Esprit Posted May 24, 2011 Author Share Posted May 24, 2011 Heath, no... if we buy it back, the brakes will be spare for dad's next Lotus. Besides, on your car the brakes would be useless... they'd melt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drtdvl Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 Haha all good... they wouldn't melt... i'm not that hard on my brakes... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esprit Posted May 25, 2011 Author Share Posted May 25, 2011 Haha all good... they wouldn't melt... i'm not that hard on my brakes... On track, with semi-slicks, a stock S1 Elise weighing 680kg and only having 120bhp will melt them without too much effort. Given you're a little heavier and a LOT more powerful, I'd not risk it. They'd be ok for hillclimbs/sprints over short distances though. You'd have to butcher them to get them to fit though, or make custom hubs... then accept that when you need to replace them you can't buy them except second-hand and they're worth their weight in gold Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drtdvl Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 hehe you only need to make a small adapter bracket - it's becoming a very popular mod in the UK for the trackday guys. I'm not that much more powerful than you... 130hp. It's all good... I'll deal with the current 200ton calipers and look at something expensive and shiny later when i'm older and richer... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
My name is Russell Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 Hope your father is recovering well. Is this a true story/old article? rumor Is this has an Fe-Dohc engine same as in my escort in it? http://www.castrol.com/castrol/generica ... Id=7016603 if so you should Fe3 your Exige, would be sweet to see what you would do with one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esprit Posted June 3, 2011 Author Share Posted June 3, 2011 Unsure exactly what engine it runs, but it's effing quick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esprit Posted June 4, 2011 Author Share Posted June 4, 2011 Well it's been a while since I've done an official update of my build blog, so I guess this will hopefully be the start of getting things back on track. I'm down in Hawke's Bay again this weekend visiting my family and it's good to finally see my father outside of a hospital and back mobile again. There's still a few months of crap to endure for him (and us all) but hopefully he will recover just fine in time. It seems to have changed him a little personality-wise, but I guess he's been through a lot so only time will tell whether he gets back to being the same person he was before the accident. I went out to see my father's car today with him. It was the first time he's seen it since the accident. It's been written off by the insurance company and we were taking a look at it to see whether it'd be worth looking at buying back with a view to eventually rebuilding it. Sadly a cracked glue joint in the front suspension and a massive kink in the left-hand chassis rail where the radiator return hose comes trough it means the chassis is toast and will never be a car again. Our little Norfolk Mustard friend is only worth spare parts value so I don't think we'll be reinvesting any money in her. A very sad end to an 18 month love affair that taught me how wonderful basic S1 Elises are. Back onto the topic of my car. I've had the cylinder head off and away being rebuilt for the last two weeks. It would seem that the valves were beginning to leak because some of the valve seats had gone out of round. When the head was rebuilt, larger valves were installed, necessitating the cutting-out of the existing valve seats. For whatever reason, during the run-in these distorted or shifted and this has led to them no longer sealing. The head has now been fully rebuilt here in New Zealand, new valve seats have been inserted, cut and lapped. The head has been pressure and crack tested and given the very lightest of skims. All the valves have been cleaned up, the valves all re-shimmed and re-sealed and the head is now ready to go. I've noticed that in the cylinders that were weak, the bores appear a little more glazed than in those that were working as they should have been. Due to this, I want to rectify this problem and run the engine in from scratch again. This will ensure that when the engine is FINALLY run in, that it will be in the best shape to be healthy and make good horsepower from the word go. Given that to glazebust the bores, I'd have to pull them out as well as replacing the rings, I've decided that the best thing to do is to just pop the old liners out and bin them. I'll put new ones in from scratch, add new rings and also new bearings at the bottom of the engine. It seems ridiculous to replace parts that are less than 1000km old, but at least this way I'll have a good idea of what things were like when we removed them and I will be back to square-one on the engine and it'll be like new again... it seems silly to invest all this time and money on getting the top-end issues sorted if the bottom end lets go or has some other unseen issue... I just couldn't take that kind of heartbreak now! So I'm currently placing an order for new liners, rings, bearings, gaskets, seals and head bolts and we'll get the engine out of the car and reassembled in the next 2 months or so. This will enable me to get it back in the car and straight off to the dyno (at least this time we can get the engine under load from the first turn of the key as the existing map should be pretty damned close). The engine will be run right in under load from the word go and then we'll get t straight on the road for 600 miles of progressive run-in before seeing what power it makes. Second time lucky eh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dell'orto Posted June 4, 2011 Share Posted June 4, 2011 Fingers crossed mate! Though I think you'll be sorted, surely it couldnt happen again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esprit Posted June 7, 2011 Author Share Posted June 7, 2011 Just to clear up any confusion (as some people have asked), this accident wasn't my father: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/artic ... d=10730709 coincidentally, this accident happened nearby to where my father had his accident and they were both in April, but they were completely unrelated. My father's car was a '97 Elise S1, and he was stationary when hit from behind by another car. He was not fleeing from police at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanfels Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 haha what are the odds aye Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esprit Posted June 7, 2011 Author Share Posted June 7, 2011 Hehe yeah well I know of 5 Elises in Hawke's Bay and 2 of them being involved in separate accidents in the same area in the same month is quite unlikely for sure. It's funny, this last month a couple of people have asked me questions about Dad's accident.... things like "I heard he was speeding" or "I heard he was being chased by the cops".... stuff I just dismissed as Chinese Whispers getting the story wrong... now I know why they may have thought that! But no, this guy (despite also being an almost identical age to my father) is not my father. I'm pretty sure I've bumped into him before and chatted though although I don't know him personally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullitt Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 Must have been a nice elise to be worth 100k So presumably if someone crashes their car running from the cops insurance won't pay out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esprit Posted June 7, 2011 Author Share Posted June 7, 2011 One would assume not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProZac Posted June 16, 2011 Share Posted June 16, 2011 Chronic insomnia has just allowed me to catch up on your build thread man. Holy moly, what an emotional ride! Typically, I read so many damn car build threads I just skip through pages untill I see pictures, then stop and have a read/geeze. Not the story with yours however, read every single post. Dismayed at the bad luck you've had, engine problems and then family tradgedy. I'm sure, however, that it'll all be behind you now, and back on track. Was really good to read that your father is doing fine, and your cylinder leakage problem was tracked down. Soon to be a real ripper I bet! . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esprit Posted June 25, 2011 Author Share Posted June 25, 2011 Right, well with Toni now in the UK for a month and with my move into her apartment now complete, I've FINALLY got some time, and some motivation to get back in the garage and work on the bitch. Today was focussed around getting the fluids all drained off, the wiring all disconnected and the shortblock and gearbox ready for removal.... AGAIN. This all went fairly smoothly and all going well, by tomorrow afternoon, the remains of the engine will be hanging from the crane and will be ready for transporting off to KW to get another rebuild. Some new liners, rings, bearings, gaskets, seals and head bolts will be winging their way soon from Dave Andrews, who has been brilliant help in getting the engine bits together and rectifying this whole issue. The head is sitting there, freshly rebuilt and ready to go and as soon as the bottom end bits are here, the engine will be dummy-assembled, clearance-checked and then final-assembled ready for reinstallation. Here's some photos of the current state of the garage and the car... a pretty sorry sight. While the engine rebuild is happening, I'm going to pull the roof and rear window out to enable me to re-do the firewall heatshield, which I can do better than I did before. I'm also going to use the Aluminium sheetmetal rear heatshield support I made up as a template for a carbon-fibre piece I'll lay up, which will have heatshield material attached to it. It should be better than the original shield and substantially lighter. When the engine's in, it'll be filled and primed, and then started. As soon as it's able to fire, it'll get the rear bodywork reinstalled and the car fully reassembled prior to getting trailered up to GDS automotive for a run-in day on the dyno and some extra mapping tweaks. After a dyno bed-in, it's going to get a good few hours of road-tuning before the 1000km road run-in period. Targeting that in mid-August... so hopefully the car will be in rude health and ready to rock by the time Spring arrives. Game on! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esprit Posted June 26, 2011 Author Share Posted June 26, 2011 Another stint in the garage this afternoon, and the engine is out of the car again... for the FOURTH time in this project.... let's hope it's fourth time lucky huh? Here you can see the vacant engine bay. You can see the crinkly section of the firewall heatshield where it sits close to the manifold heatshield. It's not terribly damaged, but over time, I can tell the foam is going to degrade as it's too thick (and sits against the manifold heatshield) and it's just not up to the temperatures it gets in that local area. Also, because of the potential fire risk of this foam should it continue to degrade I've decided to sacrifice a bit of sound dampening for superior heat protection (and light weight!). It's never going to be a civilised car anyway and it's not going to make much difference at all. And here's the sorry sight of the engine sitting on my garage floor again.... le sigh! I'm going to steal the work wagon and trailer tomorrow at lunchtime and get the engine transported over to KW for stripdown. It'll head over with my newly rebuilt cylinder head and a box of bits to rebuild it again. By the time it's all stripped down, cleaned and inspected, I should have the new bits here from DVAPower and it can go together again. While this is happening, the seats will come out, the rear trim panel will come off, as will the roof, rear window and rear window frame. This will allow me to remake the firewall heatshield and make it look really tidy. It'll also allow me the access to switch a couple of pins on the ECU, since Glenn wants to reallocate the pin of the wideband lambda heater to a different output as it's throwing an error code right now. If there's a silver lining to cock-ups like this, it's that it gives you the excuse to do those bits and pieces that you probably wouldn't bother doing otherwise. Time for a beer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esprit Posted June 28, 2011 Author Share Posted June 28, 2011 Well, managed to trailer the engine and box over to Ken today and he's going to start stripping it down tomorrow. First task is to get the codes off the crank and crank ladder so that we can size the bearings properly and get that order underway. Looking at it in better light today you can clearly see the liners of the two cylinders that were a bit leaky in the valves were more glazed than the other two... this reinforces my decision to be a sensible lad and rebuild the bottom end... I'm glad I'm doing it now. Getting quite enthusiastic about the old girl again now.... quite a nice feeling after a few months of despair! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esprit Posted July 2, 2011 Author Share Posted July 2, 2011 Well it's the weekend, which means more garage time to spend on the car as per usual. Today I got the roof off and interior stripped out, which will give Glenn the access he needs to the loom to make the pinout changes on the ECU. Meanwhile the rear window and surround also came off to give access to the firewall to allow me to remove the heat shield. I removed this because it had begun to break down where the shield had been all but touching the manifold heat shield that sits right up against it. Despite my ceramic coating of the manifold and the Cirrus heat shielding around the manifold area itself, there's still too much heat getting to the firewall foam heat shield. In the following photo you can see the square of affected material. The OEM Lotus heat shield failed in this same area so it's obviously a problem, however the OEM shield as well as this one seems to have held up very well elsewhere. Furthermore, in the heat-affected area the foam was still in good condition and it was only the glue between the foil and the foam that had failed... although over time I'd have expected the foam to fail too. Ever since I fitted this new heat shield over a year ago, I've had my doubts about it. It seemed a bit fragile when compared to the OEM shield and it didn't seem to stick to the firewall quite so well. However, in tearing the thing off, I can see that it's actually stuck bloody well, and it also appears to be a chunk more rugged than I gave it credit for! I chose it because it seemed to be the closest fit I could get for the OEM shield material-wise, which is no longer available. It seems my choice might not have been too bad after all! I had planned to replace the firewall heat shield with something like "Thermo-Tec Cool-It", but now I'm in two minds. I'm now thinking of getting some more material like I've just removed and remaking another similar heat shield. I'll then cut a small "window" in the area where the heat-soak appears to be highest. On the firewall where this high-heat area is, I'll lay a heat shield like Lava-Mat (of which I have some), which should cope with the higher temperatures better. The bonus is that the Lava Mat is a thin, carbon fibre-like cloth that has nearly zero thickness. This compares with the foam insulation that has a ~10mm thickness. This will allow a larger air-gap between the firewall and the manifold heat shield, which should reduce the heat flux into the firewall insulation. Te bonus is that this'll allow me to keep the light and effective foam shield over the bulk of the firewall with just a small area of high-temp barrier where it's needed near the manifold. This second time around I'll also try to cut the shield material a little better and reinforce it with some aluminium tape around the edges in the interest of being tidy. I've got a bit more research to do tomorrow before I make up my mind for good. I want to get the new material procured this week so I can begin cutting and refitting next weekend.... it's a hard, boring slog right now but this is a job I'm just looking forward to having signed off and out of the way! More tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maru-So Posted July 2, 2011 Share Posted July 2, 2011 Hey mate could you post up where you get the foam shield from? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esprit Posted July 16, 2011 Author Share Posted July 16, 2011 Well I've been gathering bits and pieces this last couple of weeks and this weekend is a busy one on the car. Today I've been fabricating the new firewall heat shield.... the improved V2.0 version! Here you can see the old heat shielding I've pulled off the firewall. You can see that I've cut a "window" where the damaged area was. You can see this damaged area in my previous update when the shield was sitting on the firewall. From here, I've fabricated up a new one. I've painstakingly cut it to size and shape and then with this one, I've spent a good number of hours carefully edging it with heat-barrier aluminium tape. This should prolong the life of the shield as they always seem to degrade at the edges. It's also a move I've taken after talking to people who specialise in installation who have said that aluminium-taping the edges will greatly reduce the risk of the foam shielding smouldering in the event of an engine bay fire. You can also see the "window" of the heat shielding that's been filled with "lava mat" high-temperature heat shield. This shield SHOULD be a bit more tidy in installation than the last one, and should be both more resilient and effective. I've still got to cut out the recess for the fuel hoses in this shield, and I'll do this in-situ as I want to cut the shield closer to these this time around. That'll be done tonight when I install it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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