UPDATE,
It's been several weeks since LOG where I drove the car sparingly since. Reasons given were the maintenance projects i've been waiting to do and tossing around the idea of maybe stalling until winter for some fun wintertime projects, however i've been driving it bit by bit until this happened:
lotus-twincam-f39/cause-oil-leak-head-drain-tube-t38184.html Now that problem was resolved and easier to fix than first thought (fear of having to pull the head)., so now the car is "back on the road". With the "Indian summer" we're having and nice warm temperatures, this is premo top down sportscar driving time, so i decided to tackle some additional projects.
As noted above in the link, the oil leak problem fixed and a minor cleaning refurbishment of the carbs was done, and finally synced and running well.
That brings me to today where i drained the coolant. Opening the drain petcock and taking the bottom rad hose off and forcing a garden hose in every which way. Then sealed it up again with a flushing cleaner, 15 minutes or so later, repeat draining and flushing with clean water. Reassembled it all and added a 50/50 premix coolant. Voila !!!
While the car was up on ramps and the engine was hot from the coolant flush, I changed the oil and filter. I noticed the threads to the drain plug were stripped a bit and buggered up, so i cleaned up the threads and replaced the copper washer. Everything sealed up and added Castrol GTX 20-50.
Off to the gas station and filled the tank with fresh gas and an evening jaunt in the Sprint for a great drive. It was Friday evening rush hour, so i had to pick my roads accordingly and i've still kept my driving close to home until i get comfortable enough with it to know its reliability and road worthiness before I take it further and further away from home base.
All in all, I'm very pleased and excited with the end product. Yes, my to-do list is shorter, but bit by bit, i'm getting closer to having everything working and maintained. I think chasing down the vacuum leak will be next and that includes getting the headlight pods to work.