Introduction from a new member & his car

[Orsom Weels]

Hello chaps,

Thanks for all the lovely comments about my car, yes, it does look good in the pics, in fact, I keep looking at them & thinking ?why am I planning to repaint it?. Trust me though, the camera DOES lie, it doesn?t stand up to close inspection. The front end is the worst, there?s the crack around the headlight aperture mentioned earlier, then there?s lots of star crazing over the wheel arches from stones hitting the underside, I think I?ll ?thicken? this area up a bit, then apply a thick stone chip type coating under the arches? to try to minimise this in the future (any suggestions welcome), there?s a couple of star cracks in the bonnet where it has become a bit too friendly with the rad cap & cam cover, not sure what I?m going to do about that one, the radiator is easy enough to lower a tad on it?s mountings, but if I lower the engine, or indeed lift the body, the air box gets very close to the inner wing, in fact, I had to ?relieve? the front lower corner of the air box to stop it banging when I first put the car on the road. This is something Nebog John & I have discussed at length & the best we can come up with so far is to change the cam cover to the early type or take the grinder to the existing big valve cover. (It?s the raised rib around ?Lotus big valve? script that just ?kisses? the bonnet with engine movement) Again, all suggestions on a post card please. Then there a few micro blisters popping up here & there, the odd chip & scratch, &, of course, I have stress cracks here & there, some, even, in the car. Oh, & the roof has taken on that goldish, tarnished look . There?s nothing dreadful but it?s a case of where do you stop ? So I think a respray it is ! Hopefully then it?ll look as good in the flesh as it does in the pics.

All the best for now, Tim

[nebogipfel]

Please try to keep on topic Tim

[Orsom Weels]

Please try to keep on topic Tim

Hello John,
Sorry, you'll have to forgive me, I'm new here

Trouble is, my topic keeps melting & all I'm left with is a load of nuts

See you later

[nebogipfel]

Trouble is, my topic keeps melting & all I'm left with is a load of nuts

See you later

[billwill]

And Orson Welles did the famous 1938 broadcast of "The War of the Worlds" which apparently caused widespread panic in America and which was written by H G Wells who originally created the character of Nebogipfel.

I have a complete long-play vinyl of the broadcast.

Clearly a chap with taste Bill

Heh heh, I also have 3 or 4 thousand paperback SF books.




And just to get back on topic, I've lowered the top of the left hand foot-well by about a quarter inch to reduce the number of times that the carb's air box hits it.

[Orsom Weels]

And just to get back on topic, I've lowered the top of the left hand foot-well by about a quarter inch to reduce the number of times that the carb's air box hits it.

Now that is a solution I hadn't thought of Would still have to lower engine/raise body to put space between bonnet & cam cover but it would make it possible

Any other ideas

Cheers, Tim

[rgh0]

On the plus 2 the clearance between the bonnet / hood and the top of the cam cover is tight with the big valve engine but the clearance under the carbs to the footwell is normally generous compared to the Elan so you can typically lower the enginee a little by slotting the engine mounts to gain bonnet clearance. If you are hitting both the footwell and bonnet / hood at same time i would check the engine mounts and gear box mount as something is moving more than it should.

I initialy shimed the body up and also took a little off the corners of the raised "big valve" script on my plus 2 many years ago with a file when I first fitted the spyder chassis before I realised I could have just lowered the engine a little without problems

regards
Rohan

[Orsom Weels]

Hi Rohan,

That has always been the problem, if I manage to get clearance between the airbox & the footwell, then the raised corners of the cam cover just 'kiss' the bonnet, which, over the years, has resulted in a star craze in the bonnet. I originaly releived the bottom of the airbox front corner to give more clearance, which improved things in that area, but it's still tight, I can't get my fingers between the airbox & footwell top, & I've only got little fingers Engine/gearbox mounts are all sound & movement is minmal, it doesn't all jump around like some I've seen, trouble is, a little movement at the engine translates into a fair bit of up & down at the airbox. I reckon if I can find an extra 1/4 inch between the underside of the bonnet & the top of the footwell my problems are solved

Well, one of them

Regards, Tim

[rgh0]

Hi Tim
I would have a look at the angle of the engine / gear box assembly.
Adjusting the angle side to side and fore / aft as well as the vertical height may help.

cheers
Rohan

[billwill]

And just to get back on topic, I've lowered the top of the left hand foot-well by about a quarter inch to reduce the number of times that the carb's air box hits it.

Erm, I meant the right-hand foot-well of course (from the viewpoint of sitting in the car)

It's only the left hand when leaning over the engine compartment to do the work.

You can't lower the top by more than about a quarter inch on RH drive Elan models because the tops of the pedal & handbrake structure is there, but it might be possible to lower it more on left-hand drive models, and I don't know what is possible on a Plus 2.

I had to make-up an aluminium plate with relevant bends in it, to lay the new lower fibre-glass on.

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

Hi Rohan,

That has always been the problem, if I manage to get clearance between the airbox & the footwell, then the raised corners of the cam cover just 'kiss' the bonnet, which, over the years, has resulted in a star craze in the bonnet. I originaly releived the bottom of the airbox front corner to give more clearance, which improved things in that area, but it's still tight, I can't get my fingers between the airbox & footwell top, & I've only got little fingers Engine/gearbox mounts are all sound & movement is minmal, it doesn't all jump around like some I've seen, trouble is, a little movement at the engine translates into a fair bit of up & down at the airbox. I reckon if I can find an extra 1/4 inch between the underside of the bonnet & the top of the footwell my problems are solved

Well, one of them

Regards, Tim

I had a similar clearance problem when I fitted the Zetec engine into my S4.
The intake manifold for the 45 DCOE's that was available at the time brought the airbox etc. too close to the drivers footwell.
The only solution open to me at the time was to cut away the top of the footwell & replace the fibreglass with a very complicated fabricated sheet steel panel.
Cutting out the fibreglass on a practically finished car was not easy & messy!
The steel replacement panel was then painted & fixed in place with pop-rivets & epoxy 2 component adhesive around the total perimeter.
Later another intake manifold that would raise the carbs became available & that would have provided the solution.
Unfortunately that would not solve your problem with a twincam, nevertheless if I was you I would search for a simpler solution to the hack, cut & patch method which I employed.

Good luck
John

[Robbie693]

Hi Rohan,

That has always been the problem, if I manage to get clearance between the airbox & the footwell, then the raised corners of the cam cover just 'kiss' the bonnet, which, over the years, has resulted in a star craze in the bonnet. I originaly releived the bottom of the airbox front corner to give more clearance, which improved things in that area, but it's still tight, I can't get my fingers between the airbox & footwell top, & I've only got little fingers Engine/gearbox mounts are all sound & movement is minmal, it doesn't all jump around like some I've seen, trouble is, a little movement at the engine translates into a fair bit of up & down at the airbox. I reckon if I can find an extra 1/4 inch between the underside of the bonnet & the top of the footwell my problems are solved

Well, one of them

Regards, Tim

Tim, are you sure you have the correct engine mounts fitted? The Plus 2 should have the same mounts each side whereas the Elan as different ones to cant the engine over a bit. Perhaps these have been fitted? There is at least an inch of room under the airbox on my car...

Cheers

Robbie

[brettfcars]

Tim,
I don't think its been mentioned already but there is also a way to raise and lower the rear of the engine.
my understanding is that in a original chassis +2, assuming a 4 speed box - the spacers are 1.125" O/D x 0.4375" thick.
If it's a spyder chassis or has a Lotus 5 speed box you don't need spacers.
These spacers are between the chassis gearbox support and the rubber mounting bracket.
Not sure if they are missing, but raising the rear and lowering the front may be the answer ?
I currently have a engine with no clearance between the air-box and pedal-box
Although about 10mm bonnet to cam cover clearance.

Brett

[alan.barker]

Hi Tim,
for me the engine mounts are not the same both sides. On the carb side it is higher than the exhaust side. One mount has straight sides to the flange fitted to the block and the other has scalloped sides to the flange fitted to the block. Maybe your mounts are different but have been fitted to the wrong sides. The fact is that one mount was the same as the ford anglia and the other was a lotus special. I suggest that you remove both mounts and check them side by side ( for me they should be different). Assemble the one that holds the engine in the high position on the carb side.
I get a bad feeling that i have just reopened an old problem that has been been discussed many times (never mind!!!)
Stand by for some fireworks
Alan B

[Craig Elliott]

Alan

I'm pretty certain that it's only the 2 seat Elan that should have different engine mounts on either side of the block. On the +2 they should be the same...

C