Nautilus blue 350s

[MAG]

Nice little finishing touch.

[MAG]

Can't recommend this road trip enough. Started out in South Wales at a travel lodge in Merthyr Tydfil at 4:30am. Just get on the A470 and stick to it, it's called the dragons spine. It will lead you through the middle of both the Brecon beacons and Snowdonia. It's 180 miles of totally amazing fast road and incredible scenery. I literally only came across 5 or so other vehicles on the entire length. The road is of excellent quality and varies from tight but smooth hedged country lanes to sweeping high speed bends which twist and turn through the valleys, Forrest's and mountain passes! Totally exhilarating and completely recommend! I ended up in Colwyn bay on the north coast for a fry up sitting outside a local cafe at 8:30 😁

[MAG]

Another mini project completed today. Came across these rather nice milled aluminium carpet fasteners on eliseparts. Bit expensive but hey ho! The original plastic ones do look a bit tacky. To fit them you first have to remove the original ones which is not entirely straightforward;

Step one, remove your matts and pull the base carpet up to expose the fixings. Draw around the fixings with a pen so you know the positioning.

Step two, remove the threaded plastic mounts. They are glued and rivetted down. I used a wood chisel to pry away the plastic molding.

Step three, remove the rivet heads. I used a hacksaw blade laid flat against the floor. It takes a little elbow grease but isn't too bad.

Step four, clean the exposed aluminium area on the floor. The new fixings come with PU sealant and adhesive. Apply the sealant quite liberally to the new threaded aluminium bases. Fit the mounts in place and leave for around 3 hours for things to take hold.

Step five, push the carpet back down, put your matts back in and screw your nice aluminium retainer caps on. 

All done!

[Rob-W]

On 06/05/2021 at 07:28, MAG said:

Okay, carbon engine cam cover install, the ins and outs...

I've had a week off and the purchase was a spur of the moment purchase. My car came without any type of engine cover and I've always thought it looked a little unfinished.

I did a quick search and eliseshop turned out to be the cheapest and also had everything in stock. I ordered on bank holiday Monday and my order arrived on Wednesday via UPS. I'm not sure how the Brexit thing works at the moment as I've ordered stuff from Germany recently and it came through with no additional charge. With this, I ordered but didn't appear to be charged VAT. I was then charged by UPS... Anyway, arrived very quickly with no delays.

Quality of the carbon panels and molding is very nice, I'm not sure who eliseshop use but these are good. I had to order the fitting kit which is essentially 2 pressed steel brackets, 3 rubber grommets and a selection of bolts, it's very expensive at around €100 but you can't do without it, sooo...

First job was insertion of the rubber grommets onto the underside of the larger carbon panel. The first issue was that the fits a bit too tight, also the rubber grommets have a little nub that'll need to be sliced off. Out came the Stanley knife and I shaved the grommets down a fraction. After this you can twist and push them into place.

Next, working on the upper cam, you need to fit the 3 steel ball mounts. Two of these are on tower nuts, this is straight forward, they screw into 3 threaded holes in the top of the engine.

Then onto fitting the brackets to mount the lower, smaller cover. This is where it becomes a bit of a pain. Starting with the right side bracket, it is secured in two places with two bolts. The first and lower attachment point is simple, the bolt which already holds a metal tab in place on the engine is removed and the tab on the new bracket slips under the existing tab and the bolt is reinserted. The upper tab on the bracket is a pain in the arse. There is a hole in the triangular steel bracket onto which the super charger pulley cover is mounted. In the supplied kit, there are bots but no nuts. Fortunately I had a nyloc in the right size. Threading this bolt through the hole in order to secure the upper part of the bracket requires some serious finger yoga... At one point I did drop a washer which ended up down by the pulley cam but it was very fortunately retrieved using a home made magnetic tool 😁 Next was the left side bracket, there are two existing threaded holes on the engine onto which this bracket should bolt. Accessing the upper hole is tight but doable. Accessing the lower hole would require the removal of several additional brackets and wiring clips which I decided just wasn't worth the effort as the single large M6 bolt is more than man enough to hold the bracket in place.

Finally, attach the supplied spring clips to the smaller cover and then push both the upper and lower covers into place. Coat em with your choice of ceramic product and the jobs a good un!

 

Thanks for posting about the engine covers, I’ve just fitted mine that I also got from Elise-shop but have a question about the bottom smaller cover. I attached the tower clips to the cover and pressed into place but the cover seems loose and will move around. Is there something I’ve missed when attaching the clips? When I press the cover into place, the clips seem to push through hole in the bracket. Any help be appreciated. 

[MAG]

The lower cover on mine is quite tight when pressed into place 🤷

[Rob-W]

I’ll take another look later and see if I’ve been a bit to heavy handed when putting it on. 
Thanks as well for the post about the carpet fasteners. I’ve had the same set for a while now and not got round too fitting them. Your instructions will be very helpful! 
Good work with the you tube videos as well - lots of useful advice 🙂

[MAG]

Video review coming later today for the prodrive carbon fibre engine hatch, plus some other nice little touches;

Yellow lotus parts billet ali oil cap and titanium hardwear for the wing mounts 😁

[MAG]

[MAG]

So, one of the final big cosmetic upgrades to the car is now complete! I finally caved about a month ago when Lotus Silverstone offered my a good deal on a brand new OEM one and offered to fit it as part of the deal. Don't get me wrong, it was still silly money but I must admit it is a thing of beauty, almost a carbon fibre sculpture...

They took a few hours to fit it but did a good job. They had to make custom gaskets to get my SSC 380Cup wing struts to fit flush. 

It really finishes the car off in a cosmetic sense, the black plastic design is just a bit too complex in its design where as the carbon one is just far more sleek.

They removed the gas struts, which I'm fine with as it follows the lightweight theme nicely.

In addition to the hatch I've done a couple of other little bits, the wing endplates are now body colour on the outside which looks great. Also, I've added titanium hardwear to the wing, it's not that expensive if you order it from China, costing just under £40 to replace around 20 piece's...

Here's the vid;

 

[Diablos-666]

That looks ace!

There can’t be much else to replace now! 

[MAG]

So the car goes away tomorrow for some upgrades. I will of course report back and no doubt do a video. I'm in a fairly unique position to have gone from komotec ex430 to ex460 so I will be able to give an accurate idea of real world difference's 😁 in addition I'm having a larger fuel tank and large bore Y pipe fitted.

[MAG]

Progress... Charge cooler in, charge cooler radiator in, larger fuel tank in.

[Davey D]

Does this kit come with a new supercharger? as the photos of the kit shows one, but the description talks about an optimised standard supercharger?!? do they just modify your existing unit?

[MAG]

No, it uses the original supercharger but adds a charge cooler underneath, fed by a front mounted radiator. This allows them to squeeze maximal boost out of the original unit as they can optimise the intake temperature.

[chumaxa]

Interesting, who is doing the job ? 

[MAG]

4 posts up 👍🏻

[MAG]

So it's all done and dusted. Car is a real monster now. The upgrade from 430 to 460 is substantial. Torque is available even lower down the rev range and the charge cooler means that the engine performs optimally at all times...

[MrD]

Nice project this - by now you must have done every single upgrade to the car!

It might have been mentioned but I take it that you have also upgraded the clutch to cater for the extra torque/power?

Mainly for educational purposes, what is the difference between the Komotec solution (chargecooling on the base of the existing SC unit) and the 410/430 in regards to the supercharger application? Thanks

[MAG]

No not yet, it's ran 430 for 2 years and there's still no slippage so I'll get it done when needs be...

Main difference is that Komotec also utilise an additional front mounted radiator. Also their map is more aggressive and produces more torque. 460 is notably faster than a factory 430.

[MrD]

Thanks Mark. So how is the cooling achieved on the OEM application then? Just air from the side vents?

To the untrained eye (like mine) there are substancial differences when comparing a 410/430 to a 350/380 EX460 kit. The former is a big square box like the Harrop unit (I suppose the cooling bit is incorportated with the SC) and the latter has the supercharger sitting on the cooler. Any benefits/drawbacks of each?

I think I read somewhere - don't quote me on this of course - that the stock SC is already on the edge of its performance on our cars - I take it that with the chargecooler the stresses are less as it operates at lower temps?

Thanks 

[MAG]

I'd be inclined to ask those questions in the engine and ancillaries section as I have never owned a 4 series car so have limited knowledge 👍🏻

[MAG]

Little cosmetic detail with some help from Devine Handcraft. Had the letter styling made to match the engine plaque and in my cars colour scheme of metallic grey and blue 😁

[MAG]

Bit of a silly upgrade but I'd installed a dab Arial some time ago and fancied having the ability to use it. I currently have the SPH10BT which is a fantastic little unit for the money and had got much better over time with upgrades to the software.

So now I picked a SPH20 DAB off eBay for £100...

[MAG]

Not a massive detailing guy but do keep my car clean. 2 years ago I had Gtechniq crystal serum light and Exo applied to my car by an independent contractor. It's hard to tell how much difference it has made to the durability of the paintwork but it's definitely remained very hydrophobic. I do top it up pretty regularly anyway with various quick detailers from Maguire's and Beadmaster but the car has still developed light swirls over that time. This, all despite being very careful and only using descent quality cloths and mitts.

Having been recommended I visited Petrol Head detailing today who are an accredited Gtechniq dealer. After some discussion I've opted to go nearly the whole hog and I'm having crystal serum ultra applied in a few weeks. I've been told it's considerably harder than light and that it also comes with a 9 year guarantee. So, I guess we'll see...

[MAG]

It's been a little while...