Lotus Club Queensland
Dedicated to the promotion and enhancement of the Lotus experience
Login
Register
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Membership
    • Member Login
  • Events
    • Calendar
  • Motorsport
    • Lakeside DTC Timed Laps
    • LAKESIDE DTC RESULTS
  • Magazine
  • For Sale
    • Merchandise
    • Classifieds
  • Posts
  • Galleries
  • Directory
    • Suppliers & Parts
    • Advertisers
  • Archives
mounts-2

More Duratec Madness

By Joe Arico

PART 1 – December 2016

As most of you will have read in the club magazines, Mike Moore and I have been busy putting Duratecs into our Elises. You may know Mike’s install well from all the great articles he’s written. While our builds use common components, they do differ quite a bit. The most essential ingredient though is the same – they are both built by a couple of car nuts in a shed.

After 18 months of work the car has been a runner now for about 4 months. The first couple of months were painful, sorting out teething issues with the tune. Fortunately, I did get it ready for the final round of the QLD Super Sprints in September (literally the night before!). It was a baptism of fire for the car but I’m glad to report that it survived a 400km round trip to the track and competed all weekend without issue. I even came away with a trophy.

So, let’s rewind back to the beginning. One of the biggest goals when I set out to do the conversion was to be able to retain the air conditioning. In the 8+ years I’ve owned the Elise I’ve put a lot of time into getting the AC to work effectively. I wasn’t going to let all that work go to waist! Besides, if you realistically want to use the car in summer in QLD you really don’t have a choice.

It very quickly became apparent that keeping the AC wasn’t going to be easy though. It was clear I was going to have to think outside the box and do something a bit different. The only way I could fit everything in was to move the alternator to the back of the engine and run it on a shaft. The AC compressor was easy – a standard Mazda 6 compressor bolts straight up to the engine block. I wasn’t making life easy for myself but I was determined not to give up on the idea and give it a go! I just had to make sure that everything else I did supported this design goal.

While I worked out what to do with the AC it also became clear (to both Mike and I) that the partial “kit” purchased out of the UK was not engineered to the level required. Most of the components supplied were good quality but the mounts put the engine in a position that was most definitely going to be problematic. To get acceptable clearance around the front of the engine they needed to be redesigned. This is where the project suddenly got a lot more complicated!

It’s worth saying at this point that when I set out to design all these parts I had none of the CAD skills required. I have a long engineering background but I had never used a 3D design package before. However, I had always wanted to learn. I was fortunate to have access to such a package through my work. It was a steep learning curve but after some head banging I eventually got the hang of it. It really is amazing what you can do with the technology available today!

I was also fortunate to have a good friend at work with a 3D printer so I prototyped many of the parts in plastic before committing to manufacturing in aluminum. After a bit of careful measuring I ended up redesigning the mounts to lower the engine 13mm in the car. This may not sound like a lot but it made a massive difference.

Anyway that’s where I’ll sign off for this issue. I’ll leave you with some pictures of early prototype plastic mounts. Happy and safe Xmas to all!


L-R: Front mount, alternator relocation, gearbox mount.


PART 2 – June 2017

Firstly, apologies for the long delay between Parts 1 and 2. Have 6 months really passed? I can’t believe it.

I signed off last time having shown the plastic prototype brackets I printed to trial fit all the components. The next stage was to find a reputable machine shop to make my prototypes become a reality.

It’s very difficult to find someone that will take on this “one off” low volume kind of work. RAGE (Race & General Engineering) on the Gold Coast were happy and keen to help. I have to say that on an overall scale from 1 to 10 of all the suppliers I dealt with on the project (with 10 being the highest of course) RAGE score a 10 in my book. They did excellent work, communicated well and for the majority of my parts provided a very fast turnaround. I simply supplied the design files and a 2D dimensional drawing and on average, a week later the parts would show up.

Unpacking the first package revealed something much “prettier” than I was expecting! Pictured below (right) is the front engine mount and gearbox mount prior to anodizing. A few weeks later after a bit of careful design the final engine mount showed up (shown at left).

L-R: Final engine mount, front engine mount & gearbox mount prior to anodizing.

It’s worth mentioning at this point that a lot of effort went into ensuring the mounts did not preload (i.e. twist) the rubber isolators. This ensures you get the best vibration isolation possible and on that front, I can report that the car doesn’t feel any different to the original K series with the harder mounts I was running.

Remaining true to my original intentions I will continue to try and tell the story with pictures. The following shots show the final parts installed.

In Part 3 I will go into more details on the air conditioning parts – by far the most challenging section of the project.

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading!

The Story of a Coincidence Morgan Park B Series Rd 1 – May 2017

Related Posts

duratec-banner

Articles, Homepage, Technical

Duratec Elise – better late than never

plus2-banner

Articles, Gallery 2022, Homepage, Technical

Unique +2 Road Trip to Brisbane

helmet-banner

Articles, Homepage, Racing

$10 HEAD/$10 HELMET

Random images

IMG_8774 Roger showing his technique On your marks MG_5983 europas 2-Arrival-at-Birches-Restaurant-1 IMG_0365 IMG_6511 IMG_6246 123_2376_IMG _MG_4587 as Smart Object-1 IMG_3897 IMG_8442 IMG_8426 122_2202_IMG IMG_4451 IMG_4436 IMG_6805 image_244 Europa's 20220220_093834 Geoff-with-afterburner-on Bill-Blackmore-Plus-2-Elan 2 As-bought-1970 Perfect-Lotus-roads-in-Paloona maps DTC-025 IMG_0762 20170226_070921 IMG_0076 Dicks Slicks Leyburn 2016 Lotus 2.11 vintage-harley The three drips Devonshire tea time _MG_5012 as Smart Object-1 main-17 IMG_5081 Relaxing-in-the-warmth Dinner-preparation main-25 main-3 Mar-main-13 main-3 At-The-Exclusive-Auto-Centre-1 IMG_4200 IMG_4869 IMG_0263_1 P1080268 P1080249 Ploughman's Lunch IMG_0105 DSC_5289 DSC_5269 IMG_5210 Aug_F02_2404 IMG_4196 IMG_7482 IMG_5317 IMG_0962 IMG_0948 IMG_8591 PICT7268 P1060310 194_194 IMG_8074 0063 IMGP7358 IMG_0535 IMG_8022 P1050432 In-the-snow-in-UK P1020907 Jen-relaxing-in-the-comfortable-habitat Warm-Up Arrival at destination 20201220_092210 A-couple-of-Elises Deep-in-the-bush 20210228_132420 Rohan IMG_8846 Paul, Peter and Pat IMGP8134 All-Smiles-Drew-Dundas Joes car up close Shane and Luke main-14 Loti-at-the-Pickled-Sisters Pat-Ross-and-Jen main-24 Shop-Sign mk1-lotus-cortina-1 mk1-lotus-cortina-3 Shanes-Seven-1 Jason and Zaid Transport-Museum-Dolomite-2 Jag IMAG6189

Recent Articles

  • Morgan Park Sprints R4
  • Kev’s Big Day Out
  • Duratec Elise – better late than never
  • Gold Rush Hill Sprint – 2022
  • Marburg Pub Run – 4 Sept 2022
  • Unique +2 Road Trip to Brisbane
  • Leyburn 2022
  • August 2022 DTC

Latest Gallery Images

20220220_093834 20220220_093818 20220220_093827 20220220_093743 20220220_093812 20220220_093730

Search articles by category

Archived articles

Lotus Club Queensland
© Lotus Club Queensland   |   Site by Black Eye Studios