Hot Rodding The Elio

[Mmeyer]

Hi I am a gear head and a motorcyclist and love the Elio concept. I want one and trying to put together my resources to get one and go to town on motor. Having played with my fair share of building 2 strokes and four strokes racing off and on road vehicle.
I have always had a passion for 3 cylinder motors from my first Kawasaki H2 the Yamaha XS750.
From the look of the castings I am excited I see huge potential
There is room for increased bore size.
Depending on how strong the bottom end is I see no problem with getting at least 150HP with 100ft lbs torque naturally aspirated and 200 with forced air induction and keeping the .90 liter bore and stroke.
Examples of this exist today. Yamaha FZ09 motor (125HP) is prime example and the Kawasaki H2R (300HP) are 3 cylinder .90 liter engines.
Also I should point out the BAC MONO is 1 liter 3 cylinder formula Ford engine with 200HP.
Since the Elio weighs 1250pounds at 200hp should make it a hoot to drive.

 

[booboo]

Welcome to

Good to have you here

 

[xtspode]

Hi I am a gear head and a motorcyclist and love the Elio concept. I want one and trying to put together my resources to get one and go to town on motor. Having played with my fair share of building 2 strokes and four strokes racing off and on road vehicle.
I have always had a passion for 3 cylinder motors from my first Kawasaki H2 the Yamaha XS750.
From the look of the castings I am excited I see huge potential
There is room for increased bore size.
Depending on how strong the bottom end is I see no problem with getting at least 150HP with 100ft lbs torque naturally aspirated and 200 with forced air induction and keeping the .90 liter bore and stroke.
Examples of this exist today. Yamaha FZ09 motor (125HP) is prime example and the Kawasaki H2R (300HP) are 3 cylinder .90 liter engines.
Also I should point out the BAC MONO is 1 liter 3 cylinder formula Ford engine with 200HP.
Since the Elio weighs 1250pounds at 200hp should make it a hoot to drive.

Welcome to the best forum in the world (on the Elio). Great people here, great ideas, following a great trip on the birth of the Elio. I agree with you that it is being put together thoughtfully and methodically in order to provide a lot of value and fun. Everyone on this forum has their own idea about how they want to tweek it to fit their own personality. I am kind of leaning to leaving it just the way it is. I already have a bike that is perfect for me, an old race car that is just about right for me, a pickup and my Geo Metro. They all work just right for what they were intended. I am looking forward to keeping the Elio just about the way Paul is building it and looking forward to seeing yours with 200hp and another owner with custom Yellow paint job, and another with wide tires, another with the Turbo Convertible with the filler cap on the opposite side, and the one with the matching teardrop trailer, and the modified hybrid, and the P40 paint job, and all of the ones with a Zelio meme worked into it. I don't know of another car that gets peoples juices flowing like this one does. I am having trouble waiting for it, but I will try to hold my water until it arrives.

Welcome and Go Elio.

 

[Ty]

Hi I am a gear head and a motorcyclist and love the Elio concept. I want one and trying to put together my resources to get one and go to town on motor. Having played with my fair share of building 2 strokes and four strokes racing off and on road vehicle.
I have always had a passion for 3 cylinder motors from my first Kawasaki H2 the Yamaha XS750.
From the look of the castings I am excited I see huge potential
There is room for increased bore size.
Depending on how strong the bottom end is I see no problem with getting at least 150HP with 100ft lbs torque naturally aspirated and 200 with forced air induction and keeping the .90 liter bore and stroke.
Examples of this exist today. Yamaha FZ09 motor (125HP) is prime example and the Kawasaki H2R (300HP) are 3 cylinder .90 liter engines.
Also I should point out the BAC MONO is 1 liter 3 cylinder formula Ford engine with 200HP.
Since the Elio weighs 1250pounds at 200hp should make it a hoot to drive.

Boring the cylinders will be VERY tricky. They aren't sleeved with steel and the aluminum won't hold up to much. The flame-spray bore should do fine and I suppose if you could find someone who does flame spray, you could bore it and then have them do the flame spray and then bore THAT to get it to tolerance. I don't think sleeving the engine with steel sleeves is a good idea as you'd have to deal with cooling/heating differences which will cause all kinds of problems.

 

[Ty]

For Hotrodding, think about that rear, unpowered wheel... just begging for - wait for it- wait for it- (the old timers here know where I'm going with this) - wait for it - A 50hp hub motor! Yes, it shouldn't be too much of a pain to put in enough capability for a jolt off the line.

 

[Bamdalam]

Boring the cylinders will be VERY tricky. They aren't sleeved with steel and the aluminum won't hold up to much. The flame-spray bore should do fine and I suppose if you could find someone who does flame spray, you could bore it and then have them do the flame spray and then bore THAT to get it to tolerance. I don't think sleeving the engine with steel sleeves is a good idea as you'd have to deal with cooling/heating differences which will cause all kinds of problems.

But then there is always Nikasil coating (not sure if I spelled it correctly). Has been used on 2 stroke alum. cylinders since the 80s that I'm aware of, but on rare occasions some of my riding buddies had to bore, and have their cylinders recoated. 2 strokes don't run as hot as 4 strokes, but we ran those at high RPMs at all times. It may not hold up to 100K plus miles of driving, but still an option to the Flame Spray planned to be used.

 

[Ty]

But then there is always Nikasil coating (not sure if I spelled it correctly). Has been used on 2 stroke alum. cylinders since the 80s that I'm aware of, but on rare occasions some of my riding buddies had to bore, and have their cylinders recoated. 2 strokes don't run as hot as 4 strokes, but we ran those at high RPMs at all times. It may not hold up to 100K plus miles of driving, but still an option to the Flame Spray planned to be used.

True. There ARE people who will bore and flame spray out there as well.

 

[booboo]

If I was thinking about upping my ELIO into a monster, which I am not, I would just try to swap the Elio engine with a different power plant.
The Elio engine is designed for mpg, not mph.

 

[Coss]

If I was thinking about upping my ELIO into a monster, which I am not, I would just try to swap the Elio engine with a different power plant.
The Elio engine is designed for mpg, not mph.

I agree; the IVA new design engine is an unknown since it is a new design internally; I recall a lot of work went into the design of the head for oiling (that might be why it has a 6qt pan under it) and cooling that is specific to that motor. The oiling was to be part of the cooling) So rather than trying to find any types of parts that can be used in the engine I'd probably swap it for a small 4 cylinder that you can buy parts for; maybe even one of those ECO-boost Ford engines.

Then make sure to buy a sturdy shoehorn to fit it in to it.

 

[skychief]

For Hotrodding, think about that rear, unpowered wheel... A 50hp hub motor! Yes, it shouldn't be too much of a pain to put in enough capability for a jolt off the line.

But you'll need a suitable battery to power it. That little battery used to start the engine can't deliver the current needed to power that 50 HP motor. You'd need 2 or 3 deep-cycle Marine batteries hooked in parallel. @ 55 lbs each, you would need around 150 pounds of battery. And then ya gotta find some place to put them. They might fit in the little cargo area behind the passenger seat, but that would make the CG really high.