We completed the engine transplant this weekend. Our motley crew consisted of of Abel and I along with the Steve, Ryan and Dave from Secant. Ryan led our efforts as he has completed this swap a few times and developed the integration. We got started at about 9am on Saturday and started up the new engine at 1am on Sunday (see last pic below). We also had a few visitors who checked out the swap. 
Essentially we removed the old engine, bolted the TVS blower onto the new built engine along with the old transmission and few other bits. The 'Devil is in the Details' so I will post some details of the mechanicals later. Needless to say I was impressed with the use of OEM components that result in a factory- looking engine bay.
We buttoned up the car on Sunday after finding a couple of loose hose clamps. Steve had already completed a rough engine calibration so the car was safe to drive. My driving impressions were limited as the engine still needed to be broken in. We drove around on Sunday keeping the rpms under 4k. The Exige can be driven around at very low rpms very easily. It just drives smoothly and idles beautifully. We put the car into 3rd gear and tooled around at 1500rpm with ease. Ryan had previously spent a significant amount time getting the shifter sorted so it shifts nicely and easily.
Steve drove off to San Francisco at about 3pm Sunday. He will complete the engine calibration and bring it back down for additional track testing in a couple of weeks. We then plan to take it to LOG29 and show off the Stage II kit. We are slated to give a Tech Seminar at LOG on Sunday at 3pm so please join us.
2 comments:
Only the top picture expands to a larger size :(
Finally a proper engine for our cars!
Post a Comment