A run in the country, a photo shoot and a new alarm key fob

As the weather forecast was fine, I decided to go for a drive in the country today. We covered 260km and although it was cold when we left at 8am, it was quite pleasant by the time we stopped back in Perth for a photo shoot with some friends in the industry.

A coffee stop in Toodyay.

Oil industry rev-heads.

I also recently added a new alarm fob using a little dongle from the UK, which saves the hassle and expense of going to a dealer!

Old fob, new fob, updater dongle.

Further updates - and a fix!

Since getting back on the road there have been some triumphs and some disappointments.

I managed to do quite well at the sprint, getting a faster time than my friends, although a spin cost me a final victory.

I have refitted the undertray, which needed some work to make it clear the new exhaust, enlarging a hole and using some spacers to lower the tray about 1cm.

I have also ordered some new wheels. Not because I need them, but because they are genuine Lotus 12-spoke wheels and are a bargain price. Although shipping from the UK to Australia is expensive, I have ordered 4 wheels for less than the original cost of one!

On the negative side, I'm not sure I have completely removed all the air from the cooling system and I may need a new temperature sender. These aren't expensive so I will order one soon. 

** Update: Ordered, along with a new set of brake pads.

** Update 2: The wheels have arrived. Less than a week since ordering them. I doubt they would arrive so quickly from the other side of Australia!

** Latest update, 24 June 2013. Completed the second State Sprint, and due to the afternoon session being hit by heavy rain, I managed to grab a class win!

     Also, I fixed the erratic temperature issue. It was, as some suggested, a bad earth. Some idiot (me) had forgotten to attach the earth strap to the gearbox. I bolted it on and the temperature was stable, and the fan came on as expected and cooled the system down. Result! A simple fix but not worth all the worry about a bad head gasket seal or some other problem. Very relieved!

On the road

With the new windscreen fitted, the bodywork went back on.

There was a problem with the engine, however. There was goo in the header tank of the cooling system, which really annoyed me. Surely I hadn't cocked up and the head gasket had blown already, even before I had driven on the road?

A bit of reading on the Lotus forum eased my mind. A bit. It was most likely a mismatch of coolants. Some old coolant must have remained in the system and reacted with the new coolant.

I drained the coolant and flushed with water, then ran some flush through for 20 mins and refilled with new coolant. I also had to remove the the header tank and clean the goo out of it. :-(

Today I took it to have the suspension aligned, as I had replaced the rear toe links, and 4 ball joints. On the way there the car was quite fidgety, on the way back it was very stable. Let"s see how it goes on the track next weekend.

What's left to do? New tyres; refit the rear arch liners; trim the undertray to fit the new exhaust and refit it. Then win my class at the State Sprint! Hopefully.

New Windscreen

The car went off on the back of a truck this morning to have a new windscreen fitted. The old one had a sandblasted look which was worst when driving at night or into the rising or setting sun. Time for a new one, paid for by insurance.

Had to adjust one rear brake as it was binding, making moving the car around more work than it should be.

The painted lettering is just visible through the engine cover. :-)

There is life!

Today is a public holiday in Oz, so a chance to get some work done in the garage.

I finished fitting the exhaust, connected up the lambda sensor and filled the system with coolant.

First thing to do was to turn the engine over with the plugs out to build up some oil pressure, then put the plugs in and see if it would start.

Good news! It started instantly! The tappets were noisy until oil pressure built up. Temperature built up to 86C and all seemed well, just a little topping up of the coolant as it filled the radiator and heater matrix. After a spot of lunch I restarted the engine and ran it until the radiator fan cut in. All seems well!

I fitted the rear brakes and tightened up the large hub nuts.

So now it is possible to put the wheels on and move the car around. I hope to get the windscreen replaced next week, then put the bodywork back on and have a proper suspension geometry set-up done.

Hopefully it will all be ready for the next sprint on 12th May.

With the wheels back on I reversed it out of the garage. It looks so small next to the Fiesta!

Update: rear bodywork is back on.

Windscreen replacement is booked for next Monday.

Getting ready to fire up the engine

After a break of a couple of weeks due to my wedding and honeymoon, I have made some progress towards getting the engine running.

Marty made some brackets for the new exhaust heat shield and it was trial fitted, along with the new alternator heat shield.

Today I was going to replace the CV joint boots, but after cleaning up the old ones they were in such good condition that I decided not to change them.

This probably saved me 4 hours' work. The driveshafts are now back in which means I can fill the gearbox with oil, then the engine with oil and coolant. I've bought some Redline oil for the gearbox. Expensive but recommended by other Elise owners.

I also noticed that I have missed a washer on the inboard right toe line, so I that will have to be fitted. (Now fitted!)

I also bought a new battery.

Refitting ancillaries

Now the engine is in, refitting the ancillaries has started.
I've refitted the inlet manifold, which has had a bit of a clean. I also fitted a new fuel filter and connected the fuel lines.

I also bought some oil for the engine and gearbox. On the recommendation of fellow Lotus owners I bought Redline gearbox oil at $150 a can! Luckily the engine oil was on special. I don't have any coolant as I forgot to note how much I needed!

Marty should have the exhaust heat shield brackets ready tomorrow so I can fit the exhaust manifold and the alternator which also has a new heat shield.

Clutch fitted, gearbox fitted and...

I decided to try and fit the clutch and gearbox today. This meant getting the hoist out and lifting the engine off the stand so I could mount the clutch. I used a socket extension bar to align the clutch plate and the gearbox went on fairly easily one the gearbox was aligned with the correct mounting holes on the engine. I also fitted the clutch cylinder bracket strengthener.

above: Clutch fitted

below: Gearbox fitted

below: Clutch slave cylinder strengthener fitted

As that was done and the hoist was out, I thought I'd have a go at putting the engine in!

It really needs two people, but I gave it a go and apart from having to remove the new coolant pipe I'd fitted, it went in fairly easily. I'll have to look at how to mount the coolant pipe and maybe drill some new holes so I can relocate the brackets. Maybe it will be ok.

Anyway, the engine is in and it's on its mounts and supported by the jack until I can get all the mounts tightened.

Heat shield

Marty has offered to help make some brackets to fit the S2 heatshield to my exhaust. Some info here to help make them up. We can use one of the brackets by modifying the A/C bracket, but the other two will need to be fabricated.

First photo shows the old exhaust with two brackets.
One at the top between cylinders 3 and 4.
Second is on the lower flange next to the middle stud.
The third bracket is the ally part coming out of the head, top left. Only the right hand stud is needed, so either replace the whole bracket with a tube to space it out or cut/machine the bracket. The bracket on the top right of the manifold is tack welded on. This will either need removing or remaking.

Second pic is the heat shield in place on the old engine. The bracket on the left is for the aircon compressor which I don't have so it can be cut up or replaced altogether.

Third pic is the new exhaust where the heat shield needs to go. The lower bracket may be able to come from the threaded hole mid engine to the left of the manifold, half way down the engine.

All the time in the world

Well the last package of the rebuild (hopefully) arrived this week, which included the cam locking tool. This enabled me to start timing the camshafts, following Dave Andrews' instructions.

With the cam belt adjusted, cam timing adjusted and the pulleys tightened up, I could start putting the remainder of the parts back on the engine. The cam belt cover is on, the cam cover is on, although the plastic cover did need a bit of trimming to fit over the new distributor cap. The plug leads are wired up (plugs not in yet as I may need to turn the engine over by hand.

above: new distributor cap and rotor arm fitted, plug leads connected. The aluminium cam cover is a slightly different shape from the original Series 1 cover, and is needed to fit the plastic "Lotus Performance" cover.

above: cam cover fitted.
below: cam belt cover fitted.

Next jobs will be working out how to fit the new heat shield to the exhaust, which will mean making a couple of brackets; fitting the clutch, then the gearbox and putting the engine back in the car!

Unfortunately it won't be ready for the first sprint of the year, but should be ready for round 2.

Cleaning and glazing

This weeks work was mostly cleaning. With my box of magic sponges to hand, I have tidied up the interior aluminium and also the leather of the seats. The seats had 15 years of grime on them and the magic sponges did a good job of cleaning them up. I then gave them a generous coat of leather cream to protect and nourish them. I wouldn't like to use the sponges on the leather very often. Once in 15 years should be enough.

I lubricated the gear lever to help make the shift smoother.

Another job that has been waiting for some time was replacing the speedo glass. On most of these the paint on the inside starts to peel and look ugly. As a short term measure I cut out a sticker and put that on the glass. I bought a new glass a while ago and removed the old one, which is held in with a silicone sealant, and simply glued the new one in with some silicone. A lot simpler than I expected.

Still waiting for the cam lock tool.

above: the (not particularly good) sticker covering the peeling paint.

above: old glass carefully removed. Some of the silicone adhesive needs to be cleaned up.

above: old peeling paint on the right side of the top glass. New glass fitted below. Unfortunately a grey version wasn't available. Black will be fine.

Suspension upgrades installed

Whilst waiting for the last few parts to arrive, I can't do much work on the engine, so I finished installing the suspension upgrades. All four upper wishbone ball joints have been fitted. I replaced the lower ones a couple of years ago.

I also fitted the rear toe arm upgrade, which is pretty much obligatory for an Elise with sticky tyres or one used on track. Something I should have done a while ago!

I've also had an offer to buy some bits off the spare engine, which will help repay the cost of the engine. The alternator and engine loom will be heading off the Alice Springs in the next few days.

I've also painted the lettering on the cam cover. Below the plastic part of the cam cover is an aluminium cover, and as I have sold the wiring loom for the engine I now have a hole where the cam sensor fits.

This needs to be plugged to maintain crankcase pressure, so following what I saw on Seloc, I've filled the hole with 3 coins, held in place by the Greek goddess of stickiness, Araldite. I hope Mrs. Windsor doesn't mind being stuck in an engine. It is a British engine!

Small steps

While waiting for the tools for cam timing to arrive (dial gauge and cam locking tool) I've been tinkering away. I fitted the flywheel, which required taking the engine off the stand, which meant taking the engine hoist out, putting it together then lifting the engine, fitting the flywheel and putting the engine back on the stand. It's a lightweight flywheel which should make the engine rev more freely. I used brand new flywheel bolts - we don't want it coming off at 7000 rpm and cutting its way through the car!

Having the flywheel on makes it easy to stop the crank moving, so I fitted the new cam belt and tensioner.

I gave the gearbox a quick clean and fitted the new driveshaft oil seals, which were easy to fit.

Before stopping to have a beer I gave my mountain bike a quick bit of maintenance ready for a short ride. It's been over I year since I last rode it so I'll do a short ride to get my backside used to being in the saddle again.

Head fitted

I fitted the new head, using the new oil ladder and head bolts.
I found out that the new oil ladder requires higher torque for the head bolts, so I will have to retighten them. My manual says 20Nm, the new bolts should be tightened to 30Nm. Edit: Done!
I also fitted the rear cam belt cover that came off the spare engine, and has no hole in it, plus, there's a heatshield to prevent it happening again. Presumably it is heat from the exhaust that melts the plastic.

The new cam cover got a bit of a clean and was plonked on the new head to see how it might look. I may highlight the lettering and Lotus logo later.

A whole lotta spares

Thanks to Shane, a fellow Elise owner, who delivered his old engine to me today. It's from a 2004 series 2, had head gasket failure and was replaced with a more powerful VVC engine.
I now have a source of spares, especially the rear cam belt cover, plus newer alternator and starter.
There are also a few upgrades that come with a later engine, such as a better heat shield for the exhaust, and one to stop the cam belt cover melting!

I will also fit the later cam cover which says "Lotus Performance", old one has "Elise" but the "16 Valve" lettering is facing in the opposite direction.

Comparing the heads and removing the radiator

Temperatures were a little cooler today so I managed to get some work done. First, a few photos of the old and new heads.
The new valves are a couple of millimetres larger than the old, plus the inlet and exhaust ports are also larger and smoother.

Old head (above) New head (below)

Old vs new heads. Note safety footwear.

To replace the radiator with an all-aluminium version meant that the front clam had to come off. I. haven't attempted this before (I have removed the rear clam before) but it was very straightforward. The hardest part is getting the inner wheel arch liners out. They are plastic but quite stiff so take a fair bit of tugging to get out, once all the screws are undone.

Next step was to remove the radiator surround, the rear screws were difficult to get to but mole grips helped. I may replace them with Allen-head bolts to make them easier to replace and remove.

Front crash structure cleaned up.

I drilled out the fan brackets and reprinted them even though they are hidden under the radiator and won't be seen. I will have to rivet them onto the new radiator, might have to buy a few rivets.

New radiator with welded on aluminium ends. The original has plastic end caps which are prone to leaking.  The fan will be mounted underneath.

Dismantling the engine

A parcel arrived from EliseParts. Fantastic service, only 5 days to get here from the UK. In the package were a new radiator and a socket for the head bolts. The radiator is all aluminium, and will replace the standard one which has plastic end caps that are prone to popping off. Also included was a new "ladder" into which the head bolts screw. The new one is thicker, therefore stronger and helps prevent warping of the head and block. Important in an engine prone to blowing head gaskets!

With the new socket I was able to undo the head bolts and pull the head off. The pistons have a little carbon on the tops but are otherwise in good condition. There was a little surface rust on the bores due to water from cleaning getting in through the slightly open valves.

As the pistons run in liners which can move, I have clamped them in place while I clean the tops using makeshift clamps from the old head bolts, some tubing and washers.