Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Looks like the clamp and weight did the trick on the doors

Best fit I"ve ever seen! Nicely done.

Made the Old English Car Show today
More than 12 entries
No other Lotus etc

Finally got some miles on the S4
lovely driving, fun...
Summer is here, and work begins again. and as I cant afford insurance on everything. I keep the 1986 TLR250R Trials for the remote access service. And the +2 for highway service.
Getting ready for new fuel lines, and rebuilding of wiper motor. New wipers, and mounts and to be ready for building a wiring harness this fall/winter.

I found a receipt in the car for engine work from 1990. $8,000.
I figured the engine was fine, and that I just lacked some Weber knowledge.
Of course at higher RPM’s it runs fine (ish).
So I rebuilt the carbs, twice. No satisfaction. This spring, another crack at it with new carbs. As the DCOE 40 #3 seemed fine, but I figured I wanted the balance ports. Also, that 151’s were an upgrade. Fooled with them for days.
Still not running well. Compression was about 100 1,2,3 and 160 on 4. So...
Leakdown test shows pistons not sealing, great sealing on the valves. So thats a relief.
Soaked for a few weeks in different fluids, rotating the engine and made a mess.
Gave her the Italian job, hoping for some success.
I figured the rings were stuck, from rust or stiction etc.
Seems I am getting into engine out, unfortunately with all the other projects and family. This will need to wait till I source some pistons, and as I dont know what size yet. So maybe this is the question. Should I have the block sleeved or go for oversized pistons?
Seems to me the advantages of sleeves is stronger cylinder walls.
Pistons are probably made of better material these days.

Comments!

If you are trying to free up some stuck rings, try pouring some Marvel Mystery Oil into each spark plug hole and leave for a few days, then turn by hand with the plugs out. Once that's done, put the plugs back in, start it up and drive it for a few days. Make sure you check compression with the engine warm, battery good, throttles wide open. Anything different and you'll get worthless numbers.

Make sure your carbs are synched. You can get close by removing the screws for the progression holes above the butterflies and visually match the position of the front butterflies to the rear carb butterflies. that will get you close.

h20hamelan wrote:........... This will need to wait till I source some pistons, and as I dont know what size yet. So maybe this is the question. Should I have the block sleeved or go for oversized pistons?
Seems to me the advantages of sleeves is stronger cylinder walls.
Pistons are probably made of better material these days.

Comments!

The problem with sleeving is that you end up with two thin walls i.e. the sleeve and the very over bored cylinder block wall. If the cylinder block cracks behind the sleeve then the sleeve will follow. I has been done many times successfully but I have seen failures also. Boring and fitting larger pistons as an option depends on what you find if you cant restore compression by freeing up the rings. It maybe no more than new rings and hone of the bore if the existing pistons are good. if its already bored to 84mm or above and needs more work then I would fit sleeves or source a replacement block which may be cheaper. In between 82.5 and 83 I would rebore and fit larger pistons. If 83 to 84 already then it really depends on a ultrasonic survey of the wall thickness to determine best course of action.

cheers
Rohan

Very nice
Makes me feel better.
I will do some more “Deep Creep” and ATF into the plugs over the next weeks, and keep on it.
I had contacted the builder, unfortunately they dont remember much about it now. Their guess was a full rebuild so digets crossed.
I sure was hoping to apply the new QED 420 and 360 cams and springs pronto. Not to mention the quafie LSD and 3:1. Also, I have been convinced to make a hard top for her. Will that be it?
I will need to keep busy with the +2’s Patton fuel injection install instead, when I am not driving the Elise on these beautiful roads free of traffic because we are so remote and people cant travel. The road cycling is also grand these days, its probably been 15-20 years since I enjoyed it so much.

StressCraxx, good tip. They have never been balanced, though the progression holes match up. The results were the same for all test’s with both sets of carbs. So I got to thinking about stiction etc.

Thanks for the knowledge on sleeves/ultrasonic etc Rohan.

Kind Regards
Jim