281 replies to this topic

[Ground Effect]

Getting there



Jobs ticked off the list -
Electric water pump and cooling/heater systems
Remote oil filter
Cable throttle pedal
External facet fuel pump
Drive shafts
Rear suspension and wheels back on

Jobs to do list -
Phone AVO again to try and explain that Elise S1 rear dampers are an inch and a half shorter and dont fit a VX220
Order copious amounts of exhaust wrap
Order another copious amount jubilee clips
Make some nice stainless striaght cut tail pipes
Make an enclosed filtered inlet thingy
Make the stack dash play ball or buy some nice dials

When we get it running i,ll take a short vid and see if i can put it on youtube, it might be very loud as theres only a small striaght through silencer on each bank at the moment

More soon

Sam.

Edited by Ground Effect, 02 September 2010 - 11:28 PM.

[RobNA]

Top banana

When we get it running i,ll take a short vid and see if i can put it on youtube, it might be very loud as theres only a small striaght through silencer on each bank at the moment

[TheHood]

Any of your other work ever made an appearance in Retro Car magazine?

Oh, for this project.

[theolodian]

Really impressive progress! You are obviously spending more than 10hrs a month on it, unlike me.

[Ground Effect]

Any of your other work ever made an appearance in Retro Car magazine?

The cars we normaly work on are 1930s to 50s so there abit to old for Retro car mag but its still a great read as is practical performance car with there crazy engine conversions

[Ground Effect]

You are obviously spending more than 10hrs a month on it, unlike me.

Yep my auntie needs the car back NOW! and we need to go back to ash frames and ally panels

[Nev]

Goodness what an audacious project, way beyond what a humble DIY'er like me could manage. Best of luck.

[14500rpm]

Great project!

If you did want to go with fuel injection you can lose quite a bit of height out of the hotwire inlet plenum and manifold, I had mine machined by a shop in Bexley Village and lost about 25mm IIRC. The parts are cheap on eBay and I might even have a standard set in the shed you can have if you want them? I'm only up the road in Sidcup.

[Ground Effect]

Goodness what an audacious project, way beyond what a humble DIY'er like me could manage.


Best of luck.

i dunno, your project page looks pretty darn involed to me, be nice to see how the drivetrain holds up with that sort of power going through it

Sam.

[Ground Effect]

Great project!

If you did want to go with fuel injection you can lose quite a bit of height out of the hotwire inlet plenum and manifold, I had mine machined by a shop in Bexley Village and lost about 25mm IIRC. The parts are cheap on eBay and I might even have a standard set in the shed you can have if you want them? I'm only up the road in Sidcup.

The engine did come with all the EFI on and we nearly went with it as its supposed to be a very reliable system that can adjust itself up to a certain level of tuning but as it turned out the inlet plenum would of been quite abit higher than the carb option even if it was machined down.(plus my uncle has a phobia of fuel injection )
Thanks for the offer of the parts tho.
Hopefully i,ll talk him into making a fuel injection ITB setup one day

Your mx5 v8 conversion looks pretty neat, did you do it yourself ?
Did you have any paperwork trouble with the DVLA getting the V5 changed, Other than proof of where the engine come from and who fitted the conversion ?

Sam.

[Ground Effect]

Small update today (with no pics or vid as my camera is with my mum on holiday till wednesday ) Naturally with all the jobs we still had to do on the VX today we just went striaght for the best one and got the V8 running for the first time its amazing how well a Rover V8 runs when the leads are on wrong bank We wasnt happy with the first exhaust we made so spent the day trying diffrent things and ended up with a sort of 4-2-1 on each bank that joins into 1 pipe and 1 straight through silencer. Anyway its pointless posting without pics/vid, so i,ll update with pics on wednesday if the camera comes back in 1 piece Sam.

[14500rpm]

I bought the car already converted, the guy responsible did it years ago and was one of the first people to put a V8 in a MX-5, these days you can buy several kits to transplant LS engines into MX-5's. He kept a bit of a website on it HERE. When I bought it from him it had quad downdraft Webers and no filters due to clearance issues. It sat on the drive way for a bit whilst I was working abroad then when I got back my Dad and I set about swapping it to fuel injection using an Emerald ECU, and gave it a general tidy up. I got it MOT'd last year but its suffered a bit of an over heating problem so its been parked up and I bought a VX to use whilst I await the return of my mojo.

I don't think Bob (the builder, ) had any great issues with the DVLA side of things but then it is does just about predate compulsory catalytic converters which must simplify things. I have a feeling the age of the chassis might have more of a baring on things than the age of the engine. A friendly MOT man would know, or ask on the very helpful V8 Owners Forum.

[Ground Effect]

I bought the car already converted, the guy responsible did it years ago and was one of the first people to put a V8 in a MX-5, these days you can buy several kits to transplant LS engines into MX-5's. He kept a bit of a website on it HERE. When I bought it from him it had quad downdraft Webers and no filters due to clearance issues. It sat on the drive way for a bit whilst I was working abroad then when I got back my Dad and I set about swapping it to fuel injection using an Emerald ECU, and gave it a general tidy up. I got it MOT'd last year but its suffered a bit of an over heating problem so its been parked up and I bought a VX to use whilst I await the return of my mojo.

I don't think Bob (the builder, ) had any great issues with the DVLA side of things but then it is does just about predate compulsory catalytic converters which must simplify things. I have a feeling the age of the chassis might have more of a baring on things than the age of the engine. A friendly MOT man would know, or ask on the very helpful V8 Owners Forum.

Hurry up and find your mojo, it,ll be nice to see a local mx-5 v8 around
As for MOTs im assured by my MOT bloke that the current rules says that they have to MOT the emissions to the engine year not the chassis year and as my MOT bloke sold me the engine im ok there
It,s just that the DVLA are asking for alot of info in the last 12 months to get the V5 changed, no matter i,ll just have to see what they say.

Sam.

[N17VES]

Looking forward to the result. Refreshing to see so much progress in such a small space of time ....and when your finished, you can put a v8 in my Exige. Pleeeaaassseee Links to this thread has been posted across a few lotus forums! I can imagine a lot of interest if you ever want to do make a little bit of a business converting cars

[rob999]

Top work sir Make sure you pop along to the Essex meet at the end of the Month; the rate your going I'm sure it will be ready

[cheeky_chops]

fantastic! Cant wait to hear a few drive bys!

[Ground Effect]

Looking forward to the result. Refreshing to see so much progress in such a small space of time

....and when your finished, you can put a v8 in my Exige. Pleeeaaassseee

It wonder if it,s possible to join a Rover V8 to an exige gearbox or if the rear subframe is even wide enough !?
One things for sure, if it did fit you could get a really nice ITB setup in with the exige engine cover

Sam.

[Ground Effect]

Top work sir

Make sure you pop along to the Essex meet at the end of the Month; the rate your going I'm sure it will be ready

Dont forget its got to go to the painters for a week or so too yet, probley going to them early next week

Sam.

[Ground Effect]

fantastic!

Cant wait to hear a few drive bys!

Me too!

Its strange looking at a VX220 with a V8 sound coming from it. We,ll probley have a move around in the garage some time this week, so i,ll be able to see it moving too soon
I tryed to make a recording with my digital camera but the sound quality on it was awfull, i,ll try standing back abit next time

Sam.

[N17VES]

Looking forward to the result. Refreshing to see so much progress in such a small space of time

....and when your finished, you can put a v8 in my Exige. Pleeeaaassseee

It wonder if it,s possible to join a Rover V8 to an exige gearbox or if the rear subframe is even wide enough !?
One things for sure, if it did fit you could get a really nice ITB setup in with the exige engine cover

Sam.

The standard exige gearbox is no go - it can only cope with 170 lbs of torque. Its at its very limit in my car, and there has been a fair few failures in other cars.

Interestingly, how hard was it to match the vx220 gear box to the v8? Its been mentioned that the VAG 6 speed box is a nice match for the exige (shift cables are plug and play), but the only company willing to to do the conversion wants £4k - the box itself only costs £200!

Edited by N17VES, 16 September 2010 - 05:28 PM.