My New Challenge

[Zuffen]

Whilst I'm waiting for parts for my new motor so I can start it up I've decided to instal a Haltech ECU into my Lancia O37.

This is a two litre 4 valve twin cam supercharged 4 cylinder.

The car is unique in being the only right hand drive version built for Lancia (they were all built outside the factory) in 1984. It has never been rallied (as best we can ascertain) but was used as a practice car in NZ and Australia.

The car is based on a Lancia Monte Carlo (the white car Herbie fell in love with in Herbie goes to Monte Carlo) with the engine turned North-South from East-West with a transaxle out back and full space frame chassis. The car is all fibregalss except the cabin which is steel. The 1/4 windows behind the door are glass as is the windscreen, all others are perspex.

It has some interesting challenges. The supercharger is a PD Rootes type with a slide throttle mounted between it and the manifold. It runs a blow off valve for overpressure and a second blow off valve for gear changes. Both vent air and fuel to atmoshpere. This is how the factory ran their cars.

The existing injection is via a Kulglefischer mechanical system which is nigh on impossible to get parts for and almost impossible to tune as no one seems to know how anymore.

My real challenge is NOT drilling any holes in any part of the engine or body to mount sensors, injectors or the ECU! The car is too valuable to allow it to be permanently modified from stock as they only made 70 or so even though Homologation specified 200 had to be built.

I have 4 injectors mounted in the original mechanical injectors position with adaptors plus andother 2 pre supercharger using the water injection bosses in the inlet tract.

This thing runs up to 35psi at max boost so we're talking a streesed engine. In Group B guise (which this is) they were getting a little over 400hp out them. The car weighs 700kg. We're hoping for a bit more power due to better tunability of the Haltech.

I'l round up photos as I go but here are a couple of the car as it sits. The rear wheels are 15x12's with the widest street Hoosier's we can buy in 15" sze.

IT looks like a POS but that is how they built throw away WRC cars in the early 80's!

 

[cribbj]

Looks like a KITA project, Rod! A slide throttle after the blower? I'll bet the idle on that thing is all over the map.....

If the long term intent is to restore the Kuglefischer setup, you could probably get some help from Kinsler Fuel Injection. They still do a lot of work on old constant flow mechanical systems, but don't wait too long......

 

[JustenGT8]

Bloody hell you have some toys mate, that thing is awesome. I suppose you have an RS200 as a daily driver?


ECU upgrade all sounds doable. It'll never idle sweet with a slide throttle but pretty sure you aren't looking to use this on the street

 

[Zuffen]

John,

We purchased the car around 3 years ago as a good mate of mine always wanted one and we were in a position to buy it so we did. Even my wife thought it a good thing to do.

Over the years we've purchased 2 Lancia Statos for him from the UK and a alloy bodied Ford Cortina factory race car for Italy. He used to repay us by supplying Ferrari parts for damaged cars our company was repairing. Worked to everyones satisfaction, but this one is ours to keep.

I've driven the car once for about 5k's and it is quite fantastic. We have it on Historic registration so it only needs to be roadworthy for us to drive it. It doesn't have to pass emissions or most other tests modified cars must pass/meet as long as it's "as built by the factory", which it is.

It was used in a local rally a couple of years ago and spun a bearing in the supercharger so we started a full engine rebuild.

If you think Lexus parts are expensive try 10,000 Euro (around USD13,000) for a crankshaft, as the crank can't be reground due to the manufacturing method.

Someone had surfaced the head below spec so we had to have it welded over the whole surface then heat treated and milled so the compression ratio would go back to the 9:1 it's supposed to be. 16 valve heads to suit are pretty well unobtainable.

When we pulled the engine down we found it had 4 different types of exhaust valves in it from where someone had bodged the engine the last time it gave trouble.

We've put all new valves, springs, titanium retainers and collets in it as we figure "in for a penney in for a pound".

My mate found the car in a Hotel basement in Monte Carlo together with a hundred or so other exotics. We picked up a Renault 5 turbo Group B at the same time and it's also having an engine rebuild.

These rebuilds take around 2 years as parts so hard to source.

I'll end up with 2 non going vehicles in my garage for a few weeks.

 

[cribbj]

It was used in a local rally a couple of years ago and spun a bearing in the supercharger so we started a full engine rebuild.

My mate found the car in a Hotel basement in Monte Carlo together with a hundred or so other exotics. We picked up a Renault 5 turbo Group B at the same time and it's also having an engine rebuild.

After the luck you had with your Lexus engine build, I certainly hope you found a better shop to work on these.

 

[Zuffen]

Justen,

Just to set the record straight my daily driver is a 6 year old ML320! Great for carrying engines in and towing.

John,

This engine was assembled by FIAT-Torque in Sydney who are probably Australia's most knowledgable people on these. They have an old Delta Integrale World Championship winning car at the back of their shop which is looking for a new home and might find one if all goes well.

Biggest problem is getting the IAT sensor into the manifold without drilling holes. This one may end up installed under the manifold so it can't be seen!

Crank and Cam sensors are only magnets so they should be pretty easy.

Coolant temp sensor should be able to go in the heater hose exit point without drilling.

Should be fun and keep the grey matter going.

 

[Beato]

Rod its awesome news to hear you guys are playing with forgotten wrc super cars here in oz. I have always had a soft spot for intergrales but the renault 5 is too much. Good on you for keeping the originality and heritage of these super cars alive.

 

[Smitherz]

That thing is awesome. I've only seen them in old blurry VHS video tapes and in video games. That is strictly business right there. I love it.

 

[Zuffen]

Apparently in their day they could do wheelstand in second coming of crests in the dirt!

Audi invented the QUATRO to beat it.

I know a few "crazies" who have Intergrales, which were never sold new in Australia.

One mate has a carbon fibre bodied Dino (Ferrari) in full race trim plus a 308GTB with the engine swapped to north-south and all the race gear.

He sources most of his cars from the US as he has amazing contact there.

He also sources RHD Ferraris from anywhere and brings them to Australia and resells them.

 

[Zuffen]

Well the computer and all sensors are in after 2 weeks of solid work.

I got away without drilling a single hole in the engine.

I did drill two small holes to mount the TPS but they are only into an alloy casting.

I moved the boost gauge take off and used that hole in the manifold for the AIT sensor.

I then made an adaptor to go in front of the blow off valve (on the rear of the manifold) to give me manifold pressure for the boost gauge and MAP sensor. The adaptor is a nut off a FWD axle with a bung out of the cars head screwed into it.

I made a new alloy plate at the rear of the engine to replace the factory plate to allow me to mount the water temp sensor.

I mounted the coils (it runs wasted spark) on a plate mounted under some bellhousing bolts and made acover plate for where the distributor lived.

The TPS is a Lexus one (funny I have a few of those!) that I adapted to the end of the throttle shaft. This entailed moving the accellarator cable to the other end of the shaft but it seems to work OK.

I even mounted the ignition module and MAP sensor in existing holes in the vehicle and used an existing bulkhead grommet to get the wiring through.

The crank angle sensor was the biggest challenge. I machine up alloy fittings to bolt into some pre-existing holes in the flywheel designed to bolt the ring gear on. There are 8 of them so finding two 180degrees apart was easy. The sensor is mounted on a plate that bolts to 3 existing moles on the front of the bell housing. This took two attempts as the first fittings I made hit a plate inside the bellhousing that I couldn't see. The second set worked well but hit the starter as the crank rotated so I ground a little off the starter and they now clear nicely.

Now all we need to do is finish the fuel system then give the ECU some parrameters and try and start it up.

Here a few photos.

 

[XR8tt]

What model Haltech ?? Rod ..

 

[Smitherz]

So jealous!

 

[Zuffen]

Haltech E6X.

Personally it wasn't my choice and I'm not altoghether happy with some of their supporting documentation.

As the engine runs 6 injectors (2 pre-supercharger) I'm running them in a staged format and will turn the pre-supercharger ones on at 5psi.

The engine runs two blow off valves.

One after the supercharger immediately before the throttle plate and one at the end of the manifold.

The first one vents excess pressure when the throttle snaps shut and the scond is to stop overboost.

Both vent to atmoshere. The problem with thsi set up is the first valve vents into the engine bay and it will vent a fuel mix so we're looking at running some plumbing to vent it out the rear.

The overboost valve vents via a rubber hose to the base of the rear suspension. Again it will vent fuel rich air.

I think both could do with some improvement.

 

[XR8tt]

Hmm?? E6X is four generations old...
Seems engine management is going to be tricky due to the way overboost is controlled and venting to atmo with fuel is not too safe or epa friendly...
I see why you don't want to change the mechanical side...

If the engine management controled overboost ? Then fuel cut can be used, as in fuel cut on decel.... I guess it still can be ?? Mech tune mixed with electronic is not easy...
Just goes to show how far programing & engine management has improved..
Even on poverty pac engines these days..

 

[Zuffen]

I'm glad to say I'm not the one tuning it.

Here's some old footage with the carburetted engine. Notice it banging and popping on the overrun. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgGeLgSnpQM

Just after this footage it spun a bearing in the supercharger which brought on the 3 year re-build.

 

[JBrady]

9 minutes of action

Henri Toivonen Lancia 037

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKH6fLl1cm4

 

[XR8tt]

Would fitting higher flowing main injectors and doing away with the two outside blower help with blowing fuel into engine may ???
What compression and specs on this engine etc??
Be interesting compared to today's rally specs..
Different rules with restricters etc..

 

[Zuffen]

In Group B set up the cars ran water injection on 8.5:1 compression with up to 15psi boost.

Feeding fuel in early will help cool it but it also creates some problems.

At least it should look spectacular if the fuel ignites!

I know it sounds odd that I don't have much say in what happens to my car but I guess I don't care enough for it, and trust my mate impliciitly. That said I wouldn't let him loose in my Rover.

Whilst it's a cool toy it doesn't "float my boat" like my Rover or a dozen other vehicles I would own in preferrence.