Lotus Elan

Twincam With Poor Performance To 3500rpm

PostPost by: LaikaTheDog » Wed Oct 29, 2003 7:55 pm

Dear people;

Had my plus2 for 6 years now, but broke the chassis two years ago. While I was replacing the chassis I decided to fit Lumenition and recon Dellottos, new leads, plugs and coil.

Set up the timing using a lamp at 12 degrees. (1500rpm)
starts fine
runs a bit lumpy and 'gobbles' when you accelerate, otherwise sounds pretty good.

However I can barely drive it !

I have to blip the throttle to get it above 3000rpm, a steady pedal depression will stall it, once over 3000 rpm the car drives ok, but I dread slowing down !

As I have rebuilt evberything except the engine (was reliable and good before the chassis problems) I guess it should be the dellortos or my timing.

I intend to get it driveable and then drive over to the local rolling road dellorto specialist (10 miles through suburbia)

your advice would be greatly appreciated.
User avatar
LaikaTheDog
Third Gear
Third Gear
 
Posts: 335
Joined: 29 Oct 2003
Location: UK, London.

PostPost by: tdafforn » Thu Oct 30, 2003 12:30 pm

Hi,
Sounds like it could be the dell ortos, what does the car sound like when it is dieing?
It Sounds like the car is having trouble on progression from idle to main jets. Does it "pop"? what size idle get have you got?
Cheers
Tim
1972 +2S130
User avatar
tdafforn
Coveted Fifth Gear
Coveted Fifth Gear
 
Posts: 1016
Joined: 12 Sep 2003
Location: Kenilworth Warwks.

PostPost by: type36lotus » Fri Oct 31, 2003 2:56 am

It sounds about what my Elan did with it's new dellortos. Below 3000 RPM (IIRC) is the idle circuit. the correct set of Emulsion tubes, idle jets and accelerator pump jets will set things right. The DBE Elan parts catalog shows the different setups based on the performance level of your engine. It took me about 6 months, lots of different combinations of the aformentioned being mailed from the UK before I finally got mine right. Mine is a very non-stock configuraton so it took a lot of trial and error.

Mike G
Mike Geiger
66 S3 Coupe', no more :-(
User avatar
type36lotus
Fourth Gear
Fourth Gear
 
Posts: 564
Joined: 17 Sep 2003
Location: Tampa, Florida, USA

PostPost by: twincamman » Mon Jul 26, 2004 12:24 am

if it ran well before you diddled with it it may be an air leak around the carbs turn on your propane torch [ DONT LIGHT IT] and point the the gas around the carb base a change in idle will confirm a leak ed law
dont close your eyes --you will miss the crash

Editor: On June 12, 2020, Edward Law, AKA TwinCamMan, passed away; his obituary can be read at https://www.friscolanti.com/obituary/edward-law. He will be missed.
User avatar
twincamman
Coveted Fifth Gear
Coveted Fifth Gear
 
Posts: 3175
Joined: 02 Oct 2003
Location: Niagara falls [slowly I turned]

PostPost by: worzel » Mon Jul 26, 2004 8:33 am

Hmmm- sounds like fuel starvation- is it like hitting a brick wall at those revs- before you start playing with jets (assuming it doesn't have any wildly sized ones) try the cheap options-

sticking floats/float levels
dizzy weights stuck
air leaks
assuming the carbs are reasonably balanced if the dellortos are the later versions set each slow running volume screw to about 5 full turns out- or - when the problem next happens pull out the choke- if the problem disappears/reduces your'e too weak

Regards

John
worzel
Fourth Gear
Fourth Gear
 
Posts: 626
Joined: 13 Jan 2004

Total Online:

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest