Westfields in Australia

[Shane2me]

Thanks @IanK (Bagpuss), the hoop looks like the way to go. As long as the clearance is enough to get past mot in Aus then that's what I'll do. I think the regulation in my part of the world is for 100mm ground clearance at any point within 1m of an axle. But I'm sure I'll be able to come up with a temporary solution to get it over the pits.

[Shane2me]

Hi Guys,

So I put a deposit down with the wreckers in Sydney today for the engine and gearbox. Looks like this is the beginning of the beginning!

So I will be getting the engine and gearbox, and the guy told me to put a list together of all the extra hoses, wires, shafts, etc that I want as well. So I have asked for the handbrake and the prop shaft, is there anything else you guys know of that I will need from the donor car?

I am still reading through the build threads when I get a chance and am getting lots of info from them, but anything you can think of off the top of your head would be great.

And I went back to the factory today to show my dad the cars too, and he had a ball! The guys there said that the dry sump kit was only to satisfy the 100mm ride height restriction in Western Australia. Apparently they only know of 2 guys who have built MegaS2000's in W.A, and they are going to put me in touch with one who is very helpful. Hopefully he can tell me all the troubles he had with getting it registered here in W.A.

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

59 minutes ago, Shane2me said:

Hi Guys,

So I put a deposit down with the wreckers in Sydney today for the engine and gearbox. Looks like this is the beginning of the beginning!

So I will be getting the engine and gearbox, and the guy told me to put a list together of all the extra hoses, wires, shafts, etc that I want as well. So I have asked for the handbrake and the prop shaft, is there anything else you guys know of that I will need from the donor car?

I am still reading through the build threads when I get a chance and am getting lots of info from them, but anything you can think of off the top of your head would be great.

And I went back to the factory today to show my dad the cars too, and he had a ball! The guys there said that the dry sump kit was only to satisfy the 100mm ride height restriction in Western Australia. Apparently they only know of 2 guys who have built MegaS2000's in W.A, and they are going to put me in touch with one who is very helpful. Hopefully he can tell me all the troubles he had with getting it registered here in W.A.

Glad you’ve found one in Oz. Just make sure you get the engine loom and all coolant hoses on the engine. 

I’m sure you can meet the 100mm requirements with coil overs by adjusting the spring seat to get the clearance required. Then once tested, drop to a better height for handling.

you don’t need the Honda prop. You will need a custom one to suit either the Ford or Mazda diff you fit.

[Alan Cutler (Adge) - Dorset AO]

Great to hear you've found an engine. Sure you'll enjoy the WF experience. It's a marvellous way to keep your bank account empty, but a big smile on your face .

Highly recommend a build thread, it's a good way to tap into a wealth of experience. Helped me immensely on my build.

Best of luck.

[Shane2me]

Thanks @AdgeC, I will definitely be doing a build thread once the engine arrives! I can't wait to put up some pics of the engine and gearbox and figure out what it all is haha.

The guys at WF in Perth put me in touch with a guy who is building an S2000 down in Bunbury, which is about 2 hours south of Perth, but I am going to go down for a look next week amd see what he is up to. I spoke to him on the phone yesterday and he already mentioned a few things I should be wary of.

He mentioned that diff ratio selection is important, but I thought that the diff was pre-selected and supplied with the kit?

But I will take my pen and paper and get lots of notes when we meet. He did say that this website was a great resource and that he wishes he had discovered it before he started his build!

I've been busy the last couple of days trying to convert my garden shed from "a place to store mountains of useless rubbish" into some sort of functioning workshop, and it's nearly there.

Will keep you posted when the engine arrives!

[Shane2me]

Hi Guys,

So I paid for my engine and gearbox today, it will be leaving Sydney tomorrow and arriving later in the week, but I won't get to play with it until I get home from work in a few weeks time

But I'm very excited, getting the engine up to standard will be good fun.

I went and saw a bloke who is building an S2000 down south last week, and he is doing a great job and was very helpful. He seems to be going for the full race spec, he is installing a Motec ecu and dash display. All looks very expensive. I was looking at digital dash displays and AEM seem to have a nice one, the CD7, which looks like it should just plug straight into the OBD port on the omex ecu. I was wondering what all your experiences were like trying to get the digital displays working with the factory supplied omex ecu?

Also, I think I might be in the running for the "smallest shed to build a Westfield in" award. I'm hoping to build it in a 5x2.2 metre shed. How big was your garage/shed?

Cheers,

Shane

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

13 minutes ago, Shane2me said:

I went and saw a bloke who is building an S2000 down south last week, and he is doing a great job and was very helpful. He seems to be going for the full race spec, he is installing a Motec ecu and dash display. All looks very expensive. I was looking at digital dash displays and AEM seem to have a nice one, the CD7, which looks like it should just plug straight into the OBD port on the omex ecu. I was wondering what all your experiences were like trying to get the digital displays working with the factory supplied omex ecu?

 

Sadly, we can't get any data out of the Omex 630 ECU. It's partly locked. I've been asking Omex for over a year to unlock this, with no success. Are you committed to an Omex ECU?

[Shane2me]

3 minutes ago, IanK (Bagpuss) said:

Are you committed to an Omex ECU?

No, I only have a basic understanding of electronicsand I thought it might be easiest to just stick with the omex, especially if they reconfigure the wiring loom to suit and have pre-mapped it for this engine.

I am certainly open to suggestions, I just don't want to bite off more than I can chew at this stage though. I am getting the S2000 ecu supplied with my engine, can I not just use that?

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

18 minutes ago, Shane2me said:

No, I only have a basic understanding of electronicsand I thought it might be easiest to just stick with the omex, especially if they reconfigure the wiring loom to suit and have pre-mapped it for this engine.

I am certainly open to suggestions, I just don't want to bite off more than I can chew at this stage though. I am getting the S2000 ecu supplied with my engine, can I not just use that?

The Omex 630 supplied with the kit is plug and play, however as stated above basic features such as serial data which are available on a standard Omex 600 aren't unlocked.  If you go with another ECU, you will have to fathom out the wiring and then get it mapped. 

You can't use the Honda ECU as you'll need all the Honda vehicle sensors, imobiliser, air con etc to work in conjunction with it. I'm not aware of anyone who's successfully achieved this in a kit car!

 

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

The Honda ecu has been made to work in kits, but it's a hell of a compromise, as Ian said, you're stuck with all its sensors etc, then you have all the emissions controls stuff, there are ways round that for some things, faffing around with resistors and stuff, but you still may find the system throws error codes every so often. The immobiliser also requires use of the ignition key, (gets taped up behind the dad, by those doing these sort of conversions), and the Honda digital dash, which doesn't suit the Westfield that well, and is also not configurable.

The final straw though, is that unless it's a later ecu system capable of runnin with Hondata or similar, the OEM Honda ecu is effectively unmappable/tweakable. The Westfield Mega S2000 runs a very different engine map and VTEC changeover settings to the original S2000 car, as it's so much lighter. (We go into VTEC mode at 4500 rpm, way lower than the Honda S2000 does)

The Omex 630 is a great plug and play solution, but it's Omex's production car ecu, sold to small volume car and bike manufacturers. As such, it is very locked down, normally there is no user access to it at all, although Omex have allowed us Westfield owners limited access to the main maps required for tuning an engine, as Ian said, neat stuff like CAN Bus data outputs are off the table, currently.

I don't know what your local ecu options are other the Motec you mentioned, (who are an Australian company, aren't they?)

Over here, we have the likes of DTA, Emerald etc who do fully unlocked ecu's, with other features.

That said, I know at least one Westfield S2000 kit that the factory has sold that had an Omex 710 ecu in place of the 630. The 719 does have serial dat out, via CAN Bus, to connect to a digital dash. I presume, Omex are able to supply a tweaked version of the 630 map to go on the 710, they're a good co pansy like that. And of course, the premade loom could be supplied 710 compatible!

Fantastic to hear your engine will be with you soon, it's such a great milestone when you have that first, big piece of the puzzle. 

[6carjon]

Mighty car mods boys did a haltech ecu on an s2000 didn't they ?

It had a harness adaptor too.not certain if it's a 100% solution as a westie doesn't need all wires but you easily ask I expect 

Pretty sure that is Australian ?

[Shane2me]

Thanks guys, I'll see about the 710 ecu, that sounds like it might be the way forward. I have absolutely no idea where to start with mapping an ecu, so if I can get one from omex that will do the job and allow me to have a digital display then I like the sound of that! I'm sure I'll find a buyer for the S2000 ecu.

And yes its very exciting knowing that the engine is on its way. It looks lile it is in good shape and that all the important bits are there.

 

[Alan Cutler (Adge) - Dorset AO]

Glad you've got over the power plant hurdle.

Any idea on lead time for the kit in your part of the world?

[Shane2me]

@AdgeC it's not long, I think the guy down south that I visited said that he got his kit about 2 or 3 weeks after ordering. The factory here in Perth imports the chassis from the UK and makes some minor mods to make sure that they pass our regulations, and then the rest of the kit is supplied from stock on hand.

I'm a while away yet from being able to order the kit though, I need to sort out a bigger shed to build it in first. Looks like the biggest shed I will be able to have is 5x2.2 metres. I'm just worried that it might be a bit narrow, but hopefully I can make it work. I've seen a few of the time lapse videos on youtube of other peoples builds and they look like they have managed with fairly small garages.

[SootySport]

As for space,  build a wooden trolley at a height to suit you and fit heavy duty castors. That way you can move the whole Shabang forwards/backwards/sideways easily in your confined garage.