Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hi, its been awhile since I have visited this venerable forum..... my affections have been elsewhere, in the shape of a ( of all things ) kit car a raw striker in which my son & I have discovered the delights of the track day.... how i have failed to do this until now I cannot believe....all those wasted years!
My poor lotus Plus 2s 130/4 has been usurped for a couple of years.... Oh apart from using it as the wedding transport for my eldest daughter Lizzie..... and in 3 months will be used again for the wedding of Number 2 daughter. So hence the return of Horny Horace!! who still hoots his horn unexpectably at the most inconvenient moments. I no longer find his outbursts quite as hilarious as I did, and have decide to "fix him"
The horn has continued to sound despite changing back to the original steering wheel and the removal of the "pencil " I remember getting some advice from this forum a few years ago. but cannot seem to find the old lotus elan archive....... is it still searchable?
I would also ask if there is any advice on current costs/ recomendations for a conversion to a leaded head?

Depends. What country? how close to a builder? What else do you want done to the head.....might as well do it all and be done with it.

The general advice is you don't need to do anything to run unleaded petrol and there is no specific need for a head rebuild for unleaded fuel. Run it on unleaded until the engine needs its next rebuild and put in new valves and seats at that time if it needs it.

cheers
Rohan

Has anyone any figures on valve-seat recession due to unleaded petrol??

Millimeters per Mile ?

John

No John my valve lash has been constant since the last rebuild 3000 miles ago

Horny outbursts are the result of the steering wheel being too close to the circular horn contact track. As the wheel is turned, eccentricities in the wheel base make contact with the track, especially if you pull the wheel at the same time, say a tight turn - car parking, round-abouts etc. The cure is to lengthen the steering column - how? Two ways; if you have the collapsible column, slacken the two fixing bolts of the column slide and pull the steering wheel up - NB do not slacken the preloaded 'slide bolt' on the column slide (not sure what the correct name is) which tensions the holding bracket. Second method is to slacken one or both of the steering UJ couplings and pull the wheel up - this is required if you do not have the collapsible column. The clearances are very tight, so anly a mm or two movement upwards is required to stop getting the embarrassing horn.

Jeremy