Frank

Hi there Jeremy and James, Thanks for the responses. James, I did try using a heat gun on the rotor but it wouldn't move and its not in any sort of position that you can cool the centre. I had some success previously with the heating method before particularly the rear hubs. As Jeremy said its a bit challenging to try and move the rotor while the engine is in the car as I'm pretty sure it hasn't been off since new. I think the annulus has been broken since at least 1988 as when I had the belt changed then the mechanic said that the base of the distributor is cracked and I should get a replacement, the distributor wasn't and now I know he must have been talking about the oil pump. Its a wonder it held pressure for so long. So after some careful consideration and lots of drinking coffee and staring at it fI decided to fit the annulus onto the existing rotor. I packed it with Vaseline and tested to check that it rotated freely and spun it up with a drill and it primed in no time. I have never been so pleased to see oil leaking out underneath the filter (I hadn't fully tightened it ) So thanks for your help and advice guys, its great to be able to get info and advice from someone who has insider knowledge and done it before to make sure Im not missing a trick. cheers Frank

Morning people, I had problems priming the oil pump in my S1 after putting the engine back in the car and took the oil pump cover off for a look. I found that the annulus (hope I got the right term here) was split neatly into 3 pieces as in the photo. I don't know how long its been like that probably for some years but its a wonder it worked at all. I purchased a new set but Im having trouble getting the rotor off. I have removed the spring clip that holds it on and thought it would slide off but it wont move at all. Is there a trick in getting this off? I have searched the archives but cant find any reference to anything specifically around it and I don't want to apply too much force. Any help or advice gratefully received. cheers Frank

Many thanks Andy that is great, I will try this out at the weekend and see if I have any luck. It gives me faith that it is not an unknown problem so I probably havent missed anything silly and it will just take a bit of perserverance and logical working through. cheers Frank

Good evening all, I have now got to the point of the restoration of my S1 Esprit where the car is tantalisingly close to completion (or going for a drive at least) I have had the car apart over the last 8 years including the engine out of the car and the head off and redone. I have replaced everything that needed replacing oil pipes, water pipes, belts etc. etc. I have put it all back together filled the engine with fluids and last weekend I turned it over. On the second turn it fired and ticked over amazingly smoothly....only problem is that I dont appear to have any oil pressure showing on the gauge. I only ran it for about 20 seconds to see if it would pump up and then as it didnt I turned it off. I cant rule out the possibility that the gauge is faulty as it has been some years since it has been run and most of the electics took some time to start to work. A couple of questions spring to mind that I was hoping that someone can help me with. 1/ seeing I had drained everything down is there a need to prime the oil filter/cooler or something? or is there any magic that needs to be performed to get the oil through the system? 2/ Is there something that I may have forgotten to do or connect (I cant think of anything) or something that I may have inadvertantly disconnected (hope not) when I did the head? 3/ Is there a way of checking if there is oil circulating as my gauge may not have yet woken up. Any help or advice gratefully received as I would love to fire it up again this weekend but the risk of no oil circulating is a problem cheers Frank

I'm just getting my 78 S1 Esprit back together after a bit of a long awaited restoration. The car hasn't been driven since 1987 and not started since 2008 when I started stripping it down. I had the body off and am now reassembling it (you cant rush these things). I got most of the electrics to reluctantly come back into life (light pods one at a time like a drunken pirate and windows coaxed into life after numerous attempts and a bit of physical assistance) the only things that I can get to work is the indicators and hazard lights and the heater fan. Can anyone please tell me where or which one the flasher unit is for the indicators so I can work out from there where it goes and if it has power etc.? Following wiring is difficult at the best of times but laying upside down with no room at all is doing my back in and i'm not getting any younger so any help would be appreciated. While I am on the subject I don't suppose anyone has a breakdown on which fuses drive what in the S1? Thanks for your help in advance. Frank

Thanks guys for the information and advice. It has reassured me about the paint as I was a bit concerned.....I used to be a panel beater but with this thing it takes more than a hammer to get the body straight There is the forecast of fine weather this weekend so with the information I will be looking forward to taking out the star cracks and preparing the body. With all of these lazy long weekends I am hoping to get the chassis and engine (which is nearly complete) back in the body this summer! Paul Im surprised about the number of black S1s cause I didnt even think mine was original and dont think Ive seen another one. Again cheers guys. Frank

Gidday, Well its been some time that I have been working on my S1 and lots of stuff (and lack of funds)has got in the way. I have now almost completed the engine and chassis and I am looking at the body and paint work. The car is black and I was intrigued to find out what colour it was originally so i found the plate and got the number which is L15 and it is the original colour. I didnt know they did a black S1 but I am pleased as I thought it would be gold or yellow and Im not a Yellow person. Now the key question, I have read that to repaint the car you need to strip all of the paint off or it will end up cracking as the paint wont be able to breathe. Is this true? will I need to strip it down or can I sand and prime and paint? What did everyone else do and did it work? I was going to paint it in Cellulose - because I can. Help on this questions would be appreciated as Im sort or wondering (scared) how many weekends it will take to sand the paint off of this baby. cheers guys

Chris, I did see this and the comment in the blurb about fitting all models 'with adaption' led me to ask the questions about which manifold fitted the S1. It looks like the tubular headers fit 'with adaption' as they foul the triangulation bar so wondered if the later S3 manifold was the same as there are more of these around and are therefore cheaper and better condition to buy. I think on a cost basis if I was going to spend this amount of money I may opt for the tubular system if for nothing else the looks..... I need to get the manifold sorted before I refit the body but taking into account all of the delays (time and monetary) I have experienced it may not be in an immediate problem as i tell everyone......I will plan to finish it this Summer.....trouble is been saying that for the last 3 years

Hi Bob, I am in the Uk and from experience shipping stuff from the US can be really expensive so I fear that shipping something so heavy may cost a fortune. I was looking at the tubular system from SJS and it looks very nice but understand that the engine bay brace needs moving out a bit so it doesn't foul the pipes....strange. I saw a manifold come up for sale from an S3 on ebay which was relatively local but would be no good if it doesn't fit, lucky Pete came in with the advice or I would have had a large paperweight on my hands. I will have a look at the cost of postage today and see what it might cost. cheers Frank

Good evening guys, I am sure this topic has been covered but in searching for it I can find lots of really good stuff but nothing that answers a simple question. I have an S1 esprit and like many when I took off the exhaust manifold it was cracked and broken. I understand that it isnt worth trying to weld as it doesnt go well so my options are a new tubular manifold or find a replacement. The question is do all of the n/a fit or were there any material differences between the S1 and the later models? cheers Frank

Mike, Your doing a wonderful job, now I thought I had problems getting time to work on the car as I was having to stay overnight in Birm so often - I wouldn't want to have to commute from the Falklands! # The car looks very good, its got the same interior as mine except mine has got the beige 1970's shagpile carpet fitted. i wonder if that was an optional extra? frank

Well guys in-spite of the cold weather I have slowly been working on the S1 following all of your advice and direction from varying posts. I took my head down to get the exhaust manifold off and the studs replaced and they had to bring in 'The Thread Doctor' to sort out 2 of them. I couldn't get the head skimmed as the oil journal hex stud was in the way and was stuck solid so it was just cleaned up. The exhaust manifold looks like toast as the cracks all started to appear and open up when the nuts came off. Tomorrows problem I think. The valves and seats are in very good condition and I look forward to getting the head back on so I don't need to lose any more sleep worrying about my wet liners falling out! The only issue is if the valves were good why was compression low in No 4? hope it was just a sticky valve! When I took the cam belt off I noticed its a QTB 122, in a number of the threads its said that you should go for the Lotus one but this was one supplied by Lotus (in 1987). Whats the final thoughts on this topic, where is the best place to buy my belt from? Following the recommendations from you folks on things I should do or look at when Im here I am on the way to completing most, but I have some questions following your advice: 'CHECK THE WATER PUMP' how do I know if its good, or bad? 'CHANGE THE FRONT CRANK SEAL GASKET' This looks like an absolute dog to do, is there a post on this? 'REPLACE THE CLUTCH' I was going to do the 3 piece kit until I saw the price of the bearing and now I am sure that my bearing is absolutely fine! My bearing is probably the best one in the world! I think I will go for just the clutch and pressure plate from SJS. My engine was pretty oily and I couldn't tell where the leaks came from as I couldnt run it as the cam belt was 20 yrs old .....etc. where are the most likely oil leak hiding? My gearbox appears to have clear silicon sealant oozing out of every joint, was this an alternative to gaskets on the SM gearbox? I was going to see if I could reseal it but imagined taking off one cover and cogs exploding everywhere! Gearboxes scare me like a rubiks cube. While I was digging around I found this which looks interesting, a rubber cam cover gasket: http://www.jhps.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=jhps&Product_Code=RCG&Category_Code=CC apology's if you've seen it already. Look forw3ard to any info that anyone can help me with around this. Frannk

Andrew, Is yours cracked? Im looking to see if I can get mine welded but it doesnt look too good as its pretty bad and I think once it comes off the head it may fall apart. The replacements are a bit pricy and although the tubular ones look the business they arent stock. Does anyone know if other lotus models fit? Frank

Well guys after printing out all of your words of wisdom I took the bull by the horns and took the head off. Before doing so I measured the valve gap and they are all pretty tight and all pretty even. inlets between .1 mm and .15 and exhausts between .25 mm and .3 mm (my feeler gauges are .1 .15 .2 .25 so cant get any greater granularity other than .1 fits but its less than .15) I will recheck once Ive got the head back on as cleaning and valve grinding may change the measurements a bit. I moved the engine to -90 degrees tdc (as suggested) and off with the cams and head. I used the cupboard magnets as suggested - good trick! It appears that the gasket on the inlet manifold has leaked slightly and some coolant had gone down no.4 inlet which left deposits which wouldnt have helped the valves seat and may be the reason why 4 was low on compression. I will try and post a picture. All in all everything was very coked up and dirty but when I started cleaning it started coming up nicely, I dont appear to have any burnt valves they seem in very good condition (believe it or not). I think the dirt and carbon helped protect it! The exhaust manifold is cracked (as I know is a common fault) in at least 2 places around the studs and the studs are welded on with rust. I have taken the head down to my local friendly garage so they can renew the studs as it looks like a task and a half and I want to get the head back on. Ive taken onboard the notes about the non-rusting nuts so will go that way as I dont want to contend with this again. (hopefully photo attached?) A couple of questions arose I was hoping for some guidance on: What is the best way to clean the surface of the head? the garage suggested they could put it in a chemical bath but as its so bad a thin skim might be better? or they could run a block over it which sounded like a fine sanding (sounds a bit scary) As my manifolds cracked is it worth try to get it welded, buying a second hand one or going for a freeflow system from SJ? cheers Frank

woo just measured my dipstick and it is different again - max 8 7/8 inch and min 9 3/16 which is greater still...? 78 s1?