Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

has anyone had distributor fires or a 'big' fire after fitting new webers

http://www.xlrefrigerators.com/lotuselan.htm

http://webcon.s4.bizhat.com/webcon-ftopic123.html

thanks

david

That sounds very disturbing.
My Zetec engined Elan is fitted with Spanish 45 DCOE's, so no fear of a Dizzy Fire.
The car has never been subjected to track related cornering forces but after 10 Years the Carbs are as fresh & clean as new (almost) there's no sign or smell of Petrol leaks in the Engine Bay.
Can you explain the route the Petrol takes in order to escape?
Maybe you have a Batch related quality problem on your Carbs?
I do get an engine "stutter" on fast tight right handers sometimes though.

Cheers
John

I am having a very good motor engineer look at my two pairs of carbs I think have caused the problem. That's Friday morning, I recon he will have to take them away once he has check my fuel pressures etc and do some tests. I think choice of 3 things ...

Sticking float when subject to racing G forces

Paper instead of the old rubber top gasket

Porous casting

It only seems to apply to cabs made 2008 and later ....

David

I know of at least 2 Elans and a Lotus Cortina that have experienced fires in the last year when running new Spanish manufactured Weber 45s. All the fires have been in the same place around the carbs/ distributor with everyone concluding the carbs are to blame. After hearing about and witnessing one of the fires I bought a pair of reconditioned 45s for my car rather than run the risk with new carbs.

regards

Andy

Could do with names and e-mail . address / tel no. if poss of the guys that have had the problems. We can then try and find the fault / date when the fires started to happen.

Luckily I have never had a fire but I have had fuel leakage from webers on the track when no leakage on the road. The fuel enrichment device air inlet area is the source. If the pistons dont seal properly then cornering forces can lead to fuel coming out. Maybe the Spanish webers are not made to close enough tolerances in this area and the pistons leak fuel.

float jamming - could be but i would expect problems with engine operation if this the case

paper top cover gasket - never had problems with these

porous casting - rare with a die casting but easy to test just by overfilling the carb body and looking for leaks


cheers
Rohan

I have never had a fire -

Carbs I have run are the 40 DCOE 18's and the 45DCOE 152's. I have not as yet run the 9's mentioned in this forum. 40's were run with the lotus airbox on the street. the 45 were run with pipercross filters on the track.

I have however had fuel run out of the venturi b/c of a stuck float on a 40DCOE.

As for leaks I would look to the well/bottom cover before I would look at the top cover.

George

I am currently rebuilding a pair of Weber 45s and the book I am using for instuctions suggests removing the fuel enrichment device plate which has the vent below it and replacing it with a flat aluminium plate and a paper gasket. It also mentions blocking off the enrichment holes into the chokes with grub screws.
I made up an ali plate and whilst looking on the Eurocarb website for parts I found that they sell a cover plate made for this purpose.

regards

Andy

I have not had a fire in the elan since the initial start up a few years ago ---[careless and liberal use of quick start and too much advance on the distributor ] but I have spent a few hundred dollars for an on board 5 pound fire extinguisher system that activates from the dash with a pull handle [ as opposed to an electric solenoid ] and aims at the carbs and is mounted on the rear fire wall or bulkhead Such systems are required for racing and mine is FFF [foam]As my fuel pump is mounted in the trunk with the diff cooler pump there is an off switch wired to the dash -- --ed