Well, as many of you know, my restoration goes in fits and starts but infact, its all steam ahead in the background. Every night involves planning, rejigging the work order, all on a spreadsheet s even when I'm not in the garage, it at leastfeel[i][/i] s like I'm doing something!
The restoration advances on many fronts. The interior has been on my mind for a while and I have to look at the shocking state of it everytime I walk into the garage, its time had come.
The headlining has to be firs
Bought the car from a used car parking lot, it had been standing there for about six years.
Didn't have an engine, gearbox or rims. Also missing the Panasonic RM610radio.
Other than the above missing items, the car was complete.
Now spring seems finally here I have made a good bit of progress on the Europa, I'm also rebuilding the 5 speed gearbox in my Lotus Elan so thats taken up some of my time of late
Back to the Europa
I have had a linner fitted to the Europa block as there was corrosion in one cylinder where it had been left with the head gasket blown :(
The crank was still at STD and was perfect a bit of luck .yay :) but the jackshaft bearings were very grim and needed changing and are a real pain to remo
Well I have done some more work on my Europa so through I would post up my progress so far
Having seen some racing Europa’s done with a Lotus chassis, I copied their modifications to make my chassis stronger and more ridged ready for hill climbing
[img]http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn234/Mattwatts1/My%20Europa/IMG_0099.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn234/Mattwatts1/My%20Europa/IMG_0101.jpg[/img]
Next the chassis went off for powder coating along with the susp
Well I got my Europa November 09 but I have been so busy moving house and with family stuff that I just haven't had much time to get going on the car
The came with a good spare chassis and with looking at the one its on its going to need it asap !
So I have spent most of my time on the chassis, I have made the spare chassis more rigid than a stock chassis as I am planning to do hill climbs and sprits with the car and you must use an original chassis in some classes.
[img]http://i305.photo
Finally after the S4s is away, I had chance to return to the S300 project.
The final preparations for the extraction, complete with the engine loom
[img]http://img40.imagefra.me/i54n/sekinger/grq4_576_u6qlh.jpg[/img]
Engine lifted and chassis rolled out of the way
[img]http://img40.imagefra.me/i54n/sekinger/grq4_798_u6qlh.jpg[/img]
[img]http://img37.imagefra.me/i54n/sekinger/grq4_bf3_u6qlh.jpg[/img]
Engine compartment starts the clean-up - first impressions are good.
[img]http://img
Chronological photo record of my S1 rebuild.
Car has been in storage for about 6 years, stop/start/stop/start etc.....
Currently now have time to pursue the build, going to rolling chassiss ASAP, hopefully.
Clicky.......
[url="https://picasaweb.google.com/108292765998464008070/LotusEspritS1238G?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJnUzYKtjqmhlAE&feat=directlink"]https://picasaweb.google.com/108292765998464008070/LotusEspritS1238G?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJnUzYKtjqmhlAE&feat=dir
Thought I might start a blog thingy by looking back to a year today when I did the unspeakable and killed my Esprit...
I bought the car back in September 2007 for £3500, and after two months with many hours of work (and another £1500 in parts later) I had an MOT....
[IMG]http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/5444/wnc748xnew.jpg[/IMG]
It was a little rough round the edges, but I had a great time driving the car over the winter (!) and into the next summer, enjoying many miles of motoring, u
Well, it has been a great day !
First came the Lotus Parts Sale - some relevant savings for me so fingers crossed for a result.
Then I managed to recommission and road test both Esprits. Was a cracking day :thumbsup:
V8 bled and ready for road test
[img]http://img40.imagefra.me/i53e/sekinger/grq4_a9f_u6qlh.jpg[/img]
No problems, so on with the rear deck and ready to make a return trip to Lotus for the continuation of the dyno work
[img]http://img37.imagefra.me/i53e/sekinger/grq
My first tentative drives were a little fraught…!
Bearing in mind I’d never properly driven an Esprit before and I’d just carried out a major overhaul I was pretty paranoid! Couple that with an ECL that kept popping up for 10 secs then clearing – I was a bit worried! So after a bit more research on the forums and borrowing an ALDL cable from SuperDaveLotus I established it was just a high idle causing the ECL. I cleaned out the IACV and things calmed down a bit. So I started to drive the
So after a day or so I realised that it wasn't going to fix itself so I cracked on with it!
Access is 'interesting' for most things as I found out!
First things: Service.
I object to paying people to change the oil and filter, plus I like to know that it's been done!
So I serviced it myself using the lotus service schedule.
All the fluids were changed: oil, coolant, gearbox oil, power steering fluid and brake fluid.
Plugs changed, new belts on and everything else looked over carefull
So the deal was struck and I was the owner of an Esprit S4!
It did however need a fair bit of work that I knew about, as it had been off the road for around 2 years:
No MOT
Major service required.
Cambelt 4 1/2 years old, 10,000 miles
Headlights, one stuck down and all 4 rusted beyond help
Drivers seat bolster worn through.
Gear linkage needed attention
Gearbox leak
Oil leak from the front of the engine.
Corroded wheels
I had it transported down from it's old home in Moffat to
It has been suggested that I keep track of my ongoing love/hate relationship with my Esprit S4 as a blog so I'm having a go.
I'm an engineer by trade, not a hands on practical engineer, but a jack of all trades master of none fault investigator.
I currently investigate military aircraft component faults and sort them out for a living but with all the current cuts I might need a new job before too long!
Mechanical stuff doesn't phase me particularly but that does mean I get in over my he
Hi Folks,
The weather was really quite warm today so I decided it was a good day to remove the S4s engine.
The time consuming part is the preparation to disconnect everything - the actual lift is easily a one man job with a little care
A/C was non-functional, so left the pump attached
[img]http://img37.imagefra.me/i51g/sekinger/grq4_2a1_u6qlh.jpg[/img]
Limited clearance on front body
[img]http://img40.imagefra.me/i51g/sekinger/grq4_b69_u6qlh.jpg[/img]
Ready to roll the chassis c
Posty finally came good with my long awaited SPA dual intercooler temperature gauge.
The gauge loom was absent, but at least I was able to install the two k-type thermocouples in the right hand chargecooler body.
[img]http://img37.imagefra.me/i5cv/sekinger/grq4_2b2_u6qlh.jpg[/img]
[img]http://img37.imagefra.me/i5cv/sekinger/grq4_1df_u6qlh.jpg[/img]
Still waiting to hear back from AP, but I expect an update on the clutch solution in early January.
Happy New Year to all ! :band:
Ch
Yesterday I made a start on the restoration of this fantastic Esprit.
[img]http://img37.imagefra.me/i5cv/sekinger/grq4_c66_u6qlh.jpg[/img]
It was specially ordered by and supplied to Romano Artioli, the boss of Bugatti when it owned Lotus back in 1994. The car has been well looked after over the years, but its owner would like to have it restored and approached me with the job for the mechanical aspects. The restoration of the interior and paintwork will be a task for someone else.
The
Hi Folks,
After last weeks dyno session I needed to remove the gearbox and inspect the clutch.
All of the chargecoolers stuff removed
[img]http://img37.imagefra.me/i5cb/sekinger/grq4_662_u6qlh.jpg[/img]
Driveshafts out of the way and the gearbox slide back free of the clutch pack
[img]http://img37.imagefra.me/i5cb/sekinger/grq4_2c9_u6qlh.jpg[/img]
Gearbox lifted clear and clutch exposed for removal
[img]http://img37.imagefra.me/i5cb/sekinger/grq4_728_u6qlh.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i
Hi Folks,
Many of you may have seen my numerous threads on engine building and Esprit projects on the Forum.
Bibs introduced me to the idea of using a Blog, which will make it easier to organise the various things I have going on and in-turn make it easier to navigate through it.
So - from now on, this is where I´ll be making my updates.
Hope you enjoy and find it useful.
Cheers,
Mike S
