The Elio Engine

[Johnny Acree]

I'm not getting emails about any of the "Trending Topics" blog posts. I get emails about all the other categories.

I don't get these either. I am not signed up for promotional blogs. At the bottom of the emails you do get look for "update your preferences"
I think this will take you to the page where you can choose what you want to see.

 

[Rob Croson]

I don't get these either. I am not signed up for promotional blogs. At the bottom of the emails you do get look for "update your preferences"
I think this will take you to the page where you can choose what you want to see.

Checked. I am signed up for all of the lists.

 

[BlioKart]

An interesting and cool pic of a piston for a 1.0 Ford Ecoboost 3 pot. I hope someone figures out a swap for the Elio complete engines can be bought for well under 1000$ from low mileage crashed cars. 123hp

 

[Ty]

An interesting and cool pic of a piston for a 1.0 Ford Ecoboost 3 pot. I hope someone figures out a swap for the Elio complete engines can be bought for well under 1000$ from low mileage crashed cars. 123hp

A couple of years ago, I bought several motors (different trios/different cars) from a u-pull-it place. The 1986 Mustang motor I pulled for my 1960 Falcon (heh, heh) only cost me $45. Without the fancy computers, you'll have a tougher time getting an ecoboost to work in the Elio. I took all the electronics off the Mustang motor and went with an Edlebrock RPM setup... effectively making the motor similar to a 1985 set-up. The other motors I was getting were for cars that still had their ECU's.

Junkyard motor tip #1: Cars end up in the yard for many reasons but they typically fall into one of 3 categories; Engine trouble, transmission trouble, or accident. When looking for a motor, a T-boned car is saying "I was at least running when I died". If the car looks good, the engine or tranny are suspect (and you almost can never tell as they drain the fluids). Give me that accident victim car's motor any day.

 

[ehwatt]

A couple of years ago, I bought several motors (different trios/different cars) from a u-pull-it place. The 1986 Mustang motor I pulled for my 1960 Falcon (heh, heh) only cost me $45. Without the fancy computers, you'll have a tougher time getting an ecoboost to work in the Elio. I took all the electronics off the Mustang motor and went with an Edlebrock RPM setup... effectively making the motor similar to a 1985 set-up. The other motors I was getting were for cars that still had their ECU's.

Junkyard motor tip #1: Cars end up in the yard for many reasons but they typically fall into one of 3 categories; Engine trouble, transmission trouble, or accident. When looking for a motor, a T-boned car is saying "I was at least running when I died". If the car looks good, the engine or tranny are suspect (and you almost can never tell as they drain the fluids). Give me that accident victim car's motor any day.

Heh, heh indeed!

 

[Howard Welte]

This isn't IAV's first rodeo... they have done tons of R&D and design for the big guys (VW& Porsche and others) Just because it has been around for years doesn't mean it is the best there is... sometimes you have to get into the 21Century. Flam Spray is a proven technology that gives better engine life and keeps the wgt down... If you are concerned you can put your own engine in it because it is what it is and not our choice

I'm with Rick on this one. The car cost less then one year of payments on my Toyota Corolla so if I can get at least a year out of it, I'm going to be a Happy Camper. Not to mention that I'll have the coolest car in the parking lot at work.

 

[skygazer6033]

It's my understanding EM is going to contract with some foundry to supply the raw castings for the engine block,cylinder head, cam cover and possibly oil pan. These are to be shipped to Shreveport for machining and assembly. Months ago I counted over 120 separate machining operations required just on the head alone. The block probably half of that plus the flame spray coating. Going to take a lot of computerized machining equipment to supply the assembly line with an engine per minute at full production. I'm sure modern machining equipment can perform many operations simultaneously but that's still a lot of work.

 

[Rob Croson]

I used to write operation/maintenance manuals for a company that made automated grinding machinery that processed cams/cranks for engines. (Ford/GM/Caterpillar/Etc...) I spent a week at a training course in the GM engine plant in Tonawanda, NY. Watching the fully automated line processing cams/cranks is impressive. And that machinery is *expensive*. Each grinding operation on a cam or crank takes a different machine that is custom built to perform that operation, and *only* that operation. And there are many operations required. It's been about 10-15 years since I've been involved in that, though, so some of the specific details may have changed. (Progress, and all...) But even so, they're going to need a lot of engines. And that takes a lot of expensive tooling. Even if they were going to buy the engines, or parts of them, someone still has to make those parts. They better get started soon...

 

[Avards]

I haven't been keeping up with the information flow for a while, so please forgive a stupid question, or two.

Is there any information which would indicate that durability and performance testing has been continuing on the engine? Planning on doing a dead stick landing by putting an untested engine in early release vehicles may not be a real good idea.

 

[Jeff Porter]

I haven't been keeping up with the information flow for a while, so please forgive a stupid question, or two.

Is there any information which would indicate that durability and performance testing has been continuing on the engine? Planning on doing a dead stick landing by putting an untested engine in early release vehicles may not be a real good idea.

No worries Avards, some of us here will be glad to answer any question!

I haven't seen any info on continued testing of the engine. Common sense would say that it is going on currently and has been for awhile and will continue.

Earlier last year Elio Motors had a minor fail when they touted the unveiling of the engine being dyno-tested. They missed a date, and all we got some time later, was a video that was surveillance-like, showing the engine running and a computer screen showing some stats being collected. It was great to see that, but I felt they promised to show more.

I'm included in the group that would like Elio Motors to tell us about all that's going on behind-the-scenes, but EM won't do that. There's really no other start-up company that has taken interested folks along for the ride, so to speak. When you look at other vehicle start-up's websites and press releases, there is hardly any info there at all.

We take for granted all the info that EM passes out to the public, then I find myself complaining or being frustrated that they don't share more. I'm pretty sure we'll always want more, it's just human nature.

And back to your point, we all hope with that same common sense that the engine will be thoroughly tested before it gets put into the early release vehicles.