Winter Strip Down and Rebuild (Done and Dusted)

[ABZ-Elise]

I've decided on going honda power after FF, but every time I look at this tread I think about giving the poor little K-series another chance but I know it would just end in tears...saying that I've not had much bother with the k-series so far but I'd just like to go for the reliable option of 220bhp.

[Mikie711]

Kev, I think that is completely achievable and for a lot less than a honda conversion. There are cars running K's up to 260 bhp but at that level things get a bit ify. 220 is do-able for a reasonable amount of money circ £6k less if you do most of it yourself but there are alot of hidden costs such as tools, consumables, hose, wiring etc etc. Everybody accounts for the big stuff like heads, cams, pistons but forget to mention all the little things. I have a folder full of receipts for the Elise from when I bought the car and I can safely say it's the dearest car I have ever owned and I will never sit down and add up all the afore mentioned receipts. But and it's a big BUT, it is the car I have had the most fun with and rekindled my passion for driving and all things car. For those reasons alone I would do it all again in a heart beat

[tut]

Been there, seen it, done it, twice on the K series Mike, though not to your level, and I think it is great to see what you have achieved (hopefully when you twist the key), off your own back. Tis easy to pass over £10K to someone to install a Honda, but never be involved yourself.

Although Ricky did all the work on the original N1's, I was alongside for a lot of the time, so very much involved. This did not happen with the Hondas apart from the S/C installation, but on the other hand he has never touched these engines because nothing has ever gone wrong with them. My move over to the dark side was different than most, N1 conversion with BLiNK was a special one off, and N3 was a no brainer buy.

Looking forward to seeing you on track with the beast, as it will be a different ball park than when we were last on together.

tut

[Mikie711]

cheers tut, looking forward to some decent runs and trackdays this year should be fun. Depending what happens to the regs in 2010 I may well go down the engine transplant route but probably with an Audi Turbo engine, which could prove to be fun . That's in the future though, currently..........

managed to get the fuel tank out, surprisingly easily. Lotus sure knew what they were doing when they designed this thing. Everything on the car is straight forward. So 4 bolts and a couple hose connectors later



one scruffy looking fuel tank




The alloy ring holds the pump/sender unit in place with them undone it's just a case of pulling out of the tank. Need to let it drain off before pulling right out.




On the bench ready to get stripped. Pop of the top plate and it's one pump out and one in, really straight forward.




Here you can see the new piece of tube that connects the new pump to the outlet piping. Pulled the connectors out of the existing plug and soldered on the wires from the new pump. After trial fitting it all back inthe tank I had to shorten the rubber tube as I had left it to long and wouldn't let the top plate sit down into place properly. You live and learn.
Now it's re-assembled I will run all the wires I need for the logger and wheel sensors before refitting the tank.

One more job off the list.

[tut]

That is the first time that I have seen a S1 fuel tank.

Never realised it was so long and narrow.

tut

[Mikie711]

Finished the mods to the engine loom last night



Have removed the IACV wiring from the loom and changed the routing for the new coil pack as well as adding an extra coil driver wire, 3 now instead of 2. The small round thing in the back plate between 3 & 4 intakes is the MAP sensor which I also added in. For those that care it's wired back to pin 34 on the Emerald as 35 has my lambda input signal. The +5v is piggy backed on the TPS power wire as is the earth which is common for a lot of things, 6 way splice inside the loom figured one more wouldn't make any difference and it is a sensor earth anyway. I left the narrow band O2 sensor wiring in place, just in case. All that remains is to re-install MFR and various boxes and connectors.
Once I run the extra wiring and put the tank back in will get to work on the exhaust manifold and alternator c/w new heat shield.

[robin]

The sensor earth is not common with the rest of the earth wiring in the car (well it is, in the sense that there is continuity, but the sensor earth remains relatively isolated from both the digital earth and the high current earth paths in the ECU).

So it's fine to piggy back the MAP sensor onto it the way you have, but don't be tempted to introduce anything that uses an current or does any switching onto the same +5v/earth pair because this will cause noise on both the +5 and earth which in turn will cause noise on the sensor outputs such that the ECU will see the MAP and throttle position wobbling about.

You'll see how noisy the ECU already is if you look at the help->live data or whatever it's called page on the emerald s/w - there's plenty of jitter on the TPS sensor when the engine is running

Cheers,
Robin

[Mikie711]

Robin the earth I used was indeed a sensor earth from the ECU pin 30, black and pink wire IIRC . It is used for all the engine sensors as well as the O2 sensor. The +5v supply is the one off of the ECU pin 9 but it was only feeding the TPS. Any time I've used the live adjustments screen when mucking about with my Emerald I can't say I've noticed the TPS signal jumping around, having said that I was never looking for it. Just need to work out what the MAP sensor is seeing relative to it's voltage.

[Mikie711]

Made up a couple of wiring looms tonight. The long one is for the injectors power and signals as well as wheel speed sensor signals. The short one is for the PLX wideband lambda, it's original loom was made for front engined cars so was miles long, most of which ended up coiled up in the engine bay. The new one should tidy things up a bit.

[robin]

Just wait until the engine is actually running Perhaps you'll have a clean signal, but I think they're using a 10-bit ADC (values from 0 to about 1000) and that means noise of 5mV = up/down by 1 count - given the impedance of the TPS and the amount of inductive switching going on around the injectors/coils, I would be surprised if it sits rock steady at a given value. Anyway, it doesn't much matter because they filter the signal digitally I think to remove a lot of the inevitable noise.

You must be getting close to firing it up now? Cannot wait!

Cheers,
Robin

[Mikie711]

You must be getting close to firing it up now? Cannot wait!

Cheers,
Robin

Makes 2 of us

[campbell]

You need to video it Mike!

[Mikie711]

You need to video it Mike!

See what I can do when the time comes

One more update on my wiring, finished the injector sub-loom, instead of a common power wire for all four injectors they now have individual power feeds. The signal wire (earth) is still paired back to the ECU as well as a splice so the Xoombox can see it also.
One thing that was unexpected was the rover wiring for the injectors is the other way round from a data sheet I downloaded for the pico injectors I have, unless I am reading it wrong i.e. the power and earth are swapped. Have stayed with the rover wiring as I can't see them getting it wrong and I would have thought all injectors are the same as they all use the same 2 pin junior timer power plugs. Unless somebody knows differently of course. For the record the new injectors are brown pico 329cc/min short injectors wired pin 1 ground and pin 2 power the rovers are the exact opposite.



New loom top with the original below.



Sheet for the new injectors and the wiring pattern for the plug.

[robin]

Mike, I think the injectors are not polarised and will work either way around - you can try it with an injector a car battery and two bits of wire - you'll hear/feel it clonk - just blip it though as you'll overheat the coil if you leave it engaged for any length of time.

Cheers,
Robin

[Mikie711]

That's what I've been sitting wondering, as an injector is basically a electromagnetic coil it "should" work either way. I am assuming that the ECU switches the to earth in order to fire the injector although I can't find anything in the Emerald manual to confirm this. Just to be safe I think I will reverse the way I have it wired and make a second loom to jump out the xoombox instead of using the original.