Honda Engine Elise Build

[jonnyfox]

Dan it's not a piss take, anything special about the driveshafts mate?

[danwebster]

Not especially, although they will be gun drilled. I'm having them made up by a Motorsport engineering firm nearby who make some really trick stuff.

[Numbnutz]

Dan what's the benefit of having them gun drilled?

 

The cvs and splines are the weakspot, but should still be ok to 350-400

 

Martyn tinker does s1 & s2 shafts for the link up style mounts that seem to be fine for most.

 

Be interesting to hear your reasoning. (I like being different)

[danwebster]

Its a massive stress reliever on the shafts. As you say, its highly unlikely i'll ever have a problem with the shaft itself, but for an extra twenty quid a shaft its a no brainer.

 

I can't use off the shelf shafts from other conversions as I don't know where my engine is relative to the others. Driveshaft length is pretty critical, so I can't take the risk of them being wrong.

 

 

Last night I started to port the inlet manifold to match the 70mm throttle body....its a laborious process but one that must be done....there's no point bolting on that lovely billet throttle body when the manifold restricts the flow.

 

 

Also took delivery of this, thanks to Spitfire Engineering.

 

[Numbnutz]

Fair point. Added price of mind for a few squid.

 

Are your mounts not based around LINK UP / MSC Mounts? I suspect your engine will be in a very similar position looking at your pics.

 

Give yourself an 8mm gap for the gearbox to chassis (that big steel 35mm bolt head is usually closest and can be filled/shaped a little.

 

The further you push the engine back to straighten the driveshafts and the more you drop the motor to level the drive shafts all shorten the length you will need.

 

Even a few mm of play on the anti rotation mount positions and spacers on gearbox and engine mount all add to the mix. You can spend hours tweaking for the right position. Lol

 

Consider using an old Honda one cut and welded to get your length right before you get some made. I reckoned that a min of 8mm end play on the tripode bearings at the worst angle on the suspension (susp on droop against compressed, agaidnt angle of tripode during rotation) was about right. Each to their own tho. It's quite easy to do with a driveshaft. (I can explain to anyone interested. )

 

Speedo ring. Nice. We don't need these on s2 tho.

[danwebster]

My thinking is along the lines of yours...although I have a pair of sample elise shafts to get the lengths spot on before getting the final items made.

 

Thinking about a colour change...haven't made up my mind yet...

 

[danwebster]

It's not pretty...but it'll work until I get a nice manifold made.

 

 

Just got to fabricate a bit of pipework to join the manifold to the silencer now...

 

This is not the right weather to be working on a car outside though, what happened to spring!

 

 

[danwebster]

Todays experiment involved a rattle can and a heat gun...

 

I had pretty much decided that I was going to wrap the car for two reasons:

 

1. I don't like the colour.

B. Its been blown over at some point and is several different shades of silver.

 

Then I stumbled across this:

 

 

Which at first looked too good to be true and a complete gimmick, but the more I looked into it the more convinced I was to give it a try, so I ordered a rattle can to test out.

 

It came today, so i've been in the shed tonight spraying my bonnet. I ran out of paint halfway through the 4th coat and it needs 5 to 6 coats to get an even finish, but already i'm pretty impressed and I'm almost certain i'm going to take the plunge and order a couple of gallons of the stuff and do the whole car.

 

 

 

 

The bizarre thing is, after ordering it and getting an email with the despatch address on, I find that they're less than 2 miles from my house

[jonnyfox]

That looks interesting? I'm wrapping mine Satin Black, boring I know but any other colour is going to look crap after a few track days......still very interesting nevertheless Dan look forward to seeing the end result mate.

[jfk]

Excellent build thread ....

Jealous of your dedication Dan.

[Robo Elise]

Fascinating!!! I know nothing about anything you have done but I've read every post with interest. Can't wait for the finished car:-)

 

[danwebster]

Well after a quiet week due to snow and more importantly waiting for payday i've been on another little spending spree to accumulate the last few pieces I need to finish the car.

 

Winging its way to me now is a nice big Laminova oil cooler, remote filter head and take off plate from Think. I decided to bite the bullet and upgrade the fuel pump while I have the opportunity to do it, so I dropped the tank on the weekend and will put the new pump in and get the tank back in this weekend.

 

I'm ordering all of my pipework for the oil cooler and fuel from http://www.atecautotechnic.co.uk/ - really high quality stuff by all accounts and I might even be able to get a little discount from my contacts

 

I'm going to hard line the fuel system, straight up the bulkhead and across to meet the fuel rail via a short flexi section at each end. Should look pretty neat.

 

I also spent a bit of time tidying up the loom and getting it ready to plug the new engine loom in. I have removed the aerial and speaker wires as I don't intend to have a radio. I've also split the relay power feeds from the main battery cable and run them with the rest of the loom so the three main plugs are all bundled together.

 

 

Still a little bit of tidying up to do but its getting there.

 

 

I bought a burr so I could port the inlet manifold to match the 70mm throttle body...its taking ages but we're almost there.

 

 

So, once the fuel and oil are plumbed in and the loom is plugged in I am only waiting on drive shafts before I have a car that is ready to drive...exciting stuff.

[danwebster]

My new fuel pump has arrived and is ready to go in the tank but as the tank was looking a bit scabby on the outside I decided to do something about it.

 

After looking at the price of an alloy tank that something became a coat of por15 on my tank. It's not too pretty and it's full of brush hairs but at least it won't go rusty!

 

 

Onwards and upwards.

[danwebster]

Nothing like a box of shiny bits to cheer you up.

 

 

More bits and pieces ordered today including oil and fuel lines and fuel rail. It's getting close to being a working car which is getting exciting!

[danwebster]

A lovely box of bits turned up today, my hardline for the fuel system and all my oil hose and fittings.

 

 

I've been out for a little play this evening and I have a bit of a dilemma now in that the space is so limited behind the exhaust manifold that i'm struggling to get a nice solution to the oil plumbing. Even with 180° fittings its exceptionally tight...back to the drawing board for a little while I think.

 

 

 

I could almost do with coming straight out of the take off, doing a 180 a bit further across behind the exhaust manifold and popping back out again. Unfortunately without the OEM cooler in place the take off plate will only fit in that position give or take 30° as its too tight against the block to go elsewhere.