My first tentative drives were a little fraught…!

Bearing in mind I’d never properly driven an Esprit before and I’d just carried out a major overhaul I was pretty paranoid! Couple that with an ECL that kept popping up for 10 secs then clearing – I was a bit worried! So after a bit more research on the forums and borrowing an ALDL cable from SuperDaveLotus I established it was just a high idle causing the ECL. I cleaned out the IACV and things calmed down a bit. So I started to drive the Esprit a bit….

It’s quick. Very quick! Awesomely quick! I was just starting to trust it a little then, with SWMBO int he car for the first time, I had my first breakdown :wallbash:

During my rebuild the battery was goosed so I fitted a spare battery I had removed from the Elise. While this was OK I removed it from the Elise because it had gone flat too often! I was on my way to buy a new battery and, at a busy crossroads, I ran out of electricity! Pushed it to a nearby garage and they arranged for a new battery to be delivered in about 15 mins! Well impressed! Slightly more expensive that I’d have liked but it wasn’t like I had a choice!

On the road again for a bit… then a puddle on the drive (In addition to the small oil puddles from the gearbox) Arse.

Waterpump was leaking from the weep hole. I suspect that as the car hadn't moved for 2 years previously the coolant was life-ex adn the waterpump had corroded which promptly ate the seals when I started driving it again. What a daft design! That last waterpump bolt took 3 hours to remove! Off to SJ Sportscars for a rebuild and reassembly. Swapped over to new pink coolant too while I was drained down. I also swapped out one of the gearbox seals, quite a fight so I called off swappnig the other one for now.

Then off my first show, also the furthest I'd ventured from home... with SWMBO in the car too! The Norlog guys decided that despite me not having time to wash my car it should have pride of place!

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but it didn’t last for long… breakdown number 2…

Coming back from work one day and uh oh… temp off the scale and low water warning on (Good job I fixed it!) Pulled over and stopped quick, steam everywhere… oh dear again… There was a big and growing puddle at the front of the car. Radiator had split.

Oh well, phoned my long suffering girlfriend who drove out in the Porsche and dragged me home (No I still haven’t heard the end of that one!) Turns out that the rad had split because the Waterpump belt had gone and the new rad cap I’d recently fitted was enough to pop the rad! Examination of the waterpump showed the pulley was out of line by a few mm which shredded the belt. A handful of washers later it was lined up, so I set about stripping the rad down… aside from having to cut every rotten bolt off, I also discovered how much crud can accumulate in a radiator over 16 years!
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The steel inserts in the corners of the rad cowl were totally rotten too, so I replaced them with stainless and re-glassed it all, and overhauled the steelwork too, ready for my recored rad:
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I also treated some of the pink bits of engine bay to a lick of paint:
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And some of the insides to a bit of 3M Dynoc carbon film, before and after pics:
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Next: What now! Breakdown 3 and clutch…

Rich