Lotus Europa 16V Gordini

[Mecky]

A small update from the first test drive with rebuilt engine and gearbox:

I was able to borrow a red number plate for the purpose of a transfer of the car and I have done 85 km without any problems. I am almost overwhelmed by the extent of the success of my modification .

The new cooling system with custom-made aluminium radiator, hot air outlet and electric water pump works so well that the water temperature never rose above 68°C while driving on the motorway, even at full load. When the car was stationary with the engine running, the two fans were able to keep the water temp at 78°C permanently, even while fine-tuning the ignition and synchronising the carburettor. The car does not have a thermostat, but with the electronic control unit that regulates the water pump speed, this is not necessary either. I will adjust the control unit a little bit differently, so that the temperature will settle down at 80°C and then this job is done.

For comparison: before the upgrade I had a water temperature of 95°C when I drove to an oldtimer meeting at low revs on public roads.

Next on the agenda is the dyno run to optimise the carburettor settings and check the power-output of the engine. Afterwards the next way leads to the Belgian town of Zolder


P.S.: here is a small video: https://www.instagram.com/p/CEPYnCACjOW/

[BDA]

Congratulations Mecky! You've obviously made a vast improvement over what you had before! I would have liked a longer video but she sounds really good! I'm looking forward to seeing the results from the dyno!

[StephenH]

The car does not have a thermostat, but with the electronic control unit that regulates the water pump speed, this is not necessary either.

Personally I would leave the thermostat installed, but I know many people with electric pumps don't have any issues.
On my old racing bike I fitted an electric pump and initially left the thermostat out, but found the engine still took too long to reach operating temperature even with the pump turned off.
Also had significant water temperature variation with pump on/off, but a variable pump would be better.
With thermostat and electric pump I think it was the best combo.

The engine sounds great Mecky, hopefully I'll get over again one day and see it in action, rather than parked in the old lockup

[GavinT]

Well done, Mecky - engine sounds strong.

Someone please correct me but I thought the design running temp for these engines was 90° C.

I reckon these EWP's are brilliant but there does seem to be some debate about how to arrive & maintain the desired running temp.
For instance, with the stock thermostat in place, does the EWP controller work properly or do the dual 'control' methods conflict?

[Mecky]

Tomorrow is dyno-day

I'm a bit nervous and can't really concentrate on anything else in the moment, thus I have transferred my old dyno curves from the year 2013 into Excel and compared them with the dyno curve from Valerios wedge head engine (see attached). I must say that Valerios engine has a much better balanced torque curve. But at the higher revs, the hemi head gains advantage. I don't really know, why my torque was so badly waving back then.

The characteristic of my torque curve is also defined by my camshaft, which is set to deliver high torque with quite low revs. That's why, my engine will not have highest possible power output. But I hope, it will have a broad rev-band with high torque. The camshaft is originally intended for Rallye, but for my 5 speed gearbox with 236 kph top speed, it's good to have a broad usable rev-band.

The cylindre head was refurbished by a Renault Alpine specialist in Germany in 2014 and it felt much better. But I don't have a dyno sheet from this configuration. I will show the new sheet tomorrow or on saturday. Looking forward to it

[Mecky]

I went to the dyno today and it was great. My little engine is able to deliver a power output of 162 HP and 186 Nm of torque. That's magnificent for an 1.6 litre 8V OHV engine, I think.

 

[MRN I J]

Very good metric HP & Torque, 160.67 imperial HP & 137.3lbs ft, was that on a Sun with roll down to convert from wheel HP to flywheel  HP, what is the gearing in mph/kph per 1000 rpm on those wheels / tyres

[MRN I J]

i'll rephrase that - what is the max rpm / speed expected on an open road, I used to regularly see 126 / 127 mph going home in the middle of the night / very early morning

[Mecky]

Very good metric HP & Torque, 160.67 imperial HP & 137.3lbs ft, was that on a Sun with roll down to convert from wheel HP to flywheel  HP, what is the gearing in mph/kph per 1000 rpm on those wheels / tyres

From the original dimensions and ratios the theoretical speed should be 236 kph (147 mph) in 5th gear at 7500 RPM and 220 kph (137 mph) at 7000. Google maps told me that I was doing 204 kph (127 mph) at ~7000 RPM on the German Autobahn. GPS data is more reliable, I think.

[MRN I J]

Very good metric HP & Torque, 160.67 imperial HP & 137.3lbs ft, was that on a Sun with roll down to convert from wheel HP to flywheel  HP, what is the gearing in mph/kph per 1000 rpm on those wheels / tyres

From the original dimensions and ratios the theoretical speed should be 236 kph (147 mph) in 5th gear at 7500 RPM and 220 kph (137 mph) at 7000. Google maps told me that I was doing 204 kph (127 mph) at ~7000 RPM on the German Autobahn. GPS data is more reliable, I think.

you have a 5 speed fitted, my S2 had the 336 box with std final drive on 185/60 xc 13" rims / tyres
your kph per 1000 is 30.82264 or 19.1523 according to the rolling road dyno.

[Mecky]

Hi guys,

I just wanted to let you know that due to obvious reasons, I was not able to race the Europa in 2020. The BELCAR Historic Cup was only able to hold one race event on October 3rd, when my car was not ready. The race on November 7th was cancelled, unfortunately. But nontheless I reached my goal of getting the car back on the race track in 2020:

I went to an international test day at the former F1 circuit Zolder in Belgium. It was a wet day, thus no hunt for the lap record. But I could figure out that the car works quite well. Especially the brakes were surprisingly good. The BMW 2002 ti rear drums seem to work nicely. But also steering, gearbox and engine ran trouble-free. The cooling is almost a little bit too good. I had to tape the air inlet of the front, because water temperature never reached more than 72°C, while oil temp went up to 95°C. I will try to adjust this by re-positioning the oil cooler in front of the radiator. Right now, it's installed in the back of the car, thus not getting too much cooling air flow.
The other minor issue is the adjustment of suspension. With tyre pressure above the sweet spot, the car began to float a bit under braking. That was not a nice feeling. And of course, the 5 years old semi-slicks need to be replaced. They were not great in the wet, either. Before that, I will not go back on a race track.

I also wanted to let you know that I created a new website for my project, which takes special care of our family's racing history since 1970: https://www.yart-racing.com
I love to research on these old races. But in 2021 the latest news from my BELCAR Historic Cup races will also be published there.


EDIT:

[BDA]

It is too bad your races were canceled. If she half as fast as she is beautiful, she will be a screamer! Now you can continue your pre-race development (a race car is never finished) for next season. I hope and expect that we will be hearing great stuff from you then!

[jbcollier]

Excellent news!

95°C for oil temperature is fine.  Do you have a fan on it?

What controller are you using for the electric water pump?

[gideon]

Congratulations on getting to the track.

My suggestion for your cooling issues is to replace the oil cooler with an oil to water heat exchanger.  That way you won't need to run long oil lines to the front of the car, and the main radiator can handle the additional cooling load.  Something like this

https://www.cantonracingproducts.com/categories/oil-cooling-heat-exchanging/water-to-oil-heat-exchangers.html

or this

https://www.crracing.com/product/lightweight-oil-to-water-heat-exchanger-13-plate-w-1-1-2-inlet-outlet

[Mecky]

Hi guys,
nice to read your feedback. I am not using a fan for the oil cooler so far. The controller is from the same manufacturer as the electric pump: Craig Davies Auto Cooling from Australia. It's sold as a set. The controller activates the pump in intervals (10s on, 10s off), until reaching 5°C less than target temp, which is 85°C as standard. But I have not reached that point, yet. The controller should be able to switch the fans on, if target temp is exceeded. But I installed the fans with a manual switch only.

The idea of a water/oil heat exchanger sounds promising to me. It would combine exactly, what I want: higher water temp and lower oil temp. But I'm not sure, if I should combine it or replace the oil cooler. I think, I'd test the combination and remove the oil cooler only, if the temps are too low. My aim is 80-90°C for both.

I was also thinking about a kind of mechanism, which allows to reduce the effective area of the huge aluminium radiator. When it's hot outside, it would allow the air to flow through the whole area and when the engine and/or the weather is cold, it could be closed up to a certain extend. The mechanism could be similar to a flat slider gate or a butterfly flap. Maybe even executed in a way, which allows to adjust the effective area while driving via bowden cable (wire rope).