Drawfiler

I got it all together but it would not fire up, I tried everything and finally a compression test showed no compression on two cylinders. I took the cam covers off and checked the clearances and found that despite taking great care on assembly, the gaps on three valves had vanished! I plan to take both cams off and do another comp test to be sure that there is nothing nasty going on and go through the shimming all over again! it is interesting that the gaps on other valves are as I set them, I assume that I must have had a bit of dirt under the head on these three valves. Having turned the engine over lots while tryin to get it running, I must have dislodged whatever it was

My Eclat is finished in a brown/orange velour cloth, known in my family as baby crack, this was on the seats, door card, rear seat sides, transmission tunnel, headlining and dash. The seats are now in tan leather but the rest is as made. The problem is that 40 years grime makes it look tatty, also the velour is delaminating. I plan to do the roof in a lighter colour, the problem us with the rest. I am not concerned with originality but want to be able to do the job myself, so what do I use. I will have some curved surfaces to cover like and I might have to get it sewed. Ii don't want the interior to look too 'heavy' , I can't afford acres of leather. What have others done? peter

I have finally got the engine back in the car and getting ready to get it started, I have got a spark and the starter motor turns things over ok. I am a bit twitched about oil pressure as it was ok before I put the engine in when I ran the pump with an electric drill, it was pumping oil from the pressure gauge outlet but having left it for a week or so there is no oil flow at the outlet. I have to sort out the electrical problems and then have another go.

This is a worry to all of us, I have a simple ignition kill switch under the dash, a battery isolation switch in the engine bay and an extinguisher mounted across the front of the drivers seat. The closest I have been to having a fire is from oil dripping on to the exhaust manifold from a leaky cam cover. The carbs do flood if the floats are set wrong and petrol pours into the air box and evaporates, The box contains it and although I have real worries about a possible fire, so far the box had kept things under control, I can't see any advantage in trying to contain the fuel by upturned trumpets, the engine will be overfuelled.

My 78 eclat is wired to the 'RHD non federal wiring diagram' this shows a 8amp fuse in the wire to the fuel pump, does this exist? If so where is it as my pump won't go. It is not stuck contacts, there are no volts on the connector on the pump. My second question is, have any of you replaced the pump with a solid state one, if so which and did you need a reducing valve to not flood the carbs. Peter

I think it is unlikely to be metal, I suspect hard carbon deposits from burnt oil. If it was metal, you would have heard or felt it ! I have seen this before in similar situations, usually where lubrication is inadequate.

When my carbs flood the fuel comes out of the trumpet and not the body, however with the alternatives now fitted, I would have a look at ignition timing, that is assuming that the plug leads are all in the right order! i would also check for induction leaks perhaps from the vac pipe for the headlights.

A bit of an update, I have stripped both my engine and the used 2.2 from Lotusbits, had the 2l head skimmed, fitted new exhaust valves, exchanged the cams and valve springs, had 2.2 crank ground, fitted new rings to 2.2 pistons and started to get it all together. For those about to do this, there is a lot of help available from Lotusbits and this forum, I have a couple of additional tips that may be of help. I was. 'starting again' with valve shimming, and with two heads worth of shims, I got some egg boxes, numbered all the depressions in them and carefully measured my shims with a micrometer, I put them in order of increasing size and made a list of their thicknesses. i set up one cam with the thinnest shims working from one end and measured the gaps. I was then able to pick the best fit from my collection of shims to get the gaps right reasonably easily. I ended up with some gaps that I couldn't get to with my shims and bought some too thick ones and ground one side to fit on a surface grinder. i appreciate that you may not have access to a grinder but should be able to find someone with one, it speeded things up and saved me buying lots of extra shims. i bought one of those little magnets on a stick to pick off the washers and nuts each time I took the carrier off, they also went into an egg box so I was certain that I hadn't left any behind! imwould also advise that you stick the studs into the head with some adhesive as they can work their way out with repeated dismantling. i found one valve that wouldn't come right and discovered that the depression in the top of the spring retainer was deeper than the shim was thick. Rather than take the head off to replace the retainer, I put some grease round it and gently filed it down in situ, wiped the grease off and so collected the filings. i found that the oil pump on my 2.2 engine was slightly different from the 2 one and I had to swap them over to be able to fit the alternator as the pulley was out of line. The power steering brackets are different on the two engines and I am off to Lotusbits to find one that fits properly as the 2.2 one is only attached by a single bolt! so I am getting things done at long last and will list progress if there is any!

I had this problem and replaced the seal only to have it leak again, this was because the bearing in the front of the diff was worn and allowed the shaft to wobble about. Only solved by taking diff outof car for major surgery, I bought a replacement instead.

My engine is out right now so I can't get any dimensions to do this, if anyone has got a kit installed and is happy to take dimensions, I can do the rest.

I am happy to help with development and future manufacture of a kit in my own workshop, I have the machines to do it. However I don't want to steal other people's work, it seems that the project has stalled just now so judging by the large number of viewings it is well worth reviving.

Just a word on timing, I had a breakdown when the clamp bolt allowed the spring to push the dizzy out of engagement. i slackened off the clamp bolt and fired up the starter motor with a hut wire from the battery bypassing the switch, rotated the dizzy until it engaged and then twisted it until the engine fired and ran. This got me home until I could retire properly. since this incident I just do the same when I have the dizzy off.

I understand that the engine will run with odd cams also the inlet and exhaust can be interchanged. this leads me to think that the problems lie elsewhere, you have changed the cam sprockets, just ensure that they are the right way round, i.e. You have the exhaust marking facing out on the pulley on that cam but just check the key to keyway alignment on the crank, itis just possible that the keyway has widened so allowing all the timing to be late. This has happened to me on another vehicle. i am assuming that the ignition and carbs are all ok. peter

So I have saved up and bitten the bullet, I have bought a 2.2'lit engine from LB and stripped it so I can get a set of cams, valve springs, crank, pistons large sump etc. The rest of the 2 lit bits will be swapped over along with new exhaust valves, liners, reground crank, new shells belt tensioner, later cam belt and new pulleys etc. I must say that the advice I got from LB and Mike in particular is a great help, they are prepared to spend time going over the alternatives so you get the engine you want at a price you can (just) afford. So I now gave to set to and make one engine out of two before the winter comes ( if it ever went away) Peter

I will be buying some rebuild parts from Lotusbits so will get confirmation from Mike Taylor at the same time. I will put a note on here to clarify things.