Lotus Elan Central

by **Dico** » Mon 20.02.2006, 22:06

AWD

Yeah! No secrets here Costas

by **Houdini** » Tue 21.02.2006, 01:15

AWD

You know you want to!

by **nitroman** » Tue 21.02.2006, 01:34

Costas, the high humidity sounds like an ignition or electrical problem; like a slight short as the water/humidity might be giving the electricity a path it doesn't have in dry conditions. Normally cars run better (feel more powerful) in the wet as the air is more dense (much like me), meaning you can cram more in making for a bigger boom.

Glad you are taking it to the next level. 3wd would be something new! :shock:

Going back to the post on the prior page by Dave-M, I am Jet-Hot coating my air-recirc tube to give it a better look while still retaining its function.

by **Costas** » Tue 21.02.2006, 15:10

AWD is science fiction

Mat I know what you are saying, but the thought that something may go wrong while travelling to Dony scared me a lot. So today while I was driving to DSP to change the water pump I decided to eliminate any possible problems. The following dialogue within fun atmosphere occured

Costas - I want you to check thoroughly every single bit of the engine inside-out and every single connection and wiring and grant me that everything is perfect
Greg - Are you serious?
Costas - Let me put it this way, if for any reason, while I am driving to Great Britain something goes wrong because you didnt check it, you will come wherever I am stopped and push me all the way to Dony..... and back!
Greg - Oh damn! here we go again...

I left the Workshop and returned after 2 hours..... and guess what!

They are checking EVERYTHING!

Bottom line, thank God I did ask for that because the Engine Gasget had a minor-tiny crack but most possible wouldnt last for this long trip. Allready ordered a new one and replacing it tomorow morning.

While checking the Engine bits we decided to remove more parts, I shall post pictures tommorow.

Well another good thing is I managed to snap some promised photos

This is the Maserati Oil trap

This is the kind of NGK spark plugs I am using, I believe they are stock, but the gap is manually adjusted to 1.0mm

The extra hose that flows air to the Air Intake Filter is connected to the stock inlet.

Costas

by **Doug** » Tue 21.02.2006, 15:54

this is one interesting way to change the oil filter from above . . . I can see it in the picture.

by **Monty** » Tue 21.02.2006, 17:19

Costas,

Thanks for the pic, i`m going to try and find a different location

but might end up doing the same as u.

by **Costas** » Tue 21.02.2006, 18:40

Just noticed, its the first non-smoking picture of Greg over my engine :lol:

by **Costas** » Thu 23.02.2006, 00:15

Well those are the bits that were removed from the engine this time. If I got it right, the throttles now will be 100% opened all the time.

Engine is all built up again (in just one day work!), tommorow we are gonna smooth it for 100km and on Friday we are gonna test it again under hard driving conditions.

Everything is tested and we replaced every little thing that didnt look perfect. Greg tested even the front mount point for my videocamera!

On top of all, I ve been challenged by a Lotus Esprit GT3 owner for a streetrace from standstill til 250km/h and various accelerations with all several gears in, perhaps on Saturday. Camera battery is charged up, will he show up?

Costas

by **Doug** » Thu 23.02.2006, 05:15

Costas,

please drive safely

please show us the clips--and I think you'll need a rear mount camera too for us to see that Esprit . . . :-D

by **F1 LOTUS** » Thu 23.02.2006, 08:38

"Well those are the bits that were removed from the engine this time...."

Costas, you don't suspect Greg is building his own stock Elan from your parts do you??? :shock:

Listen to the Doc', be careful

by **Sy V** » Thu 23.02.2006, 09:47

...and I really hope that it's not the prongeron loop that that 'monkey' is hanging on!

by **DeeAitch** » Thu 23.02.2006, 10:43

Never mind the tow loop what's that he is impaled on? Looks painfull :shock:

2 hours to get the head off? I would still be looking at it wondering where to start :wink:

Costas, those guys are amazing. As for the street race, downtown Athens must be a crazy place on Saturday nights!

by **Costas** » Thu 23.02.2006, 23:37

Tommorow I shall try to "persuade" Greg to alter all my NOS switches along with their set up. he is not to happy doing such works, and he is most certainly gonna kill me because I shall also ask him to install this thingy to the front bumper and he has to completely remove the bumper to do so. He is in the middle of building 2 Elises, 1 Esprit and 1 Ghibli so having me asking such BS works to be done is kinda annoying.... but we are running out of time. The way I see it I wont make it to install the Momo seats or paint the front bumper before Donny....

I can hear yelling allready!

Costas

by **Sy V** » Fri 03.03.2006, 12:09

Costas has asked me to post these picture (he's moving house and can't upload).
Expect him to add some explanatory words soon.

by **Costas** » Fri 03.03.2006, 14:47

TY SY, much appreciated.

Had this idea wirlwinding in my brains long ago due to problems I had with cracks appearing on the watertanks but because they werent expensive to replace I didnt pay a lot attention. Reading Dico's Project thread though pushed the idea inside me to turn it reality and so I did. Three days after asking DSP to build it for me, it was built and installed.

An Alum custom made Water Tank in the Elan Engine Bay. It makes me feel more safe now, crack-free, and its a more pleasant view compared to the plastic one. Allredy tested and everything is perfectly ok.

As far as the moving to new house goes, I am moving to new house because the memories of my parents in the old one were dominating and turned me sad. Trying to look forward as all my friends ask me to do.

Tommorow I am buying the Cruise tickets for Greece-Italy sea trip and allready got a Sat Nav to help me and George make it on time to Dony. Expenses rise but its a mind break free trip for me.

Didnt manage to do Dynoruns, didnt race the Esprit, didnt manage to replace Seats or door seals but I believe thats not what you will care about.

Costas

by **Low Profile** » Mon 06.03.2006, 21:54

Really enjoyed this thread! Awesome!

Thankyou!

by **ALEX_SSGTi** » Thu 09.03.2006, 21:10

Hallo everybody!
Costas is a friend of mine and I have to say that Sh4rk is one of the best cars that I have ever ride! (as a codriver yet!Costas you hear me??)
Greetings from Greece!

by **Costas** » Fri 10.03.2006, 08:32

ALEX_SSGTi wrote:..as a codriver yet! Costas you hear me?

I hear you buddy, anytime you ask its all yours. Horror movies will seem like comedies after that.

Costas

PS. Alex is a photographer-reporter for Greek Car Magazines

by **Costas** » Wed 05.04.2006, 18:03

2 weeks ago I drove 4500km to Dony and back, the following weekend Drove 1500km to Northern Greece and back and absolutelly nothing at all happened to the car! Today I came back to Athens, drove to DSP and while I waited for 5 minutes outside their Garage door to park with the engine running and ...... BOOOOM! steam coming all over the engine turning the place to mass fog, it was like if I was flying a German M109 shot down by a Spitfire in WWII.

Greg run out yelling "What on hell were you doing again?" only to find me answering "I was just waiting to park...."

A water pipe passed away and cracked, and the water leakage on the hot engine produced that scary spectacular effect.

Fortunatelly has happenned to me again while on racing track so I wasnt worried, in fact I was pleased it hapened just when I arrived at DSP. All the ppl there called me Superlucky! They checked everything just in case but no more damage, replaced the blown silicon water pipe and back on the streets again. ;-)

Now the serious part that was resolved last week is that we finnaly identified the problem that made the car not able to perform while at wet weather. As Nitroman has posted it should be an electrical problem. We had checked every single connection before the trip to Dony but as soon as I landed to Britain with rainy weather and temperatures at 0 degrees the car refused to go at high boost. Those who had a ride, witnessed the problem.

It proved that what caused the problem was the Coil-pack, replaced it and now the car not only has no problem at all with weather but its more responsive to acceleration! I was telling to Delta while at the Hotel Lobby that the 1 thing we hadnt checked was the Coil-pack and unfortunatelly that was that caused the problem.

Costas

PS. I am not used to post about such stuf but I outrun a BMW Z4 3.0 that provoked me in topspeed on the highway, my speedometer was on the dark area beyond the top speed mark, should read 265-270 km/h. Wish I could take a picture of the Z4 Driver's face when he realized that the little black car was lot faster than his showoff car. PRICELESS!

by **nissias** » Mon 24.04.2006, 03:00

I smoked an M3 Evo two days ago from standing. And he had a 338bhp claiming dyno sheet. Well done to my small blue baby

The only Lotus specialist in the island is actually a good one afterall. Thumbs up for his good work

Costas you should come to Cyprus Dragster in May. We can teach some guys what a Lotus car is as I am getting too much bloody bullshit from those Honda TypeR/Vtec guys (and believe me they are everywhere)!

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