Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Nice job, Henry. Looking fantastic!

Joe

Excellent!

She's back on her feet and full of fluids. Turned over without plugs to get fuel in the carbs and saw the oil pressure gauge start to move, so the battery is charging overnight and will see if she starts tomorrow. Well wishes and final words of warning or advice are welcomed!

No advice, but lots of well wishes. It's looking great, Henry. When you're finished, I can ship mine by....

Fabulous! I bet it will run like a finely tuned Swiss watch.

Started up and ran well! I do have an issue, though, a whirring when the clutch pedal is fully depresses. Halfway and I'm getting engagement, no whirring, but depress further and it whirrs (smoothly, not rattly). New clutch, pressure plate, release bearing (good quality NOS) and spigot bearing. Going to try to back off the clutch rod nut, but would welcome any advice.

If the whirring only occurs with the pedal depressed, then it most likely is the throwout bearing. If
there's no noise with the pedal up, then your rod clearance is probably fine.
You mentioned it is NOS and that is a concern. If it's been sitting around for a long time, the
grease in the bearing could be hardened, or there's a minimal amount in it. If my theory
is correct, maybe just driving the car for a while might loosen and soften the grease.

You have lubricant in the gearbox, right?

I think you're right - going to keep my fingers crossed it will loosen up. I was thinking the same thing and went for a little spin - but unfortunately after adding some additional clearance on the rod. I should have known the result, but wasn't thinking clearly. As you might guess, a little extra clearance was just enough to allow the piston in the slave to get to the tapered exit and to jam .

Fortunately I was only a mile from home so my son picked me up and I gathered a spare and some tools and a bleed bottle and did something I could not have done on the Elan (without ramps or blocks) - a roadside slave cylinder swap. That got me home. I'll recheck all that this week, and maybe get to a break-in drive next weekend. Not how I wanted to spend the afternoon, but happy with a running engine that seems healthy - and I'm going to be cautiously optimistic I won't have to pull it back out for another throwout bearing swap.

Had a nice, 70 mile break-in drive yesterday, and the little car ran very well. My old, spare clutch slave held up quite well, and as I started my journey home from the back country roads I'd been using for accel/decel I noticed the bearing noise was reduced. By the time I got home it was non-existent, so maybe got lucky on that one. Oil pressure was right on the money throughout, and engine temp stayed on the low side thanks to a 70 degree day and running without the bonnet.

I took a shorter, 5-mile jaunt today to warm the oil back up before changing the break-in oil for regular oil, and ran strong, still no clutch noise and, more importantly, no smoking.

I'm getting a little exhaust popping on lifting off the accelerator after a 3k-5k WOT pull, so some tuning is next on the list - but plugs looked decent and the engine sounded good and pulled hard, so perhaps not too far off.

About only "negative" so far is a fair amount of engine oil draining from the filler cap (it is a breather, too) and pooling on the top of the rocker cover - enough that running yesterday without the bonnet resulted in a fine mist on the windshield from the air flowing over the engine at speed. I'm hoping that 50 weight will be less prone to do so than the lighter 30 weight break-in oil. But will work on a baffle if not, and not a big worry overall - the dipstick showed little to no loss on the day.

Glad to have it back to a state it can be driven, and hoping for a few more weeks of good weather to do so. Thrilled the La Nina may mean a milder winter, so also hopeful for scattered opportunities throughout the winter. Thanks to all who contributed advice and guidance along the way!

Henry,

Could you post a few photos of the intake scoop on the left side of your bonnet? And perhaps the dimensions. Mine has no scoop, and no air filters. A project for this winter.

Thank you, Joe

elaninfuture wrote:Henry,

Could you post a few photos of the intake scoop on the left side of your bonnet? And perhaps the dimensions. Mine has no scoop, and no air filters. A project for this winter.

Thank you, Joe

Be glad to, Joe. Give me a few days, but will grab some pictures and dimensions later this week.

Thanks Henry. I appreciate it.

Joe

I have the correct, formed scoop for an S2 7, in stock.

chris

elaninfuture wrote:Thanks Henry. I appreciate it.

Joe

Joe - here are a few pictures. Weather permitting, I'll have it on the car this weekend for a drive and can get a few more pictures, just let me know what else would be helpful.

Joe,
You may find these photos of genuine S3 useful?
Robin