Honda Engine Elise Build

[danwebster]

Cheers!

 

It's not too bad considering I welded everything from the manifold joint onwards myself...!

[Alex B]

Some fantastic work has gone into this cannot wait to see it on the road.

[danwebster]

Thanks Alex, me neither!

 

Final fix of the exhaust now complete with gaskets and high temp silicon...it's so time consuming doing everything myself from scratch, I lose count of how many times I trial fit things before final fix.

 

 

Just need to get the header tank and last water pipe fitted and I can fill it with coolant.

[mambosasa]

Any sound coming out of that exhaust?

[danwebster]

Not yet....I did spin the engine over on the starter yesterday though and nothing exploded so thats a good sign

[danwebster]

Had a bit of a potter around tonight after work and the gym. After I'd spent a few minutes sat in the car pretending to drive (now that I've got a seat and three working pedals) I headed off to the batcave and covered my intermediate shaft heat shield in heat reflecting tape like so...

 

 

I may cover the shaft itself yet as well, but this should help keep the heat down.

 

Then, in the spirit of using up leftovers, I gave my cv joints a lick of paint with some engine enamel I had on the shelf

 

 

As soon as my drive shafts arrive its off to the rollers to see if it works...

[danwebster]

As the weather is rather nice it seemed like a good time to have a go at the plastidip.

 

I'm still surprised at how good this stuff seems to be, time will tell how durable it is but its easy to apply and dries quickly.

 

So far I've done the bonnet:

 

 

The bootlid:

 

 

And started on the side of the car...a work in progress:

 

 

Now with three coats - they recommend five to six:

 

 

Tomorrow I shall endeavour to get all of it finished.

[Alex B]

engine fully running now? or still waiting on oil system parts?

 

can i enquire as to how much the whole build has cost?

trying to decided what path to go with mine.

[Numbnutz]

..... covered my intermediate shaft heat shield in heat reflecting tape ...

 

I may cover the shaft itself yet as well ...

 

My intermediate cover would not fit because of the close proximity of the exhaust manifold to the shaft - bugga all as it was an early MSC manifold made by Simpson. Anyway, I heat wrapped the exhaust manifold and I wrapped my intermediary driveshaft in adhesive backed heat reflective and stainless zip tied this in 3 places. (The Numbnut driveshaft wrap) - this seems to work really well and I have had zero issues with the OS Tripode grease leaking from the rubber boot (thats why honda used a heat shield), and thats after a few trackdays and some very spirited quite long driving spells.

 

I also used the same heat reflective stuff to protect the boot wall.

 

 

can i enquire as to how much the whole build has cost?

trying to decided what path to go with mine.

 

My budget was £5k, but I didn't skimp on bits. I kept fairly close to this but I think my Tubular 100 cell cat and GT3 H2 exhaust may have just taken me over that, and the pro alloy front rad was not included in the initial budget, but a full alloy rad should be.

 

As an idea:

 

Phase 1 - initial Build

• Low mileage Engine & box = £2100
  
• Martyn Tinker Driveshaft kit = £650
  
• Engine mounts = £350
  
• KPRO PRB ecu = £600 - (used orignal and vault base maps initially)
  
• FPR & Hoses clips etc = £200
  
• 4-1 Link up Exhaust manifold = £350
  
• 2bular GT3 H2 & FIA 100 cell cat & local custom fitting = £900
  
• K&N Air filter = £65
  
• Silicon hoses = £150
  
• Tripode grease & Boots = £60
  
• Clockwise baffled sump & hondabond = £180
  
• Engine mount bushes (vitara and new Rover gbox mount & sleeve) = £100
  
• Nuts, bolts, washers, spacers, paint, zinc plating mounts, circlips, jubilee clips, incidentals etc say £200
  

You can trim back in places like the exhaust you can buy s/h, a K100 ECU for £300, sell on the old engine & Honda ECU & CV's etc, drop lucky on a cheap exhaust manifold, But I built mine as I knew I wanted to SC.

 

S2Dave on seloc did his for around £3200 as you can drop lucky on a Engine & box and reuse an existing exhaust etc.

 

Also, you need a decent tool kit, and defo need and engine lift. you may or may not want to factor these into the initila build. I didn't.

 

 

Phase 2 - it all starts to go down hill here ... I'm in denial now - so no costs listed ...

• Triple pass Pro-alloy radiator, overhead fan kit & charge cooler pre rad - going SC soon
  
• Braided hoses, Track day fluid, 295 AP ali bells front - 288 Ultimax rears, CL5+ pads
  
• TDI North NA Rolling road map - 248bhp
  
• NHB motorsport toe links
  
• Team Dynamics TD1.4 cup 260 wheels & spacers & R888's (track day wheels)
  
• Nitron 1 way 46 dampers (ordering this month) & then a Geo - maybe an adjust ARB & drop links & poly bushes too.
  
• Splitter & rear spoiler (maybe next month or so if I have time to fit splitter - I like the GT3 but not 100% on it yet)
  
• Need a removable Steering wheel and a spacer to bring it closer for TD's
  
• Tyres - these are consumables tho.
   
  Then its a few more TD's
  
• Later - SC CC project aiming for 360-410bhp may or may not start over winter .... GF says I've got to do stuff around the house first - tut, and redundancy looms for next year - so this may have to wait.
  

Have I missed anything? No wonder my car fund seems a bit low.

[russelld]

Dan,

 

How the f**k do have time to go to the gym as well, do you never sleep ?

 

 

It's looking awesome BTW !!

[Numbnutz]

Summer is here - we should all be working on our T shirt muscles .... He must be younger, there are more hours in the day when you are younger. The older you get - the faster the day flies by!

[russelld]

Summer is here - we should all be working on our T shirt muscles .... He must be younger, there are more hours in the day when you are younger. The older you get - the faster the day flies by!

 

Yes mine do whiz by !!!!

[jonnyfox]

 

 

Yes mine do whiz by !!!!

 

Ain't that the truth lol.

 

 

[danwebster]

Ha...i'm 33 so i'm old enough to know better. I'm not good at sitting still though, home from work at 6.30 to 7, gym for an hour and then work on the car for the rest of the evening or until I get bored...I even see my girlfriend occasionally

 

So far i've spent a little over 12k

 

Thats not contained to the engine conversion though, i've also completed a total suspension refresh with nitron rose joints alone at almost £500.

 

I've also gone to town on a lot of items that you don't need to - the fuel and oil systems are 1k straight away. I rebuilt the engine, replaced the bearings, had it balanced, lightweight flywheel etc etc...

 

Anyway...todays progress...

 

Well I didn't get quite as far as I endeavoured, but its nearly there. Its quite time consuming doing all of the panels separately, I also spent a little time getting the head light covers off the clam so I could paint behind them.

 

I started this morning by putting a few more coats on the side I started yesterday, then moved on to the other side. Both have about 6 coats on now.

 

 

Then it was on to the front clam, after three coats:

 

 

Six coats:

 

 

Thats it for now:

 

 

Tomorrow i'll do the rear clam but will leave that off until after its been on the rollers, which is hopefully thursday / friday this week.

[MilesH]

I'm hearing a lot of positive things about plastidip. I assume you used a spray gun rather than a rattle can?

 

It's coming together well mate