Air intake question

General General Lotus Talk
1

I’m a new owner and still learning about the car. My car is US-spec and was delivered from Lotus USA.I noticed during my first track day that my air intake does not attach to the scoop in the rear clam. Later, I removed the rear well liner and found that the “adaptor” from the hose to the scoop is missing.Lotus USA claims that the Exige did not come with this part.Any truth to this?

2

Meat, I can confirm that the UK spec Exige air intake consists of the manifold, a length of flexible hose with a conicle shaped air filter in the end, joined together by jubilee clips.It has never been connected to the air intake hole in the body, it just points in the general direction of the left hand hole.Hope this helps.

3

Why would they not connect this to the opening in the clam? Seems to be that cold air is better than engine compartment air.The Elise 190S cars are have an adapter that connects the tubing to the opening.

4

I noticed that when i first got into my engine bay. Keenan and I just cable tied the hose as near to the opening as possible. Seems to make sense, clean, cooler air going in instead of hot engine bay fumes.

5

I have ordered the adaptor for this connection.I will let you know if it fits properly when it arrives.

6

Hey Meat,Where in the US are you? I’m in the Los Angeles area. I imported my Exige from Amsterdam, and the roof scoop on my car goes absolutely nowhere! There’s a plate inside that ducts the air into the hollow support structure beneath the rear window. I’ve already finished the installation of a Honda B18C Type R engine (200HP), and am in the process of installing a Honda K20A Type R(220HP) with 6 speed LSD trans. Next in line is the 240HP F20C from the S-2000. I’ll be uploading some photos of all this on my website next week. www.prototyperacing.com Since we can’t drive our cars, legally, on the road, I thought you might be interested in a bit more HP and Torque for track use.Let me know,Joe

7

JoeI’m in the Chicago area.I’m not talking about the roof scoop. I’m talking about the scoop on the driver side of the car. Per the 190 upgrade this scoop should duct cold air directly into the air intake.I have a S2000 as my other fun car. The Exige with this motor will be interesting. I would think that the transmission will be your hardest fabrication.I’ll keep the Exige stock for now - I can’t drive it to its limit as is!

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Meat,Too bad we’re not closer.I’m curious, is your roof scoop the same as mine, or is yours actually functional? The difficulty factor of adapting the K20A trans to the F20C is the reason it’s last in line. I’m going to make a new casting for the front half of the trans. Fairly expensive, so thst’s on the back burner for now. The photo on my website is a photoshop wonder, just to let people know what it will look like. Here’s hoping your natural driving skills are greater than what 190HP dictates!Best regards,Joe

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Hi Joe.When my car was new I curiously investigated the scoop on the roof. At first I also thought it was a fake, but found that the intake pointing forward transmits air through the hollow frame around the rear window, which has two oval outlets somewhere down the middlepart of it.I think the roofscoop is actually quite refined with it�s three inlets. Meat, I think Lotus had a point by not attatching the air intake to the hole in the clam. If you take a look at your airfilter you will probably find it quite dirty still without connected to the clam. Considering how dirty the enginebay becomes from the air coming mainly from the two scoops in the clam, one would think you would have to clean the filter wery often.It would be interresting to hear Kam and Keenan�s opinions about that.

10

The initial reaction from Hethel is that Exiges do not have this connected like the 190S so that it can pass drive-by noise testing. They also fitted the resonator valve in the process.My car is a track car so I don’t mind cleaning the filter for a few extra ponies. I also don’t mind the extra noise.

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Hi guys, I was once at Laguna Seca with a Ginetta in a Vintage race, and lap after lap during practice got the black flag. Went into Seaside, got a muffler and put it on, and still got black flagged. At this point, the exhaust was so quiet you could barely hear it. Then a small storm sprang up in my brain, and I duct taped a piece of cardboard over the RH air intake. Very much inline with the Webers on the Twincam. Took the muffler off, and clear running from then on.I’m sure Meat is correct. Lotus left it disconnected for noise requirements. You should hear the intake roar from a Honda when the VTEC kicks in!Oh, and by the way, at 100MPH you get about 1.5 PSI of free boost from a properly placed air intake. Ask the guys at the Salt Flats.Thanks for the roof scoop info! Yes indeed, there are two outlets on either side of the rear window. Those guys at Lotus really burned some midnight oil figuring how to save that window from the engine bay heat. It’ll be interesting to see what hoops I have to jump through when I start putting turbochargers on these engines!Joe

12

Per Nick Adams and Russell Gibbons at Hethel - all 190 cars should have the tubing of the air intake attached to the LH air scoop.The only reason that it shouldn’t be connected is to pass a drive-by sound test.The power gains will be small, but they are power gains and I’ll take all I can get for the price of this one!

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Meat, Joe & Felix!Must be from the U.S of A!!glad you’re enjoying your ExigesMike from Blighty

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quote:Originally posted by miketurn:Meat, Joe & Felix!Must be from the U.S of A!!glad you’re enjoying your ExigesMike from BlightyBeen on the “pop” again, eh, Blighty Mike? [image]http://www.smilies-world.de/Smilies/Smilies_klein_1/ZoumZoumZeng1P77.gif[/image] I think that Felix is probably an ABBA fan [image]http://www.smilies-world.de/Smilies/Smilies_klein_1/rock_band.gif[/image] [This message has been edited by Pesky (edited 17 July 2002).]

15

My only concern about attaching the tubing directly to the air intake is what would happen to debris and small stones that got picked up…for my mind the filter is not strong enough to resist being punctured or torn and it could be quite catastrophic for the engine. What about a wire mesh behind the air duct but in front of the tubing?

16

The GT1 (long wheel base/wide track/V8 engined racer based on Elise chassis just in case it is not known in America) has mesh grilles on the rear side air intakes.

17

Great moving Abba-group, how did you do that Pesky??

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quote:Originally posted by Felix:Great moving Abba-group, how did you do that Pesky??This website was originally discovered by Bruno [image]http://www.smilies-world.de/Smilies/Usersmilies/Rafael/02/Epoca.gif[/image] http://www.smilies-world.de/Smileys.htm [This message has been edited by Pesky (edited 20 July 2002).]

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Isn’t that car going the wrong way for Bruno [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif[/image] he he

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quote:Originally posted by stevegreen:My only concern about attaching the tubing directly to the air intake is what would happen to debris and small stones that got picked up…for my mind the filter is not strong enough to resist being punctured or torn and it could be quite catastrophic for the engine. What about a wire mesh behind the air duct but in front of the tubing?Steve, I’ve got this kit fitted on my car with no such problems. The air filter goes between the intake pipe, and the air box. The pipe has to bend under the rear roll-over hoop supports. Any stones that go into the pipe won’t make it around the bend, and they drop out of a hole in the bottom of the adaptor where the pipe fixes to the air intake.