[Leaking carb.]

I balanced them a few months ago!!!

[Leaking carb.]

A bit of advice when doing anything with the carbs, if you disturb the link between the carbs, even by a small amount they will need re-balancing. I loosened one screw only when I removed the carbs and tightened it up (not fully!) when I refitted but on checking the balance there was at least 1 inch difference on my carbtune between the two. Its a very satisfying thing to do though!

[Leaking carb.]

All fixed, 2 diaphragms from Eurocarb and a couple of hours work. I had to remove the diffuser, plenum backplate and plenum cover to get access to the lower carb mounting nuts but I had all this apart last year so it was OK. Those shiny trumpets that nobody sees! I did the front carb off the car and the rear one off the manifold but still connected by the throttle and choke cables.

 

20 miles and no leaks - thanks for the advise.

 

Steve   

[Leaking carb.]

So, the scars on my hands, forearms, elbows, forehead, etc, are nearly heeled up, I can nearly stand up straight and move my arms properly and my hands are nearly clean after a weekend of removing my waterpump and then another weekend of putting it back on after it was refurbed.

 

The car has been smelling of petrol a bit after a run so I ran my hand under the carbs, the front carb is wet with fuel underneath (wet, not dripping) with the engine off but the pump running, when I open and close the throttles with the cable between the carbs (again engine off but pump running, and pump off for a while) it drips fuel onto my fingers. There is no sign of fuel when looking at the top of the carbs.

 

Any idea where to look on the carbs? I have the Hammil book which I will be reading while I work away next week and a Lotus workshop manual, just wondering if any body has seen this before.

 

Car is 87 Turbo HC

 

Thanks

 

Steve

[Suppliers for recon waterpump]

I sent the pump to PNM who did a good job, they even sprayed it silver.

Its back on and the car is running again, after over tensioning the cambelt first time all is now well. The top caphead screw on the airpump is probably the hardest bit of the whole job!

[Suppliers for recon waterpump]

Hi all,

 

The waterpump on my 87 Turbo HC needs new bearings/seals, has anybody any recent experience of the service offered by PNM Engineering or SJS for this, I dont want to wait too long or have to remove the pump because the work was not done properly.

 

Any other suggestions welcome!

 

Thanks

 

Steve

[New Turbo Esprit HC owner]

Thank you!

 

I remember that, when Dany Bahar was there he insisted that only Lotus vehicles could park in that row, so as you drove into the site you saw a row of Lotus product in front of you.

 

I notice in the picture the car has a wiper, by the time I bought it it had been "borrowed"

 

The car has been on the road about a month, I have done about 600 miles with no issues except I noticed yesterday coolant dripping from underneath the front, I have yet to investigate.

 

Thanks again,

 

Steve 

[Header tank hose size]

Its 5/8 internal diameter, the same as the heater feed and return hoses. It does have a 90 degree bend below the tank, mine does anyway. You can buy lengths of this with the bend I think

[Good oil filter for 4 cylinder engine]

OK - experiment over.

 

Cold engine start after standing all night with new K&N filter, about 4 seconds before light goes off, a couple of seconds better than the big black Lotus filter.

 

I took the filters to bits as promised, the main differences are the height of the filter element, bigger in the black filter, see photo and they look completely different looking into them, you cannot see the inside of the filter element in the white filter, just a smooth metal surface, in the black filter you can see the holes in the metal leading to the filter material. The pressure relief valve is at the opposite end to the thread in the black filter and in the middle in the white one.

 

The black filter is a Cooper FT59 filter with all reference to Cooper covered up by the cheap looking Lotus sticker. Cooper is part of Sogefigroup who also own the Purflex and Fram brands. 

[On the road]

Hi Rolf,

I have just measured the car, its about 185mm at the front and 180 at the rear.

It has Dunlop SP Sport tyres all round, rears are 225/60 15

[On the road]

So the ride height looks very high.  Is it adjustable as part of those dampers?

I agree it looks very high, below is a picture of the car on the same suspension during the development program, it is how Lotus thought it should be. There doesn't appear to be any adjustment.

[Good oil filter for 4 cylinder engine]

Some results -

Engine stood overnight - new style black Lotus filter - 6 seconds from first fire to oil light going out/gauge moving

I replaced black filter with K&N HP2004, warm engine, probably 1 hour after a 20 mile ey - 8 seconds from first fire to oil light going off/gauge moving - remember from empty filter.

 

Tomorrows first start will be interesting!

[On the road]

They are better, they all light up now, all a slightly different brightness. I think the push in bulbs for the small gauges should be 5w. 

Good idea, Thanks 

[On the road]

I replaced the rev counter, temp and oil pressure gauge bulbs today, 15 minutes all together, including sorting through my box of electric bits for new bulbs.

 

Its very easy, 4 screws to remove the mask, 4 more screws to release the instrument panel, pull it forward enough to get your hand in behind the gauges and pull the bulb holders out of the gauges, replace bulbs and put it all back. The rev counter bulb is screw in, like an old fashioned torch bulb, the other two are push in. Protect the lower horizontal part of the binnacle, the edges of the steel panel the instruments are mounted is very sharp, I now know how the damage on mine was caused. I made the plastic spacer and washer pack captive behind the LH top panel fixing by using a small piece of thin card (from the bulb packet) as a nut. 

[Good oil filter for 4 cylinder engine]

Thanks all, I never expected so many responses.

 

I have just ordered a K&N HP2004.

 

I will time (may even film, as Malcolm above) the black Lotus filter (I am guessing 5 or 6 seconds until the gauge moves/light extinguishes) and the K&N one. I cannot remember any delay when the old white Lotus filter was fitted, but I didn't take any notice.

 

I will also open the old white and new black filters and see what is different inside.

[On the road]

Thanks for all your comments.

 

The photos flatter the car, the paint above the waist line is rubbish, most of the lacquer has peeled off and where there is lacquer it has gone yellow.

 

The car is one of 5 painted pearlescent white and the only one with a full blue leather interior, it was also ordered with all options which were glass roof, AC, pearlescent paint, full leather and the most expensive Clarion radio, which unfortunately has gone.

 

I found an American Express card which had been posted into the passenger side seat belt slot in the cill, expiry date 10/91 - all part of the history!

[On the road]

Steve - where did you source the wiper arm?

I got the arm from Lotusbits, £108 delivered. The new ones listed on the SJC website are not actually available.

[On the road]

Hi Buddsy,

 

One black knob doesn't do anything, the other does does dim the gauge lights, even at full brightness they are all dim, the boost gauge is the brightest. I will investigate further soon!

 

Steve

[On the road]

Hi all,

 

My Esprit Turbo HC is back on the road, its been off the road since 2009.

 

Some history of the car - it was bought by Lotus in 2004 to carry out engineering work, it was the first car to be used in the Spring and Damper development program and still has the first set of the newly developed Bilstein damper and Eibach springs fitted. It was also used for approval of the new tyre sizes when the original sizes went out of production as well as many other engineering exercises to support aftersales when parts went obsolete. In 2009 all engineering support to aftersales for the 4 cylinder cars stopped, the car was then parked and left untouched until it was offered for sale to staff by sealed bid in the summer of this year. The car featured in the big book released when Esprit production stopped, there is a picture of the car in the book.

 

My bid bought the car and despite working in China for most of the period between the summer and now I found the time to work on the car and it passed the MOT on Monday. It needed some re-commissioning, I have forgotten most of the jobs I have done but here is a summary of the bigger jobs -

 

Changed all belts, including the cambelt, hardest part is fitting the A/C belt

Fitted new clutch slave cylinder (£7 Landrover one, not a £100 Lotus one)

Unstuck the clutch plate from the flywheel

Changed all petrol and vacuum pipes in the engine bay

Removed, stripped and painted the steel pipe that joins the fuel tanks

Removed bonnet and tailgate and stripped hinges and resprayed

Removed headlight pods and cleared drain holes

Changed the engine and transmission oil

Stripped and rebuilt the rear brakes, they were binding so badly the car could not be pushed

Balanced the carbs

Changed the steering rack mounting rubbers (very impressed the nuts are on tapping plates, not welded to the chassis - one of the bolts sheared)

Removed, stripped and repainted all the red engine parts (family not impressed with the smell of them baking in the oven)

Sourced and fitted a second hand wiper arm and a new wiper blade, all in £6 an inch, not cheap!

I broke the not working reverse light switch, so fitted a replacement

Fitted new sparkplugs

 

There are still jobs to do -

Heat only comes from the windscreen vents, the flap under the plenum does not move how ever I adjust the heater controls, I think there is a vacuum leak somewhere

The offside front brake overheats with "spirited" driving - I need to investigate

The dash lights are dim, the rev counter one doesn't work at all

I need to check the ignition timing

I need to fully flush the brake fluid, the stuff that came out of the back when I bled them after the rebuild was black!

It needs a respray, most of the lacquer has peeled off the top half. I will do this in the spring time allowing

It leaves a small pool of coolant on the garage floor after a night, I think its the hose clamp on the big hose to the water pump

The electrics are funny in the drivers door, I think the earth is bad.

These are all jobs I can do and will enjoy doing!

 

First impressions driving it - its fast in a different way to my previous hobby car, a 1993 Mercedes 500SL. Its probably as fast upto about 100mph, then the Mercedes would leave it for dead, that car did not stop pulling until it hit the rev limiter in top gear. The Lotus steering takes some getting used to, its very heavy at slow speeds, although once moving its OK and very direct. The pedals are very close together, again I will get used to this, at the moment I have to consciously move my right foot across so I do not press the accelerator when I brake. It makes great noises, the turbo and wastegate sound great, trouble is I don't know anyone I trust enough to drive it fast so I can watch it from outside and listen to it. 

 

I live in Martham near Great Yarmouth, anyone local is welcome to come and have a look, meet up etc, I would like to meet other Esprit owners and compare notes.

 

Steve

 

A few pictures - (second picture - any one remember The Adult Channel?!!)

 

 

 

  

 

 

[Good oil filter for 4 cylinder engine]

Thanks for the helpful responses, I will change the filter for a Mobil or K&N as I am not happy with the Lotus one.

 

The starter has to be removed because the new genuine filter is longer than the old genuine filter - see (very poor) picture below, there is less than 5mm clearance between the starter and the end of the filter. I queried this with Gary Slattery, he said yes, it is too long, you have to remove the starter motor to fit it, we may get shorter ones next year. Pretty poor service I think.

 

 

 

 

[Good oil filter for 4 cylinder engine]

Any one fitted a non genuine filter in the last few years they are happy with?

[Good oil filter for 4 cylinder engine]

Except - you have to remove the starter motor to fit it, and the oil drains out once the engine is turned off, and sometime next year Lotus will actually start to supply a filter fit for purpose, and Brian Angus thought it was shit!

 

Does anybody know of a good filter?

[Good oil filter for 4 cylinder engine]

Hi all,

 

Has anybody found a good oil filter for the 4 cylinder engine? The current "genuine" Lotus ones from Lotus Aftersales are black and have a silver sticker (rather than the older white with green text) are too long and don't have a proper non return valve inside them.

 

There must be an alternative out there.

 

Steve 

[New Turbo Esprit HC owner]

There is a picture of my car and a few words about it in the Jeremy Walton book "Lotus Esprit, The Official Story" - see above

[New Turbo Esprit HC owner]

Thanks all for your kind comments.

 

I think this car is a bit special. I hope some day soon I can make Brian proud!