missys turbo has went pop.

[ailwyn]

Stevo,

In theory, if one person sets up the ECU, assuming everyone uses the same ECU, then the maps can be shared with all, so then you will effectively have a bolt on setup, this would then mean that either you carry on running with the same setup you've been given or you re-tune to your requirements.

I think 1.5bar of boost would do me

Ailwyn

[ailwyn]

Monty,

The point of getting this particular turbo is less lag than the stock one.

A.

[lotusgirlmarie]

That is indeed a part of the point of doing this. Less lag, More useable power band. greater potential (turbo is good for 330BHP) and a longerservice life that the IHI. Plus it just darn looks the dog's... That aside though it is primarily a major upgrade in efficiency over the IHI unit. My current turbo is also on its last leg as it has alot of shaft play. I figued it will cost me about $680 for the rebuild or I can spend about $1200 for a much better unit that will last longer and have greater potential. Hello Garret.

[Ekapol]

Well, I agee with whatever LGM says

[Monty]

Monty,

The point of getting this particular turbo is less lag than the stock one.

A.

can u garantee that they`ll be less lag? 2 to 3k is alot of money to spend if u`r wrong, the only reason i said this is that others have done the turbo upgrade and suffered lag. Even costas said that if he did it all again he wouldn`t go down the turbo route.

Think i`m going to hold out on this and see what Maries results are and what the final cost will be.

So Ailwyn what was those power figures at? fly or wheel?

[GeoffSmith]

Well, I agee with whatever LGM says

So, what you want fixing now?

[Ekapol]

So, what you want fixing now?

Vroom... Vroom...

[ailwyn]

So Ailwyn what was those power figures at? fly or wheel?

Flywheel I hope getting the timing set properly will no doubt help.... now if only there were more hours in a day...

Monty, I have to go with LGM's opinion on the lag, but as far as I can see Costas only other route for getting that sort of power out of the car without a turbo upgrade would be to use NOS or a different engine, NOS has it's own drawbacks and a new engine would have it's own issues and would probably cost a damn site more than the turbo upgrade.

Ailwyn

[F1 LOTUS]

Monty,

The point of getting this particular turbo is less lag than the stock one.

A.

The Garrett GT series have ball-bearings...

...also, the aerodynamic design should be more advanced than our stock turbo that was developed +17 years ago?
More info' here
http://www.turbobygarrett.com/turbobygarrett/tech_center/turbo_tech101.html?#t101_5

Given the age of our cars and what we're experiencing more often with regard to parts availability / costs etc; it seemed to me, worthwhile to consider an alternate supply - with the added bonus of improved perfomance

[Dico]

Some useful info -

http://lotuselancentral.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5004

I haven't got time to read it as I have a 3 year old tugging at my leg waiting to go out

Philbo seems to have gone quiet lately. Anyone know how far he got with mapping his Elan?

[Monty]

and here`s one on the Haltech

lotuselancentral.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5472&highlight=haltech

[Dico]

http://www.informatica.zen.co.uk/Elan/Stages.htm

Link to info on Philbos mods isn't working

[stevo]

woah. way over my head.

[Dico]

Philbo's posting from a while back. Prices and some very interesting reading.

http://lotuselancentral.com/forum/viewt ... sc&start=0

Stevo, don't give up!

[ailwyn]

woah. way over my head.

Simple enough:
Garrett Turbo = Good
Garrett Turbo + Injectors + ECU =

[ailwyn]

Dico,

I think this might be what your after.

A.

[Dico]

Cheers

I've sent Philbo an email to see if he has any updates.

[Philbo]

so.........

how much is an ecu, injectors, 3 bar map sensor going to cost? and where is the best place to buy them?

oh, and i would think the injectors and s**t is easy enought to bolt on but dosen't a reprogramable ecu take a bit of setting up?

Hello chaps, long time etc. My Elan now works, so I can quote on all of the above. Dico dropped me a mail to get me back on here, cheers Paul.

Injectors; about £320 for 4 550cm/min jobs. These seem to be the minimum you need to handle a slightly upgraded turbo. No-one can quite work out why they need to be so much higher spec than the original ones but smaller injectors leaned out on my turbo at relatively low boost. I'm pretty sure that this setup is not exactly an economical configuration, but the Elan is a biatch to map (see later).

ECU; I searched and searched, boy how long did I search for an ECU that would fit the Elan. At first everyone says their device will work, but when really pressed about wasted sparks and CASs, they go all quiet. The only ones that work without basically installing a new loom and a timing sensor on the crank are a reprogrammed original, or a Haltech. I didn't want to impose on Alan to make a custom chip for me so I went down the Haltech route. After a modicum of rewiring, it fits and does work. They can be quite hard to source (I got mine from Australia) and cost me around £500 including the obligatory gift to Gordon at the point of import.

3-bar map sensor; this is the easy one, GM do a plug-in replacement for our 2-bar map sensor. Think mine cost about £70, but it was a loooong time ago.

Finally, setting up. Mine was done by some expert tuners but as you'd expect the Elan was a bit of a voyage of discovery for them. Ultimately the mapping was done by Mark Adams, who is a pretty big "name" in mapping. He's done a nice conservative map for me, 300bhp was achievable but we wound back the boost to avoid blowing the engine and we had lots of advance.

The mapping work took a VERY long time, and although I wasn't charged for half of the hours spent on the car, it still cost me several thousand £. The car now goes very well, and could go better, but having spent some serious money on the old girl (more than she's worth, quite frankly), I've currently got a conservative map on her to avoid blowing up.

Overall, going down the replacement turbo/injector/ecu/mapping route is very expensive. It depends on how aggressive you are whether the goal is worth the expense.

[Dico]

Thanks Phil for the quick response

[Philbo]

...continued.

One thing that we DID do with the Haltech was to open the secondary throttle butterflies much earlier. I can't remember where we do it now but from memory it was aroun 1250rpm lower down. This made a BIG difference to the midrange pull.

Another aspect to consider is what you are going to do with 350bhp through the front wheels that you can't do with 300bhp. If your 300bhp is fully optimised then you might get a better midrange/part throttle response with a smaller turbo rather than a bigger one. The FWD Elan handles ~280bhp pretty well, especially with a Quaife, but I'm really not sure what the additional power gets you. Certainly not faster standing acceleration.

Over 300bhp you definitely start to hit issues like under bonnet temperatures, gearbox loads and head gaskets. I don't know about driveshaft issues but the ones on the Elan don't look that much more substantial than the ones on my Radical that I managed to break with just 185bhp and bugger all torque!

Overall while chasing after headline bhp figures is all very well, it does depend what you want to do with the car...knob wave your power figure or actually enjoy driving the thing. Ironically I do neither as my Elan has been holed up at the back of the garage with some other machinery boxing it in! I just haven't had the time to take it out.

I must admit it's also been so long since I drove it "pre big turbo" that I really can't say how it feels compared with the 225bhp I had before. What I DO know is that the path to getting the extra 60bhp or 80bhp or whatever I've got now has been enormously long winded and painful which has rather taken the gloss off the experience. Overall, with hindsight, I'm not sure that I wouldn't have preferred to keep the car at it's "stock" 225bhp level, maybe with the Quaife, clutch, flywheel and intercooler thrown in, and spent the rest of the money on something else...

That's it for now but if anyone has any questions then drop me a line. I'll monitor this thread for a bit but I am moving house later this month and I'm pretty busy with work and a newborn so please bear with me if I don't get straight back.

Cheers

Philbo