Esprit's '01 Exige Over-winter refresh

[Dell'orto]

Great result

[Esprit]

Just a quick update. I've nto done much on the car this last week or so except clean it up after the trackday. I hope to do a touch more on the extinguisher install this weekend and get the nozzles mounted in the engine bay.

This weekend I also want to bleed through the brakes and clutch and also re-bleed the coolant circuit since it's had long enough now to work most of the air through to the trap points.

And as soon as this crappy Spring Auckland weather stops raining every day, I might even get out and chuck another 150 miles or so on her

Hopefully I can get her back to the dyno towards the end of the month to get the fun tune on her

[Esprit]

A successful day in the garage today. First off I got the coolant system re-bled as I don't think I got all the air out the first time around. There was a cool spot in one corner of the radiator when the car was hot indicating that some air was still trapped in there. I managed to get a few bubbles out the radiator bleed point and now the radiator feels hot all over. I might try to re-bleed it in another week or two just to make sure all the air is out.

The next job was to get all the extinguisher lines run in the engine bay and the nozzles mounted. I managed to get all this done and I'm really happy with how it's come out. All the lines are completely hidden from sight and securely mounted. The nozzles themselves are quite discreet too despite being purple! Here you can see the four of them in the corners of the engine bay:

I've still got to figure out where to mount the remote charge cannister for the extinguisher tidily, which will be a bit of a task, but I have some ideas. For now though I'm stoked with how the engine bay looks.... tidy and professional-looking.

Once I've mounted the rest of the extinguisher in, I'll get Glenn to wire in the control box and mount the bits and pieces in the dash. I've got a bit of work left to do there as well, but that'll pretty much be the last of the things I need to cross off my immediate to-to list. Things are looking good!

Oh, and she still continues to drive and run really well. Sump is still full of nice clean oil, no leaks I can see and it's performing how I feel it should. So yeah, onwards!

[Esprit]

Just a quick update for early November.

I've not been able to spend much time using the car or in the garage the past few weeks with one thing or another, but I've been plodding on. About 650 miles on the engine now, and I'm booked in to hit the dyno on Nov 25th to get the final tune done and on the car.

Weekend after next I'll change the oil over to the Motul 300V Competition 20W-50 and slot a new filter in, ready for taking advantage of the RPM up above the 6500RPM limit I've currently got on it.

I also have to get a breather pipe made up for the gearbox to help to stop the oil splash out when hot. That'll probably happen this weekend.

One job I have been working on it a bit of a tweak to the way the gearbox cooler pump operates.

Obviously, I've uncovered a weakness with the splash lubrication of the 5th/6th gearset. Thankfully the oil cooler return line returns oil back to the box over the top of this assembly, meaning that when the cooler is running, this weakness is negated.

Because the MoTeC is controlling the cooler pump temperature switching, I've now got this triggering off an auxiliary table that polls both gearbox temperature and throttle percentage. When the gearbox oil is below 55 degrees, the pump is permanently off. 55 degrees is deemed to be the lowest sensible normal running temperature.

Above 55 degrees, the pump will switch on when the throttle position is over 95%, meaning that when the gearbox is warm, the cooler will be circulating oil when the gearbox is at maximum load so long as the oil temp remains above 55 degrees (hence preventing overcooling). On track this will mean that the cooler will be running a significant amount of the time, keeping the 5th/6th gearset lubricated.

The normal running temperature of the gearbox on the road is about 70 degrees when fully up to temperature. As such, when the temperature exceeds 80 degrees the pump will activate regardless of throttle position, hence cooling the oil at maximum capacity.

This is a really cool benefit of having the MoTeC controlling this kinda thing. I'd never intended it to work in this way, but after 10 minutes at the laptop I've been able to reconfigure it to work sensibly the way I want it without hacking into wiring or cutting metal to mount more sensors. It's times like these when spending money during the build pays dividends!

[Esprit]

Well, progress has been muted the last month or so. Changeable weather and a busy non-car schedule have largely kept me out of the garage and out from behind the wheel.

The run-in is now complete, having done about 720 miles (1150km) of good running. I've got the Motul 300V Competition oil into her, a new filter and I've upped the rev limit to 8000 in prep for tomorrow's final tune dyno session.

I've done a bit more reprogramming too, I've set the car up with a variable rev limit so that when the oil is below 45 degrees, the rev limit will kick in at 3500RPM, then up to 65 degrees the rev limit will cut in at 6500RPM. Above 65 degrees the full 8000 (eventually 8500RPM) will be available.

I'm still chasing a couple of very small oil leaks, although these are just fittings that need a bit of nipping up, all the seals seem to be holding good this time around.

I've only had the one chance to take it to above the old 6500RPM limit thus far, a quick squirt up to 7500RPM through 2nd and third gear and MY GOD it's quick! The speed at which it piles on revs is insane and I'm gonna have to spend some time programming the shift-lights to my liking once it's all finished to prevent me from head-butting the rev-limiter... above 6500RPM it just gains revs so fast it's like a motorbike... then when you change gear you don't drop out of the torque band like you do when changing at 6000/6500 and the acceleration is just vicious.

I've also fabricated and fitted the breather tube for the gearbox, which means I can run it with more oil in it without it throwing it everywhere. It's just a stand-tube with a K&N breather filter on it, an interim measure until I get around to fabricating a dedicated twin-chamber catch tank next winter.

I've just bought some spare blue Alcantara dash trim pieces off Paul Myhill (PMyhill to all you SELOCers) which will be here in a couple of weeks. I'll hack these about to finish up the dash along with a bit of custom carbon work, without having to hack about my original bits. This will then allow me to finish off fitting the Lifeline extinguisher system sometime after Christmas.

So, with that, tomorrow I'm off to visit the dyno, to check that everything's still happy, and we'll also take it for a ~80km road tune to just check that we're happy with all the part-throttle mapping and hopefully if all goes well (unlike last time) it should make some semi-decent power and be a hell of a lot of fun to drive.... from there on out I'm well and truly onto the finishing bits and pieces.

Also, on Sunday I'm hoping to take it out Hampton Downs and get it on the skid pad for a bit of gymkhana fun TALLY HO!

[Esprit]

And this is where my project comes to a rather ignoble end.

Friday saw the car head up to the dyno, for her final tune and power runs. For the back-to-back comparisons we were just doing power runs to 8000RPM when disaster struck. As near as we can tell, the oil filter either worked loose, extruded a seal or stripped a thread. Hot oil was sprayed all over the exhaust manifold, which instantly ignited into a huge fireball, which consumed the rear half of the car.

Glenn managed to immediately shut the engine down and extricate himself from the inferno, while I made a mad dash for the extinguisher. Between my efforts with the extinguisher and Glenn on the hose, we managed to extinguish it after what seemed like a very long time (but was probably only about 10-15 seconds). I've not inspected it in detail yet, but the damage seems pretty minor with the body and chassis looking like it's escaped without permanent damage.

The firewall bore the brunt of the fire and the heat shielding looks to have done its job here. This will all need replacing (for a fourth time).

Datalogging shows that the car still had semi decent oil pressure of 30PSI when Glenn got off the throttle, 0.2 seconds after the initial blow off, and still had above 16psi when unloaded on decel. Oil pressure was still at 12psi when shut down so we think that the engine should have survived unscathed, hopefully at least.

The rest of the car needs to come to bits to fix the fire damage, but I can't really be bothered. I'm currently out of room at my old place and don't have a garage I can work on the car any more. I'm looking to buy a house, which will take some time, so I'm unable to undertake another rebuild right now anyway. I'm thinking of throwing in the towel with it, part of me wishes it had just burned to the ground.

Will probably tow it down to Hawke's Bay in a few weeks over Christmas, stick it out in the back paddock with a tarp over it and forget about it for a year or three. If I ever get my motivation back, I will see then. Until then I'm giving up on playing with cars and taking up a hobby that doesn't piss on me at every opportunity.

I wish I could say it's been fun, but in reality it's not been anything other than expense and heartache.

[My name is Russell]

OH NO!!! Fuck mate that's terrible! condolences

[ryanfels]

Man, ive never felt so gutted for anyone more then i do for you right now. Seriously

[nothingsfree]

Sorry to hear, so very gutted..

[KKtrips]

I felt the heartache when reading that.

Most probably best decision is to park it up and mull over it. See where it fits into your scheme of things and make a new plan when it feels right.

[My name is Russell]

How can these things keep happening! Everything is done to such a high standard! How does anyone drive these cars if they have such crap parts!

[Esprit]

Meh, I've spent all the money on all the right parts, done everything to the highest standard I can manage but this car is suicidal. I guess sometimes you buy a lemon, and I bought the biggest of them all.

[Poo]

Awh man, thats sucks a fat one. Ive been following your build thread for a while (top notch work!). You have had a run of bad luck. Heres hoping the damage is minimal.

Go buy yourself a Lotto ticket, you are owed some good luck.

[Unclejake]

You can come park it beside the Mercedes that I did to the highest possible standards and then failed to complete.

It has been there for five years (unfinished) and could do with some company.

Sorry to hear it Esprit. Balls.

EDIT: Insurance?

[Honda Ass Dragger]

[Nominal]

That sucks big. After 3 1/2 years and all the other problems I can't imagine how pissed off you must be. Good idea to put it away for a while. Try to find some dry storage so you don't get too much corrosion. I've read that fire extinguisher chemicals can cause problems if left on steel/alloy for too long.

[Esprit]

CO2 extinguisher in this case so non corrosive. As for storage, we'll see what happens with the househunt in the next little while.

[My name is Russell]

Still cant believe this news! So guttered for you mate. How bad is the damage? New loom and repaint engine bay, or bit more than that?

Any chance of insurance helping out seeing as it has WOF etc?

[Esprit]

At the moment I'd say it's likely to be a bit of wiring (the loom is in multiple parts, most of which was well away from the fire). The bay is unpainted, and I think most of it is damage to the heat shielding, which should be able to be replaced with the chassis stripped back and engine out. Don't think there's likely to be too much damage to anything else, just needs a good clean up and thorough inspection.

Possible insurance, but it's more man-hours than money.

[Unclejake]

The insurance should pay someone else to do all the hours. You just need to find someone fussy enough. I could suggest someone suitable if you were in Wellington so there must be others of suitable analness where ever you are.