[Gouky]

Alright sorry about the couple day delay. My large format resin 3d printer came in so i should be able to cycle things a bit quicker now. There's been a few changes:
1)belt alignment has been tweaked by a little over 1mm to make it as close to perfect as i can measure it. it should track just fine
2)compressor rotated clockwise from front to clear oil cooler version of water pump and to give suction hose clearance to thermostat housing.
3)compressor moved upwards to give more space to the frame
4)modeled shape of compressor closer to actual so i could reinforce the bracket a bit better
5)make bracket shape interfere with registration dowel that has to be removed. This will hopefully prevent someone tightening the compressor and putting a hole in the compressor or pushing it through the block and breaking it.

Note that the final bracket will likely be cast steel because it's getting a bit spindly in a few spots to give enough clearance and because the compressor and the block are both cast there's not going to be any grinding intended but clearances will still need to be checked on every motor and potentially shaved a bit. This is not ideal but every bit of space counts here and should take a few minutes with a dremel at worst.

and finally, I will also need to make a new thermostat housing to give a bit of extra clearance for the suction hose. the bottom stud will have to be removed and replaced with an included flathead screw.

Thankfully, the thermostat housing is actually one part that i did not get done in mass quantity, i only got 10 of them made so having to revise that part isn't completely wasteful. And yes I'll do something for the early adopters so they are taken care of.

These pictures don't really show enough of what is going on but they show you a bit with the description above:

 

[Mschol17]

Do you think I can keep the existing thermostat housing with a little bending of the hose?

 

[Gouky]

Do you think I can keep the existing thermostat housing with a little bending of the hose?

Yes, absolutely.

 

[Roadblaster]

call me crazy, but it looks like if you swapped the hoses around they would clear. Obvious sucks losing gas etc but something to think about.
Very keen on this bracket!
Love your work, very excited to get stuck in.

 

[Gouky]

You can't swap them, the hoses are different sizes. Also, if you went straight down from the suction port you'd hit the frame rail. it's really hard to see but you can kinda see it in this picture:

I also tried with the 12mm extension on the port and that still causes it to hit the thermostat housing, it just hits it higher up now.

I'm about to send this file to my 3d printer so i can test fit it. There's actually enough thickness that i can stay with 10mm bolts with a bit of recess:

So hopefully late tonight I'll post a picture of the fit-up on the bench motor with the suction hose clearing everything. If that works I'll do a test on the car for the A/C bracket and make sure all that stuff clears and measure the final clearance to the frame before starting to send parts off for production.

 

[Gouky]

Hurray! so the print came out and i had to shave the corner of the flange off just a little bit so the model will need to be updated for that but after that it all fit!
That said, I'm sure the tolerance on this stuff isn't perfect and it'll still be necessary to tweak the angle on some of these pipes at least a little bit but it should only be a mm or two worth of tweaking, suddenly much more reasonable than it was before.

and here you can see the clearance. Note that the bolt in there is an extra tall hex. I'll provide a shorter hex bolt and maybe cut one more mm worth of depth out so it sits further in.

this also means the position of the spring clamp on the coolant hose will be critical to not interfere with the suction hose. This is really not how i wanted it but fitting the stock compressor with the stock hoses so you don't need a shop to drain and refill your refrigerant system is a pretty nice bonus.

Next step is to install that compressor bracket on the car and see where the pulley clearance lands right now.

 

[Biomed&Barolo]

Just to make totally sure: I think I saw a few posts back from Michael that the mounting is different for some years of the Spyder. Does the mount you’ve made work with the pre-‘03 or post-‘03 compressor? Or with modifications will it work with either?

 

[Gouky]

It needs to be the pre '03 compressor. the '03+ compressor has the lower right mounting ear right at the wrong spot.

 

[Gouky]

And here it is all bolted into place. I'm getting better and better at installing the compressor with the motor in a fixed position.

Here it is in position:

And here it is with my distance checking wedge with the stock Spyder pulley:

you can see there's no 10mm but the wedge is also bridging the recess in the frame, it's actually closer to about 12mm of clearance.

with the 5mm smaller juke pulley there's an expected 2.5mm distance savings, no surprise here:

all that extra clearance was mostly due to pushing the compressor further up because the motor angles back and the frame angles forward so just a little bit of distance makes a big difference.

But of course i pushed the limits on how far you can push it. this all fits great with a 2AR-FE but if you have the 1AR-FE's tow package oil cooler you will have to shave the top right ear of the compressor just a bit:

This is only necessary if you have the 1ar-fe oil cooler otherwise no grinding necessary.

So there it is, i have to work on the final revisions and give it another test fit of course but the brakcet is now refined to where it fits the stock compressor with the stock lines without any bending being necessary. Only if you have the 1ar-fe oil cooler upgrade on your motor do you need to shave the top right mounting ear. The Juke compressor pulley and magnet is not even necessary unless you want extra clearance.

I'm pretty damn happy with this end result.

 

[Gouky]

Oh, last thing i wanted to mention today on this. I also scratched my head a bit on how to remove the dowel pin that is in the way without being able to fit a slide hammer in there with a dowel puller. I ended up finding a 1/4"-28 thread die and a 1" socket and just threaded it on and it came right out of the block. The dowel is not hardened so there's no issues pulling it that way.

 

[Roadblaster]

man this is literally the last thing i was worried about and you have it all sorted,
it is truly a all box ticked conversion now.

 

[Mschol17]

How’s that bracket coming... it’s hot here!

 

[Gouky]

Yeah, it's getting hot as hell here too!

I was at a race last weekend and i had to prep for that so i'm right back at it this week. I'm 3d printing the final test fit for the waterneck right now so i can send that off to manufacturing this week. I want to finish that first since the manufacturing on that will be longer than the bracket then I will finish up the bracket for the next test fit, if everything goes well that'll go off to manufacturing this week also, possibly next if there are delays.

 

[Gouky]

So I got back to it today, spent a bit of time thinking about the waterneck. I extended it so the clip can't accidentally hit the suction pipe and wear a hole through it.

The top of the print failed to stick to the build plate but the parts i cared about printed just fine

It looks tighter than it is, there's about 2-3mm clearance to the suction pipe. I would not be surprised if the tolerances on that pipe aren't perfect so some people may need to get just a tiny bit more bend on that pipe but that should be relatively easy.

So i'll get the manufacturing documents wrapped up on that and send that off and start working on the hopefully final bracket revision.

 

[serialk11r]

Any update on the valvetrain upgrades? I'm thinking about an SW20 with an upgraded 2AR again, because the rumored Lotus was seen wearing Evora bodywork (aka it's not going to be as light as an MR2...).

 

[Gouky]

Any update on the valvetrain upgrades? I'm thinking about an SW20 with an upgraded 2AR again, because the rumored Lotus was seen wearing Evora bodywork (aka it's not going to be as light as an MR2...).

No updates yet, the good and bad news is there's been a TON of interest in the SW20 chassis lately which has made me busy filling all those orders and providing the tech support soother than the A/C which I'm working on right now there hasn't been much progress here.

On the A/C stuff i'm printing yet another prototype right now, everything should be at the right place now, this should just be a final check for all that. Assuming that all fits I need to spend some time cleaning up the model to make it prettier and fix draft angles and whatnot to make it easier to manufacture because right now some of the geometry on here would probably triple the cost of the part because of excessive machine time with tiny endmills.

This A/C bracket is probably my most complex design yet, there's just so many constraints all over the place.

I'll give you guys a test fit update hopefully later today.

 

[serialk11r]

I had a weird thought today, since you use the EB60 on the 2GR (while Lotus uses the EA60), and the EB60 is used on the 3ZR Avensis in Canada while the EC60 is used for the 1ZR and 2ZR powered Avensis elsewhere, is there some chance the EC60 fits the 2AR without needing new axles and whatever?

Lotus runs 265Nm through that transmission on the Elise Cup 260, and I think the factory torque limit is supposed to be something like 280Nm. It should a little bit lighter (IIRC around 20lbs) and a little bit cheaper than the EB60 (which is kind of rare), and still able to handle the 2AR's torque. A possible upside is the final drive is also a teeny bit shorter, and you would be able to use an off the shelf S3 Lotus LSD. I see them on Ebay for under 500 bucks shipped!

If it fits, then this automatically opens up 2ZR swaps as well with your transmission mount, which I know is pretty pointless for most people who would rather have the extra power from the 2AR but it's still a nice option for California folks who can BAR the car, maybe import a 3ZR to get a nice stroker on the cheap, while cutting 50lbs from the engine.

 

[Gouky]

I'm a bit ahead of you on that one. I ordered an EC65 out of a 2020 corolla to check it out. I did not realize that Lotus used a different version of it. What piqued my interest was that it has a higher torque rating and the price of them new is "only" $2200 which is better than the EB60. It's also about 1" narrower which has other potential implications for other engines.

When i got it here i realized i screwed up though, the starter location is wrong for the 2AR-FE, it uses an engine side starter which won't work with the 2AR and even if it did the exhaust would have no room to run anymore.

I went ahead and looked up the EC60 also and it looks like the starter is also on the wrong side.

you could probably take advantage of the 1" narrower width and do what the evora does with the EA60/2GR. they add a spacer that mounts the starter and just hack off a part of the bellhousing that is in the way.

 

[serialk11r]

Ah, that's too bad I guess. From a Toyota dealer website it says EC65 is for 2014-2017, not 2020? The difference seems to be a taller 5th and 6th gear. The new TNGA manual paired to the M20A-FKS is apparently called EG60, and I have no idea if that's compatible with older engines. 2020 Toyota Corolla 2.0L MT Transaxle assembly, manual. Transmission, driveline - 3030012J10 - Genuine Toyota Part

New 6-speed Manual Transmission (6MT) | Toyota's New Powertrain | TNGA | Mobility | Toyota Motor Corporation Official Global Website

Toyota has also developed a new manual transmission in response to global needs, particularly those in Europe. Compared to the existing version, the mass of the new system has been reduced by seven kilograms and total length by 24 millimeters. This makes it one of the world's smallest...

global.toyota

40kg is actually not very light, as that's how much the C60 weighs, however it does have those oil splash collecting thingies which I think is well worth the 10lbs or whatever. That might mean the EC60 is the 47kg transmission, and given the EA was 87kg?, I'm guessing the EB is over 60kg, making it quite hefty (Lotus must have gone EA60 to accommodate the supercharged engines). Even if it fits older engines, almost 1000 dollars over the EC60 to save 7kg is not the best value proposition.

Do the axles and mounts line up with every other E series application though? I'm thinking more along the lines of knocking more weight off the SW to make it more competitive with the ZZW, but you could knock weight off the ZZW platform to good effect too. It would be perfect for the (admittedly very poor value) high-rpm 2ZR-FE build I'm thinking of.

 

[Roadblaster]

i have an eb61 trans as I am in Australia and couldn't get the eb60/62 trans like you guys in the states, had to buy a whole new front housing. Anyways I can take some photos of them back to back so you can see whats the same and what isnt etc. What Marc has said about the starter is true. As it is an eb61 I have the 4.6 final drive as opposed to 4.0 of the TC/Camry. Will report if its way too short etc and if its something for others to maybe look at installing. I used to drive an ae86 on the street with a BT20v with straight pipe and 4.77 gears and im pretty sure thats the reason I am half deaf.

Alas I think we are detracting away from what is a really nice box and conversion and I think i would rather spend the time sourcing a nice cheap eb60 or saving for a new unit than trying to reinvent the wheel so to speak.

My 2c.