Honda Engine Elise Build

[stockhome]

http://m.youtube.com...h?v=sr0gNJ090JA

[danwebster]

 

 

Couldn't resist nipping down the shed to try the linkage out...

 

Z spec box with cables attached...

 

 

Direct to the gear stick, no additional linkage required...

 

 

It feels good, with the mods I've done I'd say on a par with the S2K...

 

[danwebster]

A quick test fit of the spare gearbox case I had...

 

 

And hey presto, we have a car with an engine.

 

 

 

Please excuse the bolts, they're temporary...

 

 

[jonnyfox]

Goldtastic!

[danwebster]

After a slight set back I have made some great progress today.

 

I had to fettle the gear box case some more to get the engine to fit at the correct angle and I ended up making a tiny pin hole in the casing :wall

 

So yesterday morning I pulled the engine back out, stripped the gearbox off it and took the end case to be welded back up. Picked it up this morning and picked up where I left off.

 

With the engine back in I was able to set about fitting the two lateral engine steadies. After a bit of work with the sharpie marker and the drill they were fitted and the engine is now absolutely rock solid in the car.

 

 

I couldn't resist test fitting the inlet manifold, just to check for clearance to my new bulkhead you know...

 

 

Turns out there's loads which is good news for when I come to fit throttle bodies

 

 

Front engine steady

 

 

Rear engine steady

 

 

It's a bit tight around the chassis and subframe. Although the engine is basically impossible to rock by hand, there will surely be a little movement when its running so I might relieve this a bit. The subframe is only test fitted to check everything, its coming off so I can finish painting the roll bar stays.

 

 

I picked up my modified rear wishbone from shot blasting today as well and decided to give it a coat of POR15. Rather than pay to get everything powder coated I decided to buy one of these and paint them myself. Turns out its a pretty good piece of kit for a bit of DIY spraying so I'm pleased with the result

 

 

More tomorrow!

 

[danwebster]

Spent another long day on the car today, about 12 hours in total and didn't really feel like i'd got very far by the end of it, still, these things happen I guess and it all adds to the overall effort.

 

What I did do was remove the battery and heater box from the front of the car, which was an utter nightmare as all of the rivnuts span in the chassis, and gave it a bit of a clean.

 

 

I've also started cleaning up the chassis too. As just about everything mechanical will be new by the time the car hits the road, it seems a shame not to make everything else sparkly clean too.

 

[Numbnutz]

Dan, you are doing really well. Especially if you are doing this outside .... burrrr ... these convs take a lot longer than you think, you keep fining things that need doing. Speaking of which:

 

Regarding engine / box placement, what some of us did with the linkup style kits which yours looks based on, is to ensure that you have about 8mm gap between your chassis leg and the big washer type thing on the gearbox. (You can see this on your pic of the gbox cut). It looks ok, but some of us filed a bit off the corner of this washer to make the gap 8mm. This just gives you some clearance and stops the gbox touching the chassis when things get exciting. I would also consider you revising the cut under and around the corner too. It looks a bit tight. Try and get your finger between the gbox and chassis and you will see what I mean. Once the mounts bed in and you go banging through the gears, think of that bit of movement fore and aft and in corners too.

 

Message me on here or seloc with your email and I'll send you some pics of mine and what I mean. But its all looking good.

 

When I did my blower resistor pack upgrade, the service notes recommend drilling a hole (6 or 8mm) in each corner or the chassis floor to let water drain, and treat with ACF50 or similar. I know you have a differnt blower to me (MY04 with AC), but check your resistor pack etc, and replace or protect it, and consider the botch service advisory notes.

 

Have a think about replacing your gbox oil too, MT3 from Honda. Clean you IACV valve out too whilst your throttle is off. (You can get the security bits from machine mart to open it up.). If you need any help with anything - give me a shout (u2u on seloc for a quick response)

[danwebster]

Well the last few days of my holiday have flown by and tomorrow it's back to work.

 

Unfortunately, as I couldn't get access to the shot blasting cabinet until yesterday, I didn't quite hit my target of getting the car back on its wheels, but its not far off.

 

So after spending a few hours looking through a little glass window I ended up with a nice set of wishbones no longer covered in rust...

 

 

I have subsequently sprayed them all with POR15 but neglected to take a pic.

 

During the course of this build I am also replacing every knackered rusty old fixing that I can, mostly with nice stainless cap heads as you can see here after fitting my new alloy rad back in.

 

 

I have temporarily bypassed the heater, as the one I removed was in a hideous state. Ultimately I think I'll buy a new one but as the summers coming that can wait

 

After checking all my clearances I've now finally fitted the rear subframe and torqued everything up. Plenty of duralac was used on the mounting points where differing metals touch.

 

 

I've fitted the intermediate shaft and tried the oem honda heat shield, turns out it fits albeit with very little clearance. Still, I'll cover it with some heat tape and hopefully this will help alleviate heat soak in the cv joint.

 

You can't see a great deal, but its in there.

 

 

 

Finally, both roll bar stays are now freshly painted.

 

 

Jobs for this week are finalising the loom, which should be a thing of beauty - plugging into the existing car loom but doing away with the old honda loom and replacing it with all new race spec wiring.

 

Then, once I've finished painting the wishbones I can reassemble the suspension and get it back on its wheels again.

 

[jonnyfox]

Easy peasy.......where the hell do you find the time Dan. I went out at 830 this morning and got back a 5....... On a Sunday!

 

Looks great mate.

[danwebster]

I also went out at 8.30 and came back in as top gear was starting...as I have done almost every day for the last two weeks

[jonnyfox]

Lol there you go :-)

[danwebster]

Vast improvement....

 

[stockhome]

Looking good did you spray them Dan mine ended up with a few runs.

[danwebster]

Yep sprayed with satin black hammerite (after being sprayed with two coats of POR15).

 

Theres a couple of runs but i'm sure you won't notice them when i'm coming past you sideways

[danwebster]

This evening i've been laying out and marking up the custom loom that Clockwise are making for me (which will subsequently be on sale to the masses!).

 

It does away with the standard equipment honda loom entirely and leaves a really neat purpose built loom that plugs straight into the elise wiring harness.

 

All the wires are labelled up so I know exactly what to plug them into, so no worries mixing the MAP and TPS as discussed earlier...

 

Once i've finalised my ECU position this loom will be terminated and finished so it can be fitted to the car. This was the most daunting task for me, as its the one area I know the least about, so i'm very happy this is coming together so easily and can't thank Ian enough for his help.

 

I'm looking forward to some warmer and lighter nights, doing this in the dark and cold isn't ideal!