I am putting my car on a dyno this tuesday. its an s1 190 k series jobby. I dont expect it to make 190 at the engine due to what was written about the 340R in evo about 6 months ago, I think he got around 180 ? if mine is similar what will that equate to at the wheels ? any ideas on actual torque figures ?
sorry for all the questions, just interested …
VHPDs vary a lot. The 340R only made good torque and power after verniers were fitted together with an Emerald ECU. I have seen many VHPD power traces, the lowest was 176BHP and 130lb/ft, the best was 199BHP and 142lb/ft in a Caterham. Expect around 180-185 without the 190 upgrade and 190-195 with it. Torque should be around 135-140lb/ft. Power at the wheels will vary according to tyre pressure, temperature, roller speed(which gear) etc.etc. so it’s not possible to estimate a figure accurately enough for it to be menaingful.
Dave
Thanks. I will post the actual figures tomorrow !!
Hello DSE
I see you in Manchester, I would like to get my VHPD engined elise on the rolling road and also live around Manchester area. I was thinking of taking mine to Mikeanics in Congelton, where are you going?
I know of a Lotus 190 upgrade that achieved 196. So who knows.
Ian
Im taking mine to awesome gti ( ) because they are about 3 miles from my home.
Bollocks . There was a reason for getting my lotus ‘pain in the ass’ exige dyno’d, it just didnt feel as quick as it used to. The figures for my 190 S1 are actually 168 hp (at the crank, 151 at the wheels) and 115 lb ft (at the wheels).
The car is still fairly rapid, the biggest problem is the acceleration after 100mph. there isnt any …
I have a couple of questions -
As always thanks for any help.
Dave.
Did you check you’re getting full throttle? It’s a very common problem to get a bit of slack in the mechanism at the pedal end of the cable.
It’s easy to check if your engine has been upgraded to 190BHP, remove the cambelt cover and align the engine to 90BTDC, if the lines on the cam pullies line up as per the manual, I.E both with horizontal lines then it has not been upgraded, if they dont line up as shown in the manual (I.E the exhaust pulley marks line up horizontally and the inlet pulley marks dont line up horizontally) then it has been upgraded to 190.
Dave
Also, different Dynos will give different readings.
And we all refer to “Emerald” BHP, that’s kind of our bnchmank.
In my last visit there (and I know about far ) I came up and did another run, same conditions on my local Dastec RR, they were within 5% of each other and that was a good match.
What kind of rolling road does Awesome GTI have?
Other than the Dave’s and Brendan’s advise, did you check that your air filter was clean?
It’s like brushing your teeth when you visit your girlfried
ermm, god this site makes me feel thick .
I will get my workshop manual out and have a look at what your saying dave (I’m not very ‘car technical’ so it may take some time), any tips (like what does 90BTDC mean ?)
uldis - is was a dynojet - 2 rollers on the floor ( is this what you mean), they checked the air/fuel mix as well which was spot on apparently.
again sorry, but how do I check/clean the air filter ?
brendan - how do you check if I am getting full throttle ? and remove slack if there is any ?
HELP
DSE… finally a man with my level of technical expertise !
When DaveA said “it’s simple… you do blah blah blah” it went WOOOSH straight over my head
FWIW. When I had my first 190 S1 Exige it was only opening at 83% throttle (according to my dealer when they first serviced it). Maybe your dealer could diagnostic it ? Or just get someone to look at the throttle cable in the boot as you press the accelerator pedal ?
Will do, thanks
To be honest, I just want to thrash the thing all day long on track without all this hassle. Do people with caterhams, westfields, radicals, tigers, etc have the same on going issues. The car has only done a few track days and 15k in total, surely it should be a bit more reliable than this … or am I expecting too much from Lotus. Dont get me wrong, I love the car but I do wonder if I should have bought an Atom\Westfield\Caterham\etc.
At least with the Exige you’re (relatively) dry compared to those names you mentioned… and lets face it, we live in England… where rain is as commonplace as fuel tax.
Sounds like you just got unlucky…
Get ready to convert to Honda/Audi power
The car has only done a few track days and 15k in total, surely it should be a bit more reliable than this … or am I expecting too much from Lotus.
Bin the rattly Rover and put something with a nice red top in its place. Preferably with a supercharger on the front
Preferably with a supercharger on the front
Or even the back!
wonder if I could get away with one on each side?
wonder if I could get away with one on each side?
Lateral thinking - I like that
Sorry chaps, it seems I need to translate
90BTDC is 90 degrees before top dead centre, this is the position in the cranks rotation where number one piston is rising and is exactly halfway up the bore and is level with all the other pistons. This is the standard position for setting/checking the static cam timing, removing and refitting heads or cam belts etc. The way to find this is to line up the groove on the outside of the crank pulley with the centre line of the engine/ scribed line on the lower cam cover as shown in the manual. This can be checked by taking out spark plugs one and two and ensuring the pistons are at the same height using a suitable probe.
Once you have established that you are at 90 degrees before top dead centre then remove the cambelt cover. The cam pullies have scribed lines on their rims which on the stock engine should line up to form a horizontal line which goes through the centre line of both pullies. If the exhaust cam lines up in this way and the inlet doesnt then you have a modified engine. If they line up as per the manual then you dont.
Dave
I’d say that once you have checked throttle openeing and whether you have a 190 upgrade the next things to check would be
i) compressions
ii) the cam timing
Dave