't widely discussed how using fully synthetic oils could cause issues in the Rover engine. The K series with VVC uses engine oil to operate VVC hydraulic system. The system monitors oil temps and works out (taking into account the viscosity)how long the system will take to operate. When they programmed the temperature to viscosity process oil was somewhat different to what it is now. Synthetic oils tended to have different bases to Synthetic oil these days. Semi synthetic is what the synthetics of the 90’s were best described as. Modern synthetic oils don't do the VVC mechanisms any good as they maintain a quite precise viscosity to temperature ratio. This makes the sliding blocks wear out quicker. You could argue that this was a big oversight by Rover engineers as they didn’t take into account the changing oil technology. Lotus were recommending 'fully synthetic oil' at least at one point anyway.
I think oil grade is possible, but in my non-expert view I would lean further towards a simple bad batch of camshafts. The issue seemed to be much more common on the cars that got shipped to the US (though I have no evidence/stats), which makes me lean more towards a certain allocation of engines having the problem.
It's interesting stuff though, and certainly one for any 2ZZ owner to keep an eye on. It's a relatively cheap/easy fix if it's identified early.
It's interesting stuff though, and certainly one for any 2ZZ owner to keep an eye on. It's a relatively cheap/easy fix if it's identified early.
Some good progress this weekend.
Got my replacement door switch fitted, 5 second job which once done allowed me to put the interior back in and together. No pics but you've seen the interior plenty of times before.
I then got a replacement plug for the charge cooler pump, so got to work rewiring that. I'm no spark, but I'm much happier with it now.
I still had problems getting a good amount of flow through the coolant circuit, Pro Alloy advised that it was probably an air pocket nullifying the pump but I was fairly sure I'd bled it all through as much as I could. In a final act of desperation I disconnected the feed pipe from the header tank and fed it into a cup, set the pump going and then put my mouth(!) over the top of the header tank and blew into it. My ears popped, then a second later the tone of the pump changed drastically immediately followed by a splutter and then torrent of coolant coming out into my cup. Quickly re-attached the hose to the header tank, job done. Now getting a really healthy flow around the circuit.
With the charge cooler now fundamentally working I could get to work tidying everything up, routing wiring properly, actually bolting the charge cooler to the car, etc. Lots of small jobs signifying that the end is nigh.
Of course I had to spend a bit more money, I've never been happy with the silicone hose joiners on the intercooler as they're very short and I feel don't allow any tolerance for vibration/movement. From the OEM rubber joiners I've seen on stock cars I think they're about 1/2in too short so I got some new ones bought.
These have made a huge difference to how secure the boost pipes now feel, not only are the joiners longer but I think the old outgoing ones were also marginally too wide as the new ones are a much tighter fit... honestly think they'd hold boost now without any clamps!
The aesthetics of the install are growing on me, ultimately it's a great big block of aluminium on the top of my engine so it's never going to look amazing - but it's about as tidy as I can get it now.
The last remaining major milestone before the car would be road worthy was to refill the brake/clutch fluid system and bleed. This is a pain in the arse at the best of times but with the system effectively empty due to a prolonged period without calipers attached, I was expecting even more of a fight.
Pressure bleeder helps a lot, and after 1l of fluid I've managed to get the clutch working again and I've got just about enough brake pedal to manoeuvre the car around the street - but no serious driving yet. I'm going to see if I can activate ABS at some point in the near future, then give it one more bleeding session. (probably after the clam goes back on)
Whilst tinkering on the brakes, I replaced the secondary part of the handbrake cable. I had the same issue on my Elise, the wishbone hangers wear through the rubber and the cable gets rusty, then starts expanding - eventually to the point it catches on the inside of your wheel rim whilst cornering. It didn't get that far yet in the Exige, but it's on its way.
Whilst at it I cushioned the offending wishbone hangers with some tape.
The clam can't go on until I get this AC pipe sorted, so that's pretty much now what I'm waiting for - which means the jobs I'm doing in the garage are getting more and more ridiculous. Highlight of the morning was re-taping some wiring loom that was looking a bit tatty:
I've also been p-clipping the st out of everything. After fitting stainless hoses the factory clips for the ABS wires will no longer fit, so fitted some p-clips there to secure them:
Par for the course with Amazon Prime, I couldn't just buy the 2 p-clips I needed so I ended up with an assortment of 100... so I've now been going back over any questionable wiring that either I did myself (such as during the gauge install) and securing stuff nicely with p-clips. So many cable ties now in the bin!
Finally I lobbed some new spark plugs in, old ones looked ok but I think they're 8 years old now from what I can see in the cars history. That's only 8000 miles (5k of which I did myself last year ) but eh well.
Next update will hopefully be AC related, and then the clam can go back on. Woop!
Got my replacement door switch fitted, 5 second job which once done allowed me to put the interior back in and together. No pics but you've seen the interior plenty of times before.
I then got a replacement plug for the charge cooler pump, so got to work rewiring that. I'm no spark, but I'm much happier with it now.
I still had problems getting a good amount of flow through the coolant circuit, Pro Alloy advised that it was probably an air pocket nullifying the pump but I was fairly sure I'd bled it all through as much as I could. In a final act of desperation I disconnected the feed pipe from the header tank and fed it into a cup, set the pump going and then put my mouth(!) over the top of the header tank and blew into it. My ears popped, then a second later the tone of the pump changed drastically immediately followed by a splutter and then torrent of coolant coming out into my cup. Quickly re-attached the hose to the header tank, job done. Now getting a really healthy flow around the circuit.
With the charge cooler now fundamentally working I could get to work tidying everything up, routing wiring properly, actually bolting the charge cooler to the car, etc. Lots of small jobs signifying that the end is nigh.
Of course I had to spend a bit more money, I've never been happy with the silicone hose joiners on the intercooler as they're very short and I feel don't allow any tolerance for vibration/movement. From the OEM rubber joiners I've seen on stock cars I think they're about 1/2in too short so I got some new ones bought.
These have made a huge difference to how secure the boost pipes now feel, not only are the joiners longer but I think the old outgoing ones were also marginally too wide as the new ones are a much tighter fit... honestly think they'd hold boost now without any clamps!
The aesthetics of the install are growing on me, ultimately it's a great big block of aluminium on the top of my engine so it's never going to look amazing - but it's about as tidy as I can get it now.
The last remaining major milestone before the car would be road worthy was to refill the brake/clutch fluid system and bleed. This is a pain in the arse at the best of times but with the system effectively empty due to a prolonged period without calipers attached, I was expecting even more of a fight.
Pressure bleeder helps a lot, and after 1l of fluid I've managed to get the clutch working again and I've got just about enough brake pedal to manoeuvre the car around the street - but no serious driving yet. I'm going to see if I can activate ABS at some point in the near future, then give it one more bleeding session. (probably after the clam goes back on)
Whilst tinkering on the brakes, I replaced the secondary part of the handbrake cable. I had the same issue on my Elise, the wishbone hangers wear through the rubber and the cable gets rusty, then starts expanding - eventually to the point it catches on the inside of your wheel rim whilst cornering. It didn't get that far yet in the Exige, but it's on its way.
Whilst at it I cushioned the offending wishbone hangers with some tape.
The clam can't go on until I get this AC pipe sorted, so that's pretty much now what I'm waiting for - which means the jobs I'm doing in the garage are getting more and more ridiculous. Highlight of the morning was re-taping some wiring loom that was looking a bit tatty:
I've also been p-clipping the s
t out of everything. After fitting stainless hoses the factory clips for the ABS wires will no longer fit, so fitted some p-clips there to secure them:Par for the course with Amazon Prime, I couldn't just buy the 2 p-clips I needed so I ended up with an assortment of 100... so I've now been going back over any questionable wiring that either I did myself (such as during the gauge install) and securing stuff nicely with p-clips. So many cable ties now in the bin!
Finally I lobbed some new spark plugs in, old ones looked ok but I think they're 8 years old now from what I can see in the cars history. That's only 8000 miles (5k of which I did myself last year
) but eh well.Next update will hopefully be AC related, and then the clam can go back on. Woop!
We have a pipe!!!
Elise-Spares came good for me, they had one from a race car they've prepped and only wanted a nominal fee for it because the pipe had a bit of a kink in it and wouldn't be a straight fit.
Due to my CC pipework, this pipe was always going to require some gentle manipulation so the kink didn't bother me too much - just need to be delicate and not break this one!
Offering it up to the car has identified an issue with my CC pipe routing, as I expected. I've got a backup plan to put some 90degree elbows in and run my pipes slightly differently.
From the top down you can see the AC pipe roughly mocked into place. The rubber hose on the far right is putting a bit of strain on it, and the rubber hose coming in from the far left is fouling the pressure relief valve on the pipe. My plan is to run the far left hose more central along the wheelarch liner, with a 90deg elbow and then a straight run into the condenser. The far right hose I can tuck under the ABS unit a bit and run it tight along the side of the radiator shroud, again using a 90deg elbow to get it tidily into the rad.
Once those hoses are rerouted I should have a clear OEM run for the AC pipe. I've kept the AC engineer up to speed and he's got some fittings now, so he's going to schedule another visit round to either validate my new pipe or butcher it to make up a replacement that we're both happy with. Either way I expect to have functioning AC... Honestly though I wish I had bought a car without it, just to take the pressure off a bit...
Aside from this I've been trying to get my rideheight roughly in the zone. Just aiming for a 120f/130r for now to allow me to safely drive to a geo place once ready. My first random attempt had me at the following:
NSF: 130
OSF: 125
NSR: 135
OSR: 130
So not a million miles off! I was getting a lot of scrubbing on the OSF wheelarch liner though on full lock as the weight of the CC pipes is pushing it lower than it should be. Once it's bolted up to the front clam that should buy me some more space, and I hope to clip the hoses up flush with the clam too to take that strain off.
These are my rideheight tools, blocks of sponge cut off at the appropriate heights which I can slot under the jacking points. Sponge is good, because if the rideheight is "just" too low, I can still squidge it in and get an idea of how far off I am. Obviously this will all be corner balanced up so I'm not looking for precision, just a rough guide.
The car has also moved under its own steam for the first time since mid December.
Backed it out onto the drive so I could sweep up and clean the floor a bit. Brakes definitely need another bleed through...
Elise-Spares came good for me, they had one from a race car they've prepped and only wanted a nominal fee for it because the pipe had a bit of a kink in it and wouldn't be a straight fit.
Due to my CC pipework, this pipe was always going to require some gentle manipulation so the kink didn't bother me too much - just need to be delicate and not break this one!
Offering it up to the car has identified an issue with my CC pipe routing, as I expected. I've got a backup plan to put some 90degree elbows in and run my pipes slightly differently.
From the top down you can see the AC pipe roughly mocked into place. The rubber hose on the far right is putting a bit of strain on it, and the rubber hose coming in from the far left is fouling the pressure relief valve on the pipe. My plan is to run the far left hose more central along the wheelarch liner, with a 90deg elbow and then a straight run into the condenser. The far right hose I can tuck under the ABS unit a bit and run it tight along the side of the radiator shroud, again using a 90deg elbow to get it tidily into the rad.
Once those hoses are rerouted I should have a clear OEM run for the AC pipe. I've kept the AC engineer up to speed and he's got some fittings now, so he's going to schedule another visit round to either validate my new pipe or butcher it to make up a replacement that we're both happy with. Either way I expect to have functioning AC... Honestly though I wish I had bought a car without it, just to take the pressure off a bit...
Aside from this I've been trying to get my rideheight roughly in the zone. Just aiming for a 120f/130r for now to allow me to safely drive to a geo place once ready. My first random attempt had me at the following:
NSF: 130
OSF: 125
NSR: 135
OSR: 130
So not a million miles off! I was getting a lot of scrubbing on the OSF wheelarch liner though on full lock as the weight of the CC pipes is pushing it lower than it should be. Once it's bolted up to the front clam that should buy me some more space, and I hope to clip the hoses up flush with the clam too to take that strain off.
These are my rideheight tools, blocks of sponge cut off at the appropriate heights which I can slot under the jacking points. Sponge is good, because if the rideheight is "just" too low, I can still squidge it in and get an idea of how far off I am. Obviously this will all be corner balanced up so I'm not looking for precision, just a rough guide.
The car has also moved under its own steam for the first time since mid December.
Backed it out onto the drive so I could sweep up and clean the floor a bit. Brakes definitely need another bleed through...
It's just a visual aid to see how close I am. When talking about ride heights in Lotus-land most people refer to the distance between the front and rear jacking points and the floor. Getting a tape measure in there is a PITA.
So if I'm aiming for 120/130 then I can put the foam blocks under the jacking points and just keep lowering it till' they sit flush. If I overdo it a bit, the sponge just squishes down a bit.
Corner weighting will dictate the final resting place, but that's somebody elses problem
So if I'm aiming for 120/130 then I can put the foam blocks under the jacking points and just keep lowering it till' they sit flush. If I overdo it a bit, the sponge just squishes down a bit.
Corner weighting will dictate the final resting place, but that's somebody elses problem
When I first dismantled the car I put part of the rain shield/gutter thing to one side as it was looking grotty.
This is partially visible when the clam is back on, so worth spending a bit of time to clean it up.
It's maybe a bit shinier than I expected... probably should have gone for a satin grey instead to keep it looking OEM but it should still look rather sharp when the car is back together.
I've got my CC hoses routed a little differently now, as a reminder this is my initial route:
Adding the infamous AC pipe has crowded things a little and it was too difficult to route the pipe without straining something.
Introducing a couple of 90degree elbows has done wonders though:
There's now plenty of room for the AC pipe, sort of - it makes contact with the CC return pipe in a couple of places but once it's properly connected in I should be able to resolve that with a bit of gentle manipulation...
The only (quite big) thing I've not tested yet is clam fitment with all my new extras. The back of the headlight pod is likely to be my area of concern as it runs very close to the oil cooler feed which I've used as a guide to run my CC inlet. From looking at a photo I took upon collecting the car last year, I think I've left enough room...
I'm now debating whether to follow through with the AC guy and get it gassed up in my garage, or get the car back road worthy now and just take it to a generic place to get gassed up. The latter is likely to be cheaper, but if I get the system pressurised in the garage at least we've got an opportunity to address any leaks whilst the clam is off...
This is partially visible when the clam is back on, so worth spending a bit of time to clean it up.
It's maybe a bit shinier than I expected... probably should have gone for a satin grey instead to keep it looking OEM but it should still look rather sharp when the car is back together.
I've got my CC hoses routed a little differently now, as a reminder this is my initial route:
Adding the infamous AC pipe has crowded things a little and it was too difficult to route the pipe without straining something.
Introducing a couple of 90degree elbows has done wonders though:
There's now plenty of room for the AC pipe, sort of - it makes contact with the CC return pipe in a couple of places but once it's properly connected in I should be able to resolve that with a bit of gentle manipulation...
The only (quite big) thing I've not tested yet is clam fitment with all my new extras. The back of the headlight pod is likely to be my area of concern as it runs very close to the oil cooler feed which I've used as a guide to run my CC inlet. From looking at a photo I took upon collecting the car last year, I think I've left enough room...
I'm now debating whether to follow through with the AC guy and get it gassed up in my garage, or get the car back road worthy now and just take it to a generic place to get gassed up. The latter is likely to be cheaper, but if I get the system pressurised in the garage at least we've got an opportunity to address any leaks whilst the clam is off...
Wooo updates!
I had a date booked with my AC guy and we'd both agreed that either AC would be working, or the whole lot was coming out and going in the bin by the end of that day.
As a reminder we had three AC pipes to choose from...
1- The one I butchered from the car, probably the worst condition.
2- A donation from a fellow enthusiast. This was intact, but the tab end of the condenser was still stuck in the threaded portion (the same portion I removed from my own)
3- An offering from Elise Spares, visually in perfect condition and kindly shipped to me for a nominal fee.
The solution should have been simple, attach up pipe #3, check for leaks and regas. Sorted... unfortunately there was a sting in the tail to this job. Little did we know that pipe #3 had a bit of condenser thread stuck in its own threaded attachment. A very small sliver, almost impossible to see from the outside so when we wound the fitting onto my (brand new) condenser it went on fine for a couple of threads and then started binding up... Bit of panic and a quick chase down the condenser thread with a die to tidy it up afterwards...
Due to the captive nature of the compression o-ring fittings there's no way of replacing or repairing this thread so we faced a choice:
1- Force it on, knowingly (probably) damaging the thread on the new condenser but hopefully getting a good seal and hoping we never need to touch it again.
2- Back to plan A, and fabricate a new pipe.
Obviously we went with #2 and knocked up a new pipe. It was made from donor sections from pipe #1 and pipe #2, and then a flexi portion put on with a new shiny fitting for the condenser end.
Pipe #3 is still untouched, I'm thinking of ideas to try and restore it in case somebody else has a similar drama in future. I think if I bought a 3/4 UNF threaded pipe made out of something hard - I could grind a slot down it essentially turning it into a 3/4 UNF hollow tap/thread chaser and use it to clear out the fitting thread. Side project for another day.
Stuart (My AC man) then pressurised the system with nitrogen up to about 10bar and we patiently waited for leaks. Aside from the new pipe I had refitted a fair big chunk of the AC system over the last month or two so I was expecting something to leak... but nothing apparent.
Once leak checked, Stuart pulled a vacuum in the system for about half an hour, again checking for leaks but mainly just boiling off any moisture before we finally gassed her up. It was around 5.5deg C ambient in the garage and we had the face vents churning out a rather crisp 1.3 degrees C! Success! Rad fans all kicked in as expected for the AC to function, everything checked out.
I had one more distraction now before the clam could go on. I had a chipped driving light which although still fully functional is a bit fiddly to replace with the clam on... I was loathed to buy a new one because the damage was so minor, but eventually gave in.
Unfortunately now due to the road-rash of the other "good" one, I've got a bit of a mismatched set! Hopefully a few road miles resolves this... but might try a glass polishing kit on the old one to brighten it up a bit.
With that sorted, it was clam time. Had a good friend come over to lend a hand and we nervously offered it into place. I was nervous about CC hose routing and AC hose routing but I had nothing to be concerned about as the clam dropped into place perfectly.
I put a few of the fasteners in loosely and rolled the car back into the garage to be finished off later (still not done...). The panel gaps weren't amazing before I took it off so I wanted to address as much as I could. I took the door hinge covers off and reclaimed about 1kg worth of mud, gravel and tyre rubber which gave me some more options for fitting it all back together with some nice gaps. I'm just about there, so just need to tighten everything up and get the light clusters in now.
I'm set to 130r/120f but it still seems a bit too low to me at the front.
In hindsight this is on an almost completely empty fuel tank and with no driver in, so I'm going to raise to 130/125 and see how that looks. It'll be getting properly Geo/Corner balanced anyway I'm just trying to get it in the ballpark for a safe/comfortable drive to wherever I go to get it sorted.
I had a date booked with my AC guy and we'd both agreed that either AC would be working, or the whole lot was coming out and going in the bin by the end of that day.
As a reminder we had three AC pipes to choose from...
1- The one I butchered from the car, probably the worst condition.
2- A donation from a fellow enthusiast. This was intact, but the tab end of the condenser was still stuck in the threaded portion (the same portion I removed from my own)
3- An offering from Elise Spares, visually in perfect condition and kindly shipped to me for a nominal fee.
The solution should have been simple, attach up pipe #3, check for leaks and regas. Sorted... unfortunately there was a sting in the tail to this job. Little did we know that pipe #3 had a bit of condenser thread stuck in its own threaded attachment. A very small sliver, almost impossible to see from the outside so when we wound the fitting onto my (brand new) condenser it went on fine for a couple of threads and then started binding up... Bit of panic and a quick chase down the condenser thread with a die to tidy it up afterwards...
Due to the captive nature of the compression o-ring fittings there's no way of replacing or repairing this thread so we faced a choice:
1- Force it on, knowingly (probably) damaging the thread on the new condenser but hopefully getting a good seal and hoping we never need to touch it again.
2- Back to plan A, and fabricate a new pipe.
Obviously we went with #2 and knocked up a new pipe. It was made from donor sections from pipe #1 and pipe #2, and then a flexi portion put on with a new shiny fitting for the condenser end.
Pipe #3 is still untouched, I'm thinking of ideas to try and restore it in case somebody else has a similar drama in future. I think if I bought a 3/4 UNF threaded pipe made out of something hard - I could grind a slot down it essentially turning it into a 3/4 UNF hollow tap/thread chaser and use it to clear out the fitting thread. Side project for another day.
Stuart (My AC man) then pressurised the system with nitrogen up to about 10bar and we patiently waited for leaks. Aside from the new pipe I had refitted a fair big chunk of the AC system over the last month or two so I was expecting something to leak... but nothing apparent.
Once leak checked, Stuart pulled a vacuum in the system for about half an hour, again checking for leaks but mainly just boiling off any moisture before we finally gassed her up. It was around 5.5deg C ambient in the garage and we had the face vents churning out a rather crisp 1.3 degrees C! Success! Rad fans all kicked in as expected for the AC to function, everything checked out.
I had one more distraction now before the clam could go on. I had a chipped driving light which although still fully functional is a bit fiddly to replace with the clam on... I was loathed to buy a new one because the damage was so minor, but eventually gave in.
Unfortunately now due to the road-rash of the other "good" one, I've got a bit of a mismatched set! Hopefully a few road miles resolves this... but might try a glass polishing kit on the old one to brighten it up a bit.
With that sorted, it was clam time. Had a good friend come over to lend a hand and we nervously offered it into place. I was nervous about CC hose routing and AC hose routing but I had nothing to be concerned about as the clam dropped into place perfectly.
I put a few of the fasteners in loosely and rolled the car back into the garage to be finished off later (still not done...). The panel gaps weren't amazing before I took it off so I wanted to address as much as I could. I took the door hinge covers off and reclaimed about 1kg worth of mud, gravel and tyre rubber which gave me some more options for fitting it all back together with some nice gaps. I'm just about there, so just need to tighten everything up and get the light clusters in now.
I'm set to 130r/120f but it still seems a bit too low to me at the front.
In hindsight this is on an almost completely empty fuel tank and with no driver in, so I'm going to raise to 130/125 and see how that looks. It'll be getting properly Geo/Corner balanced anyway I'm just trying to get it in the ballpark for a safe/comfortable drive to wherever I go to get it sorted.
I'm booked in for Dyno (just for a general health check) and geo in early March, so I've finally got a deadline to stop mucking about.
I am pretty much done though, clam is all fixed on now and I just need to take the car out for a little run to try and force some air out of the ABS system before giving the brakes a final bleed.
I've picked a couple of bits and pieces up recently, stuff that was on my list for later in the year but both came up in classifieds/facebook groups for cheep cheep so I jumped on them both and might as well look to get them sorted too.
1. PC680 battery. Had one in my Elise, was always happy with its cranking power and ability to hold charge. I know these are a bit outdated now as you can get Lithium batteries that are much lighter, but they're still quite expensive and this was pennies from a local Lotus enthusiast who's about to retire his fleet. I think the weight saving is in the region of 7kg(?) which is half of my chargecooler penalty already paid for.
Similarly to my Elise I'll rivnut this to the boot and will probably stick a cut-off switch in.
1. S.P.A Designs dual gauge for Oil Temp/Pressure
For anybody following the thread you'll know I installed a cheapish 3-in-1 gauge earlier last year, I picked it because it came with a known-good Lotus adapter ring for the air vent and I just needed something quickly to go with the install of my new sump. In all honesty that gauge is absolutely fine, and I should really just keep it - but it never had the aesthetic I was looking for, and it has boost pressure which I've never been too bothered about monitoring - so a large proportion of the screen real estate is hogged by a measurement I don't care about.
I'd had a SPA gauge in mind since the beginning, but it's smaller than the one I'm removing so something would need fabri-bodging to get it to fit nicely. I think I've got a plan now, and it should look nicely OEM once it's in. The back lighting is very customisable so I should be able to match the orange of the OEM stack, and it has added functionality of low/high warnings and the ability to feed an external warning light/buzzer which may be a nice addition for oil pressure in the future.
The sensors are the same 1/8npt as the ones I'll be removing, so other than dribbling a bit of oil on the floor I should be able to swap it out without too much aggro.
I am pretty much done though, clam is all fixed on now and I just need to take the car out for a little run to try and force some air out of the ABS system before giving the brakes a final bleed.
I've picked a couple of bits and pieces up recently, stuff that was on my list for later in the year but both came up in classifieds/facebook groups for cheep cheep so I jumped on them both and might as well look to get them sorted too.
1. PC680 battery. Had one in my Elise, was always happy with its cranking power and ability to hold charge. I know these are a bit outdated now as you can get Lithium batteries that are much lighter, but they're still quite expensive and this was pennies from a local Lotus enthusiast who's about to retire his fleet. I think the weight saving is in the region of 7kg(?) which is half of my chargecooler penalty already paid for.
Similarly to my Elise I'll rivnut this to the boot and will probably stick a cut-off switch in.
1. S.P.A Designs dual gauge for Oil Temp/Pressure
For anybody following the thread you'll know I installed a cheapish 3-in-1 gauge earlier last year, I picked it because it came with a known-good Lotus adapter ring for the air vent and I just needed something quickly to go with the install of my new sump. In all honesty that gauge is absolutely fine, and I should really just keep it - but it never had the aesthetic I was looking for, and it has boost pressure which I've never been too bothered about monitoring - so a large proportion of the screen real estate is hogged by a measurement I don't care about.
I'd had a SPA gauge in mind since the beginning, but it's smaller than the one I'm removing so something would need fabri-bodging to get it to fit nicely. I think I've got a plan now, and it should look nicely OEM once it's in. The back lighting is very customisable so I should be able to match the orange of the OEM stack, and it has added functionality of low/high warnings and the ability to feed an external warning light/buzzer which may be a nice addition for oil pressure in the future.
The sensors are the same 1/8npt as the ones I'll be removing, so other than dribbling a bit of oil on the floor I should be able to swap it out without too much aggro.
I 'fixed' my OS indicator.
On my Elise my OS indicator made a bid for freedom whilst doing the NSL due to a broken clip, I solved that by drilling a hole in it and tying it with string to part of the radiator shroud under the clam. When I bought my Exige I checked the security of the indicators straight away and found one close to making its own escape, not snapped like my Elise but the nub of the clip had worn right down.
I tied it at the time, but decided to 'fix' it properly with the Lotus documented fix:
Before:
After:
It actually seems like a nice solution, grips the indicator in place much better than the OEM setup so I'll sort out the NS proactively too.
With that sorted I made a start taking the interior out...
I ripped out the old gauge and wiring and got to work on my new one. Recycled my previous ISO adapter and put my new loom-tape fetish to good use.
The SPA gauge comes with some wiring that looked like it would be too short to reach the engine bay. I got in touch with them and they offered to make me up a new set of wires FOC I just needed to give them the measurements. With this in mind I wanted to mock up the install, but decided to try an alternate wiring route to try and make the existing wire fit. As the gauge is in the driver side vent, I decided to run down the sill pad instead and round the back of the driver seat into the central grommet down into the engine bay near the sump. With this new route it was pretty much a perfect fit so no new wiring needed.
With the interior out I also took the opportunity to lift the fuel pump out. The only reason to do this was for a quick check over as I've had the odd bit of fuel surge on track which in fairness is quite normal for these cars on sticky tyres, but after having a similar issue on my old Subaru I wanted to check for an easy fix such as the filter sock having fallen off...
No such luck, sock very much attached but whilst out I decided to get on the phone to Gaz @ Spitfire to see if he could ID the pump in it. My car has an uprated pump to handle the 260 upgrade but I wasn't sure what it was. I took the pump to Gaz as he could dismantle it and rebuild with new seals on hand if needed and he identified it as the denso item that Lotus fitted to the 260 cups. One thing led to another and we ended up deciding to put one of Gaz' uprated pumps in it which would flow more than the denso if needed and would just future proof me even if I ever needed it. Denso is still fine though and only 5000miles on it so will stick it on eBay or something.
As for the aforementioned fuel surge issues, need to look towards a new larger capacity/baffled tank I think.
On my Elise my OS indicator made a bid for freedom whilst doing the NSL due to a broken clip, I solved that by drilling a hole in it and tying it with string to part of the radiator shroud under the clam. When I bought my Exige I checked the security of the indicators straight away and found one close to making its own escape, not snapped like my Elise but the nub of the clip had worn right down.
I tied it at the time, but decided to 'fix' it properly with the Lotus documented fix:
Before:
After:
It actually seems like a nice solution, grips the indicator in place much better than the OEM setup so I'll sort out the NS proactively too.
With that sorted I made a start taking the interior out...
I ripped out the old gauge and wiring and got to work on my new one. Recycled my previous ISO adapter and put my new loom-tape fetish to good use.
The SPA gauge comes with some wiring that looked like it would be too short to reach the engine bay. I got in touch with them and they offered to make me up a new set of wires FOC I just needed to give them the measurements. With this in mind I wanted to mock up the install, but decided to try an alternate wiring route to try and make the existing wire fit. As the gauge is in the driver side vent, I decided to run down the sill pad instead and round the back of the driver seat into the central grommet down into the engine bay near the sump. With this new route it was pretty much a perfect fit so no new wiring needed.
With the interior out I also took the opportunity to lift the fuel pump out. The only reason to do this was for a quick check over as I've had the odd bit of fuel surge on track which in fairness is quite normal for these cars on sticky tyres, but after having a similar issue on my old Subaru I wanted to check for an easy fix such as the filter sock having fallen off...
No such luck, sock very much attached but whilst out I decided to get on the phone to Gaz @ Spitfire to see if he could ID the pump in it. My car has an uprated pump to handle the 260 upgrade but I wasn't sure what it was. I took the pump to Gaz as he could dismantle it and rebuild with new seals on hand if needed and he identified it as the denso item that Lotus fitted to the 260 cups. One thing led to another and we ended up deciding to put one of Gaz' uprated pumps in it which would flow more than the denso if needed and would just future proof me even if I ever needed it. Denso is still fine though and only 5000miles on it so will stick it on eBay or something.
As for the aforementioned fuel surge issues, need to look towards a new larger capacity/baffled tank I think.
Any plans to ramp the power? The boys at MBR that look after mine also look after an amazing 370bhp Toyota Exige, sequential gearbox, the lot. Its ridiculous!
How's the IATs now with the roof scoop stuff you've done?
Considering SCing my Honda so might need to get my roof scoop functional in future. I remember reading a post by someone who'd done a full flow assessment and found that the normal small exige intake flows better than the large one we both have. This is because ours sits in the boundary layer of airflow, if you look roof scoops on all the new supercars, eg the MSO 600LT you see the scoop sits high with a gap underneath to get full flow.
How's the IATs now with the roof scoop stuff you've done?
Considering SCing my Honda so might need to get my roof scoop functional in future. I remember reading a post by someone who'd done a full flow assessment and found that the normal small exige intake flows better than the large one we both have. This is because ours sits in the boundary layer of airflow, if you look roof scoops on all the new supercars, eg the MSO 600LT you see the scoop sits high with a gap underneath to get full flow.
Yep the scoop is garbage, biggest gains I made by far was the side scoop ducts but I'm hoping those gains are eclipsed by the new chargecooler
I think CC is the only way to go for the SC Honda, I'll be sure to log results once the car is back on track
As for power, my next main limitations are gearbox and ECU... Neither a particularly cheap fix! Now that I'm chargecooled I guess pulley and remap could be 300ish but gearbox really will be on borrowed time so my plans are to benchmark it this year, enjoy the winter upgrades and then consider my options next year. If I'm eager for a bit more punch I'll probably pick up a spare gearbox and start upgrading it on the side.
I think CC is the only way to go for the SC Honda, I'll be sure to log results once the car is back on track
As for power, my next main limitations are gearbox and ECU... Neither a particularly cheap fix! Now that I'm chargecooled I guess pulley and remap could be 300ish but gearbox really will be on borrowed time so my plans are to benchmark it this year, enjoy the winter upgrades and then consider my options next year. If I'm eager for a bit more punch I'll probably pick up a spare gearbox and start upgrading it on the side.
-Z- said:
The path to glory is fraught with danger 
Looking at the specs of the TTS Rotrex kit with included CC for mine they aim to keep intake temps to around 55deg. Meth injection is pretty cheap too isn't it?
Not sure how much of my thread you've read, but these are my figures from last summers' shenanigans:Looking at the specs of the TTS Rotrex kit with included CC for mine they aim to keep intake temps to around 55deg. Meth injection is pretty cheap too isn't it?
As you can see the OEM setup was in the 60's, the average figure is misleading because that includes time off throttle etc and ultimately its the peak temperatures I'm aiming to bring down. I don't know at what point the ECU starts pulling timing, but generally cooler = better, obviously.
I still struggle to fully understand how the SC works, obviously I know the basics but the fact that it will always make the same boost regardless of IAT confuses me. From what understanding I do have, at 60+ degrees the SC is having to work harder to maintain the 7PSI or whatever it's running than it would at 40 degrees, therefor the parasitic losses on the engine power are greater with the higher temperature.
This is why a factory IC'd car can't just slap on a smaller pulley and remap because any gains in boost pressure are just eroded by the higher parasitic losses and you just end up treading water with a car that's more highly strung than it was before.
Adding the CC in theory should open up this ceiling and allow for a smaller pulley, better exhaust manifold etc and start creeping up the power... the gearbox being the main party pooper.
In all honesty the car feel magnificent at the ~260bhp it was supposedly running last year. The last Blyton day I did with the lower 15degree ambient temperature was an absolute hoot, the car felt "on it" all day and it felt like I was reeling in anything I shared the track with (in my own little dream world).
On the first Blyton day of the year the car felt quite slow in all honesty, and I struggled to match the laptimes of my NA Elise that came before it... but I was battling issues with tyres, brakes and all sorts of other excuses so I can't put it down to heatsoak really. Folembray felt good, but there was a bit of a perceived drop-off towards the end of each session... I was pushing longer sessions than I normally would though, must have been the French air. Croft felt OK, but I was struggling to figure out the circuit all day - it had just been resurfaced and I felt the grip was very inconsistent.
I never had it dyno'd and I've never driven a 220 car so my butt dyno doesn't have much of a reference point. I really wish I stuck it on a dyno before this winter tinkering started just so I could baseline it... if it makes 260 next month then I at least know where I stand and I know that I could maybe probe for a little bit more via a slightly smaller pulley. If the car is creeping up towards 280 (Pro Alloy suggest a passive 20bhp gain just by slapping on the CC, but I remain sceptical) then I need to really hold my horses and think long and hard about how much I want to push this car!
Fonzey said:
Not sure how much of my thread you've read, but these are my figures from last summers' shenanigans:
As you can see the OEM setup was in the 60's, the average figure is misleading because that includes time off throttle etc and ultimately its the peak temperatures I'm aiming to bring down. I don't know at what point the ECU starts pulling timing, but generally cooler = better, obviously.
I still struggle to fully understand how the SC works, obviously I know the basics but the fact that it will always make the same boost regardless of IAT confuses me. From what understanding I do have, at 60+ degrees the SC is having to work harder to maintain the 7PSI or whatever it's running than it would at 40 degrees, therefor the parasitic losses on the engine power are greater with the higher temperature.
This is why a factory IC'd car can't just slap on a smaller pulley and remap because any gains in boost pressure are just eroded by the higher parasitic losses and you just end up treading water with a car that's more highly strung than it was before.
Adding the CC in theory should open up this ceiling and allow for a smaller pulley, better exhaust manifold etc and start creeping up the power... the gearbox being the main party pooper.
In all honesty the car feel magnificent at the ~260bhp it was supposedly running last year. The last Blyton day I did with the lower 15degree ambient temperature was an absolute hoot, the car felt "on it" all day and it felt like I was reeling in anything I shared the track with (in my own little dream world).
On the first Blyton day of the year the car felt quite slow in all honesty, and I struggled to match the laptimes of my NA Elise that came before it... but I was battling issues with tyres, brakes and all sorts of other excuses so I can't put it down to heatsoak really. Folembray felt good, but there was a bit of a perceived drop-off towards the end of each session... I was pushing longer sessions than I normally would though, must have been the French air. Croft felt OK, but I was struggling to figure out the circuit all day - it had just been resurfaced and I felt the grip was very inconsistent.
I never had it dyno'd and I've never driven a 220 car so my butt dyno doesn't have much of a reference point. I really wish I stuck it on a dyno before this winter tinkering started just so I could baseline it... if it makes 260 next month then I at least know where I stand and I know that I could maybe probe for a little bit more via a slightly smaller pulley. If the car is creeping up towards 280 (Pro Alloy suggest a passive 20bhp gain just by slapping on the CC, but I remain sceptical) then I need to really hold my horses and think long and hard about how much I want to push this car!
It's probably worth getting a Dragy performance timer and doing a few rolling pulls eg 100-200kph in different conditions and temps and logging the data then you can see exactly how it reacts once heatsoaked or vs future mods etcAs you can see the OEM setup was in the 60's, the average figure is misleading because that includes time off throttle etc and ultimately its the peak temperatures I'm aiming to bring down. I don't know at what point the ECU starts pulling timing, but generally cooler = better, obviously.
I still struggle to fully understand how the SC works, obviously I know the basics but the fact that it will always make the same boost regardless of IAT confuses me. From what understanding I do have, at 60+ degrees the SC is having to work harder to maintain the 7PSI or whatever it's running than it would at 40 degrees, therefor the parasitic losses on the engine power are greater with the higher temperature.
This is why a factory IC'd car can't just slap on a smaller pulley and remap because any gains in boost pressure are just eroded by the higher parasitic losses and you just end up treading water with a car that's more highly strung than it was before.
Adding the CC in theory should open up this ceiling and allow for a smaller pulley, better exhaust manifold etc and start creeping up the power... the gearbox being the main party pooper.
In all honesty the car feel magnificent at the ~260bhp it was supposedly running last year. The last Blyton day I did with the lower 15degree ambient temperature was an absolute hoot, the car felt "on it" all day and it felt like I was reeling in anything I shared the track with (in my own little dream world).
On the first Blyton day of the year the car felt quite slow in all honesty, and I struggled to match the laptimes of my NA Elise that came before it... but I was battling issues with tyres, brakes and all sorts of other excuses so I can't put it down to heatsoak really. Folembray felt good, but there was a bit of a perceived drop-off towards the end of each session... I was pushing longer sessions than I normally would though, must have been the French air. Croft felt OK, but I was struggling to figure out the circuit all day - it had just been resurfaced and I felt the grip was very inconsistent.
I never had it dyno'd and I've never driven a 220 car so my butt dyno doesn't have much of a reference point. I really wish I stuck it on a dyno before this winter tinkering started just so I could baseline it... if it makes 260 next month then I at least know where I stand and I know that I could maybe probe for a little bit more via a slightly smaller pulley. If the car is creeping up towards 280 (Pro Alloy suggest a passive 20bhp gain just by slapping on the CC, but I remain sceptical) then I need to really hold my horses and think long and hard about how much I want to push this car!
Yeah I did a bunch of amateur logging last year when messing about, ultimately it was very hard to heatsoak the car on the road without being a complete tit for prolonged periods. Once I added the ducts on, it only took half a mile or so of cruising in traffic at NSL and the IAT's came back down to a reasonable level - but on track the level that it 'recovered to' would generally be a good lick higher.
With the OEM setup with just the IC and roof scoop, the track baseline temps would slowly creep up as the session went on. The side ducts stopped this from happening and pretty much kept the minimum temperature consistent even on longer sessions.... the side ducts were certainly worth adding and I'll continue to recommend them to anybody who asks! Curiosity just got the better of me with the charge cooler, and I needed a winter project so here we are!
With the OEM setup with just the IC and roof scoop, the track baseline temps would slowly creep up as the session went on. The side ducts stopped this from happening and pretty much kept the minimum temperature consistent even on longer sessions.... the side ducts were certainly worth adding and I'll continue to recommend them to anybody who asks! Curiosity just got the better of me with the charge cooler, and I needed a winter project so here we are!
Got the gauge install finished at the weekend, the fitment ended up being really easy in the end.
For the previous 60mm gauge, I had to strip out the rotating innards of the vent pod and fit an adaptor ring to clamp the gauge in place. With the 52mm SPA gauge I could put the rotating bit back in without the flaps, then it pretty much slotted right in. Not even glued it in with anything.
Really happy with it, had a play through the (many) settings and got a backlight which roughly matches the clocks at night and set some high/low alarms to get me started. The button is mounted just beneath the steering shroud.
One of the jobs I highlighted just before the winter SORN'ing was that the heat wrap on my cat u-bend had gone to crap.
A bit disappointing, I've used DEI heatwrap loads of times in the past and can usually get a few years out of it - but this has barely lasted a year. I bought more of the same though, will see if it fares any better this time around.
I think I've said it before but I have doubts about this cat convertor. It's not the original Lotus part, and certainly is not a performance replacement - it's just a pattern part replacement that I guess was swapped at some stage in the cars past due to a cat failure (fairly common on the SC'd 2zz's). I'll start researching alternatives and hopefully it'll be fine in the meantime.
The slip joint has been blowing for a while where the cat connects back to the backbox, it's partly because I'm forced to use the wrong sort of clamp to force the badly fitting 2bular backbox in such a way that it doesn't foul the undertray so I'm going to go back to a proper clamp and maybe look at spacing down my undertray a bit to fix the problem that way.
In other news I got my fuel pump assembly back from Spitfire, the original denso pump has been replaced with a Spitfire special - nothing wrong with the Denso, I just wanted everything inspecting to see if I could find a quick fix to my fuel surge issues and while it was apart I took the decision to future proof it with the spitfire pump. Should be good for 400+ bhp, not that I need it.
The Denso only has 5k miles on it so I'll lob it on eBay/FB or whatever and somebody else can make use of it who's planning the Lotus 260 upgrade.
Refreshed the assembly with all new seals, filters, etc - so good to go. (though again, at 20k miles nothing actually needed refreshing...)
Final job for the weekend was prepping for the two NS hubs I'd be replacing due to damaged ABS wires. (self inflicted)
I've got some SKF hubs due to arrive this week, so HOPEFULLY that'll fix my ABS issue and allow me to finally bleed the brakes properly. Will tax it on Sunday
For the previous 60mm gauge, I had to strip out the rotating innards of the vent pod and fit an adaptor ring to clamp the gauge in place. With the 52mm SPA gauge I could put the rotating bit back in without the flaps, then it pretty much slotted right in. Not even glued it in with anything.
Really happy with it, had a play through the (many) settings and got a backlight which roughly matches the clocks at night and set some high/low alarms to get me started. The button is mounted just beneath the steering shroud.
One of the jobs I highlighted just before the winter SORN'ing was that the heat wrap on my cat u-bend had gone to crap.
A bit disappointing, I've used DEI heatwrap loads of times in the past and can usually get a few years out of it - but this has barely lasted a year. I bought more of the same though, will see if it fares any better this time around.
I think I've said it before but I have doubts about this cat convertor. It's not the original Lotus part, and certainly is not a performance replacement - it's just a pattern part replacement that I guess was swapped at some stage in the cars past due to a cat failure (fairly common on the SC'd 2zz's). I'll start researching alternatives and hopefully it'll be fine in the meantime.
The slip joint has been blowing for a while where the cat connects back to the backbox, it's partly because I'm forced to use the wrong sort of clamp to force the badly fitting 2bular backbox in such a way that it doesn't foul the undertray so I'm going to go back to a proper clamp and maybe look at spacing down my undertray a bit to fix the problem that way.
In other news I got my fuel pump assembly back from Spitfire, the original denso pump has been replaced with a Spitfire special - nothing wrong with the Denso, I just wanted everything inspecting to see if I could find a quick fix to my fuel surge issues and while it was apart I took the decision to future proof it with the spitfire pump. Should be good for 400+ bhp, not that I need it.
The Denso only has 5k miles on it so I'll lob it on eBay/FB or whatever and somebody else can make use of it who's planning the Lotus 260 upgrade.
Refreshed the assembly with all new seals, filters, etc - so good to go. (though again, at 20k miles nothing actually needed refreshing...)
Final job for the weekend was prepping for the two NS hubs I'd be replacing due to damaged ABS wires. (self inflicted)
I've got some SKF hubs due to arrive this week, so HOPEFULLY that'll fix my ABS issue and allow me to finally bleed the brakes properly. Will tax it on Sunday
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