Esprit's '01 Exige Over-winter refresh

[Esprit]

Just a quick note to say I've not forgotten about y'all. Work has been pretty hectic this past couple of weeks so tinkering time has been nil.

Good news is that I heard today my new Quaife gearbox has been picked up and will shortly be crated and stuck on a big plane to make its journey south... should be here in 10 days or so! *excited*

[Esprit]

Hi all... well I'm still alive and haven't forgotten about you or my stupid car

I'm still waiting for the gearbox to arrive, although it's now in transit so will hopefully be in the country by the end of the week.

It's looking promising now that Bernard Scouse will be pressing on with a run of his engine mounts since there's enough people in the SELOC community keen on one. This is good because it means I won't have to design up my own mount and reinvent the wheel when a good product already exists.

One area I am reinventing/improving is the airbox/trumpet backplate. Ken gave mine back to me to tidy up as the powdercoating was coming off:

Now, to my surprise this plate is actually manufactured from STEEL, so it's actually pretty damned heavy. I've been through and modelled up a new one in SolidWorks:

I'll get this made up in Aluminium this week, then get it anodised blue. It's a cheap way to save 100g

While in this area I've also been looking into filtration. The standard "witches hat" filter in the intake tube has known shortcomings and isn't the best for flow, so an ITG megaflow racing filter will be drafted in and modified to suit. This will sit inside the airbox and present a much larger area than the OEM filter. It also should sit far enough away from the trumpets so as not to disturb the airflow.

One other area I've been looking into and might be doing a U-turn on is engine-management. Now I've trodden the established path and gone with the Emerald K3. However, looking into it now, the new Link G4 (Link's a kiwi company) offers a pretty impressive package that has a good few advantages over the Emerald.

I may bite the bullet and get the G4Xtreme because it can handle on-board knock-control and is a MUCH more universally known ECU in this part of the world.... which will come in handy come dyno-tune time.

The main virtues of the Emerald is the plug-and-play nature with the Elise/Rover MEMS loom and the interface with the Lucas 5AS security unit... given that the Exige S1 has a different loom (which I'm having to custom-adapt) and no Lucas 5AS security module, the benefits aren't as great and the more capable Link ECU may end up being the better (if more expensive) option.

Watch this space, but if anyone wants a latest-gen Emerald K3 brand new still in the bag, never installed or powered up... please let me know, it may be for sale in the near future, obviously with a small discount over the brand new price:

[Mick Doohan]

lol im sure i tried to convince you to go link AAAAAAGGGEESSSS ago

i have a link extreme and they really are only second to a motec m800

[Esprit]

lol im sure i tried to convince you to go link AAAAAAGGGEESSSS ago

i have a link extreme and they really are only second to a motec m800

Yeah, fair call... and it's your comments that planted the seeds in my mind.

Still, it's no big loss. I can sell the emerald for most of what it cost me, will get a Link as soon as funds permit (which will be a few weeks). I've a couple of questions I've posed to Link Tech support to see if the Xtreme will work with my existing hardware... if that all comes back positive it's full steam ahead.

[Honda Ass Dragger]

lol im sure i tried to convince you to go link AAAAAAGGGEESSSS ago

i have a link extreme and they really are only second to a motec m800

Yeah, fair call... and it's your comments that planted the seeds in my mind.

Still, it's no big loss. I can sell the emerald for most of what it cost me, will get a Link as soon as funds permit (which will be a few weeks). I've a couple of questions I've posed to Link Tech support to see if the Xtreme will work with my existing hardware... if that all comes back positive it's full steam ahead.

Emerald is jsut a rebadged re-boxed link g3 anyway isn't it?

[Mick Doohan]

lol im sure i tried to convince you to go link AAAAAAGGGEESSSS ago

i have a link extreme and they really are only second to a motec m800

Yeah, fair call... and it's your comments that planted the seeds in my mind.

Still, it's no big loss. I can sell the emerald for most of what it cost me, will get a Link as soon as funds permit (which will be a few weeks). I've a couple of questions I've posed to Link Tech support to see if the Xtreme will work with my existing hardware... if that all comes back positive it's full steam ahead.

what were the questions may i ask .... link are very good with some things....not so good with intergratation

oh and welcome to the dark side ... tell link wayne from cartune hamilton sent you

link comes under a few different names

ray hall turbo chargers sells a Ipec ECU ... and that is a g4 sold under licence ... and they sell dam well...hence the price hike .. the cant keep up with the demand ..

i have a storm and a extreme on the shelf if they are short

[Esprit]

lol im sure i tried to convince you to go link AAAAAAGGGEESSSS ago

i have a link extreme and they really are only second to a motec m800

Yeah, fair call... and it's your comments that planted the seeds in my mind.

Still, it's no big loss. I can sell the emerald for most of what it cost me, will get a Link as soon as funds permit (which will be a few weeks). I've a couple of questions I've posed to Link Tech support to see if the Xtreme will work with my existing hardware... if that all comes back positive it's full steam ahead.

what were the questions may i ask .... link are very good with some things....not so good with intergratation

oh and welcome to the dark side ... tell link wayne from cartune hamilton sent you

Questions were mainly based around the inputs and working with some of the sensors I've already bought for the project. Things like the lambda sensor. The Link says in the manual it takes a 0-5V signal, but my STACK controller gives a 0-4V range. They clarified that this 0-5V value was just a maximum range and that any voltage range within this could be configured.

[Esprit]

Well, apparently my engine is now pretty much fully dressed

Thanks to Matt for the pics!

[Dell'orto]

Your alternator bracket looks a bit grubby

[Mick Doohan]

im sure the rusty bolts that hold the front cover on to give it that oldschool appeal

lol just been a diddle mate .. its a beautiful thing

[bubblegoose]

beautiful indeed but that amount of power from a rover

tis witch craft i tell thee

[mixmasterlex]

What is the expected power from this motor?

[bubblegoose]

over 200 was mentioned

from an english 1800

[Esprit]

over 200 was mentioned

from an english 1800

Well over 200.. Should be between 220 and 230 somewhere. Once it's up and running I'll begin some development on the bolt-ons (manifolds/TBs etc) and should be able to take this through to the 250 region potentially.

[bubblegoose]

250

rover

nigga you trippin

seriously though..................awesome

[Esprit]

250

rover

nigga you trippin

seriously though..................awesome

There's a couple of similar spec in the UK with some fancy ancillaries making 260bhp. Some of the 1.9L ones are now up around 275bhp and the 2L race engines are at about 310 ... mind you, that starts all getting rather expensive But the bottom end I've built for this is all about being strong enough for mega horsepower and then playing it conservative up top. Trying not to make it a grenade

[BobbyBreeze]

This thing is so super sweet. Any chance you could take me for a spin when its going? I'm local and have dreamt of a ride in a Lotus Elise/Exige for years.

Really quite interested in importing an early series 1 Elise from the UK under the classic car 20year rule. Think you could get one on the road here for a lot cheaper than the local price.

[Esprit]

Yeah, sure... so long as you don't mind waiting 'til it's finished, will be only too happy to take you for a spin. Even better, turn up to a trackday I'm running in and you can see what they're really capable of.

Sadly you'll never be able to bring in an S1 Elise as a classic as they don't meet emissions rules. Only avenue for importing is as an SIV or as an immigrant vehicle, both of which mean more hoops to jump through.

NZ cars aren't badly priced at all either, especially since all of the corrosion problems that my ex-UK car has suffered are non-existent on the kiwi-new cars.

[BobbyBreeze]

Really, even under the 20 year classic ruling? Don't quite understand the ruling as you can bring in earlier cars that definitely would not meet emissions criteria.

Trackday sounds great. My friend just went to one in his lotus 7 replica and had a blast. He even got a ride in a new GT-R and said it was amazing. Hopefully i can get my '76 Fairlady Z going soonish and have some fun at the track.

Yeah noticed an Elise on trademe lately thats $30k, i reckon thats good buying.

[Esprit]

Really, even under the 20 year classic ruling? Don't quite understand the ruling as you can bring in earlier cars that definitely would not meet emissions criteria.

Trackday sounds great. My friend just went to one in his lotus 7 replica and had a blast. He even got a ride in a new GT-R and said it was amazing. Hopefully i can get my '76 Fairlady Z going soonish and have some fun at the track.

Yeah noticed an Elise on trademe lately thats $30k, i reckon thats good buying.

Emissions exemption is pre-1990 and older though (non moving), not a rolling 20 years.

That Elise on Trademe is a steal at 30k, especially for a 111S, but it'll go for more than that as I know several people genuinely interested. That's a 40k car probably so I'm guessing someone'll get a bargain at mid-thirties.