plenty of holiday progress!

Over the Christmas break I have been able to spend some reasonable hours on the car. This has resulted in the following:

subframe top-coated and now complete. Rear brake lines installed:

various suspension components rubbed down, cleaned and re-painted:

alternator lower bracket fabricated:

throttle cable linkage bracket fabricated. I've made this adjustable so I should be able to get a set-up which works well when the engine goes back in the car.

 Oil coolers have arrived. Settled on a 7 row cooler for the gearbox oil. This will be positioned in the left cooling duct. 30 row cooler for the engine oil, this will be positioned behind the right hand air duct, and right next to the dry sump tank which it will feed:

EliseParts GT rear uprights. These have a massive number of advantages: lighter, stronger, 16mm lowering of the car whilst maintain correct shock length, and they take S2 bearing packs so I can run 4 x 100 wheel stud PCD which is a much more common than the S1 PCD of 4 x 95.25!

I cannot refit the engine for the final time until I complete a solution for the camshaft driven alternator pulley attachment. This is because it fits into the front of the camshaft sprocket and ends up pretty close behind the bulkhead once the engine is installed. 

engine mounts and rear subframe mods complete

All the engine and gearbox mounts, and subframe bracing bars are now fully welded and primered ready for top coat paint over the Christmas holidays.

I may add one more lateral bracing bar in aluminium underneath the gearbox, but this can be a bolt-on or rivet&adhesive affair so doesn't need to be fitted right now. This may give me an additional support for the rear floor/diffuser later in the build.

Just a reminder for anyone joining the blog late, the work I'm doing here doesn't affect the rear suspension geometry in anyway. The fuel tank cutout will probably reduce the torsional stiffness of the chassis in that area somewhat, but counteracting that the rear upper shock mounts are now directly tied together and will be better than a stock Elise.

The well-known weakness area on all Elise/Exiges of the rear toe-links is being addressed by fitting the pilbeam style lower wishbones (watch this space) and by tieing that area into the main 50mm diameter bar supporting the gearbox.

mocking up engine mounts

Mock up of the front engine mounts. I am happy I have got them within +/- 2-3mm of each other. The cardboard gusset template in both of the pictures is the same and as you can see it fits perfectly.

Over Christmas I am hoping to get the mounts and subframe fully welded, painted and the engine back in properly for what could be the final time. (future driveshaft, gearshift and wiring loom dramas notwithstanding!!)