Pointy Whip

[Des]

Remember this?

 

Bought from Breadvan off of here some Months ago, I intended to get it back on the road promptly but work kept me busy, then I went away for a Month, and when I ordered some parts the couriers thrashed them, but finally managed to get somewhere today.

We start with a borked engine, chewed and spat out a cam follower and nibbled at a cam lobe after an over-rev, off with the covers and it becomes apparent that all the followers were well past their best, not all have been rotating as they should and many are showing micro-cracking, failure was both imminent and inevitable. Pulled cam housings and gathered the bits of broken bucket, this collection weighed nearly as much as a sound one should so I was happy there wasn't too much shrapnel gone astray.

 

 

 

Valve stem had taken some hammering,

 

 

 

But all were the same height so kept them crossed there was no serious damage, threw everything back together with a new cam and buckets, just to find out if it will run ok, if it does it will have to come apart again to set valve clearances, the cam timing was out to start with so I put that right, turned the key but it's not firing and doesn't seem to have all its compression on all cyls, I want to hear it run anyway, and a warmed engine comes apart easier, there's a spark but no fuel, no fuel pump anywhere under the bonnet so it must have an electric one somewhere, the last two Brit cars I've had with failed electric pumps have had them secreted them behind a panel in the boot, top right over the tank, and likewise the Lotus.

Look at this little throwback to the sixties.

 

 

No wonder it's dead, there's an Austin Rover sticker on it, never mind, I'll just whip the cover off and clean the points, she'll be fine, wait, what the fuck is this?

 

 

What manner of sorcerey be this? Tis the work of witches! Well fuck you Austin Rover with your Radio Shack electronic devilment, no matter, I popped on a normal pump and tried again, this time I was rewarded with the throb of 3 cylinders burbling away, let her warm up and then yanked the whole thing apart, one valve just ever so slightly bent.

 

 

Other valves passed the jizzy leak test but I should give them a clean and a bit of lapping in while it's opportune. Have to admit I was tempted to straighten the bent valve, give the old head gasket a coat of hammerite and have it running for tomorrow, but it was starting to get dark, and I left such dodgy practice in the nineties, so I got on the phone and ordered the parts, maybe if I get time I'll have it back together for the weekend.

 

[John F]

Good skills, Des.

 

I used to have an Excel too, so I'm going to enjoy reading about this rebuild.

[Sigmund Fraud]

Excellent work, sir ! Always nice to see pics of DIY engine repairs, especially on exotic*, valuable engines !

 

The Hammerite gasket trick is new to me, does it work ?

[Partridge]

This is pure porn. The workings of an Exel...phwooooor.

[UmBongo]

With Lotus, E is the key.

[Mr Livered]

With Lotus, E is the key.

What do you mean? Is it more fun to drive after dropping an E?

[Partridge]

So are we going to have a "Shiters drug trips" thread now?

[Des]

Funny enough there's a flat black pad sitting in a shallow recess under the handbrake lever which I considered would be gr9 swapped for a mirror to snort charlie off, but all modern coke is shit and mostly scouring powder.

The Hammerite thing, many years ago something called black monday happened, people stopped servicing their cars only to have their timing belt fail and get quoted some figure approaching a grand, I'd then sort them out for a figure approaching a ton, strip and reassemble with a rattle gun, straighten bent valves, refurb the headgasket with whatever paint was to hand, 5 wheel silver was quite good, then a secondhand belt, oil, filter and plugs. I remember my biggest challenge, a Gallant that had siezed the cam in the head for the want of an oilchange, that bastard tested me but it lived on, bit of a knock from the cam despite my coke can and araldite bearing refurb but it lived on.

 

Managed to find a couple of hours today for some lapping action, seats good, inlets in good nick but the exhaust valves all pretty much showing their age, just pitted a bit too much to lap in so gave them all a quick refacing, here's a before and after.

 

 

Then the gaskets and new valve turned up, maybe I'll get time tomorrow to finish, although there's shim malarkey involved with the valve clearances so unlikely. 

 

 

That grinding stick is at least 20 years old.

[cort16]

Great work, you make it sound so easy but you lost me at cam follower.

What ever happened to breadvan he was on here all the time, went away for a dungeons and dragons weekend and we've never seen him again.

Actually has he maybe changed his name?

[John F]

I reckon he took D100 damage from a tribe of mountain orcs and had to roll a new character.

[Des]

Finally had some free time today, and the rain mostly held off so I got busy. cleaned up the gasket surfaces.

 

 

Dropped the head on, that looks better.

 

 

Then after lots of fiddly assembing of shims and cam boxes and manifolds we get,

 

 

That's it running, and quite well for year old fuel, I kept topping up coolant as it warmed and waited for the fumes from the copperslip burning off the exhaust to clear and before I knew it had the satisfying reward of the radiator fan cutting in, so a quick recheck of cambelt tension, then popped the cover and bonnet back, had a good look for any pipes or screws I'd left loose but unusually all ok so I booked an MOT for tomorrow, I'll fill the tank and give it a blast on the way, I'm wondering how I'll get on with it, It looks ready to use with just routine maintenance so if I really like it then maybe I should move on some other old shitters that need all manner of rebuilding that I'll never find time for.

In a few hundred miles I'll change the cambelt and check the valve clearances once the freshly lapped valves have bedded in. They're a pain in the arse, I changed all the buckets as they had all had it, here we see one that had recently given up rotating and another with a nice crack,

 

 

The replacements are lightweight steel, but they're thinner so it's a ballache to obtain thicker than normal shims, hopefully the clearances will be ok later, I set them on the bigger side of tolerance to play safe, what with kitteh murdering modern petrol and all.

[Des]

OOOF!

 

 

Now to see if I hit it off with the Toe Sex Cull.

[skattrd]

Nice one Des, that's a bit of a result then. What are your plans for the car now then?

[r.welfare]

Fantastic, I wish I had just a small amount of your knowledge/bravery/spare time/erudition.

 

I wonder what happened to Breadvan72?

[HillmanImp]

I am sooooo jealous. Top work. 

[HMC]

Great result! I'd love to be able to confidently work my way around a knackered engine like that.

[brickwall]

Nice work mate. Really nice.

[rml2345]

Well done man! That MOT is a bit of a result.

Wish I had half your confidence/knowledge...

[Des]

Invested in a taxdisc yesterday morning, popped by a charity shop and saw this little omen.

 

 

Anyway, hit the road and it's pretty obvious a bit of a tune up is badly needed, better with a tank of fresh petrol but there's quite a flat spot at low revs, when I dismantled I did find the inlet cam was advanced by 2 teeth so maybe was like that when the carbs were last setup, but I'll check everything else first, leave well enough alone is the first rule of carb tuning, driving past the flat spot it goes well but with an intermittant 'fluffyness', possibly leads breaking down or tracking. The drive was interesting, not driven a Lotus in 20 years and it's not how I remember them, quite refined with a far quieter smoother ride than expected, it's round the clock but feels right and taut, I could wind the clock back to 15K and get away with it if it wasn't for those pesky MOT's and their meddling mileage logging. I think this will be a long term keeper, to fill that void of nice thing I can lavish much love on that will reward rather than leave me feeling used, there's an old snotter that's been waiting a heartbreaking load of bodywork in order to plug that gap, maybe I can cut it loose now and free up a garage.

I should give it a bit of an oil change and fine tune the running soonish, there's enough tappet noise to annoy me, it's improved a bit and I think I'll give it a few hundred miles before doing them, it's a pain but should then be ok for decades.

[Des]

I only had one call to make today in Gt Missenden, it's a nice drive so thought I'd take the Sex cell. Grabbed a fistful of plug leads and went to change them. The distributor is stuffed sideways under a great big manifold and airbox, neither of which will come away easily, so I memorised the leads at the cap, something like 1, 2, 4, 3 going clockwise from the top, so I suppose that means the distributor runs backwards, only just able to pull the leads out with my left hand all contorted and some painful wrist articulation, now what do we see here?

 

 

Becomes clear why I had dodgy symptoms from quite decent looking leads, sparks don't like being made to jump half inch gaps, so pushed all the buggers back home firmly and hit the road, the difference is night and day, the thing flies, still a bit of a flat spot that needs tuning out but after that it just revs and revs, very happy, Ima treat dis beyatch right.

[HillmanImp]

=if(isna(vlookup("buggered lead","new lead", a1:a100,False)),"same lead", (vlookup("buggered lead", "new lead", a1:a100,false))

[Des]

=if(isna(vlookup("buggered lead","new lead", a1:a100,False)),"same lead", (vlookup("buggered lead", "new lead", a1:a100,false))

Yes, that sums it up.

[alf892]

Cracking job Des.............and well done for having the balls to buy it.

 

I gave it some thought but while I was doing that you were in there!

[Sigmund Fraud]

Amazing work, Des ! Is the Excel as nice to drive as its reputed to be ?

[Alexg]

Great stuff, you make shitting look so easy.

[Des]

It does take a complete chancer to take on a non runner eggshell, those Lotus engines can bend a rod if you push the dipstick back in too firmly, I was very lucky. It's a very nice drive Sigmund, grown up and civilised, feels like a proper British car, nearest thing I can compare it to would be a TR7, same sitting position down with the sills, similar sort of ride but with more handling and faster. I did try putting the end out on a dampish deserted roundabout but it wouldn't play ball. Not great rear visibility, although seen worse in modern hatchbacks, not too difficult to judge though.

They're certainly a cheap car, I suppose the 'lots of trouble usually serious' rep puts off a lot of buyers, and then it's a 4 seater, not exactly a selling point in a sports car, and maybe the cars best feature, those SD1 tail lamps, is offputting to many.

[Guest Breadvan72]

I am filled with joy that the Excel is back on the road.  I bought it from a  bloke who said he had maintained it himself, and apart from changing the exhaust and getting it an MoT I did precisely no work on it until taking it to Italy where it exploded.  

 

It is a hoot to drive and vaguely practical as Lotuses go.

 

Top skillz Des.

[brickwall]

That is a result!

 

Xmas cheer to all

[Des]

About time this oddball showed itself, now assuming the Lotus position, up on stands with its guts hanging out.

Well it is a Lotus, 1 Hrs driving = 2 Hrs fixing.

 

 

 

A slight weep from the power steering has progressed to tiresome gusher, piddling from the nearside rack boot, I've tried to find time to take a look for some months now and today was the day. Something was looking very familiar about the steering gear, especially where the hydraulic pipes are push fit and retained by a plate, and so the penny dropped, Yay! it's a Sierra rack!!! Those things were just superb, the only PAS rack I know of that can be removed in under 15 mins without wheeling out the gas axe, merely whizz off a single bolt to break the bond of the toblerone steering column, another solitary bolts removal shall release both of the pipes, unwind the track rods from the ends then wazz away two retaining bolts and out it drops ready to kick across the floor to trip up the bloke delivering the factory exchange item. Now what could Lotus possibly do to jizz all over such brilliance? Oh look, or rather try to look, not exactly bright and airy.

 

 

 

You inbred webbed fingered goat bothering twats, it's an absolute bastard of a job, had me swearing and blaspheming on Easter Friday, I doubt Lancia and Citroen combined could contrive such evil, and to up the game I had to remove it with the pipes attached since they were going nowhere being too delicate to survive any removal abuse in situ.

 

 

 

But in spite of my efforts they're knackered anyway, just too much pitting to chance my luck, so will have to source new along with the rack, or maybe fit new seals if I can find them, I reckon the pipes will be the big expense, I could do something with the return one if I have to, but the pressure one can't really be messed with. I'd best fix it properly, too piggish a job to do more than once in a lifetime, and anyway I have this chap monitoring progress in a critical fashion.

 

[messerschmitt owner]

another robin bastard after your alloys.