Lotus Festival

September seems to have come early! A busy summer, including the acquisition of a 'companion' +2S 130/5.  See http://lotuselanplus2s.blogspot.co.uk

Both cars made the trip to Brands Hatch for the Lotus Festival at the end of August. About 135 miles round trip, awful traffic on the M25 in Kent due to the M26 being closed. But both cars behaved well, with Pauline driving the Elan (her choice, the clutch is lighter). A huge difference in comfort and refinement reported, although the reduced tyre pressures have definitely helped.

Shame about the heavy showers, but loads of enthusiasts and their Loti.

I particularly liked this one-off special.

Summer 2016 update

So far so good this year!

Over 1000 miles already, a good few local car events and meetings. I'm really enjoying Brooklands in particular.

No major problems to report. I've stopped the Iridium plugs experiment and am just using super unleaded with no additive. The Millers additive seemed to produce some pretty unpleasant fumes in the garage.

An oil change, consumption is ok. The brake servo has developed a minor quirk where the brakes don't release for a couple of seconds after the brake pedal is released. Wierd.

I'd struggled to set up the carburettors and finally took the jets out to check - and found that the idle  jet emulsion tubes were different; one pair lean one pair rich. Now all the same, set up easier and running improved.

The car is still too noisy and the gearing too low for it to be a touring car. A shame, but it's great fun to drive relatively short distances.

Tyre pressures reduced (still above Lotus recommendation) to 20/24 to see if that improves the ride.

January 2016

No updates for 8 months, must either be good news or bad?

Mainly good!

About 1700 miles since the engine rebuild, and no major issues. A small amount of oil consumed (and leaked), no water loss.  Much nicer to drive, flexible and more responsive.

I've fitted (expensive) iridium plugs which seem to have helped with cold starting, and have started to use a Millers petrol additive which allegedly increases the octane rating by two points, helps protect the fuel system from ethanol corrosion and helps the valve seats cope with unleaded fuel. Too early to report on results.

No major trips this year. We decided, due to lack of trust, not to use the car on a Dorset holiday. The longest trip was to Brands for the Lotus Festival, where the car was part of the Historic Lotus Club display.

This year I've joined Brooklands Trust in addition to HLC, the Historic Lotus Register and Club Lotus. I've decided not to rejoin GRRC  - expensive, most events very crowded and 'samey' and frankly some of the members are far too pompous for my liking. I'll never forget the request to ban 'those bloody kit cars' from a GRRC trackday. Too fast for your badly driven poser-mobile, eh?

I've also started a Classic Vehicles group at my local U3A, as well as going along to a range of local car meetings as well as some excellent events including Dunsfold Wings and Wheels (got to drive the runway this time), Brooklands New Year meeting and Motorsport day. So very sociable and I've made some good friends in the process.

A few pictures from the year - this is from the HLC dinner in November.

.... and this was taken at the Brooklands Motorsport day event - the car is on the old banking. 

This is probably my favourite, from New Years Day.

Finally, 'little and large', taken at a local car event.

New engine!

It's been a while - sorry!

The engine came out a couple of months ago. To my surprise and horror, the new valve stems and valve guides were very badly worn, after just 3000 miles. That could only be due to lack of lubrication or oil being diluted by unburnt petrol. And yes, the release bearing had failed.

Given the additional problems with oil usage, vibration etc., I decided to go ahead and have the engine rebuilt. The following components were sourced (this took a while):
- Lotus B block with liners fitted by Scholar, machined down to match the pistons
- 'Used' rods and crank which were checked, balanced, machined etc.
- New fast road cams from QED
- New forged pistons, also from QED, weight checked
- Refurbished and rejetted Dellorto carbs
- New oil pump
- New radiator with fitting for electric fan and thermostat.

Clutch and flywheel balanced. Then all reassembled by Max. No major issues and the car was back on the road last weekend.

120 miles so far, limiting the revs to 3500 so far with lots of variation and light loads. Load and revs to be gradually increased. A massive improvement - smoother, quieter, very responsive.

Problems - decision - new engine

Back from MOT, driving home the engine drops onto 3 cylinders with resulting vibration. Metallic sounds..... 

I clean the plugs and test, no change. 

The release bearing is very noisy too. 

So, no driving the car unless further damage results. The engine has to come out - the plan is to build a 'new' standard-capacity engine.  Max finds a reconditioned (lined) L block on eBay, I collect it from Suffolk. 

Lakeside are very busy at the moment so not sure when the engine will be built. More news when I have it.

Thanks for Tim at Lakeside for this picture, though.

Winter service and additional 'tweaks'

MOT due at the end of February, and this coincided with the start of our house extension (first task, garage demolition).  So the Elan was sent to Lakeside Car Spa for the MOT plus some attention to a few items that either didn't get done last year or have appeared over the last few months.

MOT passed, no problems.
Starting problem traced to faulty battery - only 2 years old.....!!
New component for the drivers door locking mechanism fabricated and fitted locally.
Both doors adjusted so they protrude less; trim refixed
Loose magnet in driver's door window motor refixed; window operation faster and quieter
Diff level fine, gearbox needed about .5l, leak traced to speedo take-off, new O rings fitted
Trunions greased
Headlight system checked for vacuum leaks, no problem found. 
N/s headlight bezel adjusted so it doesn't catch on the bodywork.
Driver's seat moved forward
Silencers strap shortened to lift & level silencer
Under-dash trim and wiring tidied
Speedo trip reset ‘rod’ made up and fitted

Remaining work? Three areas:
1. Engine & transmission - oil consumption and leaks, mid-range vibration, noisy clutch release bearing. Current thoughts, replace long block with standard. 
2. Bonnet height (due to tall block) and chips and scrapes to paint on bonnet. If standard block fitted then problem solved and paintwork can be redone
3. Driver's door frame damage and resulting cracks to fibreglass. Current thoughts - reprofile fibreglass to suit the frame.

In the short term the car will be driven but no long journeys in case of release bearing failure.

A temporary garage found at Pauline's friend Liz's house. Very good of her.

All quiet.... apart from the clutch release bearing.

Nothing much to report recently, apart from a few trips to classic car meetings and with a small group of classic vehicle  owners in the local U3A.

An acquaintance, owner of a 1967 Lotus 7, pointed me to a series of local classic car meetings. These are great fun, with lots of interesting cars, even on cold and wet winter days.
http://www.whitelionantiques.co.uk/classic-car-meetings/

The U3A group has it's own microsite, with pictures of some interesting vehicles.
https://sites.google.com/site/camu3aclassicvehicles/home

The Elan has been exercised most weeks, with no major snags. However there is a "release bearing noise" from the gearbox region. This a bit worrying - if it is what I suspect than it's an engine-out job.  That may bring forward the engine rebuild.......

 Starting has been tricky in the cold. Partly because there is a mechanical fuel pump, so it takes a few turns of the engine to prime the carbs. The thick engine oil may not help, although I've filled with 20/50 for the winter. I also suspect that there may be a problem with the battery isolator, as I've had to clean the contacts on that a couple of times. So I've acquired a portable charger / jump start unit, just in case.

We're about to start a major building extension, part of which is the demolishing of the garage in which the Lotus resides. A week before that, the car will be off to Lakeside for it's MOT and some winter fettling. But it won't be there for the whole 3 month period when I won't have a garage.