Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Geoffers71 wrote:In this last picture, centre bottom, there's a bracket with two holes attached to the chassis down tube, one on the other side too. It's a Spyder chassis, so does anyone know what these are for?

I believe they are for mounting rear antirollbar bushes.

Time for an update. Finished off the chassis by fitting the front brake pipes with the 5 way connector and brake switch.

Note that I've now got the engine mounts the "right" way up ie upside down
So now to the engine !
First I went to our local nut and bolt supplier for a few pieces


Not sure I haven't gone over the top a bit, but I did use the list in Brian Buckland's book
The engine had already had work done on it (rebore,new pistons,crank and bearings so next the new clutch

My clutch centering tool had a too large shaft to fit through the plate so I made one up using various bars and sockets. Keeping fingers crossed that it will work OK, guess I'll find out in due course !
Yes, and I did remember to fit the core plug before fitting the flywheel.
Fitted the other core plugs and the missing gallery plug, so now the block is ready to be painted
(regulation grey (or gray if you prefer )), before putting it into the chassis.
I'm doing that before fitting the head as I reckon it will be easier to work on. The head has already had new valves etc so only needs the camshafts, sprockets and timing chain etc to be done


BTW in the bolt picture there's a round spacer with large central hole with 4 smaller holes. Anyone know what this is for? It just matches the water pump pulley boss, so is it for there?

Fan spacer?

Hi robert..looks like a spacer for the diff to prpshaft or other...but has nothing to do with standard parts....... .Gino

Another update Finally finished assembling the gearbox to the block and now the pair are in the chassis.







Still some work to do on the head before fitting to the block. Camshafts next with new shells and set of new nylocs nuts. BTW is there any reason why I can't check the tappet clearances before fitting the head ie without the sprockets and timing chain fitted (Well of course I know I CAN, but will the results be valid/accurate?)
The end of the mechanical aspects of the rebuild is nigh, the relatively easy bit , so no excuses for not getting to grips with the bodywork next

You may find clearances move a thou or 2 after the head is bolted down if you set them with the head off. If you do just put one cam in the head at a time so the valves dont hit as you rotate the cam for measuring clearances.

cheers
Rohan

Thanks Rohan for the tip about only fitting one camshaft at a time when checking tappet clearances on the bench, I'm sure I would have not realised the possible problem by not doing that. Anyway I've run into a problem with the tappet clearances (see my help post under "engine" ) where the clearances are well below the accepted tolerances. I've still to resolve the way forward on this . In the meantime I refurbished and fitted the starter motor and then the prop shaft, which was already refurbed and balanced. One question can I fit the exhaust manifold and dynamo before the body is reunited with the chassis? Once that's done I really have no excuse for not getting on with the body

Geoff,
One thing worth mentioning before proceding beyond where you are now.
I was at the same point 5 years ago, and decided to put oil in the gearbox. Over the next several days, I noticed a small pool of oil under the bellhousing. With a little research, I discovered that the bottom, lefthand bolt that attaches the bellhousing to the gearbox (four off bolts) requires a thread sealant when assembling. It goes through to the gearbox innards.
If you are aware of this, then this is just me kicking myself in the backside again for creating the extra work.
Cheers,
Colin.

Geoffers71 wrote:. One question can I fit the exhaust manifold and dynamo before the body is reunited with the chassis? Once that's done I really have no excuse for not getting on with the body

I think you can fit eveything on the engine except the carbs and carbs studs for cylinder 3 and 4 and the heater valve assembly before you drop the body on the chassis if you want to do it that way but I find its easier to leave the alternator off engine as it makes access for fitting the radiator and playing with the engine mounts to fit the heater valve in easier.

cheers
Rohan

My cylinder head is away having a good seeing to at the moment and being a bit bored with scraping paint off the body (a job that is best done in small chunks I find) I decided to strip the carbs and see what's what. Well it's taken me all day just to strip and clean just one carb (40 DCOE 18) , having not been in use for probably more than 30 years everything was well and truly gummed up. Screws frozen and jets stuck in their housings, I was terrified of snapping something so lots of WD40 and Carb cleaner and lots of patience, a quality that I'm not usually well known for . Anyway I managed to finally get everything apart and cleaned as best I could. Carb refurb kit should arrive tomorrow and so then to reassembling. Can someone tell me what size the cheesehead bolts are that fasten the cover to the main body? Mine are a bit chewed up ( not me guv, honest) which was one cause of my frustrations. Also the round caps held by the brass butterfly screws are pretty awful and could do with replacing, or can someone recommend a way of cleaning them up, nice and blingy like . Hoping that tomorrow I will not take quite so long to do the other one....one can hope

Got the head back today and it looks like a good job, bloomin' expensive though


4 new big inlet valves, 2 new exhaust valves (2 already new), new exhaust seats, very light skim and clean up ports. Shims sizes now range from 90 thou to 120 thou, so that's alright.
I began to reassemble the sprockets to the camshafts with new bolts (with suitably thinned heads ) when I noticed that one of the camshafts, on the exhaust side as it happens, had a single groove on the front lobe, meaning that it was an SE camshaft. The other one is standard. Don't know why I didn't notice this before.
Two questions then;-
a) does it matter? I'm presuming there wont be any interference issues or anything like that
b) If this isn't a problem would't it be better if the SE camshaft was on the inlet side where the big valves are or is it better where it is? More inlet charge or better "breathing" exhaust ?
These sound real numpty questions on reading back, but hey ho I am one

Check the duration, base circle and lift of the cams as one or both may have been reground to specs different from the original SE or standard.

If one truely standard and one truely SE and you dont want to get them reground to be matching then i would put the SE cam on the inlet and standard on the exhaust.

cheers
Rohan

Thanks Rohan for confirming what I suspected, I'll swap the camshafts over so that the SE one is on the inlet side. How helpful is this forum

Most parts for carbs are avaiable here weber http://www.dellorto.co.uk/merchandise/p ... ctionID=57 or from Webcom
Andy

Thanks for that Andy, very useful even if a tad expensive
Anyway swapped the camshafts over so that SE one on the inlet and, of course none of the shims were now correct. Measured up what I needed, rang the engine man and explained. He said he had plenty so call in, so I did. When he discovered that some shims were still as thin as 65 thou, he said he was very unhappy with that. He, the boss, had been told by the guy who actually did the work that the thinnest was 90 thou. So, (sorry this is going on a bit ), he said to drop the head back in to him and he would sort it , happy with that and nice to know that he was being so straight with me. Have to get back to more paint stripping in the meantime, although the forecast for the w/e is HOT, so maybe not
Anyway I'm spending the day at the Bristol Classic Car Show tomorrow, so may see some of you there?