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350+whp stock 2zz Custom Turbo Elise build

37K views 47 replies 22 participants last post by  eldonz 
#1 · (Edited)
Hello all,

This is a fun build thread that I figure some of you may find entertaining to follow along. I originally came from the Toyota MR2 world and has about 10 years worth of tinkering on turbos and tuning. Now that I've moved on to the Lotus world, the boost itch has gotten me again. This will be done on my 2005 Starlight black Elise. It will be used mostly on street and occasional mountain runs. The goal is 300whp on pump gas and 350+whp on E85, emphasizing on response and usable power under the curve. The car is expected to have full traction in every gear with the setup of boost by gear.

In a nutshell:

  • Stock unopened 2zz
  • Adaptronic plug and play ECU
  • Radium turbo manifold
  • Custom billet GTX2860rs
  • Tial MVS external WG
  • Tial QRJ BOV
  • Custom 3" downpipe and exhaust
  • Custom water to air IC
  • 850cc Injector Dynamics
  • 340lph Aeromotive fuel pump
  • Custom fuel rail, pressure regulator and return system
  • Custom Derale oil cooler, thermostatic fans
  • Stage 2 ACT XTSS clutch and stainless clutch hose



All important pictures, videos, dyno graphs will be updated in this first thread.













First pull - stock ECU/E85 ~8psi

 
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#2 ·
First to tackle is the BOE clam hinge. I knew I would need this mod if I am to install and service the turbo myself. I made my own custom diffuser to chassis brace to keep my dual euro style exhaust. I'm selling the exhaust in picture if anyone is interested, as I will be making another in 3" piping for the turbo. http://www.lotustalk.com/forums/f95/fs-custom-intake-dual-exhaust-euro-style-elise-exige-383666/






I got a few things done while I had the rear compartment out.

AEM air fuel ratio gauge




Can I say how ridiculous it was to pull the fuel pump housing out of the tank in the Elise? I came up with a way to "tow" it out though.




Installed return fitting on top of housing



Followed up with welding on a 6an fitting on the fuel rail




Then installed the adjustable FPR to finish up the fuel return system. The ID725cc injectors will be installed at a later time.





Next, I installed a Derale oil cooler using Russell fittings and oil lines. A custom mounting bracket had to be made. My car came with dual oil coolers from factory, and I decided to use those as heat exchangers for my W2A intercooler system. The OEM ones were overcooling the oil anyway, I was glad to redirect their cooling to the intercooler instead. I also fabricated a thermostatic switch for the Derale oil cooler fans to only turn on when oil temp reaches 190F.







I'll be removing the transmission and install the clutch next. I'll call it a day for now.
 
#4 ·
From my experience, the stock returnless system is good for up to 375whp with a high flowing pump and large injectors. It's always good idea to run an adjustable FPR with 1:1 rising ratio to maintain the base pressure as boost rise to achieve good atomization of fuel.



Back on track, I managed to drop the tranny and got the OEM flywheel resurfaced.




ACT XTSS installed




With the tranny off, I decided to swap a set of 6th gears from the Celica's C60. This will lower the cruising RPM on the freeway. (Tip for anyone doing this gear swap: use the biggest gear puller you can find or you risk breaking the gear teeth. I rented the 7 ton 3-prong gear puller from autozone. Worked perfectly).




I decided to call it a day. Once the tranny is back on the car, I can move from these boring tasks and work on the fun stuffs. Here's a teaser of what I have planned for exhaust routing.

 
#5 ·
I found an old dyno graph when I had my MR2 spyder with the celica 2zzge. This was bone stock with a custom turbo kit that I built running E85, tuned on a Power FC standalone EMS. Cams crossover was right at 4200rpm.

Blue line is 15psi and red line is 11psi using GTX2863r. Doubtful that I can pull off similar numbers with the current manifold and smaller turbo, as I find the Radium manifold somewhat lacking compared to the equal length manifold that was used in my MR2.

 
#6 ·
Very interested in seeing how this all pans out since I'm running a more aggressive setup but am currently at 280whp with a conservative tune at 12psi on a GTX2867R.

Did you drill holes in the Radium manifold to fit the T2 turbo since the Radium manifold has a T3 flange? That's what I've done for my Radium/GTX2867R setup. However, the previous similar setup saw some issues with the manifold and turbo flange pulling apart. This ended with a blown gasket that cut into a water feed line for the turbo.
 
#7 ·
#8 ·
From my understanding there isn't a T3-flanged turbine housing for the GTX2x turbo that offers an external wastegate option. That's why I'm running a drilled T2 flange turbine housing with an external WG. You mention running an external wastegate for this setup, but that turbine housing won't allow one. How are you planning to run one?

Tuning was done on a Dyno Dynamics using AEM EMS Series 2.
 
#10 ·
You're correct. There's no T3 turbine housing with the flange welded on to use an external. However, you can weld on a tube over the wastegate hole on the discharge flange. This will separate wastegate flow from turbine outlet for an external setup.

So you must be running the T2 turbine housing with 44mm wastegate flange. Only problem with that is it only comes in .72 AR in full T3 flow, which equivalent to a .96 AR T2. That must be fairly laggy on a 2867r. Do you have the dyno graph?
 
#9 ·
That's not bad for the spyder eng swap. I still have my Mrs, really want to make it a race only car. Wife enjoys it too much though.
 
#11 ·
Yes I was close to getting that ATP turbine housing also but the AR was to high and I was worried about lag. Mines the .86 and that's about perfect for my 2.0 2ZZ.

I agree with Tien, you should be making more power than that at that boost level. Even if that dyno reads low you should be around 340rwhp on that turbo. Something is not quite right me thinks.....

My current setup with the tiny GT2560R makes around 270rwhp at 6lbs

With the GTX2863R I should be good for an easy 370rwhp at 16lbs
 
#12 ·
[IMG said:
http://imageshack.com/a/img922/4411/9q9Hug.jpg[/IMG]
How much longer could the exhaust tips stick out before they would hit your tilting clam? I have the SE exhaust tips and am pretty sure they would hit, which is why i have not installed the clam hinge.
 
#18 · (Edited)
Got some work done. Exhaust went as planned, however I decided it was easier to use two slip joint clamps to hold the U pipe in place to make future install/removal of exhaust easier. I left the external wastegate vented to atmosphere for now.


I bought a new 1zz oil pan to make a return fitting. The main reason I went with the 1zz oil pans is because they come with internal baffles, whereas the 2zz do not. Removing the OEM oil pan is a whole different write up..



For the turbo oil feed, I figured out the thread pitch of the sandwich bleeder fitting (M10 x 1.0) and installed a banjo to connect a 4AN line to the turbo.




For exhaust, I welded a 2.5" to 3" transition and made a pipe for external wastegate.





Exhaust tips still need to be welded on. That U pipe is due for a polishing job as well.




I began installing the water to air intercooler and piping, as well as mounting the water reservoir for heat exchangers on the roll bar support.



I mounted the 3 lbs battery, and Jabsco 29 gpm water pump on the passenger side to even out some weight distribution.
 
#21 ·
Delayed response, but this is the most recent dyno graph. Shortly after the dyno tune I found out that I had a faulty wide band sensor. Unfortunately since winter is fast-approaching here in MN there won't be a re-tune until next season.

I may be looking at changing the turbine housing and modifying an exhaust housing like you've done.
 
#23 · (Edited)
I was unsure when BOE would resume selling their tunes, and I would hate for the car to sit until then so I opted to go with ID725cc injectors instead of ID1000cc. 725cc injectors are more manageable and still be able to support my goal of 350-400whp. I had a hunch that I can get the car to run safely on stock ECU with E85, since E85 is very forgiving when it comes to knock/detonation. By fiddling with the fuel pressure regulator I was able to get the car to idle, cruise, and WOT with the stock ECU/E85 combo. I used an app on my phone to check short term fuel trims and more importantly ignition timing under WOT. To my surprise the NA ecu throws out conservative numbers compared to turbo 2zz's that I've tuned in the past. I think it's even safe to run on pump gas, but I'll stick to E85 until I can strap it on a dyno with a tuning software.

Turbo is very responsive, I'd estimate full boost to be around 3500rpm in 4th gear. I have no boost gauge, but I'm using a 7.5 lbs wastegate springs so it's around there. Here's a short clip, it caught me a little off guard since I didn't expect to roast tires in 2nd gear when it's hot out.




These are the last few pictures that I will post for a while. Will be on vacation and won't update for a couple of weeks. I still have a couple of minor gremlins to track down when I get back and hopefully get started with boost control.







 
#25 ·
Nice progress Thang...I sent you a PM with a question for you.
 
#30 ·
The car is running great, still on stock ECU and 9-10 psi of boost. I already put over 3000 miles on the turbo setup and no issue so far. At this point, I'm waiting for Eliseparts to ship me a modified EP standalone ECU to work with drive by cable so I can finally tune the car. I'll post dyno result once the ECU is in.
 
#31 ·
Finally an update. OEM ECU did very well running the turbo setup with 725cc injectors with some minor tweak to fuel pressure. I recently passed OBDII emission with flying color. Spring is approaching and it's time to put away the stock ECU to see what this stock engine can do on full standalone E85.

The ECU I'm working with is EP Tuning ECU from eliseparts. Originally, this ECU was made for an Exige DBW. Eliseparts sold me an adapter harness to make it work with 05 cable Elises. One good thing about this ECU is that the connection to laptop is made via the OBDII port. So no messy wiring through the rear firewall. The bad thing is, I had to make custom brackets to mount the ECU to the firewall, since there is now an additional adapter harness box.

This standalone is capable of running on MAF or MAP sensor. For my case, I converted to a GM 3bar MAP sensor for ease of tuning boost. After a couple of days tinkering on the software, I finally made a base map with good cold start, idle, cruising, and full throttle. I used VVT and ignition timing maps from my old 2zz turbo builds to adapt it to the new base maps. I'll be tuning on a dynojet in the near future to make the 350whp as intended. The car will be complete with boost by gear, traction control, and some nice rubber in the rear.
 

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