Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Has anyone else cocked up similarly and aside from reversing the temp gauge and heater control, how did you solve it, or God forbid, have I got to remove the head to fix it?
Regards
Bob

bloodknock wrote:Has anyone else cocked up similarly and aside from reversing the temp gauge and heater control, how did you solve it, or God forbid, have I got to remove the head to fix it?
Regards
Bob

Not sure what you mean by 'cocked up' here. My water valve has been in the front position since about 1983, its a far more sensible hole to put it in as the valve can be unscrewed there with the engine bolted into its normal mounts.

For some unknown reason they all came out of Lotus with the water valve in the rear position.


<later>

Oh, I see from the photos that you have put the head on before you put the water valve in and you want to be 'standard' with the water valve in the rear position.

I have heard, but never tried that if you put the engine on a jack and remove the left hand mount and loosen the right hand mount, you can jack up the engine high enough to insert the water valve.

Others have dismantled the watervavle to make it shorter, screwed the shortened valve into the block and then reassembled the valve.

OK Bill, a couple of possibilities i'll look at
Thanks
Bob

My biggest clearance issue is that with new engine mounts the air box fouls the bonnet edge lip. Quite bad now, presumably because the mount is stiffer/higher. Looking at the air box it probably always did to a certain extent.
It's worn paint off the wing and bonnet by pushing them together - fortunately not visible with bonnet closed.
I do have clearance available over the footwell so will be filing out the mountings to ease it a bit.
I will have to guess how much the rubber will settle so I don't get the problem in reverse later on!

What Fun!!!
I Decided to go with Bills second option, stripping the valve and assembling it in situ. So, in stripping it down I decided to give it a good clean and silicon grease. PING?The small (minute) e clip which fits on the actuation shaft end vanished into thin air. Two hours of crawling around on the garage floor and surrounds with a rare earth magnet failed to locate it. I have a Bermuda triangle in my garage for such parts!
Any way, thought I, I?ll try doing further work perhaps it will reappear. So, I examined the clearance I would need to reassemble the valve on the car and I estimate I?ll have to lift the exhaust side of the engine about an inch. (25.4 mm in foreign), it may be do-able. Whilst examining this aspect I noticed that the threads in the head could do with chasing?.. Any one know the size??? I?m thinking that they may be the same as the water tap off on the timing chest???
OK thought I, I?ll get a suitable tap and sort that. Meanwhile, lets just check the thread on the temperature sensor, a refurbished instrument from years ago. Low and behold, it?s a female fitting! Where I need a male fitting to go into the threaded hole in the head!!
That?s it , time for a beer and gentle sob!
So, can someone please:
? identify the thread sizes for me
? Advise on the temp sensor fitting ( I guess I?ll need a male to male adaptor?should it have one in the car from new?
? Have I got to buy one of the fleabay circlip kits just to find one minute E clip for the heater valve OR indeed buy a new valve?

The head threads are BSP orginally tapered but may now be corroded and or worn to some degree. I cant recall the diameter offhand and dinner is cooking so no time to check !!

The male to male adapter is original from new and sold by the usual suppliers. The thread forms are different each end I cant remember the exact details but I think one is tapered to match the head and the other straight to match the temp gunge fitting.

cheers
Rohan

This one has come up before, you need to search through.
Water valve has tapered thread and the temp gauge needs this adaptor male too male with taper on one end.(right side Pic)

Thanks Chaps
Today Ive conducted further searches for that damn e clip, nada! so resignation to shelling out ?20 ish for a new valve, shame, the old one was pretty good.
Anyway, ive now resorted to option one of Bills suggestions and low and behold the prerequisite clearance can be obtained. Just removed C40L to get better access, held engine with trolley jack, then removed the two chassis mounting bolts. Couple of pumps whilst using original valve body as a gauge and there you go.



Wow its tight down there!


Thanks for the help.
Bob

PS whilst under the beast checked gearbx spacers were in place

you may find your exhaust hits the chassis rail when the engine rocks in use. its normal practice to modify the chassis for clearance with 4 to 2 to 1 headers.

cheers
Rohan

It pays to wrap a piece of plumbers PTFE tape around the heater valve and temp gauge threads to improve the seal. I also used some Wellseal.

Read about my trials and tribulations with the temp gauge sensor and water valve from here:
lotus-elan-f19/getting-ogu-roadworthy-again-t26101-15.html#p172491

In my rebuild topic, here:
lotus-elan-f19/getting-ogu-roadworthy-again-t26101.html?hilit=head%20sas

The bit about thread sizes of the adaptors starts on Page 3 lotus-elan-f19/getting-ogu-roadworthy-again-t26101-30.html#p172633

It seems the adaptor is a standard plumbing part.

Rohan, I think youre right.
Now ive put it all back and tightened the manifold bolts No2 just touches the chassis rail.
??I never had this issue before I stripped it, and it is a genuine replacement galvanised lotus chassis purchased in1982.?? Is this another LOTUS phenomena? So, how much does the chassis have to be fettled? metal removed or bent? Will metal removal be detrimental?
The real pisser here is that I'm striving for originality!
So, how much, where and how?
Regards
Bob

Originality requires a header to the original Lotus design that used smaller diameter primary pipes bent tighter against the block than is typically obtained from suppliers these days. These original headers look too skinny these days

There was a thread a while ago with pictures of the various style cutouts people have done to the top flange to clear the typical header you get these days.

I did my mods using panel beating hammers to bend down the edge of the top lip to create an elliptical shaped clearance space around the headers. The maximum depth of the ellipse was about 15 mm to give the needed clearance with the large pipe TTR headers I use in my Elan.

cheers
Rohan

I had the same problem with my Sprint Lotus galvanised Chassis. When i fitted a stainless exhaust manifold I chose to make a cut out but imho i think what Rohan did is better to bend the Chassis flange.
Alan