AWESOME results Kyle! I can’t deny I’ve been eyeing-up a TVS1320 recently, although I’m still sure I can’t drive the car well enough to need more power
Yeah because that is how modifying cars works 
The TVS kits look really good value for money, I’ll never say never on one but I’ll see if the gearbox can hack it at this level before seriously considering it.
My friend has just ordered the Rev300 kit from BOE for his 111R and we’re going to fit it in my garage… I’m officially screwed, there’s no way I’ll be able to resist that! 
Awesome Kyle… btw - mine killed a 4.9 already, so I do wonder whether its a 2zz issue (heat related ?)
I’m not sure about a 2ZZ issue, as I know a small number of Lotus 2ZR owners who have also had lambda issues - so I wouldn’t rule out an issue with the Lotus configuration contributing… can’t think what specifically, though!
I’m coming to the conclusion that it’s probably a number of small things, none of which are an issue in isolation, but perhaps just fixing one of the issues may fix the lambda death issue.
4.9 slightly fragile as far as lambda sensors go = swap for a 4.2
Lotus config somehow “too harsh” = ??? - Offset lambda boss maybe with a ‘blast shield’ inside it? I heard a rumour that 2bular lambda bosses had changed recently, to angle the probe away from the gasflow a bit. No idea if it’s related.
EMU onboard controller heating the sensors too aggressively = Move to an external controller
Either way, it’s annoying 
Final trackday of the year and my first visit to Bedford Autodrome.
With the weather forecast and the recent changes to my car, this was only ever going to be a data logging session really - but it turned out to be a lot of fun.
Temp was low single figures, track was wet all day including a fair bit of standing water over lunch. With the time of year and forecast in mind, I didn’t even consider going with my ZZR clad forged wheels, and instead went for the AD08RS I had fitted to my spares earlier in the year, making it my first full trackday on a non ZZR tyre.
Car ran great all day, limited periods of full throttle application due to the conditions, but also I was tripping the driveby sound meters. This is new for me, my car has always fallen well under the limits but the Bedford ones are particularly strict (87.5db driveby I think). My car has allegedly got a little bit louder according to bystanders, comparable to V6’s which I find a little hard to believe so I need to figure out if this is just a by-product of running a bit more power, or is something amiss with my exhaust system.
Once I was politely instructed on the areas I needed to cruise around, I had a lot of fun. Car pulls like a train once it finally grips up, and showed no signs of slowing up when I needed to start the gentle preparation for the braking zones (easily locking up on the brakes, so had to take it steady). AD08 tyres heated up nicely and showed no signs of aquaplaning in the standing water, actually felt like I had more grip on the “properly wet” sessions rather than the damp ones towards the end of the day. Thoroughly impressed with them :thumbup:
The circuit encourages a playful nature, so my laps were largely cruising through the “loud” sections, and playing around at low speed in the tighter turns to move the car around a bit. Trying to imagine the place in the dry and it must be incredibly quick. The chicane between the two main straights was wide open and I imagine you can tip into there at a fair lick, 140+ must be easily doable in the dry which is terrifying in a car I’ve bolted together myself.
Can’t wait to go back, not sure if I can squeeze it into the calendar for next year as it’s already looking rammed.
<LINK_TEXT text=“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EFa6cO … zeyOnTrack”>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EFa6cOJWIo&ab_channel=FonzeyOnTrack</LINK_TEXT>
Short clip showing a more sedate/playful attempt at a lap, including my first ever trackday spin… yes, really :lol:
Have you even been trying if you are not spinning? I think I have only ever done 2 Trackdays where I haven’t spun!
Must be an AD08 thing…
Nice driving Kyle!
Nice. Looks super slippy but good fun I’ve always found my Exige tricky to catch in oversteer-y situations. Obviously (lack of) driver skill is a big factor 
but have you found the LSD helps make things more controllable?
Yes great conditions for some slower speed fooling around.
I agree the Exige is very snappy, in many ways it’s harder to control it when it’s slower and it doesn’t take much to send it around as I found at the end of that clip. The Diff definitely helps, in the dry it just gives gobs of extra traction and opportunities to have little slides in the dry are few and far between since fitting the diff, but in the wet it certainly helps - maybe buys you a fraction of a second to react and makes the slide itself more uniform which makes the throttle control a bit more forgiving.
At slightly higher speeds, the car feels great and not in the least bit scary once the rear breaks loose - just neutralising the steering will normally “catch it” provided you’re not being a total buffoon.
I don’t think I’d rush to remove the gearbox and fit a diff if I was to start all over on a new Elise platformed car, but if I ever had to take the engine or box out for other reasons - it would not be going back in without a diff.
Good info, cheers. Yes LSD definitely feels like a ‘while you’re in there’ job rather than a standalone upgrade It’s on my list 
10 out of 10 with that spin 
/bow
Called it a day after that, spinning on the slowest corner on the circuit was a good signal I think.
Looks good Kyle! Seems like you enjoyed Bedford - Hopefully I can join on the next time out there
I had every intention of having a Winter “off” the spanners this year. Have a big house related project about to kick off and my garage is going to become a temporary dumping ground as a result.
However…
I’ve referenced a couple of times in the thread this year that my gearbox is a bit noisy, and it’s becoming increasingly concerning. I don’t think it’s getting worse as such, but I’m focussing on it more and more which is feeding the paranoia. The Toyota C64 gearbox in a Lotus is noisy at the best of times so I’ve been trying to convince myself that it’s normal and mentally comparing it to my old 111R but I can’t shake off the feeling it’s a bit noisier since the rebuild and due to the expense I’ve put into it, I really want to protect the investment.
I was expecting some whine from the uprated 3rd/4th cogs but they’re pretty much silent. The noise I’m experiencing is a chattering/whirring/rattling type sound when coasting. Any load on the drivetrain at all will silence it, as will dipping the clutch.
I spoke to a couple of specialists, one was absolutely bang on with his verbal description of the sound and the circumstances that cause it which gave me some confidence that we were talking about the same thing. He believes that my differential preload is probably set either out of spec, or on the slack end of the spec tolerance. He explains that this is not unusual, as setting the preload is quite time consuming and often rebuilders will just lob a diff back in with the shims that were already fitted.
He did however go on to say that this may not be particularly harmful to the box, it’s just annoying. He also explained that some brand new factory fresh gearboxes have been known to be on the slack side of tolerance, but generally with a full fat steel flywheel to dampen the chatter a bit and/or a car with soft mounts/sound deadening - it usually goes unnoticed for the life of the car.
In addition to the coast down noise, I’ve also started getting light crunching into third when the box is very cold and the competition clutch throwout/release bearing tends to howl when it’s very cold.
With all that in mind, I’ve decided to have the box inspected and see if the diff preload is close to spec. I can sort the 3rd synchro out and put a Toyota release bearing in too.
If the report comes back that my box was built to spec and cannot be improved upon, then I have a decision to make…
- Bolt it back together as is, know that I’ve had a second opinion that the box is healthy - and get on with life, ignoring the noise.
- Bolt it back together with the original full fat flywheel to see if it dampens the effect a little bit.
Although the lightweight flywheel was a nice addition, it really hasn’t been life changing - so I wouldn’t lose any sleep by regressing on that if needed so I’m currently leaning towards #2. If however the report comes back that the preload was indeed way off spec, then I’ll get it fixed and put the LW flywheel back in.
I’ve been internally debating the decision to drop the box for months now, so felt good today to finally get into it and commit. It’s really not a big job to remove it, it’s just a bit of a pig to refit… but I’ll cross that bridge later. I won’t go into much detail on the removal/refit because I’ve done it all before - but in just 60-90mins today I managed to strip everything off the car that needs doing - so it’s just engine mounts and bellhousing bolts to come off now.
I did notice a couple of things to tinker with (as always) along the way.
It looks like my slipjoint clamp has failed. Can’t tighten it up anymore but the box can freely spin around, and as a result it’s shunted away from the cat pipe a bit and has been blowing like a goodun. Maybe contributing to my noise issues at Bedford.
Manifold gasket maybe showing some signs of some very minor blowing? Not convinced on this yet, but I’ll take care to refit with a fresh gasket and make sure the manifold flange is running true.
I’ve decided to leave the rear clam on for this occasion. It’s not mandatory to remove it for a gearbox job, but it makes access from above much much easier. As my garage will be filling up quickly with kitchen junk, I just don’t have room to store the clam for a few weeks - so I’ll get the box out (easy enough without the aforementioned access from the top) and then when it’s time to refit - hopefully kitchen stuff will be gone, and I can then take off the clam if needed.
You cannot put a price of piece of mind.
Well , you can but you know what I mean…
Kyle when your removing the box what do you use to support the engine when using the ramp? I have often thought about making a hoist that goes between the subframe but I dont do it that often ive forgotten by the next time 
Just a block of wood/jack under the sump. It’s a bit annoying really, because once I’m “commited” into this position I can’t then use the lift to move the car up and down, which can make doing other jobs a bit awkward in the meantime.
seriouslylotus Dave had a good idea of finding a knackered/empty C6X casing and refitting that in the interim so you could bolt an engine mount back up… might have a dig around on eBay to see what’s going.