Lotus Elan Central

by **GeoffSmith** » Sat 24.03.2007, 18:24

Dico wrote:Tell you what Geof, your spellings as bad as Montys

And there's two f'in Geoffs. :wink:

by **Doug** » Sat 24.03.2007, 18:57

the pistons look darn good - i assume they are OE?

maybe you can do a quick top-side oil filter change just for the F of it while you have access!

by **Enright** » Sat 24.03.2007, 21:07

Mischief King wrote:
Dico wrote:Tell you what Geof, your spellings as bad as Montys

And there's two f'in Geoffs.

As if one effin Geoff wasn't bad enough! :lol:

BTW pistons came up nice. What did you end up using?

by **Monty** » Sat 24.03.2007, 21:09

This is the hose Dico was going on about, it was rubbing against a hose clip of a small hose going to the turbo :twisted:

and it would have to be the big complex hose :cry:

so looks like i`ll have to add a metal insert :roll:

by **Paul.P** » Sat 24.03.2007, 21:10

Off topic, but WTF's going on with these avatars !, making it hard to know who's saying what

by **Monty** » Sat 24.03.2007, 21:16

Doug,
Yes there stock pistons and was suprised how clean they came up :-D

Neil, just just WD and a scorring pad (used for cleaning dishes)

Got the head clean and it`s not warped :-D

so the valves are staying in and just doing the head gasket.

This one might be for Enright,
I`ve compared the gasket and there`s 2 hole which are different (see pic below) does anyone have a Lotus gasket to see which one it matches? Got a feeling the stock one started of with small holes but as the water passage is larger it just worn the gasket away

by **Enright** » Sat 24.03.2007, 22:56

Head looks like it's coming up nicely too.
Can't answer you about the gasket because I don't have one to compare it to either.
But if it's any help, I think Michael (KMCKMC) used the new one on his and it's not let him down yet.

by **Monty** » Sat 24.03.2007, 23:02

Cheers Neil,

just don`t know if to lay the new gasket on to the head and cut those holes out large to match the existing holes

as thats got to restrict the water flow, but don`t want to weaken the gasket.

by **Doug** » Wed 28.03.2007, 05:45

Yo Montrose,

Just wondering if you posted your feelings about the fit and comfort of Pinky's new seats compared to the OEs?

I would assume they have to be a world nicer to wear! If I had an Elan to play with, new well-supportive seats would be high on the update list.

-D

by **Doug** » Wed 28.03.2007, 05:48

Monty wrote:Cheers Neil,

just don't know if to lay the new gasket on to the head and cut those holes out large to match the existing holes as thats got to restrict the water flow, but don't want to weaken the gasket.

take a gander at the size of all the coolant holes and decide if you can be sure what those holes are for. If the coolant holes are all about the same size in the gasket then it should be okay??

by **Enright** » Wed 28.03.2007, 10:24

It's a bit of a judgement call.
Weakened gasket versus potential cooling problems.
I wouldn't particularly want to advise either way.
However now that Doug has tipped his toe in the water, I agree with him! :lol:

by **Doug** » Wed 28.03.2007, 10:45

just a guestimation, but study the size of the coolant passages and decide what the holes are for -- the pressure and flow are not going to be too high anyway there.

by **GeoffSmith** » Wed 28.03.2007, 12:51

Reduced flow may result in local hot spots. Also cavitation may be an issue. I'd be tempted to carefully open up the gasket to the size of the hole with a scalpel.

by **Monty** » Wed 28.03.2007, 17:12

Well u`ll all a bit bloody late the gasket was fitted Sunday and i did as Geoff mentioned and layed the gasket on the block and cut the holes using a stanley knife. Actually the gasket was a pain to line up as i could only use one locating dowel :roll:

Took the car for a spin today and things seem fine, i`ll do another coolant change next month when i give her a full service before i go to france. Still got to respray the heat sheilds and camcover.

A lot of work involved in doing the head gasket and hope not to do it for a good few years :twisted:

Doug, the seats look great but there not kind to the bum :roll:

especially with my suspension set up :burnout:

by **Dico** » Wed 28.03.2007, 17:30

Monty wrote:
A lot of work involved in doing the head gasket and hope not to do it for a good few years

Monty wrote:Doug, the seats look great but there not kind to the bum

Neithers Gary

by **Monty** » Mon 02.04.2007, 21:25

At weekend the weather was looking good and Piston heads was doing a run out with a mixture of cars on the sunday, so thought :idea:

bet get Pinky back on the road (this was saturday BTW) so sprayed up the heat sheilds and the dipstick (no not Dico) got them fitted, checked water and oil :-D

. Since i`ve been getting bad vibrations when braking thought it was time to fit new disc, so started on driverside and seperated the disc and bell (boy those bolts were tight :roll:

) clean the caliper pistons. But i couldn`t fit the new disc to the bell as the bolts were shagged :evil:

so that was me pissed off all weekend as the sun was out :cry:

and couldn`t go on the PH run :twisted:

Anyways i manage to get some replacement bolts to day and the brake system is back together with green stuff pads (my spare set) so need to order another set of pads. Took Pinky for a quick spin and all seems good no vibration in the brakes, temp was good and nothing went bang :-D

Going to do a few miles in her then remove cam cover so i can respray it and i might as well recheck the headbolts

by **Paul.P** » Mon 02.04.2007, 21:33

Monty wrote: But i couldn't fit the new disc to the bell as the bolts were shagged so that was me pissed off all weekend as the sun was out

And your mate wouldn't let you have his nice new ARP bolts to get you out the shiiit.......shame on him !

by **Monty** » Mon 02.04.2007, 21:41

Paul, u no what he`s like :roll:

there`s no way he was giving up those shinny bolts :twisted:

mine u he did offer me his old ones but he would of had to swap them over and that would of mean waiting till midnight for them lol.

Whats ARP stand for?

by **Paul.P** » Tue 03.04.2007, 07:07

Monty wrote:Whats ARP stand for?

Don't know Monty, looked right through there catalogue & it doesn't say, it just says they have a tensile strength of 170,000psi ( approx 15% stronger than grade 8 ), & are the only bolts they recommend for brake applications. Oh, & they ain't cheap !, but do look the dogs :wink:

by **Monty** » Tue 03.04.2007, 17:34

Remeber Dico said they cost £30 for the set :shock:

I only wanted 16 but asked the guy for price on a box, he said there were only 86 bolts left and got them for just over 8 squid :-D

High tensile but not SS

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