Books and quick carb question

[LL]

Hi all,

Can someone recommend technical books for me to buy on the Elan S4/Sprint please? Rebuild books and ones with detailed drawings of the various components and assemblies. ie Does Bentley do a book for Elans?

A quick question on my Webers. I believe they are 40 DCOE's. There is a take off from the cold air box to the intake manifold at the rear of the block. Rubber tube between both points. The connection at the block appears to be quite loose and could be causing a vacumn leak.

I went to the Goodwood Revival on Saturday and saw a Lotus Cortina with the same hole in the manifold and lo and behold it was clean open with no connection to the filter. Can some explain to me what this is for, is it some form of balance tube ala SU's? Although it appears to be in the wrong place for this.

As you can tell my next purchase is a "how to tune webers" book I know SU's backwards but Webers are new to me.

Cheers,
Neil

[Dag-Henning]

- are you sure the hole is in the intake manifold and not the one in the "velosity drop chambre" in the head..??
Dag

[M100]

The pipe you mention ought to be direct onto the head casting itself - its a breather pipe - either dumped overboard, into the airbox or preferably into a catch tank.

You really need as a minimum the parts list and the service manual. The parts list has exploded views of the whole car. Both can be bought new from a dealer for around 120 quid a pair. Ebay has them now and again in a grubby state for a bit less.

Elan Parts List X036T0325J
Elan Service Manual X036T0327J

You can buy them online from

http://www.bell-colvill.co.uk/LotusShop ... hapter=E06

If you are cheap then you can buy what is essentially a modern day reprint of the 1981 Autobooks manual which is heavily based on the factory service manuals of the Elan and the +2 from amazon for GBP16.95

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASI ... ticaandbey


The earlier (S1/S2/Coupe) parts list is available online from http://www.lotusfaq.org//Elan/Documents/ and when I get round to it (very delayed because of a HD crash) and get the indexes built so will the early workshop manual.

[LL]

Ah OK I understand now. The car isn't here with me at the moment and yes I would say it's cast into the head so it's crankcase ventilation. It looked like part of the manifold from a cursory glance.

I had an interesting fault a few days ago which had me fishing in that area, lots of misfiring and power loss. Took the airbox off and lo and behold the paper from inside the air supply tubing coming from the remote air filter had started to come away. One carb stuffed full of paper! Can't say I've seen that one before.

Thanks for the great advice on the books.

Cheers,
Neil

[marcfuller]

Also strongly recommend these two books;

"LOTUS Twin-Cam Engine" by Miles Wilkins

and

"The Original Lotus Elan, Essential Data and Guidance for Qwners, Restorers and Competitors" by Paul Robinshaw and Christopher Ross

[M100]

Echo that, and add that for both the above books the 2nd editions are a much better bet than the first

[1964 S1]

Echo echo here too. The Robinshaw Ross "The Original Lotus Elan" is one of my all time favorite reads! It's the second most important book in my Lotus Library.

[marcfuller]

Yet one more book I recommend, (No afilliation - just appreciate their service to the hobby.)

Dave Bean Engineering's Catalog for Lotus Elan, +2 and Cortina.
www.davebean.com

Comes in a loose leaf binder. An easy resource to over look since it is called a "catalog", but it is really a note book covering virtually every part on Elans (using Lotus part numbers and drawings) together with Dave's experience and advice in repairing and racing written in detail on the pertinent assemblies and parts. He covers disassembly, reassembly, modifications and work-arounds in many troublesome areas. Much of his notes provide unique insightful information, and it is tried and true. The information has helped me resolve many problems.

And the price is fair $6.00 plus shipping, redemable against orders.

[steveww]

Anyone know where I can get a copy of "The Original Lotus Elan, Essential Data and Guidance for Qwners, Restorers and Competitors" in the UK?

[iain.hamlton]

Anyone know where I can get a copy of "The Original Lotus Elan, Essential Data and Guidance for Qwners, Restorers and Competitors" in the UK?

I got a second hand one off amazon.co.uk. There is a facility where you place the request, and when a vendor finds one he sends it to you. It took several months. A good book, though.

- Iain

[Dag-Henning]

Is the last version with the "Ron Hickman comments" ( Blue cover) sold out yet ??
DH

[marcfuller]

There are reprints of the Robinshaw & Ross book available for order at this website.

http://lotus-books.com/html/elan.html