Got my car back.. Yippeeee

[mwmackenzie]

Got my car back last night.... Yay...... Really fast, like really fast but that's when it gets going!!!! Very lumpy idle, almost stalls at times, very noisey with Larini, not for me if anyone wants a noisey exhaust that pops and bags on over run and spits flames... hmmmmm... car does not like traffic, get very hot, temp up at 95 and water light comes on, that's not even at a stand still, heavy but slow moving traffic that's in...

I'm a tad dissapointed to be honest and the sheen has been taken off it cos of the above, I just wanted a civilised day to day fast car, almost scared to drive it as feared something will go wrong like over heating. All fans work as 2 are new and they're hooked up to the ECU, DTA S60.... Just not the fun I was looking for, Great on the open road at throttle though, goes like stink!!! But I need it to be more civilised....When opening throttle from cruising or idle the revs drop slightly or blip before she takes off, need to use low gears to get decent pick up..

Any advice????

Please help

Mark

[Dermot]

Mark,

I have forgot how you have setup you engine. It is full conversion to fuel injection, how is boost controlled ?

What turbo have you on there. It sounds like the turbo is bogging down when you don't have enough revs or the ignition timing, or fueling is off. On the GM ECU the boost control is a 2D map + other check parameters.

Full mapping of the car from scratch is going to take you a while to get it driving perfectly, there will be thousands of engine load/rpm/tps/boost combinations to expore and optimise. I wonder how long Lotus spent on it ?

The overheating must bean air lock or water pump issue. Once the fans a triggered the temp should start to fall stright away not keep going up.

[mwmackenzie]

Thanks Dermot, was hoping you'd pop up....

Boost is by actuator and some turbo smart valve??? Turbo is a turbo technics T35 hybrid running just 0.9 bar due to cooling issue, car does not cool with the fans, temp rises til i get on the open road then drops again...

I'll try bleding the water tonight as the pump was new before car went off the road, bloody exhaust sounds like a GT car, nice but my neighbours are not my friends anymore....hahahaha

Thanks Dermot, I'm thinking get cooling sorted then remap.....

Guy who mapped it said twin exhaust could be causing problems with the wideband lambda as the left hand tail pipe draws air instead of blowing it out... you can hold a leaf infront of it and it'll suck it in one pipe and chuck it out the other..hahaha. Says thet may be making lambda read lean???

Mark

P.S second gear is not willing to engage at speed, box was refurbed 6 months before it went off the road, could this be linkage needing adjusted, all other gears fine?????????

Edited August 23, 2007 by mwmackenzie

[Artie]

Mark, sorry to hear, we'll help you get it sorted and civilize her! How much coolant/water did you or the shop add to the system? If it was done at the shop I can almost guarantee that they put 50/50 mix. I would drain the radiator which will leave water in the lines and the block, replace the petcock and top up the sytem with a 25% mix of water and coolant. This will make the overall mixture less concentrated of coolant which is like syrup and won't dissapate the heat fast enough as you are experiencing. I use a total mix of 25% coolant and 75% distilled water and with A/C on in 100+ temps the water temp will hover at 90C. Without A/C she'll stay at about 82-85C. Try to bleed the sytem first, jack the rear of the car up a little so if there are air bubbles trapped at the rad or in the lines thru the chassis, they'll come back to the rear and to the header tank and let the car idle with the cap off the header tank. Also, you can pull the line off the top of the water pipe that runs to the thermostat housing from your drivers side. The small 3/8" hose that is highest in the system, pop that off the nipple and top up the system at the header tank. Taking this hose off will allow air pockets trapped at the thermostat bleed out that hole. Finally, if these don't help, you can try an additive like "water wetter" or the like to reduce surface tension of the water so it releases it's heat better. Keep us posted and I'll compile it into the Wiki!

Artie

[mwmackenzie]

Thanks Artie..

Not sure what ratio water to antifreeze they put in but I think it'd be 25% as he told me before that antifreeze can make a car run hot as it doesn't soak up the heat like water does.. Water wetter is next after I bleed the system

Car is sitting at 90 with no aircon and going up towards 100 in traffic????

She's also missing when i try to accelerate now, wanting to stall.. had her out at lunch time and really struggled to keep her going on idle touch the throttle and she want to die, need to keep blipping the throttle to keep her alive....

Mark

Think a re map is in order.....

Edited August 23, 2007 by mwmackenzie

[hilly]

Sounds like the Acceleration Enrichment hasn't been set-up correctly.

Hilly

[Simon350S]

Is your rad clean and in good condition...?????

Had BigBoys car on my drive idling for almost an hour on the hottest day in wales for ages and the temp stayed a steady 90 with only 2 fans aiding the cooling....

Simon

[mwmackenzie]

Well tomorrow i'm going to bleed the water system and then remove the thermostat and see what happens, maybe replace thermostat with a lower temp one.. if that does not solve it then we must either have a blocked rad or screwed water pump?? next is the exhaust, going to get one made as the GT noise from the larini is too much for me to enjoy the expensive sound system I've stuffed in the car.. Sounds glorious on full throttle but too noisey for me in general.. Anyone want it??? make me an offer....

Then look at corrections on the map and failing that the car needs to go to London to visit Steve Greenald, Thinking I need to do that anyway to get the best out of her as he's a guru with DTA and Lotus I believe.

That's where I'm at at the moment with it all, bloody thing costing me a small fortune!!! It'll be worth it though..

Mark

[Guest Troy Halliday]

Hi Mark,

Steve is a friend of mine so let me know when you are going upp there and I'll pop up and see you. Funny thing is after reading your initial comments I was going to suggest that you took it to him. He will basicaly smooth out the fuel ramp in the lower rev range. While it is there he can look at the fan control timer from the ECU and see when it is kicking in. If the rad and all turns out to be ok I would suggest fitting some Pacet or Kenlow race fans. The air throughput on these littlle beauties are awsome. Don't get to down mate it is all fixable. As I said let me know when your going to Steves and I'll pop up.

[mwmackenzie]

Steve is down from where I am.... waaaaaaaaaaay down! He's in Kent I believe, I'm in Edinburgh... I'm wondering if I have a radiator blockage or something similar causing my over heating?? going to remove the thermostat and bleed coolant tomorrow and see where that gets me... I have no idle control valve hooked up to my ECU so think one might be in order??? DTA will not run the standard lotus item so need to look into this.......

Thanks

Mark

P.S mind and tell steve we'll be after mates rates hahahaha...

I'm going to chat to him to see if he'd be interested in flying up here to do it if I were to foot the bill??? Not sure he'll be interested though.. need to chat to him

[mwmackenzie]

OK here goes... Overheating was due to rad core blocked with debris, took an air hose to the back of rad and got loads of crap out of it.... wired up all 3 fans to come on together as only 2 were on the circuit, seens the third comes on with the A/C... so now we had temporally fixed th over heating til I get a new rad put in and while testing put

[Artie]

Mark,

Is your rad leaking? If not I'd just keep it clean and I did as you did, I wired all 3 fans onto a seperate 3 relay circuit. I control the fans with a switch(always done this with all my cars!) so I know when they come on and off! Also, don't buy a new rack just yet. I had a sloppy rack( that just sounds wrong!) after the PO supposedly replaced it a week before I bought the car. Anyway, tighten up the bolts that attach the Universal joints to the column, top and bottom and they need to be VERY tight. I did this and fixed all the slop I had. Bad timing for a fuel leak! Coulda happened when the engine was out at least........

Artie

[docf]

Guy who mapped it said twin exhaust could be causing problems with the wideband lambda as the left hand tail pipe draws air instead of blowing it out... you can hold a leaf infront of it and it'll suck it in one pipe and chuck it out the other..hahaha. Says thet may be making lambda read lean???

This is why owning a welder and some stainless tube doesn't make anyone an exhaust builder. Thats part of the reason you have so much popping in the exhaust and all that extra O2 is helping light off the overrun. I dont know your setup tp know where the O2 sensor is mounted but if its far enough down the exhaust that its being effected by what the muffler is doing then thats a whole other problem.

[mwmackenzie]

Hi docf, My exhust is not a cheap home made job but a 990 euro Ramspott amd brandt one, o2 sensor is up by the turbo, doesn't sound like the exhaust is the problem to me but it is bloody noisey so i'm going to change it so I can hear my music from time to time ......

[rydning]

Hi docf, My exhust is not a cheap home made job but a 990 euro Ramspott amd brandt one, o2 sensor is up by the turbo, doesn't sound like the exhaust is the problem to me but it is bloody noisey so i'm going to change it so I can hear my music from time to time ......

Hi Mark.

When i drive it slowly in traffic its pretty quiet in the car,no pops and bangs.

But on track days when the manifoils,turbo and 50cm after the turbo is glowing red it pops and bangs all the time.

With 50cm flames in gearchanges from 3rd to 4th.

Is the DAT ECU you have with secuensial injection?

[mwmackenzie]

Hi Robin

No, DTA is an S60 which will run sequential but I'm running just 4 650cc siemens injectors mate, turbo and exhaust glow red when ever I open the throttle up to a reasonable degree, is this normal??? I've lagged the exhaust from turbo just into the wheel well to try and reduce under bonnet temps....

Cooling issue sorted by forcing air through the rad the wrong way with an air hose, what a load of crud came out of there!! Find a bit rotten so wil change in due course.

Now I need a drivers side fuel tank urgently as mine is leaking badly!!

Need it quickly as i want it fixed before the lotus event on the 23rd sept..

As for the exhaust ,it does pop abd bang loads after a kicking and is not too bad at low revs but it's just too noisey for day to day driving, sounds like a bloody GT car.... so I'm going to change the exhaust for a quieter one

Edited August 27, 2007 by mwmackenzie

[mangel]

I think I've got a fuel tank and steering rack(if its not power assisted) in the garage if you interested!!

Dunno how much it would be to get them to you!?

[mwmackenzie]

I'll de take the tank mate your a HERO!!!

I still have the original rack so will either get that rebuilt or see if it's something else causing the play as my current rack must onlt have 1000 miles on it????

How much do you want for the tank, postage price should be available on parcel force web site mate.... Again, Thanks so much your a star!"!!!

Mark

I think I've got a fuel tank and steering rack(if its not power assisted) in the garage if you interested!!

Dunno how much it would be to get them to you!?

Edited August 28, 2007 by mwmackenzie

[Artie]

Mark,

Please do check your Ujoint bolts and try tightening them first before you rate it gone. Make sure you tighten the one up at the upper column, under the dash too. Also, check to see the mounting tabs(for the crush spacers) aren't broken, as mine were when I bought the car, I replaced a bunch of things including the steering rack to find out that these were worn beyone usefulness. I had to have a new set fabricated from soft aluminum to replace the stock crushable ones.

Artie

[mwmackenzie]

Thanks for the tips Artie, great help mate

Mark

[rydning]

Mark,

Please do check your Ujoint bolts and try tightening them first before you rate it gone. Make sure you tighten the one up at the upper column, under the dash too. Also, check to see the mounting tabs(for the crush spacers) aren't broken, as mine were when I bought the car, I replaced a bunch of things including the steering rack to find out that these were worn beyone usefulness. I had to have a new set fabricated from soft aluminum to replace the stock crushable ones.

Artie

Ya...I did also replace a lot before I find out that the bolts on the ujoint was the problem.

[mwmackenzie]

Cheers Robin, Ill get the garage to check it out before I get the geometry done

Mark

Ya...I did also replace a lot before I find out that the bolts on the ujoint was the problem.