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Learning how to build Lotus Seven replicas...together!
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PostPosted: October 15, 2017, 4:05 pm 
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Joined: December 17, 2010, 1:24 pm
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Location: Gainesville, Mo.
Good to hear from you again! Keep us posted. :D

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PostPosted: March 8, 2018, 11:35 pm 
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Joined: February 4, 2018, 10:08 pm
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Location: Effingham IL
locofinn wrote:
Fired it up for the first time last night. Everything looks good so far. Hope to be on the track yet this fall to start the sort process.

Hi, Mark! Thanks for the great info about this tranny/engine. I have Isuzu T5 in my garage and I'm on the market for GM 1.4. Do you actually get your wiring from http://www.enginewiring.com? I gave them a call yesterday and they can't help with this engine. How you manage to fired it up? Any tricks and tips? Thanks. Victor.

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PostPosted: March 18, 2018, 8:15 pm 
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Joined: October 27, 2006, 3:29 pm
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Location: Indiana
Enginewiring.com did mine but it took them a long time to get it done. Not sure it is a high production project for them as they seem more interested in LS engines, etc. Stripping down the harness is not impossible to do, it just takes patience. If I had it to do all over again I would have just done it my self and save a few hundred bucks. The trick is to get the Factory Service Manuals for this motor/Cruze 1.4 for the year motor you have. I'm not big on electronics at all but I ended up revising the wiring a bit by adding a VSS to the harness/PCM. The trick is getting the right tools and the right connectors. YouTube is a wonderful source on how to modify a harnesses for Chevy engine swaps. It can seem overwhelming but once you figure out how the read the factory manuals it makes sense. Everything you learn along the way will be helpful when you have to troubleshoot if something goes wrong.

As I said before, one thing I did leave to a pro was the programming. Overriding the factory programming codes and get the motor to run takes a lot of experience. Without programming knowledge the motor is a large paperweight. Jerry Kinney at Bad News Racing is THE Guru. He has done several using the HP Tuners system. Not cheap but worth it for a custom stand alone engine tune. He had mine running within minutes over the internet on my computer. He was in Florida and I was in my garage in Indiana. Technology can be amazing.

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Building a whole car from scratch is a 1,000 little tasks, done 1 task at a time, while thinking 10 tasks ahead, then redoing it anyway.
South Bend Region SCCA D-Modifed Class Autocross & Track-Day/TT. Chevrolet 1.4 L Turbo Ecotec Power


Link to my build log:
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=3356


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PostPosted: March 28, 2018, 5:50 am 
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Joined: December 1, 2013, 10:48 pm
Posts: 76
Location: Atlanta GA
I just wanted to say thank you!

I'm in the process of getting and starting an LTG ecotec repower and some of your links are really helpful! Some of the mods and tuning are a black art which is very frustrating..unless you want to spend $2200 on the gm ecu :/.


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PostPosted: May 29, 2018, 8:08 pm 
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Joined: June 5, 2015, 11:41 pm
Posts: 28
Location: Central FL
So I run mustang T5's in one of my road race cars and have a few parts in inventory. I bought the unicorn Isuzu trans and bellhousing (2 actually, one locked up and one in awesome shape).
Unfortunately there are a few differences on the input side. I have not checked the output side other than shifter location.

Shifter placement: Fox is 19.75 and Isuzu is 18 (from front of trans)
Pilot Bearing Diameter: Fox is 0.677 and Isuzu is 0.599
Bellhousing Register: Fox is 4.914 and Isuzu is 4.685
Input shaft length: Both are very close to 7.125 (using tape measure, no calipers or depth gauge big enough)
Spline count is obviously different also

The front bearing retainers are the main differences. While it is possible to machine the Isuzu bellhousing to fit the fox bearing retainer I do not have the release bearing components to check and see if they work.

The cases do have the same bolt pattern so that is a plus.

I am hoping that I will be able to just put the Isuzu bearing retainer on the ford trans but it probably wont fit. I will keep you guys updated when I have time and space to tear these apart and check everything out.


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PostPosted: September 24, 2018, 9:13 am 
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Joined: October 27, 2006, 3:29 pm
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Location: Indiana
Finally, got the tuning working. Big tip: Make sure you are using the operating system in your factory ECU from a manual transmission car so it can read the VSS signal. We had a tough time figuring this out as my ECU came from an auto transmission car and would not read the VSS. Without the proper (or any) speed signal, the ECU limited the redline to 4,000 RPM as a safety default to prevent overrevving in neutral. It took us 2 months to figure that one out! GM engineers really don't want the motor to tune at the higher level it is capable of. Kudo's to Jerry Kinney with Bad News Racing for helping me through this "Stand Alone" engine tune. The car's first outing went well. Our first autocross was 12 runs with my co-driver, William Loring, drove to a 2nd FTD out of 48 drivers just behind a shifter Kart on a very technical sub-40-second course at the Tire Rack test track in South Bend, IN. All objectives were met, additional data logging was accomplished and the car performed very well for a test outing. Very happy with the 1.4T motor. It is pretty civilized until you get on it then it really pulls hard for a basically stock motor. More than enough power even in stock form. Great little motor for a Seven. Looking forward to next year.
http://live.axti.me/live/56e5dc6b10142e ... cc0f354681

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Building a whole car from scratch is a 1,000 little tasks, done 1 task at a time, while thinking 10 tasks ahead, then redoing it anyway.
South Bend Region SCCA D-Modifed Class Autocross & Track-Day/TT. Chevrolet 1.4 L Turbo Ecotec Power


Link to my build log:
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=3356


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PostPosted: September 24, 2018, 4:01 pm 
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Joined: August 11, 2011, 12:38 pm
Posts: 271
Location: Akron, NY
locofinn wrote:
Finally, got the tuning working. Big tip: Make sure you are using the operating system in your factory ECU from a manual transmission car so it can read the VSS signal. We had a tough time figuring this out as my ECU came from an auto transmission car and would not read the VSS. Without the proper (or any) speed signal, the ECU limited the redline to 4,000 RPM as a safety default to prevent overrevving in neutral.


Im glad you got that figured out those kind of problems can be very frustrating. Does the original car have a separate transmission computer? It is odd but not surprising to me that GM would go away from their standard which was that manual transmission computers limit to 4000 rpm without a speed signal input and that automatic cars the computer is looking for a switched signal that the car is out of park or neutral to remove the 4000 RPM limit. Usually all you need to do is jump the correct pins in the computer to remove the limiter. Downside is that on some automatic computers there is no rev limiter at all after that as the transmission will just shift gears to drop RPM.


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PostPosted: September 24, 2018, 10:27 pm 
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Joined: June 5, 2015, 11:41 pm
Posts: 28
Location: Central FL
locofinn wrote:
Finally, got the tuning working. Big tip: Make sure you are using the operating system in your factory ECU from a manual transmission car so it can read the VSS signal. We had a tough time figuring this out as my ECU came from an auto transmission car and would not read the VSS. Without the proper (or any) speed signal, the ECU limited the redline to 4,000 RPM as a safety default to prevent overrevving in neutral. It took us 2 months to figure that one out! GM engineers really don't want the motor to tune at the higher level it is capable of. Kudo's to Jerry Kinney with Bad News Racing for helping me through this "Stand Alone" engine tune. The car's first outing went well. Our first autocross was 12 runs with my co-driver, William Loring, drove to a 2nd FTD out of 48 drivers just behind a shifter Kart on a very technical sub-40-second course at the Tire Rack test track in South Bend, IN. All objectives were met, additional data logging was accomplished and the car performed very well for a test outing. Very happy with the 1.4T motor. It is pretty civilized until you get on it then it really pulls hard for a basically stock motor. More than enough power even in stock form. Great little motor for a Seven. Looking forward to next year.
http://live.axti.me/live/56e5dc6b10142e ... cc0f354681



Interesting. It is issues like this that make me consider just running an aftermarket ECU like megasquirt. It too has its own set of problems though, like using an oscilloscope on a car to figure out the vvt values.

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PostPosted: June 4, 2019, 1:57 pm 
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Joined: October 27, 2006, 3:29 pm
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Location: Indiana
Installed and running well.


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Building a whole car from scratch is a 1,000 little tasks, done 1 task at a time, while thinking 10 tasks ahead, then redoing it anyway.
South Bend Region SCCA D-Modifed Class Autocross & Track-Day/TT. Chevrolet 1.4 L Turbo Ecotec Power


Link to my build log:
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=3356


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PostPosted: January 3, 2021, 10:45 pm 
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I just found this and figured I would jump in on my Ecotec 1.4t project, not going in a locost but an MGB GT so not far off from where some locost began.

Anyway, I was looking for an improvement to my MG and has questioned the 1.4t, but really got excited about it when I found the Direct inject motor was aluminum block as well and it helped push me to go for it.

Having used an adapter combo in the past for an RX7/RX8 transmission to a VR6. The adapter takes advantage of the RX7 flywheel using a huge 6 bolt pattern with an acceptable offset to make an easy crank adapter off of. I started on an adapter to put an RX8 6 speed to the newer DI 1.4t.

I have gotten the new DI motor running stand alone using HP tuner to turn off the VATs, also the 4000rpm rev limit you are talking about is fairly common, I got to pick up on a project dune buggy with a 2.5 DI ecotec, he had ordered a harness and ECU, there is a deep down table in all the tunes with a 4000rpm torque protection feature, and being VSS related would make sense, but you can turn it off and helped with that buggy, haven't gotten this installed to test it. But I have had the motor running and hope to install this year.

Let me see if I can get pictures to work.

Excited you are happy with the older 1.4t hoping for the same excitement out of mine.


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