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Project - Supercharger - Stage 2

Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 11:44 am
by Gooldie
Thought this might be of interest to some people so will try to update progress of this as it takes shape. So here goes, Bought my first Lotus about 18month, a lovely 111s enjoyed it immensely in that time including a epic trip round Europe last summer and a few track days. However I started to crave more power for it. Looked at various options for upgrading the K-series, which didn't seam to make financial sense, a lot of money for not much extra gain and possibly reduced reliability. Next thought would be to do a Honda conversion, this was hugely appealing but again a lot of money, which I didn’t feel, I would get back if I decided to sell it on at any point. So after a visit to see Graeme at Murray’s I swapped this

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for this (prior to Ally Rennie's detail)
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A big thanks to Graeme for firstly for sorting out a excellent deal and also for all my requests for stuff to be done to the car prior to taking delivery. The new car is a N/A magnetic blue exige with just 19,000 miles on it and in perfect condition, complete with touring pack and aircon etc. Graeme also arranged for the splitter scoops and wing all to be colour coded prior to taking delivery. I was due to collect the car on Saturday afternoon after work and Ally Rennie kindly agreed to give up his Saturday morning to give a complete detail of the car before I picked it up, hopefully he should be along shortly with some photos and info on the detail carried out. Looked absolutely stunning by the time I arrived late on Saturday to pick it up. A big thank you to Graeme for staying on late to get the hand over all complete. So here comes the interesting bits, after chatting to Dan from SPS automotive I decided to import a supercharger from Black watch racing in the US http://www.blackwatchracing.com After a few emails from Fred Zust at black watch the supercharger was dispatched and arrived with me this morning, couldn’t resist unpacking it to have a quick look


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The car is currently in at Drivers in Glasgow having the rubbish stereo replaced and my Momo steering wheel fitted along with a few other modifications changing the standard alloys for a nice set of Team Dynamics Pro -Race wheels. Once that is all done it will be taking the car down to Dan to have the supercharger fitted and then we will look at the best options for reflashing the ECU. Should be an interesting projects, apoligies itf i have missed anything out or bad spelling just wanted to post this up quickly while i had 2 mins spare this morning

Re: Project - Supercharger

Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 12:22 pm
by RDH
So you're the guy George at Drivers was talking about last weekend - having traded in your Purple Elise to MMC?

Nice work!

Re: Project - Supercharger

Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 1:42 pm
by tut
Good to see someone trying an optional route. Have not heard of Blackwatch before, but if it is a full bolt on kit with no other extras to buy, then it is a good price.

Presume that it is a Jackson M62? Do you know the S/C pulley size, 3.2" or 3.4".

tut

Re: Project - Supercharger

Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 1:44 pm
by roadboy
tut wrote: Presume that it is a Jackson M62? Do you know the S/C pulley size, 3.2" or 3.4".

tut
Its an Eaton M62 Tut. Jackson don't make superchargers, just the kits to fit them.

Dan

Re: Project - Supercharger

Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 1:50 pm
by philthy
interesting, i thought the m62 would be for bigger engines than a 1.8

Re: Project - Supercharger

Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 2:02 pm
by ryallm
Interesting project, and good on ya for going your own way :thumbsup . Curious to know, does the kit have an intercooler? And do Blackwatch supply a new map for the ECU or do you have to look for this elsewhere?

Mark

Re: Project - Supercharger

Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 2:21 pm
by roadboy
No intercooler on this kit. Not needed at these low boost levels

Blackwatch can supply a CharlieX remap for the ECU (same as Sinclaires) and this is a possibility but we are currently looking at other options that will be UK based for better/easier support if there are any issues.

Phil, the Eaton M62 is what Lotus use on the Exige S.

Dan

Re: Project - Supercharger

Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 2:34 pm
by meatball
Is this going to be something you do frequently Dan?

Re: Project - Supercharger

Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 2:45 pm
by roadboy
meatball wrote:Is this going to be something you do frequently Dan?
I'm working on it. The supercharger and fitting kit is the easy bit. Its the ECU/mapping I've been working on for ages but finally making some progress.

Dan

Re: Project - Supercharger

Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 3:12 pm
by philthy
o rly, just checked the eaton website and its suggests the use of this one for 2.5 to 4.0 litre vehicles but suppose lotus will know what they are doing lol.

I suggested to euan earlier about getting the map mailed over from the states, at least as a base map until its live mapped.

Re: Project - Supercharger

Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 6:37 pm
by kenny
What sort of power do you think you will get with the SC?

Re: Project - Supercharger

Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 7:38 pm
by roadboy
I'm expecting the output to be around 230-240 bhp with standard induction and exhaust.

Dan

Re: Project - Supercharger

Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 7:47 pm
by Gooldie
kenny wrote:What sort of power do you think you will get with the SC?
Expecting around 240bhp and anything else would be a bonus

Re: Project - Supercharger

Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 7:53 pm
by Gooldie
roadboy wrote:I'm expecting the output to be around 230-240 bhp with standard induction and exhaust.

Dan
Talking of which meant to ask you about exhaust and induction, the car currently has the lotus stage 2 exhaust fitted, will this need to be changed? i find it noisy at the moment is it going to be worse after supercharging. How about the induction side worth doing anything at the same time?

Re: Project - Supercharger

Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 8:42 pm
by robin
Phil, I suspect Lotus use the larger compressor but with a bigger pulley, so reducing boost to something the engine can cope with; this makes everything much more reliable (and of course gives you the option of fitting lower C/R pistons at some point and then swapping the pulley to a smaller one for a (peakier) 300BHP, assuming the rest of the engine can cope. At the boost levels they reach with the standard setup, the torque curve feels pretty flat, though I haven't actually looked at a r/r plot to confirm that.

Cheers,
Robin