MOTOR CHAT

[old_coyote_pedaller]

Re:

I had a problem with the fuel pump, well I thought it was, on my kitcar with the 2l Fiat Twincam with twin Dellortos.

It would randomly run badly then cut out, would start after a few minutes only for fault to re-occur and soon realised it was fuel delivery. Checked the pump and found the guy who built it had fitted a high pressure fuel injection pump without a fuel pressure regulator. So I replaced it with a SU electric pump I got from my brother. Same fault kept on happening but I then wrongly thought because it was an old pump it was the pump. Tried several but then eventually bought a brand new Facet solid state pump. Same effin problem.

Had already, at start of problem, looked in petrol tank through the fuel level sensor hole but couldn't see anything that could be blocking fuel pick-up pipe. Couldn't see the actual pick-up pipe as there was a baffle, to prevent fuel surge, at end of tank. So, in desperation, drilled a circle of holes in top of tank above fuel pick-up pipe so that I could see inside.

What did I find? Several bits of brown card that when retrieved and put back together was a label/ticket 30mm by 60mm with a name written on it. The name of the guy who'd welded the tank together. Wanker. It had been in there for about 5 years before it gradually broke up to be sucked against fuel pick-up pipe stopping fuel delivery.

 

[ajm]

Re:

Won't you now have metal swarf from your drilling floating about in there too? Or have you taken the tank right out to have a look and swilled it out since?

 

[jimihendrix]

Re:

Got the old Lotus going pretty well, or as well as an old Lotus can be expected.

Water pump was noisy though, didn't want to risk driving it too much as the bearings could colapse, send the fan belt into the timing belt and wreck the motor so made the decision to take the car off the road.

A specialist in Devon had a new Lotus pump for £360 or an exchange pump for £90, no brainer really so i removed my pump and sent it off for exchange, trouble is my pump was in too bad a state for exchange (a bit missing from the impeller and the shaft had been welded) so he had to send mine off to be recond, cost an extra £50.

Took three weeks from removing the pump from the car to getting the new one, in that time i removed the radiator, flushed it, made up some new top brackets as these had been lost in the past (only thing stopping the rad from flopping about was the top hose), checked all the hoses, fitted new hose clips, tidied up the wiring, replaced the cam belt and removed the remains of the redundant air conditioning.

Couldn't resist cleaning up some of the removed bits while waiting on the pump.

Built back up, fresh anti-freeze etc,

Scrap air-con parts, surprising amount of weight in this lot alone, pump and other parts were already missing from the car when i got it, not worth restoring the AC system.

So the Elite has been back on the road a few weeks and behaving itself pretty well, been using it most days and leaving it sitting in the street/drive as it's my only working car (Discovery is still off the road), pretty entertaining to drive (i'd say even better than a 3.0 Capri), sounds glorious at full chat and it's reasonably comfortable.

Celibrated my new found roadworthyness by fitting the period GB sticker i bought a while ago.

Still needs work of course, drivers door is sagging due to a worn hinge pin/bushes, rear wheel bearings are needing done (not noisy just play in them) and i'm still wanting a set of fresh tyres for it (Falkens at £340 a set)

 

[ajm]

Re:

Looking much healthier now than when you got it... definitely a good move getting rid of the superfluous A/C bits. Was the A/C factory fit?

 

[jimihendrix]

Re: Re:

Looking much healthier now than when you got it... definitely a good move getting rid of the superfluous A/C bits. Was the A/C factory fit?

Cheers man, yep, A/C was standard on this model, also power steering (also gone), and car was originally an auto but now five speed manual, was pretty well spec'd (for 1980) when new, electric drivers door mirror, electric windows, A/C, P/S, four speaker stereo and a Dictaphone (long gone sadly)

Was a very expensive car when new though £16.5K in 1980, the same price as a Porsche 911SC and a couple of grand cheaper than a Maserati Merak.

Beats me why the cars are worth so little nowadays compared to it's rivals at the time.

 

[clubby]

Re: Re:

Beats me why the cars are worth so little nowadays compared to it's rivals at the time.

It's an 80's Lotus!

Seriously though, only a brave man with your skills would ever take one on. Porker from the same era would be far safer choice and therefore more sought after.

 

[RobMac]

Re:

While we've got the Motor Chat thread open.
Last weekend I had a local/yokel round asking about my MK2 he wanted to strip the shit out of it and I said NO but we agreed on a price for the whole thing, "I'll pay on Wednesday" he says, no show Wednesday and now I'm hoping he wont show at all. My plan was to start over again and get a running MK2 a (running project) to eventually replace the Audi, I'd even started looking around for MK2's their getting expensive and a bit thinner on the ground :?

 

[jimihendrix]

Re:

Beats me why the cars are worth so little nowadays compared to it's rivals at the time.

It's an 80's Lotus!

Seriously though, only a brave man with your skills would ever take one on. Porker from the same era would be far safer choice and therefore more sought after.

You mean reputation ?, but look at the value of S2/S3 Lotus Esprit's (8K for something decent), same performance as the Elite (same engine), same cost when new, same old Lotus issues (more awkward to work on than the Elite though) could argue that thats a cooler car though being two seater and rear engined (and James Bond drove one).

I had a shot of a 1985 Porsche 911SC about ten years ago, was the scariest car i have driven, admitedly it was raining and it had budget tyres but it felt like it was going to launch backwards through a hedge at every corner and that's coming from someone who ran a few 3.0S Capri's all year round.

 

[jimihendrix]

Re: Re:

While we've got the Motor Chat thread open.
Last weekend I had a local/yokel round asking about my MK2 he wanted to strip the shit out of it and I said NO but we agreed on a price for the whole thing, "I'll pay on Wednesday" he says, no show Wednesday and now I'm hoping he wont show at all. My plan was to start over again and get a running MK2 a (running project) to eventually replace the Audi, I'd even started looking around for MK2's their getting expensive and a bit thinner on the ground :?

What's your MK2 needing Rob ?, is it just the engine ?, i've been through all this before with cars, sold what i had, bought something else then was left wishing i'd just kept what i had and spent the money on it instead, it's a frigging merrygoround with me though and i cant get off .

The bloke sounds like a time waster anyway, if he really wanted it he'd have been there with the money Wednesday.

 

[RobMac]

Re:

I bought the rolling body every thing in it bar the engine (brilliant condition inside & out) I did get the engine with it but I think it was needing a rebuild, so the last owner said. Its a 2 door 16v Gti BTW.
Ive also got a shit load of new goodies for it Bilsteins, polybushes, strut braces etc.