High Mileage Elans

[Ocean Blue]

I'm led to believe that the Lotus/Isuzu unit is pretty dammed good for very high mileage, provided services and oil changes are adhered to. Of the four I've had to date, the highest mileage car had covered 130,000 miles and, although it looked like a shed when I bought it, it had a bucket load of service history that suggested every thing mechanical had been done at the right time and it ran like the proverbial dream. I've been told the Isuzu unit is capable of 200,000+ mileage and I just wondered if anyone knows a car that has got close to that figure yet without a rebuild?

[MattDon]

there is one thats been know to do around that figure with no major work done, i think chris foulds knows the car.

[Doug]

I remember old Richard's picture of his odo at 200K, but that was years ago (literally) and he fell off the earth since then . . .

[nitroman]

With the boost left STOCK and in a light car (700 pounds lighter than the other car this engine is in) the engine should be very under-stressed. With frequent oil & coolant changes I don't see why it shouldn't go 200 to 300k. It's important to use synthetic oil to reduce startup engine wear and to keep the turbo from coking up.

[tweetdriver63]

The 91 Impulse I used to have had almost 200K on it when it's oil gelled on me for no known reason (changed every 3000 miles). I think it was because I didn't stick to one oil every change, but just took it to oil/lube shops. I think if I'd run only Mobil 1 in it, and done it myself (I'm not always sure those places can be trusted 100% -- A friend in college had a Toyota Supra ruined by a shop not actually changing his filter 3 oil changes in a row when a different tech each time didn't know the previous one hadn't replaced it because they didn't have it in stock. On the bright side, that shop had to pay to replace his engine) it would never have had that happen, and would still be going strong.