Electronic Ignition

[miked]

I can't help saying this;
Experiencing some of the flawed parts of the Elan experience is not always that enjoyable.
Especially if you have had a good run without problems and had some great days out. That's when it hurts most. Plus when you have gone out of your way to carry out good maintenance and buy quality parts.
I have only been at it 25 years so not as long as many on here. I don't think any of consciously set out to start modifying things on our cars. It comes comes down to being let down by certain items and trying to increase reliability.
Obviously your car your choice but just thought i would say this. It has been an evolution of driving the cars and experience of failures not any desire to loose the character of the car for any other reason. I suppose it helps to have personal experience of failures to appreciate this.
Mike

[HCA]

I’d be really grateful for any comments, suggestions, ideas, and experiences of the group on my potential plan, concept and general thought process.
Ian
SoCal

With respect, you appear to be all over the place!

You want to overcome all the old problems and replace with new, but you want originality...why? And as for all the comments you are getting about 'hiding' mods, again, why?

There is plenty of room here for those who wish to renovate historically and those who wish to modify te cars and neither side should criticise the other. I am afraid though that there are more derogatory and unnecessary comments from the originality police aimed at us though. Unnecessary as the Elan is by far from endangered and it has, along with a lot of other cars of the age, been modified down the years.

So, you want to inject and want ignition without a rotor arm. So did I ! You plan to build a new engine? I have already started - (1700, EFI onto a Voigt box - maybe 150hp, but not too worried either way as I just want an instant start and a smooth ride without fiddling with jets, floats, a&r springs/weights and clean hands )

Injection is easy - a set of Jenvey TBs, a Ford EDIS coil and trigger wheel and couple all this to an Emerald ECU - follow the istall instructions, and if you get it right, the car will fire up first time and run sweetly. No need for a rolling road unless you plan to race or are anal about the hp. I doubt that 99.9% of us here would sense the difference 10hp would make on our road cars.

Yes you can hide all this and pretend you are original, but personally I think it is childish. I am quite happy to show it off and upset the originailty folk Either way do what you want - it is all about having fun and keeping it all alive!

You say you want an English head. Why? I have a John Wilcox race head that I am sure is a Tony Ingram design, and get more help from Tony Ingram than I do from Wilcox, so my advice is stay with your home grown experts. I only read your post this morning otherwise I would have alerted you to some really good black friday deals from Summit Racing on main parts for a FF engine, to whet your appetite to make a start

Keep in touch with your decision...

edit ps:
If you are intent on pretending the mods are not there, and in case you are unaware, Jenvey make Weber look-a-likes:
https://store.jenvey.co.uk/throttle-bod ... r-tdp40-48

Pricey yes, but they will - at first glance - give you the originality look

And, by the way, if you are looking at injection AND a race prepared head, be sure to size up the ports of your head BEFORE ordering the TBs as you might find that the ports are 45mm...

[Ianashdown]

You’d be correct in saying I’m all over the place! I’m torn between two visions. Clearly at some point I’m going to have to decide, but I’m thinking the car and the condition of various parts will lead me in one direction.

I have, as you know, all the components for hot TC including a Bob Yarwood head and everything from there down new, including Carrillo rods, CP pistons etc. all this was purchased if not directly then with advice from Tony Ingram.

If I go the route of originality then I’ll go to considerable lengths to used the original engine etc.

Ideally I’d like to build two projects side by side, one all original, one heavily modified. That’s not going to happen though.

I am obsessive about getting everything out of the engine, it comes from 30 years of working in F1, IndyCar etc. but also because I have access to some really top ex-Cosworth friends, and the engine will go on to an engine dyno for final setup and tuning. My experience is that if the engine is well set up, 90+% of power, torque etc then you have a ‘happy’ engine. If you leave too much on the table from a not fully optimized engine it is because something is not ‘correct’ and the engine will not be ‘happy’. It’s more about blueprinting and making a sweet running engine than extracting every ounce of power.

I think in the end this car will most likely be going the fully original route, so I’ll probably get it running using everything as originally built. Then I’ll make some bolt-on improvements for practicality and safety etc.

Ian
SoCal

[pharriso]

At some point if you change too much, you're not experiencing the true Elan.

Ian

Ian,
I think you have a good point. I have been wrestling with the same question. Taken to the limit, you end up with a modern car - at which point you might as well have just bought a modern car. In my case, I have decided to make reversible modifications to improve the reliability and safety, but leave the rest as is. So at the moment, the list is:

Electronic dizzy (security, reliability and ease of tuning)
CV rear driveshafts (safety and IMO improved driving experience)
Alternator (reliability)
Radiator (reliability)
Decent headlights (safety)
Roll over bar (safety)

I'll keep all the original bits in a box should an eventual new owner wish to reverse these changes.

As an ex electronic eng, the wiring of the Elan puts my teeth on edge, inadequate fusing, crappy connectors, poor quality everything else. The rats nest behind the dash with unfused connections is a disgrace. I had originally planned to redesign the system, use a homebrew loom and do the job properly, but that really isn't reversible, so I may stick with an original (replacement) loom and try to do the best I can with what is there.

Guys I am in broad agreement & have pretty much the same mods (except the roll cage.)

[RichardHawkins]

Andy,

I think you are correct about the wiring. An electrical friend advised against rewiring to an improved design, he was correct, I have spent more time wiring than on any other part of the car. But then I am a mechanical engineer.

Richard Hawkins

[Ianashdown]

Hi,

I suspect a new harness is in order for my project. I was planning to go to one of the companies like British Wiring or similar. I’m an Engineer too and I hate anything electrical! But a bad harness can haunt you forever!

Ian

[StressCraxx]

Hi,

I suspect a new harness is in order for my project. I was planning to go to one of the companies like British Wiring or similar. I’m an Engineer too and I hate anything electrical! But a bad harness can haunt you forever!

Ian

British Harness or Sue Miller. I think you may be working with her for lots of hardware bits.