iambadgerous Posted July 25, 2019 Author Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 Hi All, A little more progress. I've degreased and cleaned up the engine bay and the chassis is thankfully in really good nick so no problems there... ...new foam padding under the new alloy tanks... ...and they're now in place... The gearbox mounts were OK but there's no point going this far and not replacing them, so... The engine mounts were shot so they'll be replaced too. I also started to fit the Lotusbits coilovers on the back. I did the fronts some time ago and they were very straightforward, however I can't see how the spring cup and retaining ring (at the top of the photo) are supposed to work with the standard spring mount which has its own retaining ring sized for the standard rubber top mount (at the bottom in the photo). Any ideas? I've been in touch with Lotusbits but no response to my phone calls or email, not for the first time ... I may just get a new top mount machined up to fit onto the exiting spring retainer, sized down to take the new spring. Cheers Darren Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverfrost Posted July 26, 2019 Report Share Posted July 26, 2019 Does the spring fit ok in the rubber top mount ? If so just delete the metal bit, just fit the shock, spring and rubber top mount Quote A Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iambadgerous Posted July 29, 2019 Author Report Share Posted July 29, 2019 On 26/07/2019 at 12:25, silverfrost said: Does the spring fit ok in the rubber top mount ? If so just delete the metal bit, just fit the shock, spring and rubber top mount Hi Dan, I'm afraid not, the rubber is sized for the original spring which has a larger diameter than the new one. I got hold of Lotusbits though and they reckon I've used the rear spring platforms on the front, but the front spring platforms won't fit at the rear, so it looks like this one is down to me... I'll have take the front apart and have a look but fingers crossed. Cheers Darren Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverfrost Posted July 29, 2019 Report Share Posted July 29, 2019 Bad news Darren, that sounds pants, never used the AVO on the rear of an esprit, always used protech on all four corners of my S3, but did get an Avo set up from Lotusbits for front of the s2 project car which i was using a stevens chassis and suspension for it so all a bit mis match lol Gutted for you regarding the mount not fitting, Surely Mike at Lotusbits will sort this out and steer you in the right direction, he is normally pretty good at that, rather than machine one up yourself ? Quote A Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iambadgerous Posted August 2, 2019 Author Report Share Posted August 2, 2019 Hi All, I sorted out the suspension today, I mentioned before that I'd fitted the front coilovers some time ago and Lotusbits reckoned I'd used the spring retainers designed for the rear at the wrong end of the car. There was only one way to find out. I think the car-tinkering Gods were punishing me for failing to take pictures at the time. I remembered that getting the fronts in was a bit of a nightmare. There was no room for spring compressors so the only way to gain the room required was to undo the bottom suspension link where it joins the trunnion. I also had to undo the anti-roll bar mounts to get enough 'droop' on the bottom links, but for that the fans had to come out... ...once that was done I could wrestle the spring retainers out. So I now had three parts for each side of the car (the spring retainer removed from the front is at the bottom)... My thinking when I assembled the fronts was this; the black spring retainer fit nicely inside the black spring cup... ...but the other one didn't... Both spring retainers would sit in the factory front mounts but the spring cups wouldn't, so because the spring cups and black retainers fitted together they must be for the rear, right? Wrong. It turns out the spring cups are not required on my car. The rear retainers slide nicely over the factory mounts but these welds sit proud and would cause a problem... ... but the tops of the spring retainers are chamfered so not an issue... With everything reassembled the fronts look like this... ...and the rears look like this... I'm planning a full suspension rebuild and tidy up as a separate, future exercise. So for now, sorted. In other news, with the new cambelt in place I could safely do a compression test, but both the starter motors I have are knackered so I had to wait for another one. I bought an aftermarket high-torque one from SJS but more on that later. Things started well with a healthy 170 PSI on 1 and 2. 3 was a bit down (but still within spec) at 150 and I could live with that if the other 3 were OK, but 4 is only at about 100 PSI. That, coupled with the amount of water in the oil, makes the head gasket the prime suspect. As the car has been sitting I'd hoped that the water in the sump could be blamed on condensation, but realistically I thought that condensation would be sitting in a separate layer to the oil. The mayonnaise effect pointed to the oil and water being emulsified, and that means the water must have been in there when the engine was running. So it looks like all the new parts (belts etc.) I put on the engine will have to come off again so I can pull the head. Still, at least it'll be easier with the engine out of the car! Cheers Darren Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iambadgerous Posted August 28, 2019 Author Report Share Posted August 28, 2019 Hi All, I haven't been able to spend any time on the Esprit for a few weeks but yesterday I summoned the courage to get the engine onto a stand (again) so I could get the head off in order to investigate the poor compression on cylinders 3 & 4. Prime suspect was the head gasket. I've done a few head gaskets in my time but I wouldn't claim to be an expert, however I think it's quite clear that this one is past its best... ...removing the gasket revealed a nice coating of rusty deposits on the water jacket... ...I guess this is the result of a previous owner running coolant without a rust inhibitor? There is a fair amount of carbon on the piston tops but the bores appear to be nice and smooth, so I think this is a case of neglect rather than abuse. The head looks OK too, again apart from the carbon buildup... So what to do next? I think it'd be rude not to rebuild the head now it's off, but as I've come this far I'm considering a full engine rebuild. Problem is, if I do that I'll want to build a better than stock engine. I just can't help myself. My immediate thought is HC pistons and some head work but I'd welcome any advice... I've read that the factory HC head is 'better' than the non HC but I'm not sure how, is it just bigger ports or are the valves bigger too? Can my non-HC head be brought up to spec with some port work? I've also read that Sport 300 inlet valves are bigger than earlier 4 cylinder Esprit's, is that right and can my seats be machined to accept them? Is it worth the effort? My understanding is that my engine has 107 spec cams, and the HC spec is 104 inlet and 107 exhaust? I've already got a more open system with 4-into-1 headers, and the engine already has the later style cam carriers. I'm also thinking about changing to the later, round-toothed cambelt and manual tensioner. Cheers Darren Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverfrost Posted August 29, 2019 Report Share Posted August 29, 2019 Great work Darren, I would lock those cylinder liners down also chap to be on the safe side unless you are planning on resealing the liners ? Quote A Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giorgio67 Posted August 29, 2019 Report Share Posted August 29, 2019 On 28/08/2019 at 17:06, iambadgerous said: Hi All, I haven't been able to spend any time on the Esprit for a few weeks but yesterday I summoned the courage to get the engine onto a stand (again) so I could get the head off in order to investigate the poor compression on cylinders 3 & 4. Prime suspect was the head gasket. I've done a few head gaskets in my time but I wouldn't claim to be an expert, however I think it's quite clear that this one is past its best... ...removing the gasket revealed a nice coating of rusty deposits on the water jacket... ...I guess this is the result of a previous owner running coolant without a rust inhibitor? There is a fair amount of carbon on the piston tops but the bores appear to be nice and smooth, so I think this is a case of neglect rather than abuse. The head looks OK too, again apart from the carbon buildup... So what to do next? I think it'd be rude not to rebuild the head now it's off, but as I've come this far I'm considering a full engine rebuild. Problem is, if I do that I'll want to build a better than stock engine. I just can't help myself. My immediate thought is HC pistons and some head work but I'd welcome any advice... I've read that the factory HC head is 'better' than the non HC but I'm not sure how, is it just bigger ports or are the valves bigger too? Can my non-HC head be brought up to spec with some port work? I've also read that Sport 300 inlet valves are bigger than earlier 4 cylinder Esprit's, is that right and can my seats be machined to accept them? Is it worth the effort? My understanding is that my engine has 107 spec cams, and the HC spec is 104 inlet and 107 exhaust? I've already got a more open system with 4-into-1 headers, and the engine already has the later style cam carriers. I'm also thinking about changing to the later, round-toothed cambelt and manual tensioner. Cheers Darren I have done all the upgrade you listed, Garry Kemp is your men for bigger valves HC pistons and 104 cam. Lot of funny here... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iambadgerous Posted August 29, 2019 Author Report Share Posted August 29, 2019 8 hours ago, silverfrost said: Great work Darren, I would lock those cylinder liners down also chap to be on the safe side unless you are planning on resealing the liners ? Thanks Dan, I've been careful not to rotate the crank since I pulled the head off but I'm pretty certain the liners will be coming out anyway... 4 hours ago, giorgio67 said: I have done all the upgrade you listed, Garry Kemp is your men for bigger valves HC pistons and 104 cam. Lot of funny here... Thanks Giorgio, I'd seen his listings on eBay and wondered about his credentials so it's nice to get a recommendation. I'll drop him a line! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post iambadgerous Posted October 11, 2019 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted October 11, 2019 Hi All, There hasn't been much progress on the Esprit while I pondered what to do about the engine. I roughly priced up rebuilding my NC motor to HC spec and it got very scary very quickly, so I wondered if I could find a factory HC engine at a decent price. The result of that search landed on my drive a couple of days ago... It came out of an Excel and I ended up paying more for it than I'd hoped, but still only about a third of what the rebuild would've cost me. I saw it running before committing to buy it, so I hope a quick clean up and service will see it ready to go into the car. I'm sure there will be some parts that will need to be swapped over from the NC engine to make it fit the Esprit but I haven't had a proper look yet. I can now legitimately have red cam covers... I haven't been lazy though. I pulled the NC engine apart just to have a look and as I'd suspected it is actually in really good condition with no real wear on any of the bearings or bores. I only had cut off one bolt from the rear crank seal carrier, apart from that it came apart like a dream. However there was rusty crap throughout the cooling system and the thermostat looks like I've dug it out of the garden, so I'm pretty sure now that the head gasket failure was due to cooling system neglect, probably something as simple as topping up with water rather than coolant. Possibly the thermostat became jammed (although I haven't tested it) leading to overheating. So longer term (and subject to funds being available!) I'd like to build a strong bottom end using the NC block (to keep the engine number with the car) and mate it to the HC head, but that's a long way off if it ever happens. Unless the HC engine turns out to be another boat anchor of course.... Cheers Darren 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverfrost Posted October 11, 2019 Report Share Posted October 11, 2019 Good work Darren on bagging an engine, as you say, not cheap these days, looks very clean which is nice, good measure on seeing it running before jumping in with both feet Quote A Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skiing Posted October 11, 2019 Report Share Posted October 11, 2019 So I have an HC engine from an Excel fitted to my Esprit. Seems clearance is tighter between the engine and bulkhead and there will be some probable fiddling with cooling system pipe work. (Sparky was cursing when changing the cambelt a couple of weeks ago)... I think mine ended up with the alloy thermostat cooling pipe from an S4 for example. Mine has the lotus bits exhaust system and a lightened and balanced fly wheel and it pretty quick now. Sounds great too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iambadgerous Posted October 11, 2019 Author Report Share Posted October 11, 2019 2 hours ago, skiing said: So I have an HC engine from an Excel fitted to my Esprit. Seems clearance is tighter between the engine and bulkhead and there will be some probable fiddling with cooling system pipe work. (Sparky was cursing when changing the cambelt a couple of weeks ago)... I think mine ended up with the alloy thermostat cooling pipe from an S4 for example. Mine has the lotus bits exhaust system and a lightened and balanced fly wheel and it pretty quick now. Sounds great too. Thanks for the info, is the clearance tighter due to the repositioned alternator? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skiing Posted October 12, 2019 Report Share Posted October 12, 2019 I think it is apparently a little less clearance generally but we (I mean Sparky!) struggled with the bolts for the triangular alternator bracket as they were right up against the firewall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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