MegaS2000 with Elite il200 sequential box

[Megaman]

Hi all. My first post after 4 years building my MegaS2000 in my (single!) garage....it's a complete kit in electric blue with FW back end, MSA half cage, race brakes, Toyo R1R's, ARB's, LSD of course and Sport Turbo seats/TRS harnesses. Slightly ironic first post 4 years in as I really could have done with some help along the way, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. In any case, the car is now complete and very happy with the overall build, performance and drivability. I am however considering upgrading the gearbox to an Elite iL200 6 speed sequential. My question is whether anyone has fitted this box to a Westfield chassis (ideally the MegaS2000) and whether any advice is available (such as spec'ing the box, mount locations, etc.)?? Seems like a match made in heaven....I know that as a straight cut box it will be a bit noisier that 'normal', but this is primarily a road legal car for track/sprint use so that isn't a big concern. I have purchased a quaiffe bellhousing (same Type 9 fitment as the il200) which works with the standard slave cylinder and clutch setup, so plan to use this rather than the Elite bellhousing (£££). Any advice or shared experience would be gratefully received. Thanks all!

 

[XTR2Turbo]

I would look at the options from Sadev and quaiffe too

i have a sadev which is the same size as a type 9 and fits in an seiw chassis easily 

you will also need a different clutch probably and closed loop flarshifter such as the small box geartronics sell 

 

[Ian Kinder (Bagpuss) - Joint Peak District AO]

Hi Megaman, welcome! There's a guy running a sequential box with an S2000 in the Speed Series. He's called David Cleaver and the car was built  by Mickmade. Though I'm not sure who fitted the box. It's not a standard chassis (built before the factory developed the S2000 kit). He does very well in his. See: http://www.wscc.co.uk/speedseries/EXPERT/Overall-full.php I think his is a Sadev.

 

 

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

I don’t think that particular Elite box has been used too much in Westfields for a few years. It did pop up years ago, along with its big brother version, the il300(?) for a while; I don’t know if it was simply because it was being paired with very torquey, very high bhp engines, when really the bigger il300 should have been used, but it seemed to very quickly gather a reputation as a chocolate gearbox, and seemed to fall out of favour, somewhat. Presumably it has been improved by now? But I’d be doing some very careful research on a. whether it was a suitable version, and b. whether it has been fixed, before shelling out the dosh.

From what I can see, if you want something bulletproof and really well built, the Sadev seems to be the one to go for, every time. But even in the elevated price world of sequentials, it ain’t cheap!

[Crash test dummy]

The Sadev is £7.5k these days.

[Megaman]

Thanks for the responses. Sounds like the Sadev unit is well regarded, but at £7.5K, both Sadev and Quaife are out of my budget. Lets see if anyone else has some direct experience of the il200....thanks again

 

[stephenh]

Nothing wrong with the Elite IL200 in my opinion.

The early ones were a bit fragile, but they were then upgraded, and the later ones were fine. I ran one in the Speed Series without any problem 4 or 5 years ago, on a high power Duratec engine. Admittedly my Duratec wasn't very high torque, but it was over 270 bhp and high reving. Clutchless upward changes went through like a knife through butter, and downward changes were made with only a slight dip of the clutch. 

Unlike normal road 'boxes, I think a regular oil change is a good idea, at least that is what I used to do.

[tkm_dave]

Having lived with an Elite and now a Sadev on an S2000 car I'd say the IL200/300 is usable for a standard S2000 engine but personally I'd keep it stick shift not paddle so there's a 'feel' element to the shifts and it'll be less picky than paddle setup can be on them. The issues I had with reliability of the IL200 were primarily due to start line launches and/or overly aggressive tyre warming (my own fault). There never appeared to be any damage or excessive wear done unless something like a launch or missed-shift was involved. With the IL300 obviously the bigger gears will help protect against these scenarios even more.

All that said, I'm basing my feedback on mainly sprint events and only a handful of trackdays. If it was going to do more road and track miles change the oil fairly regularly as Stephen suggests and definitely go for the peace of mind of the IL300.

The later boxes definitely seemed better strength wise, with stronger shaft designs and the wider gears of the IL300. There's also less choice of gear ratios now, whether that's because some were pushing it strength wise or they just wanted to reduce stock holding I'm not sure, probably a bit of both.

Oh, mounting should be dead easy as there's a few mounting holes to choose from, mine was 'hung' off the bolt holes in the top of the case but it would easily sit on mountings at the bottom of the case, just depends where you're tunnels mounts are.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

I seem to remember a few people that had used the il200, back in the day, (ie before they were beefed up), saying that a few of the issues seemed to be triggered by using clutch less downshifts with the older boxes. (Clutchless upshifts being fine). And that those that used a whisper of clutch on the down shifts tended to have fewer issues.

[John Loudon - Sponsorship Liaison]

I have an IL200 5 speed in my car (1700 Puma with around 215bhp and 150ft / lb torque) The actual gearbox has been fine thus far but the remote gear stick linkage that I used with it let it down as it was not feasible for me to use the Elite gantry arrangement that normally comes with them. (My car is a narrow bodied live axle car so the tunnel is a little 'crowded') This winter I have re-engineered the linkage so hopefully all will be good next year.

As Stephen H says, the later IL200 are better engineered and stronger. 5 speed boxes are more so than 6 speed boxes as there is more space for 5 stronger gears than 6 thinner ones. Avoid second hand ones which have not been uprated by Elite to the latest spec or be prepared to have it checked over and uprated as required

I have also just changed the oil on mine which was a doddle as there is a nice magnetic drain plug and a filler plug in a sensible position. Elite also recommend a certain oil which shouldn't be strayed from for peace of mind.

An alternative would be the Quaife 4 speed sequential which is of a similar price

https://shop.quaife.co.uk/quaife-in-line-4-speed-sequential-with-drop-gears