Yesterday I got my car. It has some odds and ends to be taken care of, just small stuff. I took the roof off today. The big surprise is how loud that TVS900 supercharger is.
Nice-looking car, but, the big questions are: how do YOU fit in it, and how do YOU ever get back out without calling EMS?
Getting in, no pRoblem. Get out well it ant a pretty sight. With me in it the right side is 3/4 lower at the back and 1/4 in the front. I am going to have to adjust that.
Not sure. I am going to take it to a friends house to look every thing over. He has a lift and everything to weigh it and do an alignment.
Well I have some small things I am sorting out. It has a blower for the intercooler. It has a switch between the seats to turn it on. It was not working. Found the fuse for the power outlet blown. Replaced it and the blower fan works. But as soon as I plugged in my V1 it blew agin. I think the guy that did the mods must be running the power for the fan off the power outlet. I will have to pull it apart and see what's up. I was told the car was aligned and cornered weighed. I dont think so. The right rear is 1.5 in lower then the left. with me in the car it is about 3/4 lower. It looks like the right side is already adjuster up a little more than the left. I wont know till I get it on a lift. You have to be careful where you jack them up. I dont see anything that looks bent so I believe it is ok just out of adjustment.
Those are great looking cars, especially in white or yellow. An Exige or Elise has been on my want list for a few years now. Definitively make sure to use the right lift points. I remember seeing pics of a Lotus that fell off a lift backwards because the wrong lift points were used.
You are correct about jacking them up. I watched a couple videos and rear before I tried to jack it up. I found why it was lower on the right side. There is a snap ring that goes in a grove to hold the bottom spring seat. The snap ring some how came loose and let the bottom spring seat fall. I got the wheel off and fixed the spring seat. Took it on a couple rides and it is holding. I have a feeling it happened in transport. I eyeballed the adjustment when I reset the coilover. put the car on the ground and rolled it to settle it. I was 1/16 off on the hight. What luck!
Better to fix a perch than to buy 4 new coilovers and reset everything. Keep us up to date as you get it ready for track and daily driving.
I have done a lot of reading on these cars. They have a 1.8 Toyota 2ZZ-GE engine. Yamaha designed the head. It is an interesting design. The motors have a low speed and a high speed lobe on the cams. The high speed lobe is higher lift, longer duration and different timing. The high speed cam ,as they call it, comes on above 5000 RPM. Boy can you tell. The down side is they are prone to what is called cam wipe. It seems no one knows why it happens. It may be a combination of factors. One thought is the oil temp not getting hot enough during street use. It has 2 oil coolers up front. The other theories are: the OEM cams are not hard enough, not being oiled properly. They say to let the car get to running temp then run it another 10 min before getting on the second cam. Knowing this is a problem I pulled my valve cover off last week. Here is what I found. That would be my intake cam. I have ordered a new cam, its an after market that is harder so they say it will not wipe as easy. $405 not to bad. I also ordered 4 new rockers I got upgraded ones also. The pad is bigger and harder. I could have got OEM ones for $75 each but I am not sure why this happened so I opted for the better ones at $195 each. I have also ordered a oil temp gage to install to make sure my temps are not too low. If they are I will install a higher oil temp thermostat or make covers for the coolers for the street. So the fun starts. I am planing to do a test and tune track day in 3 weeks. I hope.....
Sorry your cams have had a lobectomy. Nice that it's a relatively easy fix, all except the money part. Any car really needs the oil up to operating temp before you let er rip. Do those cams have bearings or is the head machined for lack of a bearing?
The head is machined. The only hard part is the valves have tappets on top of the them you change to get the adjustment correct. Kind of like an Alfa, ho joy. I will probably mic all of them so when I put it back together and check the adjustment I will know what size to get before I tare it apart agin.
Are they roller rockers? maybe add a small amount of ZDDP to the oil next change - it's an anti wear additive absolutely necessary for flat tappet cams, not usually needed on roller tappets but maybe it will help?