Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hi have just bought a +2S/130 from a friend - long story but the car needs a bit of cosmetic TLC and some other improvements. She was MOT'd last week and the only comment was of pitting on the rear discs.

Plans are to refurb her over the next few years whilst keeping her on the road and enjoying her. First journey was from the North East down to Somerset so have got to know her a bit. Was surprised that at an average (when not stationary) on the M6 and M5 of about 60mph she returned about 45mpg on a 245 mile trip.

Currently sat in garage with the petrol tank out trying to eliminate a petrol smell when stood in the garage. It appears to be the tank filler elbow. Is this all it is likely to be as the tank appears to be in good nick and there was no evidence of leakage anywhere. Since taking the tank out and storing it in the shed the garage no longer reeks of petrol - is this likely to have been the only cause???

Cheers

Steve

Congrats on the new car.

+2 are know to be smelly, you might have noticed the breather setup when removing the tank. 2 * 1/2" diameter tubes that run over the roof and exit under the car in front of the wheels. So you have 2 large diameter breather that are open to the air, you've noticed the result of this.

The large diameter breathers are needed due to filler entering the tank mid way up. The common "fix" is to modify the filler neck with a barb and route the large diameter breather back to it and use small breather to vent to air. Some people also add a special vent breather valve.

You probably find quite a lot of info on the forum about what people have done to improve the situation.

Congratulations welcome to the forum that is a nice looking car. Good to see another +2 S130 in our area, I live in Yeovil not far from you so may see you around.
Cheers

A week Saturday the 25th is probably the best Lotus show of the year at Castle Combe less than 70 miles for you.

Hi Steve and welcome to the "Plus 2 Experience"!

As said there are lots of things you can do to improve the breather arrangement. On my S130/5 all I've done so far is to fit the MX5 non return filler valve to prevent fuel sloshing out of the filler cap on right hand bends. It didn't work well but that is more to do with how I fitted it (badly).

I'm rather surprised at your fuel economy. Which engine is it? I'm getting what I assume is 20mpg at the moment, though I have read that a lot of this is down to evaporation between runs.

Nice colour combo, is the roof gold flake?

Cheers
JonB

PS, lube those trunnions!

Welcome Steve!

Hi Steve, welcome to the forum.

As noted above, the petrol smell is a well known issue and has lots of previous posts.

Club Lotus put out Modification details many years ago and I have attached the details below.

Hi all, thanks for the welcome and comments.

TeeJay, thanks for the link, I will be carrying out that mod straight away along with a Mocal TPV8 relief valve.

JonB, I am looking at the MX5 NRV but may leave that for a later date. I was rather surprised by the fuel economy but it was at constant throttle so thought it should be good but not as good as it was. The engine is the 130 big valve with twin Dellortos' but I have the 4 speed box. The roof currently is gold but the log book states it should be silver so will probably return it to silver when I get the body done (there is a lot of crazing all over).

elanfan, thanks for the reminder re Castle Combe - hope to be there on the Saturday.

I plan to fit a metal fuel line from the tank this winter and am pondering whether it would make sense to fit an electric pump at the same time. Is it best to run the pipe along the chassis or would it be better through the cabin?

Cheers Steve

I posted on another thread about a disk of thin rubber sheet that I put under the fuel cap - looks crap but doesn't leak anymore.

http://images.lotuselan.net/lel/60972/0/img_5494.jpg

I think what is happening is the rubber in the sealing disk goes hard over time and doesn't do its job properly, hence leaks. The one on my cap looks fairly new, but it has failed. There are no obvious cracks, so it must be too stiff to form a seal. I have also fitted some rubber fuel hose behind it to help it bear down on the filler neck (didn't work).

This is a cheap solution which probably won't last, but for now is OK. Perhaps you could try it for now, it takes about 5 minutes to do.

Hello Steve,

welcome to the forum!

Lovely looking car

(I'm not too far from you either, I'm on south edge of Exmoor)

Mark