Lotus Elan Central

At last after months of programming and scheduling everything is arranged and this Monday Sh4rk is going to the local DSP Lotus for major upgrades. Aim is 300hp. Project will be finished before the 20th of December (I wish!) Among other upgrades, new bigger ball bearing Turbo, Automatic Limited Slip Differential by Quaife and NOS. Will post pictures of work in progress!!! Sh4rk is gonna be bitting deep and hard! Curent condition of engine bay makes me wanna cry....


Well, after one week all things are ordered and all the decisions have been made. The next 2 weeks will be the parts-upgrading installing weeks.Engine out, lets see how the final picture of the project will look like!

First part that arrived today!

My tyres are worn out, pure Sh4rk driving effects. Cant believe I hadnt changed them allready...

I ve been to London for the past 5 days, now back to Athens.<br><br>I was just informed that Quaife LSD will be delivered this tuesday to me.<br><br>Tommorow I am gonna know at what stage the upgrades are.

New Turbo is here!<br><br>Its the IHI BB VF34. <br><br>Here are some photos for an idea..


And a comparison with the stock one...

That is a great turbo, I thought about checking into a VF series instead of a bigger RHB5.  I am not sure about the 34's sizing though, it seems kind of big for our cars?  <br><br>Granted it is a ball bearing design, and it is supposed to be very efficient, but I am not sure how that would work out....we do only have a 1.6L after all! A have read the 37 is supposed to be a similar design but smaller and quicker responding  Have you checked out a map for it?  IHI is way too confusing with their model line, it is nuts.

size was quite frustrating but after first tryouts to check fitting space seems that there will be no problem<br><br>need new downpipe and a plate to fit the bigger turbo to engine (allready constructed)<br><br>I trust my mechanics on their decision, I cant have an opinion since I luck the knowledge. I ask and they deliver. I ve read most of the posts at our forum though.... was quite a big helping hand for me.<br><br>I also changed the right shaft since it was "torn to pieces" and replaced all the synchronization gears but cant close the gear box since i am waiting for the Quaife LSD tomorrow!

The Quaife LSD arrived as I was promised today!<br><br>Also i was delighted to see that the NOS package has finally arrived too.<br><br>All the pieces of the SH4RK project are been gathered 1 after another but we are way behind in schedule, seems that its gonna last for another 2 weeks or so.<br><br>The engine was fully serviced, pistons were specially treated and also I did change the piston springs.<br><br>last christmas I had allready made an engine "guts" thorough service and rebuilt so no much work needed to be done there.<br><br><br><br>

WOW  [smiley=yikes.gif]<br><br>Looks like fun times ahead   <br><br>Get that video camera charged up!

The handmade 3mm spacers needed to be installed so as to provide the proper room for the AP Brakes and avoid the touching of the brake disks with a ball joint (dont know the exact name of it) when steering was turned all the way.<br><br>The rear set was made so as not to disturb the car's geometry that much.<br><br>

Gearbox ready! Quaife included...<br><br>

I'm a bit confused about the spacers, I thought the AP bells had (effectively) built in spacers?

Front suspension ready!<br><br>Hand-custom made, adjustable with much Harder springs<br><br>All the pieces before assembly<br><br><br>and assembled<br>

[quote author=Sy link=board=project;num=1102128446;start=0#13 date=12/23/04 at 09:06:05]I'm a bit confused about the spacers, I thought the AP bells had (effectively) built in spacers?[/quote]<br><br>Sy, in my case when I turned the wheels at full right at hard turns, a ball joint came in touch with the left brake disk. <br><br>At such turns all the weight moves to that part of the car (front left) and adding to that my 260 pounds of weight that sit on the left side and the fact that my suspension springs where not that hard, made the result obvious. <br><br>I did put the spacers even though I upgraded my supsension just in case, since I intend to keep pushing the car as hard as possible at racing circuits and cant stand the chance of having any problems at all.

A little "Bling" work done...  ;D<br><br><br><br>New finish date for Sh4rk Project is January 8th.

Well, the picture starts to show!<br><br>The IHI BB VF34 Turbine is installed (few mods remain to be made) and it needed LOTS of time and hand made modifications in order to fit in the engine bay.<br><br>"Hats off" to the DSP crew and especially to head Mechanic Greg (Local Lotus) who did solve every single frustrating obstacle efficiently and with lots of hard work. <br><br><br><br>Red numbers show few of the countless mods that were needed to be made. <br><br>

Veli, great pix -- thanks!<br><br>Why is your intake compressor outlet pointing upwards?? I though that you can usually rotate this housing to point it in the direction you want??  Maybe you can't do this with your turbo??<br><br>

Look where the wastegate is, its the red #4. We had to cut out small pieces of the fibers to make it fit anyway and  If we moved the intake compressor outlet in any other position perhaps the wastegate wouldnt fit (?) and additionally we would have to change a lot more stuff from the Turbo "guts" to make it work in new position. <br><br>On the other hand its not a problem to have the intake compressor outlet looking that way, or is it?<br><br>I think tommorow all the needed mods will be finished on the turbine! The turbine has been tested on the bench and the lowest pressure it works is 0.60Bar<br><br>Also the "ISUZU" sign has been removed and instead a Sh4rk image will be placed! <br><br>

[quote author=AV8NDOC link=board=project;num=1102128446;start=15#18 date=12/30/04 at 10:34:42]Veli, great pix -- thanks!<br>[/quote]<br>Thx, I ll be posting as much as possible and I am really sorry I dont know the needed technical vocabulary to explain in detail all the work done. I hope its not a problem that I am uploading all the pics at the technical section of the LEC fttp server, is it?

post, post, baby!! no problem!<br><br>I understand what you described.  I think sometimes some turbos have alternative housings--maybe you could fiind out if there is one that rotates the output 180 degrees but keeps the line to the wastegate in the same place?  Maybe our member, Turbocharger, can help . . . <br><br>I just think it will be hard to fabricate the hose out of the turbo to clear the hood/bonnet with the outlet pointing up   :-/

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate, I ll ask my mechanics about it, perhaps the reason they did let it face upwards was other that what I mentioned.<br><br>I ll know tommorow<br><br>Cheers!<br> <br>Costas<br>

Not lots of progress done due to the new year's day holidays... <br><br>Tomorow Sh4rk is gonna get his new Downpipe built!<br><br><br><br><br>Now, this is the ball joint I was refering to, when I said that the spacers were needed to be installed with the AP Brake kit. You can see the damage caused at the plastic "wrap up" of the balljoint from the contact with the Brake disk. Now as you can see with the spacers installed I got 3mm space free inbetween...<br><br>