Thartje

I replaced mine with a high torque starter from from a company here in the US https://www.classiccarperformance.com/products/lotus-esprit-v8-high-torque-starter Reasons I went with a high torque starter were: Higher compression ratio & tighter piston to wall clearance My starter was original so didn't want to have to take it all apart to replace it in 3 months I was hoping it would eliminate the "ring" sound when the car starts - it did

Sounds like a seized brake caliper pin. May not even have to remove the piston from the caliper, just the slide pins the caliper rides on. Disassemble and clean it, may have to replace the rubber seals on the pin. Grease the pins up well before you assemble them again. If you find the pin is absolutely seized, I'm pretty sure the x180 used calipers from a late 80's Toyota Celica. Could just replace the calipers all together. Double check the cross reference first though.

Wow, that it a huge pain 😬 A lot less restrictions in t he US on tires for sure. Insurance will test tire tread depth in an accident here but I've never heard them deny a claim for it.

oh wow I didn't realize the UK has noise limits on tires! I went with continentals on my Esprit to keep it quite in the cabin, but wouldn't expect others to have to do the same. How do they enforce laws like that? If you were to order a set from the US would it be possible to find a smaller local mechanic to mount them? or would it just fail an MOT inspection when the time comes?

Not sure of road legal requirements in the UK but the following are all available in an 245/50 16 Falken Ziex ZE950 & ZE960 Ventus V2 Concept Toyo Extensa HP II Kumho Ecsta PA31 Cooper Zeon RS3-G1 General G Max RS BF Goodrich g-Force Comp-2 Nitto NT555RII Nitto NT01

Believe they changed mid year in the 89. 235/60 15 to 245/50 16 If its a 245/50 16 then a 275/45 16 would work, not a lot of selection though. 245/50 still has a lot of options.

There wont be much different from one brand to the next on contact patch for a 235 tire. You could go up to a 275/50 15 which would still work on an 8" wheel, but not ideal. It would look noticeably wider and be relatively the same height. You're probably looking at drag radials at that point though.

If its a very low mileage car you bought to flip with the hopes the prices work out you should go back to the original brakes and wheels. Will get you top dollar with a collector. If the car is much over 15k miles you will be hard to ever get a premium collector price for it, so probably a waste of money to buy new brakes and wheels. If its a car you bought to enjoy, do what you like with it.

The v8 has a recirculation pump for the cooling system. If the car is shut down when hot it runs the radiator fans and pushes the coolant for a while so it should keep the heat out of the CHRA. I do also have the inside of the turbine housing ceramic coated so less heat is making it into the turbine housing itself to begin with.

Some more photos of engine progress before it was installed. I moved over to ball bearing turbos so needed to make new oil supply lines. Journal bearings cant be over oiled (assuming the drain is adequate) but ball bearings need a lot less oil. the 3an line and oil restrictors were pretty simple to make but tracking down a decent looking banjo to 3an actually took some time. I finally found some that were made for brake calipers but worked just fine for oil also. Also wanted to add heat blankets to the turbine housings before the engine went in also. These things aren't impossible to install on the car but a lot easier when the engine is out with low mounted turbos. Could have snatched up some amazon brand heat blankets but decided to go through Funk, figured British car - should support a British company. I was pretty impressed with the quality of these though. I do use the cheap Amazon brand on my LS TT car and these Funk blankets are really more robust. The turbo blankets do a lot to improve heat soak into the engine bay and keep the turbine housing warmer, which results in faster spooling. Not sure how much of an improvement the turbo spool up is, but the heat mitigation is worth it alone. Couple other items I picked up for the build were a turbowerx exa pump and a high torque starter. I never enjoyed hearing the starter ring on the fly wheel when the car started, I'm pretty sure they were not the greatest units from the start. The fact that I had bumped compression and tightened the piston/wall clearance meant I was putting even more load on this original unit. The new started was pretty much the same dimensions as the original, minus the extra bump on the back for a shaft. Other item I picked up was a turbowerx exa scavenger pump. The oil drain setup on the stock Esprit is not ideal. On the track one long sweeping corner could prevent adequate draining, or sitting in traffic if the car isn't level could result in the same situation. Usually results in a smokey turbo and a wild goose chase trying to find a non existent issue. These little pumps have great suction and will continually move oil, much better for oil drain than the 90 degree into the pan. I still had not figured out where I was going to put it at this point, but it was so small and compact the options were pretty open. I'm pretty sure you can mount these 5ft above the car and they will still pull oil 😂 So the engine was pretty much ready to go at this point. Any work left to do I could access from the top or needed the engine actually in the car to address. So had some engine hoist brackets fabricated and promptly power coated them gold... wanted it to look classy as it was getting dropped in 😂 Just around the time the engine was going in I also received a special order ESPRIT transform decal for the car, in gold of course 😂

How long is it taking to start? Its a return style fuel system so if the pump is running the fuel should be at the injectors unless there is a leak. Which could be inside the fuel tank - the rubber lines in there fail over time. Could test this buy letting it sit for a while - the length of time it would usually take to start poorly - then before trying to turn it over just switch the ignition to prime the fuel pump several times. If it starts with less of an issue it could be worth checking out the fuel tank hoses... the might have a pinhole.

a view of the 335 tires in the back

First drive after a 3 year rebuild 😀1

Decent methanol injection setup will drop IAT temps below ambient if combined with just an air/air intercooler. Something beyond a basic on/off is a good idea, like Mike suggested. Alky Control makes a pretty good kit, I've run it on my boosted LS car. We see summer temps 110-115F here in AZ and I will see IAT at 80-90F under boost with methanol. Its not going to pool up in your intercoolers unless the nozzle is leaking. Its a pretty fine mist that goes in with the intake. That being said I would spray it after the intercoolers as methanol is a little hard on aluminum and also you don't want it too far from the the throttle body. You don't want it to evaporate before it gets into the cylinders as its adding octane, not just cooling the air.

Should be doing a compression test on a hot engine. Not sure if you were able to do that with the engine out of the car.

Clutch was away so had some time before the engine and transmission would be going in. This was probably around the time I decided the whole interior needed to be replaced. The previous owner had replaced the carpet and the headliner. The carpet quality wasn't bad but the installation job wand fit was pretty bad. The previous owner wasn't aware that the there were carpet kits available for the car and sort of threw something together with really tacky vinyl strips around the seatbelt openings and parking brake, not the robust leather the car originally had at these points. The headliner was a worse issue. it appeared to be spandex material that had been installed with a hot glue gun. I later found out it was the same glue what had been used to install all of the carpet.... Removing this took days, but that was a problem I wouldn't find until later 😂 The headliner was also made up of little scrap pieces to cover up where the material wasn't either measured or installed correctly... it just all had to go. Once I pulled the interior trim pieces out i also found sections that had been "repaired" at some point but not very smoothly. Another item to address..... This was all stuff to take care of in the future but had to start planning. So started looking into material options for the headliner, my heart was pretty set on Alcantara as it just has a cool look to it... more suitable for a 90s supercar than spandex. Also hopped on the carpet waiting list with Steve M 😁😁😂 While I was trying to decide on interior options my buddy was working away on building my intercooler reservoir tank to go up front. I wanted a front tank for maximum capacity to reduce heat soak and also to keep it away from the hot engine. As long as the water could be kept cool it should be effective on reducing the IATs. Jeffrey came through with a really well aluminum tank that had a bracket for the pump also. I decided quickly that it needed to be powder coated black as it just looked a little too shiny and out of place..... I did have to drill a couple of holes in the fiberglass for bulkhead fittings as coolant needed to come from the radiator back into the reservoir and also out again to the intercoolers themselves. One hole is rather unseen at the front however the hose to the intercoolers was a little more difficult to keep out of sight. It was around this time i notice how ugly the black frame over the ABS was looking.... so powder coated that too Then I noticed the cover for the air plenum for the AC inlet was pretty ugly too, so I decided to remove that and Cerakote it flat black.... I then realized how ugly the two black bolts and washers were that I believe hold the wiper arm in place were looking... so those too got powder coated black And then of course while I was adding wiring and relays for the water pump I realized how ugly the arm holding the relays was looking, so that also was removed and powder coated black, despite it being under a plastic cover most of the time... 🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️😂 But by the time I had gone through all that process the good news was my Alcantara sample had arrived 😁Along with my new boost gauge from Caerbont. Designed to look like the original gauge they made for the Esprit V8 but with a new max boost to meet the target I was going for.

Good deal. Those guys are really knowledgeable and reliable.

GTO Engineering in the UK should be able to help you with parts. Would be good if they told you the issue so you know what is worn. The gearbox still works the same way as factory.

Radio was sorted out so back to the transmission! Had previously assembled the new single piece input shaft and moved everything across that was necessary. I did find some ARP bolts for the ring gear to go back onto the Quaife differential (I think through JAE). Getting the shafts back into the transmission case was pretty easy but I did have to take a few stabs at getting the top part on. Not sure if it weas something I was missing/not seeing but eventually tracked it down to the blue seal on the input shaft being a pretty tight fit. Went together in the end and was onto the side adjusters and preload setting. Side adjust on the UN1 is similar to an Holden Monaro / Pontiac GTO which is about the only other differential I have messed with 😂 The differential side adjuster on the 05 Pontiac GTO required a special and expensive tool which can be substituted with a $9 oil filter wrench. So busted out my trusty AutoZone universal wrench and made some minor modifications to it as the teeth on the Renault UN1 side adjuster are a little smaller. I did end up having the universal tool welder as the UN1 requires a considerable amount of torque to turn... so will have to spend another $9 if I need one for my GTO in the future 😂 Either way, this is a pretty cheap solution for a UN1 adjuster. Once tight I started to dial it in with the preload procedures. Not sure if there is a specific tool for this job either but made use of a fish scale I had picked up years ago from Cabela's. This did take a few attempts to dial in but was a pretty simple process overall. Just a case of wrapping string around the diff and seeing how much force it take to rotate it. I didn't come across any other checks for adjustment in the service notes but checked the contact patch with gear marking compound and had good contact. Not sure if that is an assumed step by the service notes or not required if the preload is accurate? 🤷‍♂️ Next thing to deal with that would prevent me from mating the transmission to the engine was a clutch that would hold with torque from these improvements. I contacted Falcon Clutch in NY and had a good conversation over the phone. I had talked to several clutch builders but honestly Falcon was the first builder that gave me confidence that they understood what they were doing. Asked them to rebuild it to handle mid to high 500 torque range. They explained how they could do that and any potential impacts to feel/drivability. So, packaged up my clutch and sent it across country to NY. They did amazing work and in the end the clutch performed way beyond expectations and the 500ft tq range 😂

Pretty unlikely unless someone has been in there messing with the wiring. Alternators wear out, or wiring that is exposed to the elements would be the next thought.

Are you ordering new liners? Oval wont help with ring seal.

I was working on this transaxle rebuild at the end of 2022 but had to take a break as my wife bought me an really awesome Blaupunkt Bremen head unit for Christmas. Doing a radio install seemed much more fun than a transmission rebuild and I wanted to see how the modern retro looking unit went along with the Esprit's interior 😁 Going into the junk pile was an Alpine unit that I don't believe was original to the car. It wasn't really a bad head unit but just didn't fit the look of the interior. I actually pulled the face plate off and never got a chance to use it because it would never turn off, I figured it had been wired wrong. Sooo I got my nice new Blaupunkt Bremen installed and... it wouldn't turn off either. As you can see, key out of the ignition and the head unit still fully awake. Despite that issue I was really happy with the way it looked in the car. Very 90's but still had bluetooth for phone/streaming, will read SD cards for MP3s and the backlights can be adjusted through the whole RGB range. I started into the staying on issue by double and triple checked the wiring and found I had it correct. Eventually found there was an "key in" relay that was stuck on, but only because it was getting energized. Traced the issue back to the ignition key cylinder and found this... The spring that returns the cylinder back to the "key out" position was broken! Not sure if this is a common issue but was easily overlooked. I had assumed the previous owner wired the radio incorrectly 🤷‍♂️😂 Was a simple fix in the end, was able to track down a replacement ignition cylinder. I was thought about replacing just the spring but the spring perch had actually been worn down. Was able to pick up the whole piece from Amazon for $15 with two keys. Its actually a ignition cylinder from a Vauxhall Astra and some other random GM cars. So if your radio doesn't turn off and/or your Esprit has a battery drain issue this could be worth a check.

Andy what clearance are you coming up with? I'm not sure I would whole heartedly trust the tolerances from the manual 😂 they have .0006" for a main bearing clearance in there.

Thanks man! Hope they are helpful, wish I had started this at this start of the project. I don't remember replacing any of the snap rings so I probably reused mine also. Nothings come apart yet, so I think we are good 😂

Had the intercoolers and heat exchange setup but didn't have anything setup for a water reservoir or a pump. Although I never tried it, I figured the spare tire was no longer of any use to me as I had larger front brake calipers. Also, the rear wheel wouldn't fit in the trunk at all if I had a flat in the back... so I decided to sacrifice the spare wheel space for the reservoir 😂😂 (This provided a further good decision as I changed the bolt pattern and the spare wont work anyways) Decided to use amazon boxes as a unit of measurement to avoid having to use the metric system. It seemed to give pretty much max capacity and still keeping the hood from opening/closing without the hinge contacting. Water volume was was important aspect of the intercooling setup but also needed water flow. As I was moving to a stand alone ECU I figured I could easily setup a PWM pump for maximum flow. Decided to pickup a Pierburg water pump which I immediately painted to look like a Duracell battery 🤦‍♂️😂 (The color scheme looked cooler in my mind) This thing would require some heavy duty wiring and a 40 amp relay, certainly had to flow to keep the water moving. In the same week of making this poor pain scheme choice I decided to paint my wastegate solenoid... which also came out looking like a 9v Duracell 🤦‍♂️😂 At least they are relatively well hidden from view. Although I had what felt like a lot of odd jobs to do on the Esprit after the engine was together I still had one major one to tackle with the Renault UN1 transaxle. I had rebuilt an engine before but this was going to be new territory for me. Fortunately there is a very detailed YouTube video series from someone rebuilding a UN1 for a DeLorean. The head mounted camera view and what feels like over accentuated body movement make it so you can only watch it in about 45 second spurts, but its extremely detailed on going through a UN1 rebuild. I went with the GTO Engineering kit for mine. They seemed to be pretty well tested and were in some of the GT40 replica cars using Ford V8s. Lesson learned, if I ever did this again I would go with the Ford spline option on the rebuild kit and open up a wider range of clutch options. Really limited to AP, Helix or Clutchmaster for a ground up clutch option with the original Renault splines. Other than being a single piece input shaft the GTO upgrade also has a much more robust 5th gear. Sadly, still not supported on the back but hopefully sufficient to hold more power. It is certainly a lot thicker and does not have the deep channel after the 5th gear splines. First gear is also straight cut for strength and should give an impressive whine. 😁 Rebuild process was honestly very easy, but I did take a lot of pictures coming apart so I knew how they went back together. I picked up some decent heavy duty snap ring plyers and a gear puller from Harbor Freight to make the job easier. Was really able to knock this out in an afternoon, not too bad of a job. I also picked up a Quaife limited slip differential, figured I might as well do it right if I was pulling it all apart. I had installed a similar worm gear/spur gear unit in another high horsepower car and it really did make a difference. I didn't get much seat time in the Esprit before it shit the bed but looking forward to seeing how this thing does 😬