Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Today was beautiful! The sun shone, and its was icy cold. A lovely winter's day for sprinting along in the Elan. At least it was...

At about 60mph, there was an almighty bang, a huge and continuous roar and some very nasty sounds. As I'd jusy re-done the tappet gaps and timing, I knew instantly what had happened. Somehow the timing chain had come free or given way (did I properly tighten the nut on the cam sprockets?) and the whole engine had let go...the horrible roar was piston hitting valve...the nasty scraping was the chain flailing widly...my life as a Lotus owner passed before me. I was very sad.

Imagine my relief when I looked underneath to see the exhaust pipe sat on the floor! The roar was the unsilenced engine, the scraping had been the main exhaust pipe digging a groove in the road.

Mind you, I was still stranded out in the sticks! It turned out that the Y-piece had completely sheared into 2 pieces. The main weld was in one piece, but the shear was just forward of it, where it splits into 2 pipes. I'm guessing that it started life as a crack and worked its way around. There was no obvious impact damage. Took off the exhaust and drove her home, sounding like a Spitfire (Supermarine variety, not a Triumph!) and certainly turning a few heads. I guess after 20 years or so, an exhaust feels entitled to give way. But at least its a cheap and easy fix.

Hi Matt

Thank the lord for that. You had my heart sinking for a moment there. All my recent Lotus related experiences have been the opposite....looked easy be turned out to be a lot worse than expected.

Berni

berni29 wrote:All my recent Lotus related experiences have been the opposite....looked easy be turned out to be a lot worse than expected.

Yes, a disaster coming good is a first for me, too! Mind you, with so little room under the Elan, this incident left me cheerfully recalling my Land Rover days when I didn't even need a jack to work under the car, unless I was removing a wheel.

Hi Matt,
Had the same experience around the Monza race circuit last year; a huge howl in the car and then the engine stopped and so did my heart nearly.!!
I got the jack under the car put the exhaust back on and I was off again but it wasn't until a friend of mine told me that he knew of a car that wasn't as fortunate as I was and that when the exhaust fell off it stuck into the tarmac and the car literally pole vaulted onto its roof !!
Since then I have strung a steel wire tightly around the gearbox mount that goes under the exhaust pipe just in case.
It doesn't clatter or get in the way of anything at all and I feel much better

Gino

Following a recent visit to Paul Matty's, I now have a new Y-piece and the car will be up and running again tomorrow. This is a new experience: an Elan breakdown with a no-cost recovery, a replacement part for only ?27 and a quick fix. Might start to believe they are cheap to run if this continues...but then I only have to look at the oil blowing out the exhaust to know that it isn't yet true...

I have found the best set up for me is to weld two tabs on each side of the pipes with 1/8 holes drilled in the tabs wherever there is a join and hold them together with stiff springs this eliminates clamps and allowing a little motion around the pipes and reducing or preventing any stress cracks in the exhaust system --I also have piece of aluminum bolted across the chassis using the inside seat bolts to catch the pipe in case it parts company --ed