C43

plus gaz soaking over a week allowed mine to come loose...

thanks, I need it..

Agreed, but to do a decent job the body has to come off and I think I have to unpick the top shear panel. Once I have done that I might as well give the suspension a refresh, and if I am pulling off all the suspension to change the bushes (much easier with body off) I might as well change the chassis, you know how it goes...I intend to keep the car and I know it has suffered a knock on the right front so I want to do a decent job.

with the engine out you can see the weld on one side where someone has tried to repair it, on the other side it is cracked through.. C43

Hi engine out and found the chassis cracked in the normal place on the top rear tube that goes across the front of the engine taking all the rear suspension loads. Bugger! I don't think it possible to do a good repair so I am going to bite the bullet and change the chassis. My question is, with the body off, how long does it take to remove everything from one chassis and bolt it onto the next chassis? I know it depends on how much work I do on all the assemblies before I bolt them onto the new chassis but assuming I do a straight swap. I can then add the time to change all the bushes and recondition the parts to the equation. thanks C43

Plus Gaz is a good equivalent to WD40 in the UK, its a penetration oil. Find the best penetrating oil you can over there. Some are definitely better than others. I agree with you comment on using a flame but a decent hot air gun can be very effective. I had a real battle with these bolts on my brothers S2, it was just a case of taking my time and lots of penetrating oil. cheers Christian

Hi now the head has come off the bolt it should not take much torque to remove it at all (they normally come out really easily). If it was me I would suggest Plus Gaz and on and off with a hot air gun whilst you are waiting. Then in England we have a tool called an Eze Out that works really well but you could just drill it and use a left hand tap and bolt. One thing you will need for either of these it to drill an accurate hole down the middle of the bolt. By memory the bolt is about M10 so I would suggest get a drill bush for 5mm drill and use this to get an accurate hole down the middle. Take your time drilling it out, this is the secret to success. I still think you can get that bolt out. good luck Christian

good luck with getting that broken bolt out, is it sheared off in the chassis?

I changed the bushes on my 1984 turbo which I think is the same as your 1983 car. I also did it on my brothers S2 which is a slightly different setup. On neither did I have to remove the oil or water coolers. On my brothers S2 I did have to remove the fans at least on one side, on my S3 I think I just had to move the fans forwards slightly by loosening off the clamps. I think I did bend the fan mounts on one car but can't remember which. BTW I placed cardboard on the reverse side of the water radiator so I did not damage it when trying to get the anti roll bar out. BTW take photos as it is possible to get the anti roll bar upside down and the wrong side of the trackrods which means taking the whole lot to pieces again (I did this!). On both it is a bit fiddly but not an epic. The real pain is how rusty the main mounting bolts are and how poor the access to one side is (can't remember which). Sounds like you have already met these though! Oh and it was mine that came loose hence I would recommend Loctite on the bolt / nut on the end of the anti roll bar. Good luck, the change should sharpen up the front end. BTW I am now working with a guy who has done a lot of development for Ford, Jaguar and Maserarti on suspension bushes and his feeling was the polybushes would be fine for the ARB and would not transmit a lot of road vibration. cheers Christian

here goes

thanks for the feedback guys, really helpful. Steve if you guys could make me up a rear panel and sides I would be happy to reimburse you. I will take a couple of pictures after dinner to show how my boot looks currently. cheers Christian

Right, having spent an afternoon tinkering I now have an esprit that pulls smoothly and strongly all the way through the rev range, what a joy. Its the first time I have driven the car with the engine setup correctly and it makes a massive difference. I think I had two problems, my idle jets were under size at 40 and also under acceleration the pipe from the airbox to the turbo was blowing off, leaning off the mixture massively (I have a bodged setup). As far as idle jets are concerned I have ended up running 43s. I tried 46 but they gave no improvement so decided to go for the smaller size. The 43s removed the hesitations I was getting and improved the pickup from low revs. However the issue from 3000 to 3500 was due to the airbox pipe. To setup the idle mixture screws I initially listened to the idle speed and adjusted each in turn to give maximum idle speed. I then tried using the Colortune kit and ended up putting about a turn on each screw leaner. To see down to the top of the plug I used an inspection camera which gave a very clear view of the color and made it easy to adjust the screw to get the bunsen blue. As a point of note the camera kept freezing. I think the EMF from the HT was interfering with the electronics. I wrapped the end of the camera with aluminium tape and that solved it. I bought the camera off ebay for about £30 and it has been massively useful over the years. thanks for the help Christian ps out of curiosity I will measure the 40s with guitar strings, any excuse to get the guitar out

doh I always forget that one! Just got to find a rear transom now! thanks Christian

Hi can anyone let me know what I should find in the boot of my 1984 turbo esprit. I have carpet on the floor and against the engine bulkhead but nothing to protect the wires to the rear lights or the battery. I thought it would be the same plastic light covers as on the S2 but its not (if anyone wants a pair of nicely repainted light covers let me know!). Is it covered wooden boards or does the boot bag cover everything up? thanks Christian

can't, she already broke it....

ha ha thanks for your comment Andy. I played around last night with Colortune and thought I was going mad! Even at night is is very difficult to see the colour of the spark and even more difficult to see if I had set it right. The setting I arrived at were the same as just by doing it on idle speed as you say. I will have another go this week (I have a day off working on the Lotus booked!). BTW stupid question but screwing the idle mixture adjustment screw out (anti clockwise) is the right direction for richer? thanks C43

ah yes colour tune, I forgot the joys of using one of those, I will give it a go thanks C43

I fitted 43s today taking the 40s out. Unfortunately I don't have a CO2 analyser so had to guess the mixture screws. My idle actually rose when I screwed them out by 0.5 turns so I guess that points to them not being set correctly in the first place. I will have another go tomorrow. As for the hesitation well below 3k the car is sweet but between 3 and 4k it comes back. After 4k the car flys. Any ideas guys? cheers Christian ps as stated elsewhere actually changing the idle jets is really easy.

thanks, I was not sure if I had to do this or not. I think it does say something in the Des Hammill book. Trouble is I don't really know what size they are now as I suspect they will be smaller than std due to the fuel residue on them. C43

that looks lush, love it.

its sort of 3000rpm and just below so I am going to give the idle jets a go. On the Dellorto bible it suggests idles will still have an effect but you are right I am on the high rpm side. I am guessing I have 40s in at the moment, I have 43, 46 and 50s to try. I had the car rolling roaded and they did a lot of work on the mains going much bigger. They got rid of a lot of the hesitation (it just would not pull through it), above 3000 the car really flies, its just below that I have an issue still. worth a go I guess. thanks for the feedback, I will let you guys know how I get on. C43

yes for sure stick with the beige, you have to for originality. I did not need to get the seats recovered, it was just a case of re colouring them. Looking at the photos of your interior I would get some strong leather cleaner first and give that a go as I think it will bring up the existing leather well. There is a guy at Colourlock called Ram who is super helpful (Ram Iyer). For the seats get a local trimmer to sort them out. There is a company in Oxford that is brilliant but I am sure you will want to find a company closer to you. I am guessing to totally do the interior cost £150 in materials but I took most of it to pieces myself to do the work. Not as bad a job as it sounds. cheers Christian

Hi I want to change the idle jets in the S3 turbo to see if it helps cure the hesitation around 3000rpm. Can anyone tell me if I just undo the two screws highlighted below and pull the access panel off to get to the idle screw holder? The Esprit setup is slightly different from that indicated in my book. thanks C43