VX FI Monte & Volumetrico FI Beta Spyder

[WestonE]

Fellow Lancia Nuts I wrote an article for the Monte Consortium after being asked the same questions many times so I will share it here in 2 parts:

 “Fit an Eaton Mate” – A journey to create a Supercharged & Fuel Injected Montecarlo  Part 1

The words of pub wisdom I am now used to hearing when I am stupid enough to mention that I am building not one but two Supercharged and Fuel Injected Lancia engines.
So how did I come to decide on such a mad and probably technically difficult scheme for my Montecarlo? First of all I have to admit I like a technical challenge and I love the scope the brilliant Pinifarina manufactured Montecarlo body shell gives for creating a transformed performance sportscar under it’s elegant lines. If you add in Lancia’s pedigree with Superchargers winning Rallies in the 037 and giving effortless power in the Beta Volumex  it feels like the natural development of the Montecarlo and a missed opportunity by Lancia when the cars were new.

However there are also more practical reasons to do with the various Lancia Betas I have broken to support my ambitious VX Beta Spyder project that started with driving home an eBay purchased Beta Spyder VX conversion. Or more accurately driving it for spells between four breakdowns and the AA fixes required to get it from Bradford to High Wycombe.  I do not like to give up easily on a dream and I had some of the parts required for a fantastic Beta Spyder VX. However on close examination it was plain I also had a butchered and rusty bodyshell and interesting modifications like nuts welded to springs to keep the car level and seats mounted on long bolts and a pile of washers.  So through keeping my ears to the ground and being prepared to go where others will not I sourced vital missing parts and interesting spare parts like another good VX Supercharger. In this case rural Devon to slide along a valley edge in the ice and snow with a trailer bringing back a complete but rust dissolved Beta Coupe VX.

So back to the Montecarlo I had already lived my dream of actually using the big valve Guy Croft engine I had paid for many years earlier in my Montecarlo adding Emerald Fuel Injection and Throttle bodies for a really fun 200 BHP result. It is important to add here that I had this in mind before even owning the Monte so I went to work on upgrading and improving the suspension and brakes within weeks of driving my shinny but mechanically shabby Black S2 Coupe home about 10 years ago.     

So the car had the suspension platform to enjoy the power through the addition of anti-dive, anti-squat, Leda Coilovers, Polybushes throughout and camber adjusters. For the brakes I read more than I care to remember on brake design and used and extended Chad’s excellent Brake calculator spreadsheet along with the help of a very friendly F1 quality CNC machine shop to move through 3 generations of brake innovations for my car. Many of these are in use today by keen Montecarlo users.  NB There is a fourth in progress currently if you have the courage to ask me about it over a beer.  Spencer Smith actually provided road testing for the second generation brakes before my car was back on the road with memorable comments like “I just stopped 200 yards short of the junction so I think they work”.
I have to admit at this point that I was caught out by the Big Valve engines desire to Rev and keep on Revving. This prompted the first of several re-thinks and involved rebuilding the engine with stronger forged pistons and rods inside the engine to allow 8500 RPM and max power at 7700 RPM without a F1 style blow up.

I also had to admit that the VX Gear Set inside the Montecarlo casings were not really the right match even if they do allow a seriously fast top speed. With the original Montecarlo box not a solution either as it was effectively a four speed gearbox with the first gear ratio too low. So what if I made the engines match the gearboxes and made use of things like spare VX Superchargers lying around?

Hence the scheme became:
Create a naturally aspirated tuned engine giving a wider spread of torque lower down the rev range at the expense of some top end power and match this to a Montecarlo gearbox with the Beta Gear Set built on the Monte final drive to have 5 gears in sensible spacings. Create a Beta Volumex Supercharged and Fuel Injected engine with up to 220 BHP and 190 Ft lbs of torque from low in the rev range for instant acceleration response and a great match for the VX Gear Set in Montecarlo casings I had already made.

The first part of this scheme is in the car and good fun to drive even with only 187BHP from an engine that should be reliable long term thanks to the high quality engineering provided by Guy Croft , the right use of Forged Pistons and Rods and the hybrid Beta and Montecarlo gearbox .

Now to the real point of this story, having read over 400 pages of books on supercharging after acquiring the parts I have I fully realise there are some sound reasons behind the “Fit an Eaton Mate” comments I have heard. Eaton Roots Supercharges are after all mostly a good modern design, cheap and easy to source second hand. However I wanted to achieve a great result from the 1980s period parts with a nudge towards that other Montecarlo the Lancia 037. I also wanted to use existing manifolds and mountings where I could knowing that David Beale, Tom Mc Gaffagan and Jez Pigden had all managed to get VX engines into their Montecarlo’s.

[WestonE]

Chaps and Divas Part 2

  “Fit an Eaton Mate” – A journey to create a Supercharged & Fuel Injected Montecarlo  Part 2

So by now you know I aim to have a Lancia VX Supercharged and Fuel Injected engine in my Lancia Montecarlo S2 Coupe early in 2012. However I am also very close to having a supercharged and fuel injected engine for my Beta Spyder project complete. This engine will be using the R10 Abarth Volumetrico supercharger normally found on a Lancia 037. Yes I really do have this Supercharger and it will be powering probably the quickest Lancia Beta Spyder in the world, but that is another story for another day! 

So why am I using Fuel Injection for the VX Montecarlo, why not just throw a Weber DCOE on it and crack on with the driving? There are many reasons some are practical for instance I already own and have fitted in the car the full FI fuel and sensor system and Emerald ECU. But others are related to drivability in all conditions, fuel economy and emissions control to keep the ever more aggressive MOT man happy and of course you get more power with Fuel Injection.  One of the odd technical challenges with the DCOE on the front approach is on highly tuned engines you have to fit smaller “28mm diameter chokes” (the hole the air has to pass through) to stop hard stalling when the throttle is snapped open. This reduces airflow and therefore power considerably over a twin 45mm Throttle Body.

I was also determined to make the VX fit without having to cut my Montecarlo bodyshell knowing that the standard Lancia Beta VX Supercharger mounting makes cutting the rear shelf essential. However Tom Mc Gaffagan had managed it so surely I just needed to copy Tom’s manifold adaptor and outboard manifold? Of course when it came to it this was not possible so I had to commission a newly designed and manufactured 20 degree down tilt adaptor manifold and parallel outboard manifold from Guy Croft. This means if you ever choose to do this there is one less challenge. But this comes with fresh challenges like needing to mount the alternator lower or use a small alternator and make custom brackets to support the supercharger from the oil block and cylinder head. Here my chosen solution is using the cast alloy and steel bracket assembly from a Beta IE with extra metal braces added as it is not possible to cut and join the heavy cast iron VX Oil block/ SC support. Of course with a short drive belt conversion (power steering removed) I also have to fabricate a new drive side belt tensioner using an Integrale bearing and alloy belt guide sleeve. At least the Beta IE Alloy oil block is lighter and will join to my existing remote oil filter and oil cooler plumbing exactly like the current Montecarlo one does. 

Clearly the standard Montecarlo Exhaust would be a bit restrictive for an engine with this sort of power. Fortunately I have already had a Stainless Steel 4 into 1 system made by Stainless Exhaust System with a large straight through silencer for use with my former big valve engine. This will be ceramic sprayed as soon as I can afford it to replace the heat wrapping used previously that seems to need replacing once a year that I dislike with a passion.

Standard Montecarlo clutches do not handle more than 30% extra torque tending to self destruct spectacularly as I have personally experienced in the past to the amusement of my friends and neighbours.  Clearly a better solution was required to fit to a lightened flywheel whilst still being civilised on the road, so multi-plate ceramic paddle clutches were off the list. Fortunately the VX lightened flywheel diameter is the same as the 8V Delta Integrale so I simply sourced an upgraded Delta Integrale item.

The real fun starts with getting fuel injectors fitted to the existing VX inboard manifold as the manifold is narrow with lots of bits in the way. For instance the back fire valve which is vital to the survival of the VX Supercharger has to be moved to the handy cast boss on the horizontal face of the manifold. The injectors themselves even with the small Pico items cannot be fitted at the normal shallow angle used on naturally aspirated cars. By using 19mm diameter weld in injector pockets supplied by Jenvey at a 20 degree angle back from the top face of the manifold the job can be done effectively. I also discovered recently that modern Roots Supercharges use “Bypass Valves” at part throttle and light cruise to both reduce fuel consumption and heat so I am fitting an item from Bailey Motorsport to do this job. Once again if I had just put an Eaton on it the newer ones come with Bypass valves built in! 

The next major challenge was how to fit a fuel rail so that it would clamp the injectors in place, but be removable for servicing and inspection of the injectors. After a lot of head scratching and being resigned to having a custom fuel rail made by Jenvey Dynamics I came up with the following solution. By cutting off the water pipe stubs at each end of the manifold the steel holes could be tapped with  6x1mm threads giving fixings at each end of the manifold as the water holes are blocked off with plastic metal/ JB Weld. By also adding 2 rectangular alloy blocks tapped with 6x1mm threads welded into the central recess in the VX manifold I get 2 more 6 mm fixing points for the fuel rail. Thus Jenvey get an inlet manifold with injector pockets and mounting points so they can manufacture a fuel rail to fit my needs.   
   
Until I spoke to a number of previous installers of VX engines I was not going to use injectors outboard of the Supercharger through concerns about atomising the fuel on the hot rotors. However it was pointed out to me that cooling the Supercharger was a very good idea and it was designed to run wet to give the best boost pressure. Hence the use of 2 more Pico injectors one triggered with cylinders 1 and 4 and the other triggered with cylinder 3 and 2.

Of course this engine also wants lots of nice cold clean air as superchargers generate heat and most modern Supercharger installations use intercoolers and the threat of detonation damaging the engine is high. This can melt pistons, blow head gaskets and literally destroy the engine by uncontrolled explosions. So I have to make an airbox pattern in breakfast packet cardboard before it is sent away to be transformed into aluminium. It would be better in plastic or GRP or Kevlar/ carbon fibre but I have no talent with these materials for making the mould required.  This shinny new airbox will have heat and noise insulation on the outside and will be fed by a huge hose with a K&N gauze canister filter picking up cool air from under the car.   

So with these bits made I just have to connect up fuel hose and add a 2.5 BAR map sensor to read load from boost/ vacuum into the ECU and connect the fuel pressure regulator to the inlet manifold so it provides fuel pressure of manifold pressure plus 3 BAR.

With these little bits finished it is time to load the car on a trailer to Norfolk for running in and mapping on Dave Walkers’ rolling road before dancing a jig whilst yelling it’s alive like a scene from a bad Carry On film!
So if you happen to see me at an event with the car with a running VX FI Montecarlo (what a mouthful) please forgive me if I have a self satisfied smile on my face and try not to laugh if I am still dancing a jig!

Eric

[Hawk]

That's a great write up - thanks Eric

[peteracs]

Hi Eric

Magic writeup, I do hope to catch up with you at show soon and see the 'creation'.

Peter

[thecolonel]

Excellent piece Eric.
I think I'll just stick to a carb upgrade.

Anyone want an eaton M45 supercharger ?

[75coupe]

Any news on the VX projects Eric?

I have to declare an interest as I am about to send 2 VX heads to GC for Beta coupe VX track car projects, and I am undecided whether to build one as a full race N/A engine (200BHP on carbs) or both VX with similar (or more) power but obviously far more torque.

My dilemma is that fitting the blower will put me in the over 3 liter class.....but I like the idea of all that instant torque on tap...

Regards Ian

[WestonE]

Ian

Slow painful progress only at this point with the VX FI Monte first to be installed this winter once I have finished the custom brackets and custom fuel rail. The engine is built and on a stand but has not had much focus in the last month as I have been using the GC FI engine in the monte at various events and playing with my 6 piston front brake setup. If you do not already own a VX blower in great condition I suggest getting either an Eaton or the Toyota SC as a base unit. To be competitive in race form I think you would need a 16V head conversion to be taking on 3 litre race cars and winning. You are looking for 280 BHP plus IMHO and the VX blower is a little small and too fragile to over gear beyond 21 tooth drive pulleys. NB I had 2 made for my VX blowers by Alan Young Engineering and the belt pitch is different to the industrial equivalent. If you are using Eaton or Toyota you have Poly V pulleys with lots of choices once you change the crank drive pulley.   

I hope that helps

Eric

[75coupe]

Thanks for the info Eric. I was considering a Toyota SC14 blower, they are cheap and readily available in Oz, and at 1.4 liter slightly larger than the VX . Not sure if it is capable of 280hp though., I imagine inter cooling would be mandatory at this power level.

Good luck with the projects & will keep you posted on any progress this side of the pond...

Regards Ian