I've got a pretty minimalistic Blade I got from Tom about one year ago now. It's a Stuart Taylor kit (live axle), no LSD (Sierra or Escort diff), no reverse or fancy stuff, '97 918 cc 128 bhp engine with ST chopped sump, 13" minilites. In case you haven't seen it yet:
http://usuarios.tiscali.es/alez/polvorilla.htm

It's a fantastic ride, but I'm missing the Isonblade ridiculous acceleration and I'm starting to consider increasing bhp / ton a bit somehow. I'm not looking for something as quick as this one was (something like 159 bhp max at the wheels if I remember well?), maybe more in the region of 340 bhp / ton. The car now weighs 460 kg wet with full tank.

What would you look at for a starter? The engine is now standard so I assume some safe tuning potential there? Also I was surprised that the car is rather heavy but I'm not sure about how to cut weight in a cost effective way. Could it be that the Stuart Taylor chassis is a bit heavier than a "book" chassis?

Cheers,

Alex

Alez,

It may be possible to get the engine tuned on a rolling road and rejet the carbs to increase performance.

if its the manic acceleration you miss then i would say the cheapest way to overcome that is to change the diff for a shorter one to the detriment of top end speed.

When you start to strip weight off an already built car things can either be very dificult/messy to remove or very expensive to replace with lighter weight items.

Possibly look at lighter wheels and GRP shell seats to save yourself probably 20Kg, this could probably be done with very little money added by you if you sold the set of wheels on it already and the 2 seats out of it.

Possibly change the callipers to alluminium ones and the front uprights and hubs to alloy ones, upgrade your exhaust to a lighter one possibly using a motorbike race can if its legal in Spain but these are expensive upgrades per Kg saved.

I dont know if the ST chassis is particularly heavy or not.

ST chassis shouldn't be any heavier than any others.....

check to see if you've got a steel or ali floor (not easy to replace but that is one area he saves weight on bike / non race cars)

You can get lighter roll cages made out of T45 (or is it t50?) i know some one who lost loads (keep thinking half but it probably wasn't) getting a roll cage from caged in the uk.

wheels, calipers, disks, hubs can all be changed easily to alloy to save weight.

What about your radiator, could you run a smaller one?

Do you have a grp bonnet / rear? Ali might be a little lighter.

or just fit a bigger engine

Just seen the pics, are those GRP sides ? ali is lighter - but it will change how your car looks, and it looks fantastic!

[Edited on 30/3/05 by MikeR]

Sounds like Busa motor time.

Without wishing to take anything away from Alez, and he has stated so in the past, that mechanics is not his strongest subject, therefore the fitting of a new engine is probably not an option.

He is after EASY ways to gain notable results.

How about Nos.....

Supercharger...

Turbo.

Might go the Nos route my-self.

Alez, a pair of cams (maybe you could get them fitted?) and a dyno session would see it up there,

The spec of yours and my old car was worked head, uprated cams and a good dyno session, the diff change mentioned above would give you the acceleration but you would lose out on the top end, the Isonblade had both, top speed was around 134mph pulling 10mph in top for around each 900rpm.

If you could get it done localy maybe an R1 transplant ? One thing for sure you dont need to go on a diet..... but maybe the car does.


BTW i did offer you the NOS n spare engine when you bought the car, actually NOS is a pretty safe bet easy too fit and if you dont fancy fitting it yourself not expensive to have fitted (not a lot of labour time involved) but can you run laughing gas over there ?

[Edited on 30/3/05 by Jon Ison]

quote:

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Originally posted by MarkClow
Sounds like Busa motor time.

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Dear All,

Thank you so much for all these suggestions, there's tons of useful information in your posts. I'm embarrassed to ask a few things, I'm totally lost with engine terminology due to inexperience and language I really would like to make sure I understand everything. I appreciate your patience.

BTW I really should keep the ratios I have now, the engine is already screaming quite a bit at not so high speeds.

> get the engine tuned on a rolling road and rejet the carbs

Sorry I can't understand this, can you explain the meaning of "tuned on a rolling road"? Does that mean "adjust fuel / air mixture at the carbs while the car is going" or is a "rolling road" some kind of facility to do this?

> look at lighter wheels

Are minilites heavy compared to other 13" rims? Or you mean tyres? I have 185/60R13 Yoko Avon tyres, I feel 185 is about best for this car.

> Ali might be a little lighter

Ali = aluminium? Ali = alloy? Sorry!

> He is after EASY ways to gain notable results

Absolutely right. I'm hopeless with mechanics and I don't have much money to spend. It has to be simple or nothing.

> a pair of cams (maybe you could get them fitted?) and a dyno session would see it up there

> worked head, uprated cams and a good dyno session

This looks like something a specialist could do for my engine. Sorry but I need to fully understand this..

> worked head

Will a specialist understand "worked head" or do I need to be any more specific about the work I'd like to be carried on?

> uprated cams

Does that mean "buy a pair of stronger cams (aftermarket?) and fit them"? Any pointers to brands, etc. I should look at for this?

> good dyno session

Any of you could explain the meaning of this? I don't even know the meaning of "dyno" Sorry.

> can you run laughing gas over there ?

I don't know but I can surely do it the Spanish way: bugger it, I'm fitting this!! Cause nobody knows if it's legal or not, police officers don't know, MOT inspectors don't know, SVA inspectors don't know, nobody does this kind of thing here. I'll keep this possibility as a last resort for now anyway

Thank you!!

Alex,

To help a bit with explanations..

> get the engine tuned on a rolling road and rejet the carbs

tuning a car on a rolling road is when the car is running and wheels turning on a set of rollers in a workshop (similar idea to setup used for brake testing for a uk mot), so the car can be monitored and fueling adjustments etc made to optimise the fueling/power of the engine etc.

> look at lighter wheels

I doubt you'd get much lighter wheels than you already have, without going for expensive split rims - i wouldn't look at changing the wheels myself as they're already pretty small and light imho.

> Ali might be a little lighter

Ali/ally = aluminium, obviously a bit of work to change the bonnet and side panels, not sure on figures of the weight difference either myself. You could get ali panels sprayed to maintain the appearance of the car, but again cost is a deciding factor.

> a pair of cams (maybe you could get them fitted?) and a dyno session would see it up there
> worked head, uprated cams and a good dyno session
Pair of cams are the camshaft's which are used in the engine to give the valve opening/closing which determines how long the valves are open/how far they open to allow fuel into the engine. cam with a profile that give higher lift or more duration are available for most engines, though I don't know specifically about bec's i'm afraid.
A worked head is one that has been taken off the engine and worked on a bench in a workshop. The shape of the inlet ports is normally changed around the inlet valves to increase the flow of the fuel/air mixture into the engine.
A dyno is a dynomometer, basically same idea as a rolling road (engine is run up in a workshop) but this is done with the jsut the engine ie out of the car, normally on a test bed or similar, so again fueling, cam timing etc can be properly setup. This will be much more expensive than a rolling road session.

Hope that lot makes sense/helps!

That helps A LOT mister, thank you very much.

Whenever I look at modifications like these, I really wonder why the engine was not designed like that in the first place: manufacturing cost would be the same and performance is boosted by nearly 50% in the case of the Isonblade Is it consumption, emissions, reliability??

quote:

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Originally posted by Alez
Is it consumption, emissions, reliability??

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As Ned said its all three, reliability is a big factor though Id think. Generally moderately tuned engines can still be kept fairly reliable if the engine is cared for properly (warmed up properly, frequent oil changes etc) but for a manufacturer you cant push the boundaries so much because not all owners will care for their engines as much. If they supplied an engine thats very highly tuned "from the factory" they'd get loads more warranty claims etc.

If you want another Isonblade-esque engine maybe it would be cheaper to buy a second hand one ready tuned from Sidenet or something?

Thank you guys. Excellent explanation Chris, and excellent link as well, changing the engine is an interesting possibility actually.

How about adding a turbo? It is currently being discussed here:
http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=24163

Is that something you can do instead of cam / head mod or is it something you may do only after modifying cam / head? Have you discarded the possibility for any particular reason? (Reliability, cost or simply because I mentioned a mild increase?)

Cheers,

Alex

there would crtainly be a worthwhile power gain, it's just whether its cost effective for you to buy a kit (expensive i gather) or have the ability/someone there who can make/fabricate all the bits for you..

Ned.

Reason I'm asking is because, from the point of view of the inexperienced, this solution looks much more "reversible" in case things don't go well. In other words, the engine as it is now is worth some money. If I spend money having some mod work done in it, I may end up with a botch job and lose a nice standard engine. The turbo may be too expensive for what I want, but it may be practical as it is an add-on somehow..

So do you think I may consider a turbo kit (if I can find one!) INSTEAD of the other mods at all?

Cheers,

Alex

PS: Ned, have you installed any notifier tool in your PC to tell when there's a new post in Locostbuilders??

Unless you can find somewhere that will do it all for you (ie lots of £££), I would avoid the turbo route due to the complexity. Apart from the turbo itself, you'll have to buy / get made a new manifold, a plenum chamber and an intercooler, thats before you start thinking about how you are going to add the extra fuel that will be needed (you may need something like a megasquirt running some additional injectors for example or at very least get the carbs totally reworked to suit). Because the manifold is totally different it will also leave you with a gaping hole in the side panel with nothing to fill it so a new side panel would be in order, and you might even have to look at things like moving the engine a little if you cant get the turbo packaged inside the chassis - which would mean new engine mounts etc.

I don't want to sound like a scaremonger but having seen a couple of friends have lots of headaches and technical challenges with turbo conversions over the winter, I would say that a turbo is a lot more complicated an upgrade than you first think.

Chris

Nothing of an easy add-on Looks like more difficult than switching to R1, which I'm not considering because of complexity.

Thank you Chris.

Blade to R1 isnt that difficult, but it is fairly time consuming and not something you'd want to tackle if you didnt have confidence in wiring and getting all the plumbing correct etc. Something like an R1 conversion would cost you less in parts and labour than a turbo though, I reckon its cost me £800-1200 to do my conversion and that includes going to fuel injection (+£200) a 2nd hand digidash (£300) and a tarty manifold (~£500). I did sell all the old blade bits though, so selling the old engine / exhaust / clocks plus some other bits I had laying around eases the burden otherwise you'd be looking at well over £2k. If you had to add labour onto that though, there's probably a days worth of fabrication on the engine mounts etc then at least 30 hours of time for someone quicker than me to do it (Ive taken longer than that Id think!)

Chris

Thank you Chris. I'm definitely not trying any of these two

How about ECU reprogramming? Can it be done? Pros and cons? I just realized we have not discussed this one at all here, and this one should be easy? Jon, did you have a factory ECU?

Cheers,

Alex

Not much to be gained from "chipping" an ecu unless the engine in question is already turbocharged, probably 3-5bhp on average at most even though the blurb generally claims more.
In short Im afraid there's no real easy way to significant power gains otherwise we'd all be doing it

> In short Im afraid there's no real easy way to significant power gains otherwise we'd all be doing it

Doesn't surprise me! Thanks for the useful info.

Don't give up though, its not impossible - I would say the only way you might do it without lots of work is for you to pick up a ready tuned blade engine 2nd hand for maybe £1200-1500 from somewhere like Sidenet (sidecar racing forum), then sell your engine for maybe £800. That would make the overall cost fairly low, and it would be a straight swap bar maybe a rolling road session to sort out the fuelling for your exhaust.

Yes I'm with you Chris. I've been having a look at Sidenet, lots of 600 cc engines but I'll keep an eye, it looks like a good resource. As for overall cost, I'm sure it will be slightly higher here because not a lot of people do this stuff and I may end up selling my original engine in the UK (paying for the delivery) or who knows what, and same for the rolling road session. Still it's all good advice and it's good to learn all this.

At this very moment I'm trying to sort out a place where I'll be able to properly tinker with the car, which is why all these ideas of improvements are coming to my mind lately. Also I'm very near the end of the process of importing it (no Spanish reg for me yet ) and it looks like I'll succeed with that (if I don't, I'll have to take the car back to the UK to sell it as it is). Lots of plans and things to happen.

Cheers,

Alex

Where did you get it from, Jon?

Cheers,

Alex

Hi Alez(x)

I'm currently building a car in spain!

Can you tell me a bt about the problems with these cars over here?

As you see i live near Salamanca,
(in Guijuelo),

some times there are 2 sevens in this village but didn't meat the owners yet..

well hope you can prepare me a bit for the "Homologation" in Spain.

TKS

p.s sorry for the Post Hijack

[Edited on 6/4/05 by tks]

Tks,

I'm really glad to hear about you! No problems with these cars here really, apart from the cars themselves

Are you Spanish? (Out of curiosity.)

You've been lucky to find Sevens in your village, I've never seen one in Madrid yet (Locost, Caterham, whatever).

In principle, I won't need to undergo approval here in Spain as I'm importing the car due to relocation. I had to prove I'm moving from the UK to Spain, then pass a special MOT called pre-reg MOT or "ITV previa a la matriculación" which can be done at a few of the MOT places only. Once this is done, I'll be passing normal MOT every 2 years.

I would say that the most important thing in order to be successful at either approval (SVA) or pre-reg MOT is FRIENDS if you see what I mean. Also a reverse light will help: Spanish regulations require a reverse BUT as "all" cars have one it's not checked, only the light is So I put a light there, hide a black colour switch next to me, and engaged 1st gear at the same time I switched the light on when asked for reverse. That was after a first attempt for this MOT a few months back which was very frustrating: they would try anything to have me (the problem) go away, so they were relieved when they realized about the reverse (they looked so happy!). Now I returned to a different MOT place, with contacts (friends of friends and money, that is), not in Madrid (central office), and sporting a new shiny reverse light trick, bleep 'em.

Out!

PS: I'm sending U2U with my email and mobile number should you need to get in touch..

Send one 2



Soow i also need to mount a reverse...

electrical..will then be...

my girlfriend also wanted one...but thats offcourse another thing..

regards,

TKS

Only 100% legal solution is a mechanical reverse, as law says that the car must take the power to go backwards from the main engine, the one used to move it forward. This I've not been told but actually I've read the law myself (I was shown it).

Cheers,

Alex

arghhh....

i'm not spending money on a prop box...

what a mess.....

mhh..

Alez, i was wondering how do you take your car from place to place..?? or can you drive with the english plates??

TKS

The power for electric reverse comes from the main engine (via the alternator....) does it specify mechanical means only?
cheers
Bob