A trip to LOG

[GLB]

When it was announced last year that the 2024 LOG would be held in Austin,TX, my son and I decided we could attend this one. He lives in Austin and I, with 3 lotus, live in El Paso, still in TX, but just barely -- 600 miles away to the west. He volunteered to fly out and we could take the '63 Elan 1600 and the '71 +2S and leave the Europa TC Special at home. As the date for the departure neared this idea suddenly did not seem as good as it did a year ago.
I changed fluids and carefully checked both cars. New tires replaced the ten year old, but still good looking tires on the +2. My son arrived on Friday from Austin and we left before dawn on Saturday while it was still cool. Happily both cars did fine in the cool morning air. Both water temp guages stayed at thermostat temp, about 82C. As the day heated up to about 37C (97F) the Elans big Mardsten radiator stayed at 82C. The +2 still has the original small radiator and it settled at a steady 90C. Not too bad. I have temp color indicating strips on the radiators and they confirmed the guage readings.
All was well until Llano TX about 50 miles from the LOG hotel. I was driving the +2 and we stopped for gas. I was creeping along at low RPM in second gear waiting to turn in. As I tried to accelerate I was met with a horrible miss fire. Depressing the clutch and reving the engine all seemed well. Driving at speed the rest of the weekent was fine except for the occasional low speed miss.
I finally figured out that the rear Zenith Stromberg carb body has a vacuum port on the underside, hence invisible to casual inspection. I am using a European balance type manifold and a distributor with no vacuum advance or retard. I had capped off the port with a rubber cap that decided at this point it did not like fuel and revealed its failure with a miss. It would flap open and miss terribly or the pieces would sort of close and semi seal and less or no miss. At higher throttle openings the air leak didn't matter as much and it ran fine. When I found the problem after much head scratching I took a piece of fuel hose from my traveling repair kit and plugged it with a small twig and sealed the opening. No more problem.
The only other problem that developed is an oil leak from the rear seal on the transmission. I lost about 3/4 inch of gear oil from the transmission on the way home. I hope I can replace the seal without removing the engine and transmission. Any ideas appreciated.
I left the Elan in Austin. I am taking the train (I like trains) back to Austin Thursday and then going to the Texas All British Car Days this weekend. It is in the Austin area too. I plan to return to El Paso on Monday. I'll continue the story of the Elan next week after I get back home. There is a story there too.
Some thoughts on driving very small cars without AC in Texas
1. Everything else on the road in Texas is BIG, and NOISY, especially tire noise, and big diesel pick up trucks.
2. I need to be a very defensive driver as I don't think other drivers realize how small a Lotus is. Fortunately traffic is fairly light once you leave Austin until you get to El Paso n 600 miles
3. Lots of interesting smells when the windows are open. Oil and gas fields in parts of the state. Diesel exhaust and dead deer, coyotes,feral pigs, raccoons, vultures that react slowly to oncoming traffic, assorted other unidentifiable creatures and skunks, Especially skunks. The animal carnage on Texas roads is astounding.
4. Fuel economy. With towns in west Texas being 100 miles or more apart refueling often is needed to avoid range anxiety. The +2 is no problem with a larger fuel tank and much better economy. At 70-75 MPH it does 35-36 MPG It is hard to be exact as it is hard to top up but on a previous trip to LOG in Birmingham AL it got the same milage with a much larger sample. The Elan on Webers only does about 22 MPG with about 9 gal. usable fuel. I don't know why. The spark plugs look good the with Elan slightly lighter in color and no sign of richness in either engine. The Elan has 3:90 rear axle and the +2 3:77. The Elan runs a little over 4000 RPM at 70 and the +2 a little under 4000. I do murder a lot more bugs with the Elan than with the +2. The +2 is almost bug free so aerodynamics are better in the +2 I keep the hood (top) on the Elan for sun protection. It is tight and doesn't flap much but the wind noise is much higher in the Elan. It seems like a big fuel economy difference to me.
Well, wish me luck with the Elan next weekend and if anyone is interested in my saga I'll write more when I get home. Gary

[512BB]

You need to invest in 3.5 diffs in both your cars Gary, specially doing that sort of mileage. On one holiday to France we averaged 42 mpg over 2500 miles in a Sprint, and that was 2 up with all her shoes thrown in, literally.

Thanks for the write up. Keep going.

Leslie

[elancoupe]

Check the front yoke on the driveshaft, they can wear to the point that a new seal won’t fix the leak. Don’t ask me how I know this