📓 Journals Adding Lightness

[seriously]

Now you've got me thinking

View attachment 49299

X1000 bolts and you might be onto something.

 

[Tomwa]

Plus sparks if they ever rub asphalt

 

[TomAce]

X1000 bolts and you might be onto something.

Every bit counts in large amounts.

 

[Steve Tillett]

One thing to consider is that a hex bolt still comes off easily when it gets worn down. So if you do a Dukes of Hazard over a speed bump, you'll have problems getting button heads off.

 

[Eagle7]

Yeah it’s kind of annoying. Like the flat undercarriage but surely could have been done with not 1000 bolts!

A lot of those are rivets, but yeah, there are a lot of bolts underneath.

 

[Eagle7]

One thing to consider is that a hex bolt still comes off easily when it gets worn down. So if you do a Dukes of Hazard over a speed bump, you'll have problems getting button heads off.

The 2 large rubber bump stops underneath at the front would probably be enough to prevent a speed bump from reaching the button screws, but the ones I installed are much harder than the factory hex bolts. Those are actually kind of cheap.

 

[Eagle7]

Now you've got me thinking

View attachment 49299

I replaced 21 hex head bolts for .79 cents each. That many of those titanium bolts would cost $48!

Just for the sake of interest, I weighed the 21 bolts I replaced; the whole group weighed 5.2 ounces. There isn't enough potential weight savings there to bother with paying for lighter bolts. I replaced these with the button head screws mostly to clean up the appearance underneath the front.

 

[Eagle7]

I received Aerie's titanium muffler yesterday. Because I've bought other things, and I'm a good customer (I think), they made me an offer that was too good to refuse lol (don't ask, I can't say what it was). This is a new revised one, that's supposed to fix any issues with the valve and what not. I also weighed it, and at 11 lbs 14.6 oz it's lighter than the previous one they show on their website which was 14 lbs.

Right now the schedule of events is this: Next week I have an appointment with the Lotus dealer in Salt Lake, to get the trans oil changed (which will have the Archoil 9100 in it), and they're doing the HVAC software update too. It's a 5 hour drive each way, so by the time I get home, the Archoil will have fully integrated itself in the trans. I'll keep track of the gas mileage on the way down, and back after the oil change.

The following Monday, I have an appointment at the dyno shop to get another dyno run. The difference from the last one will only be the Archoil in the engine and trans. I want to see what actual difference the friction reduction makes for power and torque. Once I have that done, I'll swap out the muffler with the Aerie titanium one, and give it about a week for the ECU to adjust to it. Then another dyno run to see what the power differences are with the titanium muffler.

 

[Eagle7]

Yesterday I drove to the Lotus dealer in Salt Lake City, to get the HVAC software update, water shield recall, and have them change the transaxle oil with the Redline gear oil and Archoil 9100 I brought to them. They had to call the tech support line to find out where and how to drain and refill the transaxle, because apparently that isn't in the service manual. Lotus hasn't included it yet! He explained it to me, and I know what he referred to, so next week when I do the muffler swap with the Aerie titanium muffler, I'll take photos and show where the drain plug and refill hole is on the manual trans.

Now for the Archoil.

I had already put it in the engine oil when I had replaced it, but not the transaxle yet. I filled up the car and left at 3:00 a.m. yesterday morning (it's a 5+ hour drive) to get there when the service department opened. On the way down, even though the speed limit for most of the way was 80, I set the cruise at 75. This is the first time I've taken the car on a long drive like this, and the roar of the Goodyears at 80 is fatiguing. This is something I've got to address, either with sound dampening, or a different brand of tires (probably Michelin). At any rate, I had set the Trip B to 0 before starting, and after I did the first fill-up on the trip, I calculated that I got 23.8 mpg. The readout on the dash display was typically around 22.6 so the dash display is slightly pessimistic.

On the trip back home, I gassed up at a station near the dealership so I left with a full tank. After having been up for 12 hours already, I wanted to get home so I went ahead and set the cruise at 80, once I got past Salt Lake City. (By the way, the drivers in Salt Lake drive like maniacs). This is with the Archoil 9100 now in the transaxle too.

I was hoping it would reduce the farm tractor gear growl when starting at low rpms, but it made no difference at all for that although I can tell the trans is quieter now. The Archoil should have had an effect if the growl is from the trans itself, so what I'm starting to wonder now is if that noise is coming from the clutch pressure plate springs. They may be loose enough that they rattle around until the rpm reaches high enough that centrifugal force holds them outward so they don't clatter anymore. That of course would be a difficult and expensive thing to fix, so I'm just going to have to live with it until the time comes to have to replace the clutch.

As far as the Archoil 9100, it had a surprising effect on the gas mileage (this is just in the transaxle too). On the way back home, measuring the same way (actual miles driven divided by the number of gallons the car took at the first refuel stop), I got 25.8 mpg! So before the Archoil in the trans, doing 75 most of the way I got 23.8 mpg, and after the Archoil, doing 80, I got 25.8 mpg. 2 mpg better! If I had done 75, it would have been even better. Now it's going to be interesting to see what the results are around town.

Monday I have an appointment for another dyno run, so I'll have a chart that shows what effect the Archoil has on power and torque (if any). I can say that there's been a definite reduction in the mechanical noise from the engine and trans, and now a definite increase in gas mileage. I wish I had been able to do a before and after with doing both the engine and trans at the same time, but it's surprising that just the trans alone would make that much difference in the gas mileage.

 

[Eagle7]

Lol @KCMO68_510 what's with the facepalm?

 

[KCMO68_510]

Lol @KCMO68_510 what's with the facepalm?

Because any number of things make more sense to attribute the difference in gas mileage to than the oil type. (change in weather, direction of travel, etc).

Causation vs Correlation analysis going on.

 

[Eagle7]

Because any number of things make more sense to attribute the difference in gas mileage to than the oil type. (change in weather, direction of travel, etc).

Causation vs Correlation analysis going on.

Did you actually read my entire post? It wasn't just an oil type. I put a friction modifier in the oil. I did this whole thing in one day. Drove to the dealer in the morning, waited until the work was finished, then drove home. Same day, same weather. Archoil 9100 is a friction modifier. You use 1.2 ounces per quart of oil. I put it in the Redline gear oil which I replaced the factory gear oil with. Archoil 9100 is what Jay Leno uses in his billion dollar collection of exotic and rare cars.

 

[KCMO68_510]

Same day, same weather.

Opposite directions on two 5 hour drives with shop time inbetween... and I'm guessing wind speeds/temperature/road incline were all different over those two separate 5 hour drives. Every little change matters.

Look, if you feel like it's helped, great. Feel free to continue having that feeling. Reality is that this isn't a controlled test so everyone should take the 2mpg immediate gain with a grain of salt.

 

[Eagle7]

Opposite directions on two 5 hour drives with shop time inbetween... and I'm guessing wind speeds/temperature/road incline were all different over those two separate 5 hour drives. Every little change matters.

Look, if you feel like it's helped, great. Feel free to continue having that feeling. Reality is that this isn't a controlled test so everyone should take the 2mpg immediate gain with a grain of salt.

You left out the part where the drive to the dealership was at 75 mph, and the drive back was at 80 mph. Since you seem to fancy yourself as being superior knowledge-wise, I'm sure you know that the fuel consumption at 80 is greater than at 75. This was over the same varying terrain. There wasn't any wind, and the temperature was the same, about 90.

Look, if you feel like you know more about this than I do, feel free to buy some Archoil 9100, put it in your engine and trans, and run your own "controlled" tests so you can publish the results. Maybe even throw in a dyno run or two so you can contribute more to this than your skepticism. The forum would benefit, and we'd get to see the comparison between your results and mine.

 

[Dan C]

I've noticed on front shots of the car, you can see the hex head bolts underneath holding the front body pan on. When I saw a picture (great shot too) that @kitkat posted of his red car, I decided to do something about that with mine.

View attachment 49263

I went to the local Ace Hardware store and got black button screws (M6x16) to replace the hex bolts. The manual says to torque them to 3 ft lbs (4 nm) which is a hand-tighten. The hex head bolts need an 8 mm socket, and the button screws used a 4 mm allen wrench.

View attachment 49264

As I was doing this, I noticed two things. One, there are 4 hex head bolts that bolt straight into the body panel, and for some reason they didn't have any washers under them. You can see the two in the front of the car in the photo below. If you'll look closely, you can see there appears to be an imprint in the body where there was a washer at one time. What this means I don't know. ?? So I'm going to go get some washers and use them when I replace the hex head bolts with the button screws.

View attachment 49271

The other thing I noticed was the aluminum underbody panel makes a lot of noise, like a drum. Now I'm thinking some of the road noise may be coming from at least this one underbody panel vibrating, and maybe others too. Next time I have the car up on the Quickjack, I'm going to remove this panel and put some Damplifier mat on the backside, to dampen it and stop it from vibrating. This may be the source of at least some of the road noise, which will be a lot easier to remedy than removing wheel well liners.

I am really hoping someone figures out the ultimate approach for road noise reduction on the Emira and shares it here!

My solution so far has been to drive with airpods on transparency mode. Still able to hear all important traffic noise, but the airpods cut a few decibels which makes it comfortable.

 

[kitkat]

I am really hoping someone figures out the ultimate approach for road noise reduction on the Emira and shares it here!

My solution so far has been to drive with airpods on transparency mode. Still able to hear all important traffic noise, but the airpods cut a few decibels which makes it comfortable.

The real solution is probably 200 lbs of additional sound damping material or a different car -- it's definitely a loud cabin.

 

[FlyNavy01]

SLC is 4300ft above sea level. Unless you live in Flagstaff or Denver, you were probably driving uphill on the way there and downhill on the way back... Easily enough to effect the mileage by -1mpg and +1mpg respectively, not to mention weather, winds, etc. I agree we're looking too far into this. I do enjoy reading through your 'adding lightness' journey however.

I'm glad I don't find the road noise as annoying as others here. Maybe it's because I'm still relatively young or fly around in generally very loud aircraft, but sports cars aren't meant to be luxury cars. The more sensory experience, the more raw and engaging!

 

[Johnson]

Interesting read about your oil additive. It’s not really a thing here in Australia (do we have different quality oils to you, like our fuels?). What does an additive “add” compared to a good synthetic?

Also, I haven’t gone through all your posts, but did you end up installing the sound deadening material? How did it go, if you did? That added weight would surely counter any reductions from new screws, exhaust, etc.

 

[Rapture]

Just to say it, I appreciate all of the work and info you have provided on this post. I have the Redline gear oil and am looking forward to any pictures you may provide to assist my local Indie in changing that fluid. I'm also very interested in what you (or others) may do for noise reduction in the cabin as that will be a "winter" project for me. The cabin noise doesn't drive me nuts, but I know it could be a quieter environment which would benefit the experience.

Thanks for the thorough information you provide.

 

[Eagle7]

SLC is 4300ft above sea level. Unless you live in Flagstaff or Denver, you were probably driving uphill on the way there and downhill on the way back... Easily enough to effect the mileage by -1mpg and +1mpg respectively, not to mention weather, winds, etc. I agree we're looking too far into this. I do enjoy reading through your 'adding lightness' journey however.

I'm glad I don't find the road noise as annoying as others here. Maybe it's because I'm still relatively young or fly around in generally very loud aircraft, but sports cars aren't meant to be luxury cars. The more sensory experience, the more raw and engaging!

I came from 2,700 feet above sea level in Idaho, and there's many hills, valleys and elevation changes on the road between there and Salt Lake which you experience in both directions. I'm going to continue to monitor the mpg around town, which is usually worse than open road in 6th gear. I'll do the same using the trip odometer and fill-up, then calculating the actual mpg from the odometer and the number of gallons at the next fill-up just like I did on my trip.