Lotus Elan Central

by **GeoffSmith** » Sun 15.04.2007, 09:31

chris.t wrote:Monty would it possible to check you're wrench against some others to see if it is torquing correctly? That would at least rule out or confirm one of the possibilities.

Well worth doing, but don't forget that Monty had to tighten up another quarter turn all round the second time.

by **Monty** » Sun 15.04.2007, 11:10

chris.t wrote:Monty would it possible to check you're wrench against some others to see if it is torquing correctly? That would at least rule out or confirm one of the possibilities.

Chris,
Yeah DaPinky had PM`d me to take it to the engineer who will be working on the head which i will do to rule out the torque wrench.

Don`t think the head bolts need replacing as it would say in the manual, as normally the manual is detailed ie on the fly wheel it says to replace the bolts. So i`m sure something as important as the head bolts it would say if they need replacing

by **GeoffSmith** » Sun 15.04.2007, 23:24

Monty wrote:Don't think the head bolts need replacing as it would say in the manual, as normally the manual is detailed ie on the fly wheel it says to replace the bolts. So i'm sure something as important as the head bolts it would say if they need replacing

Monty,

Paul Mattys reckon you don't need to, as confirmed by the owner of the putrid badger. :wink:

Geoff

by **Monty** » Mon 16.04.2007, 17:20

Thanks Mr Smith,

Head was left in 1st thing this morning and i`ve just picked it up, excellent service at Impulse developments :smt023

He also said that it sounds like our bolts aren`t the stretch type (even thou all bolts do stretch). If it was a stretched bolt the manaul would say something like torque to a certain setting then another 90 degrees turn, if it`s just a torque setting then it`s not a stretch bolt and can be reused :-D

Ok
The head passed the pressure test and had 8 thou skimmed off and noted that the head wasn`t warped but was slightly pitted.
Cost (with a little discount)
They had to remove the cams and lifters to do the pressure test and they also cleaned them before refitting. cost £23.07
Pressure test £25
Re face £25 all + vat

The gasket should be here tomorrow and i`ve ordered a timing belt cover just under £26 + vat.

by **chris.t** » Mon 16.04.2007, 17:41

phewwww could have been a lot worse

by **Doug** » Mon 16.04.2007, 23:35

looks nice and sounds like a sweet deal for the work done.

by **Monty** » Tue 17.04.2007, 19:15

The head componets are back together, look at how clean the cams shaft look compared to the before picture at the begining of this page.

New intake manifold gasket
New Exhaust manifold gasket
New thermostat housing to head gasket
New cams shaft oil seals
New Idler
New tensioner
New Alternator belt
New PAS belt

The water pump was fine with no play so haven`t replaced that and the cambelt is just over a year old.

In the 2nd pic thats the Lotus/Isuzu gasket in place, note that i`ve open the water ways to match the block at both ends which was more difficult to do than the Kmckmc type. Also I`ve extended the wire to the Knock sensor as it`s way to short and i ended up ripping the wire out of the connector when removing the head, so this time i`ve fitted Bullet connectors so it`s easy to disconect :-D

for when i come to do the head again (next week lol)

by **chris.t** » Wed 18.04.2007, 18:20

Monty, a friend of mine is a mechanic and i was talking head gaskets to him :roll:

and he mention a repair gasket might have to be used to make up for the metal that was skimmed off the head. Don't know if this is relevant in your case

by **Doc Fizzix** » Wed 18.04.2007, 18:36

chris.t wrote:Monty, a friend of mine is a mechanic and i was talking head gaskets to him and he mention a repair gasket might have to be used to make up for the metal that was skimmed off the head. Don't know if this is relevant in your case

No, don't do that

You will have more compression now

When we rebuilt mine we pushed the compression up a bit, feels great!

by **chris.t** » Wed 18.04.2007, 20:00

Doc Fizzix wrote:
chris.t wrote:Monty, a friend of mine is a mechanic and i was talking head gaskets to him and he mention a repair gasket might have to be used to make up for the metal that was skimmed off the head. Don't know if this is relevant in your case

No, don't do that You will have more compression now

When we rebuilt mine we pushed the compression up a bit, feels great!

he didn't think that was a good idea in a high performance car - ok for a run-around but he said depending on the amount of additional compression will cause the car to run considerably hotter

by **Monty** » Wed 18.04.2007, 21:17

Chris,

Thats correct if u`ve removed to much material, then u would need a thicker gasket. IIRC our heads can be skimmed up to 0.4mm before it has to be replaced (according to the manual).

BTW whats 8 thou in millimeters?

Well got Pinky running today, but things aren`t good :roll:

the HVL are noisy due to the engine shop removing and cleaning them, so need to read up on recharging them :twisted:

I also left the gromet out that in the lower cambelt cover, which is for access to the tensioner and can`t get the bloody thing back in :evil:

On top of all that the rad is leaking at the bottom right plastic end tank, which i noticed there was water from that side at Bedford and think is due to the amount pressure in the coolant system when the gasket went :cry:

by **chris.t** » Wed 18.04.2007, 21:30

0.2032mm = 8 thou

didn't Paul Watkins give us a master class in HVL technology at Dony :roll:

Sounds like you are well on the road to getting her back on the road

by **Monty** » Thu 19.04.2007, 15:11

Cheers Chris,

Yeah Mr Watkins did explain how to recharge the HVL but that would mean removing the engine mount, cambelt then the cams.

The HVL was that loud yesterday i was worried i would damage them with the engine running, But today I left the car running and went in the house and closed the door :lol:

to let the oil and pressure get up to temp, to my delight the HVL have got quite :-D

So just got to deal with the radiator now :roll:

BTW, just checked the head bolts after a warm up and there fine with no movement

Will recheck after a put some mile on her

by **Doc Fizzix** » Thu 19.04.2007, 15:55

chris.t wrote:he didn't think that was a good idea in a high performance car - ok for a run-around but he said depending on the amount of additional compression will cause the car to run considerably hotter

True that, but increase in heat is only when you are on the boost. For most everyday driving you are really not on the boost all that much so it is nice to have a bit more compression and power for normal driving. I had long discussion about this with my engine builder becuase I had always been told you should never increase the compression on a turbo motor but my tech won out and we bumped the compression up a bit and the car does feel good, it is happy

by **chris.t** » Thu 19.04.2007, 17:50

errr Doc monty is always on the boost :twisted:

by **Monty** » Sat 21.04.2007, 21:09

chris.t wrote:errr Doc monty is always on the boost

Changed the oil yesterday to halfords semi synthetic (£12) as there was a bit of white crap in the rocker cover +the oil has seen some hight temp. Will put mobil back in before i go france in 2 weeks time :-D

Well i`ve put a few miles on Pinky (on limited boost), went to blackpool yesterday and today went over the cat & fiddle (wasn`t thrashing it). Done 300 miles car seems fine, the rad is still leaking slightly but i`ve not had to top it up for those 2 days

so only a very small leak

My temp gauge has always read low, on the old gauge it was an 1/8th on the Lockwoods its just above the bottom black line, but noticed when i was doing a steady 90 the temp was slightly higher than normal and when i went over the cat & fiddle the temp did the same and just wonder with the comments above is this down to the head being skimmed

Anyways i`ll be removing the radiator tomorrow and hopefully the rad place could just re crimp it! Whilst the car is off the road again i`ll have another check of the head bolts.

by **Doc Fizzix** » Sat 21.04.2007, 22:29

I hope you changed the oil before you started it up for the first time. I would have also made sure to pour out the oil cooler as well. If you had water in the oil that could be very bad for the bearings :cry:

by **Monty** » Sun 22.04.2007, 15:58

Doc,

The white gunk was only on the underside of the cam cover, but the oil was quite black :roll:

Got the Rad out today, and yet again nothing is easy on the M100 :twisted:

had to grind of the bolts that hold the fibreglass underframe (will pop rivet this back on) also had to snap off one of the cowling lower studs as the nut was rounded off. Just can`t under stand why they use such a small nuts & bolts (8mm heads) :evil:

The rad support frame is quite rusty so i`ve gave it a quick clean up with the grinder, i will treat the rust and paint it. Would of ha them galvanised with the the cowlings etc but just haven`t got time to do them at the mo :roll:

Even tho the rad core isn`t leaking it`s not in the best of condition, so i`ll get the full lot recored. In the 2nd photo the leak was just to the left of were the hose connects, as the cimps have opened slightly. Another good design by Lotus :roll:

by **Doc Fizzix** » Sun 22.04.2007, 16:19

Monty wrote: Another good design by Lotus

Don't we have GM to thank for this and not Lotus, this is a typical GM radiator design :roll:

by **DeeAitch** » Sun 22.04.2007, 18:12

Exactly the same failure as mine :evil:

I think the end tanks are Peugeot so we can't blame GM this time!

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