Lotus Elan Central

I wasn't sure whether to post this as a problem or a project, because I still don't know which it will become.

Recently I won a complete engine, gearbox and fuel injection system on eBay. Yesterday I had to undertake a 300 mile round trip to collect them all (well worth it - especially when the seller threw in a complete set of wheels, discs and clutch for free)!

The seller knew that the engine had developed a terminal problem which he suspected was bottom end related. However all covers, sump and cylinder head were virtually unmarked.

Upon getting back home, the engine was (as expected), a pig to heave out of the car on my own. Fortunately I had obtained a scrapped display base/trolley from work. This had been built to cart around a much heavier machine, so was well up to the job, and enabled me to quite easily scoot the whole lot into the garage once I'd wrestled everything onto it.

This evening I had the bright idea that if I removed the head (which seemed to be loose anyway), I would have a nice flat face on which I could sit the block - possibly resting it on some particularly useful blocks of wood.

The head came off very easily, and other than being a bit sooty, looked in perfect condition.

Flushed with success at the easiness of that job, I decided to finish off the evening seeing what I could find further down, by removing the sump.

I was a bit suspicious of all the red hermetite bonding it on - I reckon someone had been bodging! It took some prising off, and when it finally let go, I still couldn't see anything obviously wrong.

Then the sump rattled! "They're not supposed to do that" I thought, and peered inside, to find two semi-circular and rather bent shards of metal peering back at me. Oops.

It looks like it spun the thrust plates at the end of the crank. Possibly a very easy fix, depending on what mess they left behind.

Does anyone have any input at this point? If I remember rightly the engine had done about 100k, so what would you do - take the crank out and renew bearing shells, piston rings and gaskets?

I could be left with the base of a good bottom end on which to build, and possibly even completely recondition the entire engine. Or it could be worth more to keep just for the spares alone.

Enright13 wrote:Does anyone have any input at this point? If I remember rightly the engine had done about 100k, so what would you do - take the crank out and renew bearing shells, piston rings and gaskets?

I could be left with the base of a good bottom end on which to build, and possibly even completely recondition the entire engine. Or it could be worth more to keep just for the spares alone.

really depends on what yo want to do with it

i am NO expert, but to me you run the risk of it going bad or worse if you just do the suspected quick fix and then spend all the time and money to install the engine only to have it go bad again. I'd recommend you remove the entire rotating assembly, clean it up and assess for more damage. At best you will find and fix further issues and at worst you will learn a lot and be sure you have a proper rebuild on hand for use or sale.

cool thread though . . .

You can't expect a helpful answer from me after you outbid me on this one!

(As Doug says, rip it all down and see what you've got - on 100K there should be plenty of life in it yet - if the bores are in tollerance, go for the bottom end rebuild, if not - well, pistons are quite dear (unless you rebuild it as an N/A, where pistons are cheap in the parts sale!) and you can re-asses at that stage.

It is hard to make a decision until you know what you're starting with.)

Neil

I've got a bottom end (sans sump) you can have gratis if it helps.

Dear Neil:

My motor building mentor taught me early on "Do it right the first time and you will only need to do it once." But I had to learn that the hard way and a few weekends later I changed the clutch on the same car three times in an 12 hour period and, at the end of that day, had a seized pressure plate and and bent clutch linkage.

His smug "I-told-you-so" grin was the cherry on top of the parfait that was that day.

Take the time, make the investment and do it right. Otherwise, a Lotus will make you pay and pay dearly.

Sincerely,

Algirdas

Sy, I'm very interested in your offer.

Could you tell me what your bottom end consists of?
Is it basically the engine with just the head and sump removed?
Does it have the crank in?
Also do you have an idea of what mileage was on it?

Al,

I absolutely agree with the theory. This will either be done properly as an ongoing project with the appropriate time, effort and patience put in, or just used for spares. But I'm not going for the "no expense spared" route - if I can save expense by working on bits myself, of course I will!

An example of this is my cam cover.
It's not that I'm a Lotus snob or anything (well OK perhaps I am a bit), but having got a bit tired of answering Isuzu related questions whenever I open the bonnet to the uneducated, I decided to get rid of the evidence.

I got busy with the angle grinder, and then used coarse sandpaper and a polishing wheel to tackle the remainder. There are still a couple of light impressions to be buffed out, but having stunk out the kitchen last night with Nitro Mors, I'm quite pleased with the results:

Neil, lovely work -- but since you still have a warm angle grinder -- consider this -- why not grind off that raised hole area on the bottom right of the cam cover (to the right of the "S" in LOTUS) and the other to the left of the oil filler hole??-- they are not used for anything in the Elan and would look nicer gone -- not sure how far in the thread/hole goes, but given you are going to paint it you could fill the hole as needed

I've mentioned it infrequently before, but I think you'd be the first to do it!

Doug wrote:I've mentioned it infrequently before, but I think you'd be the first to do it!

Maybe you should say it more frequently Doug. I thought the same when Paul Dubya posted his banana cam cover (but couldn't be arsed to go to the garage to check that they weren't used for anything). If they're not used, then it's got to be worth doing Neil.

geoffsmith wrote:If they're not used, then it's got to be worth doing Neil.

Typical...... get someone else to try it first!

What's the betting that if (when) it looks good, PITA will want his like it as well!

Bugger! My cunning plan has been foiled.

I'm just off out to the garage...

I'm back!

Actually I've been back for a while but my doddery old comp was playing up and needed a kick.

Still, after hacking my unwanted lugs off, sanding down the remainder and filling in the holes with Chemical Metal, at least it gave it chance to set enough to be sanded again.

And somehow I think PITA is going to have a bit of project on his hands - LOOK!

Good job Neil - have I been asleep!

I must remember to do that when I come to do my 100k overhaul.

Geoff

SWEET !!!

you're welcome

DAMN! Wish I'd known about doing that before!

Haven't you painted it yet Neil?

cheekybugger wrote:Haven't you painted it yet Neil?

No. Because I didn't have anything to paint it with.
I didn't finish work til after 3, and couldn't find the place I knew that once powder-coated my motorcycle wheels (I think they've shut down).
I was already pretty much set on spraying anyway, so that I have a handy can available for the front edge of the rear wheel-arches/other miscellaneous bits. I just wanted to price up powder coating and see if they had any similar colours. Never mind.
And by the time I got to the paint supplier it was dusk, we couldn't match the paint in the light available, and there wasn't really time to mix it.
Especially bearing in mind the other call that I needed to make which will benefit everyone (more about that elsewhere)!
So I'm picking it up tomorrow morning instead.

There. Now the kitchen has turned into a spray booth!

This is starting to get exciting!

Very cheeky bugger wrote:About time too

Neil,

That's starting to look like the dogs doodahs. Take a bow!

Geoff