New Member - Oregon, USA

[Lotus026]

Hi - Just recently bought a project '91 Elan SE, been parked with LR body damage with 37,000 miles on it since '98.

Not new to Elan ownership, I've owned a '65 Elan S2 since '91; and also been driving several weird Isuzu's the last 18 years or so - '89 I-Mark RS 2 door, which uses the same engine / transmission (though normally aspirated, turbo engine has been sitting in the shed for years intended for the Isuzu!) as the M100; so again not exactly a stranger to the drive train! One of my cars has 476,000 miles on it, so the engine's are pretty solid.

Have no plans for the newer Elan at the moment, was too cheap to pass up and good tie-in with my three Isuzu's - mostly needs bodywork around the LR tail light glued back together, and the broken pieces of tail light glued back together (if possible!) or more likely switch the car to different more available tail lights; since it seems that they are impossible to find. Sure wish that the owner back when it was purchased for salvage rebuild had acquired a replacement light then.....didn't know it when I bought it, but not exactly a surprise:) But in the meantime, other cars higher in priority to be worked on; so will probably stick to parts and information acquisition in preparation for fixing it!

[TorqueHorse]

Welcome,

I'm new here too and am trying to resuscitate one that I think has been parked since '97. This is my first resto, so I am learning a lot of things the hard way, but this site is great for the accumulated info, as well as the advice and community from the experienced pros! Please post photos and keep an eye out for the group buys. It seems like there have been some successful recreations of unobtanium parts in the past, and it could be possible to do again (or at least find out about who has that extra third set of something in their attic ).

Cheers!

[Brit-Car-Nut]

Welcome to M100 ownership.

Just to be sure you know, the M100 used the hydraulic lifters (tappets) from the 1.8L. Your 1.6L turbo has shim adjusted lifters.

The M100 pistons, crankshaft and camshafts are also different from the non-turbo 1.6L

I believe the Isuzu non-turbo ignition is not computer controlled electronic, it is distributor based

Also, the gearboxes look the same but the ratios are different.

M100 Turbo: First 3.333:1 Second 1.917:1 Third 1.333:1 Fourth 1.027:1 Fifth 0.829:1 Final Ratio: 3.833

Impulse Turbo: First 3.909:1 Second 2.150:1 Third 1.448:1 Fourth 1.027:1 Fifth 0.829:1 Final Ratio: 4:117

There are probably a bunch of other "Lotus Designed" improvements beyond what I remembered easily.

[steve matthews]

Pictures please

[NewLogik]

Welcome aboard !