HowardRoark Posted June 11, 2015 Report Share Posted June 11, 2015 Hello all, I recently had to rebuild the 918 of my Lotus Esprit V8 (US), after purchasing the car last year with about 12,800 miles on the car. The car has always been in California, and was driven a lot from 1999-2004, and then spent 10 years hardly driven at all, in someone's collection. After driving it for about 500 miles, the CEL came on, with a P1301/1302 code for a misfire. After several tests including leak down and compression, the decision was made to rebuild when learning about the sealant issues too. Inside, scoring was found along with metal shavings, verifying that it was good to do. My issue is this: I still really don't know WHY the misfire codes happened, and WHY the engine had to be rebuilt. So my question is this: WHAT should I do to prevent any issues from happening in the future (my Tech did use Hylomar) and to prevent another rebuild?? Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted June 11, 2015 Report Share Posted June 11, 2015 From memory, the problem manifested itself when the engine was subjected to overheating. Cause could be a lack of maintenance or a mechanical issue. Keep it serviced, keep and eye on coolant and generally look after the blighter and it'll be a solid, reliable engine. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve930 Posted June 11, 2015 Report Share Posted June 11, 2015 Sorry to hear of your bad luck. I'm sure I read on here that Mike sekinger ( who's rebuilt quite a few of these engines ) discovered that on some engines the crank main bearing journals weren't perfectly in line with each other, causing premature main bearing wear. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HowardRoark Posted June 13, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 13, 2015 I believe it was on the pistons (but just from memory) and I remember seeing small metal flakes or shavings after it was taken apart. It seemed to be slightly out of alignment from what I remember the tech was mentioning and showing me. I will see if I have some more photos. There also may have been water in the oil? So it may have overheated at one time with the PO, but I'm not sure. Many of the parts needed resurfacing, and I think that the valves needed to be fixed. So I am glad it was done, but I would love to know the root cause so I can prevent it. Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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