v8GTmac1

I like so many others suffered from this on 2 previous drives then on the last drive it seems no more speedo at all. This thread will be all about my path to fix it and it may or may not help others. My Esprit is heavily modded in the electronics aspect so my solutions are unusual. I swapped the 2 rear VSS sensors they both work no flashing ABS bulb Here is some preliminary vids of my testing.

So which cats are you running? i have 2 sets and don’t know which is factory.

Very sad to hear this story again. Joey this will be a journey and take some time to fully sort out. The metal debree is everywhere and the pins are bad. Some time ago there was a 918 engine being parted out on eBay. Sadly though I don’t see the crankshaft anymore. Please consider the damage to your camshafts and the bearings up top. Maybe source a different engine.

Yes this is the 4th instance that I know of including my own engine. I bought the car like that and drove it 300 home. Checked the oil and I had coolant and metal.

Now that yellow Lotus is my cup a tea. Having fun modding to your desire on a less then imperfect rusty Esprit. Here is Phoenix b4 I got my 2000 I looked at a ‘88 project. Engine out and rebuilt but in pieces. Black car repainted white very poorly. Interior was messy enough I didn’t want to sit in it. He was asking US 10k after talking to him he was very negotiable. I wanted to offer him half. But my wife who was Esprit shopping with me would have something to say if she saw it. She only wanted a v8 Fast forward 1.5 years ago. New owner close by my work has it on eBay for same price 10k in the same condition. Now I understand the Esprit and I really want it. I wanted something I could modify to my needs. Different engine and gear box. Just have fun with it. I would prolly scrap my ford escort project and move all the fun stuff over. But that seller would not show me the car without putting a bid of atleast 10k. Bummer cause I’m sure nothing has been done to it. You need some serious motivation to restore a worn out Lotus. And even more Knowing you will get zero moral support from the rest of the Lotus world if you change it up. Damn damn I really want a neglected project ‘89+ Esprit. But now my Escort project has taken a huge leap forward in the build stage. Cannot make it mid engine.

You might have a lean misfire. Fuel related issue inside the tank.

I’m starting to think the purpose here is to keep the cam from jumping with the pressure of the liters. Maybe it holds the cam lobes in a kind of locked position while you set the pins.

I also didn’t want to buy them. Curious who has found an alternative method when tightening the cam pullies

Really don’t know how you could make a T work on the drain plug. I understand what you are trying to achieve as it also crossed my mind for about a second. I found that the proper method was to tap into the signal coming out of that factory sensor and use a innovate motorsports dual function gauge. You can get oil pressure from a separate port and then oil temp with with a Calibration file I already created. Cool thing about innovate gauges is that they can be reprogrammed using Logworks. I already spent the time generating a voltage/temp Notepad file to upload into it. Lmk if interested.

I have a good running V8 on megasquirt 3 and ms3x added in. Full sequential ignition and injection A/c control Fan control with a/c and shut off at any speed I want for economy water injection control (methonal can be mixed in) THis is all progressive with boost and RPM, shut off anti-siphon valve in place Speedometer is being read directly off the factory ECU ( even with 15+ obd2 codes stored in it's memory) Full control of the secondary injectors and 2nd fuel pump triggered to come on around 3500 and 4psi progressively If coolant temps reach a certain temp 215f, my VDO temp gauge illuminates the "red" vdo symbol Added a 3 nozzle radiator/condenser water mist system that I will command "ON" when CLT reaches 210f & A/c is on, this can be played with this summer CEL bulb is still doing it's job but now working for Megasquirt staged tune MS3x.msq

In my opinion and I will base this off my rebuild. I dont have full trust in it yet. I have 1500 miles since rebuild and I have gone thru several oil changes. Now i'm mobil One 15-w50, when I pull my dip stick I can see something troubling on the tip, but everytime I have changed my oil it has been transparant. Although my 100 micron oil filter does continue to trap particles. I'm hoping it will end soon 😐. They only place I may have screwed up during rebuild was the intermediate shaft in-board roller bearing, I saw someone here put on a lot of grease before install which I would never have thought of. I put it in dry. Also I didnt replace anything on the oil pump, the annulus was pitted but I took a big chance. I did check the relief spring because of what happened to your engine. also I had to hand polish every camshaft journals with a shoelace, 1000grit and wd40. The only thing that lets me sleep at night is my VDO mechanical oil pressure gauge. 75psi cold idle & hot cruise, then 25psi hot idle. THe factory switch comes on at what 7psi? How is that helpful? Btw mechanical gauge requires tubing, 3/16" copper nickel with 1/8" reducer at both ends. This line runs under body, made a hole and runs up the dash with as little bends as possible. . Most people would run electric gauge and that's fine with a good clean ground connection so the resistance in the wire doesn't change. But then when does a Lotus have good clean ground?

Yeah but sourcing the fittings to accommodate a T fitting on the 918 is time consuming. Its metric on the block convert to AN banjo bolt add a length of braided line then T piece and convert back to metric for the oem sender i know cause I did that and ended up just plugging the extended hose off and not running the oem sender anymore

I’m willing to bet if you were to pull ignition leads to find a misfiring cylinder you would find two cylinders Sharing the same coil Then I would lean towards ECU driver

If you have one of those phone apps with an attached obd2 reader attached to the rear port, you could watch the fuel trims when this happens. If the 2nd pump is quiting on you then those severe lean conditions would give you high fuel trim numbers. If it’s a ignition misfire then you might see 1 bank go rich with low fuel trims. But this is all reliant on how quickly the ecu responds and how long you stay on the pedal.

I have trained myself and the wife to monitor the oil pressure gauge more so then watching the actual road cause priorities 🙂 i would install a temporary mechanical gauge somewhere to get an actual reading in your case before your next extended drive. As the oil gets hot it will thin and pressure will drop. It’s officially +100f over here and I now have to worry about the fuel system overheating.

Yes it held vacuum. It's now sitting in a box, maybe one day I will soak it in a solution and it will free itself up? Either way it's an added potential failure to the heater system that I dont feel needs to be there. You will know for sure like I did when I removed the hose leading up to the cabin and rusty water came out. In order to bypass it I used something that would join the flow in all 3 directions.

To summarise , A 3.2 ltr 987 Boxster develops 236 ft lbs of torque through its gear box, the 3.5 ltr V8 Esprit develops upward of 300 ft lbs through its gear box.. If you are having power issues with the Esprit box, Why are you looking at the Boxster box. thank you for the good points although I dont agree with your view on some of it. the Un1 didnt come out of a 350hp car originally am I right? The un1 and the Audi boxes both come with hollow input shafts that translate power back to the driven shaft? The Boxter trans appears to NOt be hollow? Boxter 2nd gear issues? Rather that then snapping the input shaft while in 5th when passing a car and you engine suddenly bucks/misfires. If you have made a custom stronger material CWP, how much did the R&D set you back? What will it take to get a set made or get a CAD file? Because GTO already exists and Quaife is still on option, a stronger CWP is the only thing I believe that is driving my worries with the un1, oh and lets not forget the Roll Pins which I still havent gotten out.

This brings a smile to my face. I don’t feel changing the trans takes away the originality unless you plan on selling it to a collector who’s idea of upkeeping is a battery tender. If this conversion in fact makes it No stronger then the un1 then at least a replacement is always available from virtually anywhere. Maybe I look at it differently then most on this forum. But when there is only a single v8 transmission for sale on eBay at all times, I tend to have a hard time enjoying the Lotus just going around town for a drive. I am not going to be the guy paying that eBay seller $6k for a used un1 that might last another year This changes dramatically when the feeling is you can order a replacement using a local parts dismantler, eBay or phone apps while you sit on the side of the road waiting for a tow after having to frantically push or force your car out of harms way. If there is no stronger replacement ring and pinion then all I want is stock gearsets and an LSD till it grenades and then swap it out. If I have to worry about a seized trans with $6k of upgrades inside of it then I will be the slowest car on the road which negates putting in stronger gearsets. This past week I finally convinced the wife it was time for her to drive the Lotus to and from our adventures. I have to say there was no other time in my life where I had to test my patience. I must have yelled at her “in my thoughts” 10 times but I kept telling myself.......when the time comes, then it’s time. 100f weather , AC and rad fans full blast, stalling at lights from apparent vapor lock in the fuel lines, then the trans decides it wants to stay in gear and not come back out. This wasnt the first time nor will it be the last. Don’t know if it was the clutch had overheated or the synchros, but had to shut her off and restart in neutral. I started telling her we need to get a trans cooler for the hotter months. Put those 2 front retired oil coolers to work again. Haha. Anyways this is just my thoughts. I will plan on contacting Kennedy and sourcing a Boxter S 6 speed. Not just a 5 spd from a base Boxter. Soo glad someone made the call.

I did buy my caliper set of 5 or so from amazon and was very very pleased with the quality. Mused on crank and cam journals.

Haha he really is afraid of the poor car. He is as afraid to tear it apart as I am to raise the boost LOL. My IAC valve is dead apparently or I have the wrong pins at the ecu. I have to pull the manifold out again for replacement.

I’m gonna agree with your mechanic. If he has had to do it enough times, I too would be sick if it. But then I don’t have the room to go full vertical on the rear hatch. I sometimes fear the hatch will drop and squish me for good. I have removed the plenum 1more time after my rebuild and I re-used the gaskets. I would re-use again. Btw if anyone followed one of my threads in the past I mentioned about the popping of the exhaust. It’s not just bad coilpacks, the ECU ignitors could be weak as well. Let’s hope not!!

The scooby has the engine up front yes, but it is very short and the front axles(awd) still square up with the hubs/spindles/uprights. Simply eliminating the rear driveshaft and blocking off the trans with a plate makes it a 2wd trans. The way this guy did it to his Delorean or for an off road buggy, you get a backwards geared Ring and Pinion and flip the trans over.

Wow, you actually accomplished a conversion but on a rear mounted engine so how did you get the subby trans to spin backards? I"m very pleased to hear you made this happen. Is this your build thread http://dmctalk.org/archive/index.php/t-10931.html

For others to be happy they would more then likely require PnP style connection. Have not spent any time looking for a bare ecu connector. And the factory ecu is still controlling the Speedo on mine. Ive mentioned before the VDO speedo is universal and VDO sells a GPS converter box. But yes once my fuel tables are set up to 11psi then I will be more then happy to post my tune and settings. Been a lot of fun finding wires. Finding the ACU relay box took me some hours lol