Drawfiler

If you want to go for keeping to 2l, I have a lot of bits that you might need including a good crank etc. peter

The raise to 2.2l is worth considering, you will need a crank, pistons and other bits. You will have to buy (or your rebuilder will) all the other parts irrespective of capacity, the 2litre carbs work ok on 2.2 engines. You could consider buying a used 2.2l from Lotusbits and rebuild that so saving you original for posterity and the slight extra cost of the used engine is only a small percentage of the total cost.. the 2.2 had some developments that Lotus incorporated over time so you benefit from those.

I would go for Lotusbits, they use their own engines in their own cars in competition. I built my own but Mike Taylor offered lots of advice and pointed out the alternative mods, they have a dedicated clean area with a specialist doing the builds. Just my 2p worth.

Hi, have you sorted this out yet?

Thanks Dan I have soldered a wire to each blade of the fuseholder and run them to a floating fuseholder to see if this solves the problem, when it stops raining I will do some more tests.

Sorry I didn't make it clear, yes my lights are in recesses in the front bumper/spoiler assembly

Thanks Mike. My testing has been with the car stationary, the car gets up to 'fan' temperature , i.e. Just over 90 degrees on the gauge and the fans come on,. Quite quickly they go off again, when things settle down, they run for no more than half the time, the fuse holder gets hot while this is going on but only at one end. I have cleaned the holder as best I can with wire wool contact cleaner etc. The fans turn freely and the water pump is in good order, it was rebuilt by Lotusbits recently and checked when refitted to my rebuilt block. My next experiment is to to solder a wire to each side of the fuse holder and run these wires to a separate new fuse holder and try that. Peter

Hi I want to replace the fog lights on my Eclat, how do you get to the back of them to het them off? thanks

I am running at just to the right of centre on the gauge in the recent hot weather. The fans come on and off when standing idle and at a fast tick over,I think this is OK. The problem is with the contact between the fuse and the holder but I have cleaned and polished the surface but still the holder (the actual brass spring clip) is hot to the touch when the fans have been running a while. I think that I will explore a separate fuse arrangement for the fan supply, I am pretty happy that the fan motors are not drawing to much current as the fuse doesn't blow.

Like many others, I have had overheating problems in the Eclat, I have two fans, ok thermostat and well flushed system, I rang Mike Taylor and he was full of gloom talking about cracked liners and blown gaskets, I had no gas bubbling out of the rad filler cap and no mayonnaise in the sump or gas coming from the oil filler. I found that I had a vapour lock in the top hose leading to the thermostat housing so loosening the jubilee clip and pulling the hose off and filling both the casting and hose. This solved the problem but after a long run I suddenly had overheating again. Much head scratching revealed that the fuse was overheating at its terminals, this caused the fuse body to soften and collapse slightly so the fans stopped, on cooling down the contact was restored. I cleaned the terminals to reduce the volt drop however there was still overheating so I temporarily put in a solid link , £1 coin, and this solved the problem so I need to rethink the fusing.

I spoke to Mike Taylor about this and he uses Valvoline red additive, so it is red for me.

I am confused about which coolant to use in 900 series engines, I know I could go for waterless but for now I want to use water and additive, my question is do I use red or blue, which one do I buy?

If you buy new liners from Lotusbits, Mike Taylor will sell you some magic grunge that he uses on his rebuilds.

I think I would replace the liners and piston rings while I was in there.

A posts are a problem, there is a piece of quite soft plastic foam in front of the roll bar tube to fill the space between it and the inside of the windscreen, the liner also reaches down to the dash. i cut the liner and painted the adhesive onto the A posts and the liner, let it go off and then paint new adhesive into the gap between the a post and the glass, you will get it on the glass but dont worry. Push the liner into the space using a plastic pusher while the adhesive is still wet when you are happy wrap the liner round the post. You will be covering the rear edge with the door seal. if you have to replace the rectangular finishers tha fit round the seatbelts, you are going to have to remove the belts, however if you take care, you can cut through the long side with a piercing saw fit it round the belt and then glue the gap,with Araldite. you may have trouble fitting the rear cant rails, these have two clips that are almost impossible to locate and then break. In desperation I carefully applied a dollop of builders expanding foam to both brackets and to the inside of the rail moulding, put the rail in position and held it down here while the foam cured, it works! good luck to all trying to do this, with care you will get a good result, your investment in material is not excessive so if all fails, you have just spent your time.