Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Alignment in process... who knows, maybe even try to start it up for a trip around the block before day's end.

SENC wrote:Alignment in process... who knows, maybe even try to start it up for a trip around the block before day's end.

alignment.jpg

Almost jinxed myself - doing a final run through before lowering the car I found out the hard way I hadn't set the clutch fork fully when installing a replacement slave cylinder, and promptly pushed the piston right out of the cylinder, along with all the fluid. Fortunately, that wasn't too long a fix so I actually did get a couple trips around the neighborhood.

Started fairly easily and held a cold idle well with a minimum of revving. First trip just around the block nice and slow in 1st gear to let things warm up, including a quick visit with my neighbor across the street who ran out to see.

After a check on the fluids and a slight adjustment to the distributor as it seemed slightly advanced (no, I haven't pulled out the timing light, yet), I took my second journey - about a mile in total. Was able to get all gears (though barely 4th as I was not in a place for speed) and car ran ok, though sputtering and backfiring a bit on lifting off the accelerator, so next step is to check plugs, play with the timing, and learn how to tune Webers.

Here she is cooling after her brief journey:



Here is a link to that journey, if you're really bored and need to fill 30 seconds.

https://youtu.be/VsyqbFe3syM

Superb Henry

casalunge wrote:Superb Henry

Having fun, Colin. Thanks for sharing!

Started the tuning/tinkering process today. Plugs in place are NGK BP7ES, gaps pretty close. Replaced with BP6ES to get a bit hotter plug and to hopefully reduce fouling while staying at lower revs.



Pulled the distributor, also looks pretty good. Checked and slightly adjusted the points, and cleaned things up a bit smearing the cam with a touch of grease and a drop of oil in the spindle. No obvious wear, but I'm not at all familiar with this distributor - looks to be an Aussie-modded Bosch - can any of the Australian crowd comment on it? A known or good rebuilder? The car came with the original Lucas distributor, which I've had the Distributor Doctor check out and rebuild for me - checked out well and he made sure it had the appropriate advance curve for the Cosworth 1500 engine, so I'll go back with that once I get some cables made - but in the meantime reinstalled the Scorcher/Bosch.




Took it for a short spin to warm things up and took a couple turns at adjusting the timing - ended up reducing the advance just a little over a few short runs. The engine feels pretty peppy, some very slight stumbling at very low revs. Notable exhaust afterfire popping when holding steady just below 3k rpm and on lift.

Have started studying up on the Webers - and would certainly welcome any advice from the experts here. In the meantime, will pop the wheels back off to check all of my suspension and brake nuts and bolts now that they've been on the road a few miles.

A little weeping out of the back carb...

hi there,

The distributor you have is made by a very reputable business in Melbourne, it is a modified bosch unit, they prepare them with dedicated advance curves if provided by customers, or their recommend curve based on engine spec, they last much longer than the Lucas items.

I had the popping issue on S2 seven when we reinstalled the line a year os so ago, the issue was air entering the inlet track between the carburettors and inlet manifold. The original lotus inlet manifolds have a groove machined on the face that the weber mates to for an o ring, it is important to get the correct size and section of o ring, to avoid them popping out when tightening and creating an air leak. I finally sourced a few sizes of Viton o rings from Dave Bean and had carbs on an off a few times until we found the correct combination. No popping now, pulls like train from down low.

I'm about to fit one of the new bluetooth programmable type distributors to make it easier to get timing spot on for new fuels.

V

Thank you vstibbard, very helpful indeed! Are yours installed with thackery washers or the rubber equivalent?

And a BEAUTIFUL Seven! What year?

Weber components from the Lotus 7 workshop manual, might be helpful to others as well...

I had the dreaded O rings that supposedly fit in the grove on the Cosworth manifolds. Gave up on "regular" ones and got the Viton ones from DBE. Tried everything to keep them in. One backfire and they pop out. Switched to the Redline soft mounts as recommend by PHP (Barry) no more problems. Just make sure you have the thackery washers or the rubber type tighten correctly. Also consider installing the heat shields a minor PITA if you need to remove the carb but they do help keep some heat off the carbs. Forgot to add, there are some mounts that have just one O ring captive in an aluminum (aluminium!) plate. A bit more than the soft mounts but hey at this point a few $$ more doen't make much of a difference.

Thanks Joe.

Carbs, intake manifold and exhaust manifold removed. Carbs were tightly mounted to the intake manifold, completely flattening the o-ring. Is this correct, or should it be a soft mount with thackerys or the like?



Insides look pretty good except for signs of a fuel leak and a little corrosion on #1.



Tested all of the screws on the carbs to see if any would be a problem - all loosened easily EXCEPT, of course, one on the bottom plate on the back carb that broke off. Another on that bottom plate had corrosion about half-way, so guess some condensation from heat cycles. Now to figure out how to get the remains out without butchering it. Have it soaking in Kroil for now.

I'll send you a picture, it should be soft mounted to stop heat transfer and absorb the vibrations so that the float does not get damaged over time. I've had no O rings pop out since fitting, but as I said in my initial post I tried a number of different sections before finding one that allows you to tighten and not push the oil pin out of its position.

This only occurs due to the groove only being on the inlet manifold, another option would be to use something similar other Elan's. Ideally a spacer would also ensure heat does not transfer through to the carburettor, Iv'e seen a car with a phenolic spacer that had the oil ring groove to match the inlet manifold.

However on an S2 with correct lenght trumpets there's not much clearance to the bonnet air scoop, with my car 5-10mm would mean fouling on the bonnet scoop for the rear trumpet.

Cheers

Vaughan

Stripping the carburetor for 3&4, no major hangups yet other than the seized and broken screw in the bottom plate. Have drilled that successfully but even with heat and broil it isn't budging, yet. Hoping it will loosen with the hot ultrasonic cleaning as my next largest drill is likely to begin taking some threads (I wasn't perfectly centered).

At any rate, a couple of pictures - had definitely sat a while, and frankly not sure how it was running as well as it was with the intake blockage. I'll definitely be adding an online filter between pump and carb.

The 3/4 carburetor cleaned up nicely, but the no luck with the bottom plate screw remains, even with further drilling. Didn't have a 5mm .8 helicoil and couldn't find one locally, so waiting for Amazon and boxed the bits up for now.



The 1/2 carburetor disassembled more easily and completely, will clean it tomorrow.