Purchased an Emerald from DVA a few months ago and finally got round to fitting it Monday.
I knocked up a conversion loom using a BMW connector per George’s (Espirit) thread which has made it fully reversible.
Cannot get over the transformation - much improved driveability and cleaner revving all the way through the rev range.
This has also cured two issues I had - intermittent wheel sensor problem limiting revs to 5500rpm and the bloomin’ awful bunnyhopping from a cold start.
Hopefully now my clutch should last longer without the need to constantly feather it when pulling away from cold!
Dave Andrews has offered excellent backup in the form of maps and setup advice.
Must have mod for anyone with a std K series car - can’t recommend it enough.
Yep, I can’t understand why anybody with a VHPD continues to use the awful oem ECU. The argument of “oh, it’s part of it’s character” doesn’t wash for me - Emerald ECU’d cars still retain the distinctive VHPD sound (although smoother running), & the car’s overall performance is greatly enhanced.
Typical “old stylee” Lotus - we’ve got some ECUs left from our Esprit production, so let’s use them on the Exige!
Lotus set the limit (with the oem ECU) @ 7900rpm. Personally, I wouldn’t go above 7500rpm without a bespoke mapping session for your own car with the Emerald - better to be safe, rather than sorry
If not already fitted, get some vernier timing pulleys too, before any mapping session.
Nice to hear you’ve had success Simon. Glad to hear that the loom adaptor idea worked out for you too. I never ended up using mine as I ditched the Emerald before I started and went via the MoTeC route and instead plug-connected the entire loom rather than just at the ECU connector (as I wanted to run sequential ignition/injection). As with you, my result has been amazing. The car is SO much easier to drive, despite being much more wild now than it was originally. I’m not sure much effort went into the original mapping at Lotus.
Definitely get it set up on a rolling road if you can by a competent tuner, and as Pesky said get some verniers if you haven’t already. With those two, you should be able to rev the engine to 8000 or so
Yep, got some 2nd hand 3 spoke Piper verniers that will be fitted at some point.
George, your research proved invaluable in tracking down the connector. I was quite methodical doing the individual connections which fortunately meant it worked first time (touch wood it stills continues to behave). However it’s not the tidiest of jobs (bit of a birds nest!) and I may do another sometime in the future just to make it more professional looking (stupid I know as its out of sight).
Just revelling in being able to use all the performance without wondering if the plugs going to get pulled at 5500rpm.
It’s still cammy, raucous and very much a VHPD without making you look like you’re building up to your driving test!!!
I’m sorry for my stupid Q, but is it possible to fit Emerald by myself here in Russia as we don’t have any well-known specialists here. We have Motec representatives, but I’m not sure they are able to make everything the way it should be.
I just want to know how complicated is it to fit Emerald or Motec to Exige S1 and the main Q is where to get the correct map for it?
Dave supplied my Emerald complete with config and tune maps suitable for the std Exige. Managed to fit it and set it up myself (after a couple of calls to DVA).
I have had some previous mapping experience, and the Emerald is probably one of the more user friendly ecus.
If your local specialists have Motec experience then I’m sure they should be more than capable of handling the Emerald install and setup.
When I first got my car, never having been in or driven an S1 Exige, I was determined to get an Emerald and verniers after all I had read beforehand. But then I found I just loved the car as it is. However, having read Simon’s description of the characteristics of the car, post Emerald, it’s made me wonder whether I should go down that road at some stage. Maybe a first step would be to take ride in an Exige which has been modified.
I can understand not wanting to change the basic raw racer characteristics of the car, but as far as I’m concerned it hasn’t. It’s only enhanced the experience and removed a considerable gripe with the std setup.
Having only experienced my Exige - are all of them as stroppy from cold?
Any aftermarket ECU should be better than standard simply because it should be mapped to the car individually.
This isn’t a pop at anyone on this thread but - Some people seem to think they can throw in a generic base map and it will be ok. It might work but it won’t make full advantage of the engine (kind of like the standard ECU!). Factor in the cost of a mapping session when you buy an ECU. It’s the data it contains not the ECU hardware alone that makes the car better.
Plus while everyones mentioning ECU brands I’ll quite happily add DTA to the mix, I’ve been using them in both my road and race car for years.
[quote=Azrael]Any aftermarket ECU should be better than standard simply because it should be mapped to the car individually.
This isn’t a pop at anyone on this thread but - Some people seem to think they can throw in a generic base map and it will be ok. It might work but it won’t make full advantage of the engine (kind of like the standard ECU!). Factor in the cost of a mapping session when you buy an ECU. It’s the data it contains not the ECU hardware alone that makes the car better.
Plus while everyones mentioning ECU brands I’ll quite happily add DTA to the mix, I’ve been using them in both my road and race car for years. [/quote]
Agreed, but the generic base map from DVA is ten times better than the map the Exige came with as standard.
If the cars are of the same spec then there shouldn’t be a problem as the generic map should have some safety margin built in. A bespoke mapping to the individual engine reduces this safety margin in the hunt for extra horsepower taking the individual engine to it’s full potential.
I’ve run several different cars on generic maps without problems when not chasing ultimate horsepower. Only small issue I had was with a Type r where it very occasionally pinked under heavy load at certain revs - had to datalog the problem and tweak back the ignition advance at a couple of load sites.
