S4s rolling restoration project

[tomcattom]

This is what the connector looks like on mine (unplugged in this photo). This is the loom end with the yellow/black wire that runs up to the dash binnacle.

[tomcattom]

I've now removed the oil sensor sub-harness from the car and added in the absent temperature sensor wire.

I then installed it back in the car and plugged it all in.

Something I hadn't considered fully when I put the T-piece into the pressure sensor port was how close it would land to the starter motor which had been removed at the time. Its really close, but thankfully it just clears 😌

 

I then made up a section of wire to go between the loom connector and the back of the gauge. Sadly the Lucas Rists connector Lotus have used, while not unique to them, seems to be pretty uncommon and I've drawn a blank finding spare terminals so far. I could have cut the sensor wire out of the loom and made up a new connector but I don't like butchering perfectly good looms in situ. I ended up buying a binnacle loom from a breakers, pulled one of the terminals out of that cut off a short stub of wire and then soldered on 300mm of new yellow/black wire and crimped a standard female 1/4" crimp terminal to the other end.

I've circled the pin position in the loom to insert the new piece of wire into in the photo below.

It's not a fully tested modification yet but if anyone else is considering doing this and wants a stub of loom with the correct terminla for their own attempts let me know and I'll happily post out a bit from the loom I've already started butchering.

 

While I was out there this afternoon I also noticed this clip on the front of the head. I've not managed to find it in the parts list yet but it does look like it should perhaps be rotated through nintey degrees and that bit of loom below it clipped into it to keep it from straying towards the belts. Anyone able to confirm?

[Chillidoggy]

15 hours ago, tomcattom said:

I've now removed the oil sensor sub-harness from the car and added in the absent temperature sensor wire.

I then installed it back in the car and plugged it all in.

Something I hadn't considered fully when I put the T-piece into the pressure sensor port was how close it would land to the starter motor which had been removed at the time. Its really close, but thankfully it just clears 😌

 

I then made up a section of wire to go between the loom connector and the back of the gauge. Sadly the Lucas Rists connector Lotus have used, while not unique to them, seems to be pretty uncommon and I've drawn a blank finding spare terminals so far. I could have cut the sensor wire out of the loom and made up a new connector but I don't like butchering perfectly good looms in situ. I ended up buying a binnacle loom from a breakers, pulled one of the terminals out of that cut off a short stub of wire and then soldered on 300mm of new yellow/black wire and crimped a standard female 1/4" crimp terminal to the other end.

I've circled the pin position in the loom to insert the new piece of wire into in the photo below.

It's not a fully tested modification yet but if anyone else is considering doing this and wants a stub of loom with the correct terminla for their own attempts let me know and I'll happily post out a bit from the loom I've already started butchering.

 

While I was out there this afternoon I also noticed this clip on the front of the head. I've not managed to find it in the parts list yet but it does look like it should perhaps be rotated through nintey degrees and that bit of loom below it clipped into it to keep it from straying towards the belts. Anyone able to confirm?

That clip faces forward and the convoluted wire protector goes through it.

 

I’m interested in one of the connectors.

[tomcattom]

New tensioner eccentric and bearing has been fitted today

The old one looks pretty tired

New crank pulley

All fitted to the car (other aux belts still to be fitted). I had to remove the A/C tensioner and fit the belt with the crank pulley as you advised @Sparky, I couldn't get it on any other way and it wasn't for lack of trying either!

 

While trying to tension the belt I had a scary moment; the belt somehow managed to skip what must have been a couple of teeth because I was unable to turn the engine by had at one point. Rather than force the matter I whipped the belt off again, reset the camshafts and set the crank to TDC and refitted the belt. Second time round tensioning it I got good consistent tension without any issues - 102Hz recorded at 30 degrees BTDC on each of the three checks. I'd previously been chasing the tension all over the place on the first run at it and I now suspect that was because the belt had somehow skipped and that was skewing my readings each time resulting in me chasing my tail. Hopefully I've not done any damage to any of the valves, I'll do a compression test before I actually start it to check it, but it seems to be turning over by hand without any problems. Hopefully I've dodged a bullet there 🤞

[Sparky]

Just a couple of teeth won't hurt.

[tomcattom]

Got the remaining belts onto the engine today. With the PS pump adjuster nut wound all the way in I couldn't get the belt over the PS pump pulley easily, it's almost like the belt I've been supplied is fractionally too short. I eventually got it on by part hooking the belt over the PS pump pulley then then cranking the engine over by had to drag the belt onto the pulley, kind of like how tyres are fitted. What this does mean is that the belt adjuster had very little work to do to take up the tension by comparison to when I tool the old belt off. The adjuster nut on the old belt was at pretty much the extreme other end of the adjuster thread from what you see here.

 

After fitting the alternator belt I also noticed that the nylon adjuster bar has barely a fag paper's gap between it and the A/C belt, are they supposed to be this close? It looks like they have been rubbing against each other at some point in its life

 

I fitted the new coolant pipe support bracket and completed all the coolant pipe plumbing on the front of the engine too.

 

With the chargecooler back on the top its starting to look a lot closer to finished. I just need to sort the exhaust alignment to the turbo and put the coolant header tank back in, but tomorrow I'll be focussing on completing the radiator and chargcooler plumbing at the front of the car.

 

[Chillidoggy]

With reference the PAS belt, Sparky and I have had various conversations/arguments on the subject, culminating in me buying the next largest V-belt (6272), and fitting it. The upshot is, it won't work. From memory, in order to correctly tension the belt, the adjuster goes from bugger-all with the original belt (as yours is) to it's absolute maximum extension, at which point something (I cannot remember whether it was the pump, pipe or pulley) fouls the body. Or maybe the pipes won't fit. Whatever, I'm afraid it's back to the original belt.

There is an alternative way to get the PAS belt on - remove the pump pulley, put the belt on, then replace the three bolts. It helps if you have an eye on the end of each finger doing it this way.

[tomcattom]

Either the old belt had stretched epicly or a previous owner/mechanic used that larger belt. At least what I've experienced suggests the correct belt is on their now 😌

[Sparky]

Gates 6263MC, 6264MC, 6462MC: the only belts you should ever need on 4-cyl Stevens onwards.

The nylon strap's proximity is standard.  There are various 'mods' possible to space it away, but TBH the wear you have is as far as it's likely to go!

[tomcattom]

Thanks both, pretty sure those are the belts that are on the car, they were just a lot tighter than what I removed. There are no markings on any of the old belts I removed so I've no idea if it was just extreme stretching or incorrect belts to start with, probably the latter given the chequered history of the car.

I fitted the radiator triangulation support brackets today. The old items were bent into all sorts of shapes so I opted to replace with new parts to know they were sound.

Out with the mangled old...

...in with the shiny new

 

While fitting them I also put the new raditor hoses on too.

 

I haven't hooked up the chargecooler radiator yet because I'm waiting for some repairs on the oil cooler ducts to set which I need in place to bolt the chargecooler pipes too.

I also attempted to bleed the brakes today too. Got most of the way there and then right at the end of the bleed process I spotted the accumulator sphere was leaking, leaving a nice puddle of brake fluid all over my garage floor One new o-ring on order to solve that and then thats the brakes ready to go, until I fit Ian's kit of course.

[tomcattom]

Managed to do my back in this morning so climbing in, over or under the Esprit is out of the question today so I've been confined to things I can do sat at the work bench 😞

Got the oil cooler ducts all finished ready to go on the car. I fitted the GRP rear sections I got from the breakers in the US a while back to the new plastic trays using Sikaflex 291. The GRP rear parts were aligned properly using the newly purchased rear grilles installed in the two grommets. I also fitted new front mounting brakets, jack nuts and foam strips. The ducts are pretty much all new because they were completely missing from my car (drivers side) or badly damaged/missing parts (passengers side)

 

I then fitted the remaining parts of my newly made stainless front bumper fixings to the front bumper lower spoiler/valance. These are the fixings that the front corner undertrays secure to. The spoiler in general is trashed, much like the front bumper, its littered with fibreglass repairs particularly on the drivers side. I'm going to buy a new spoiler at some point but this will do for now to get me back on the road. I'll drill the rivets out to transfer the new fixing plates to the new spoiler when the time comes. I just need to get some new scrivets to refit the lower lip to the spoiler and refit the fog light upright brackets when I can remember where I put them 🤔

[tomcattom]

My back still isn't quite up to clambering about on the car too much yet, but I did manage to last long enough to have a go at fitting the oil temperature gauge.

Out with the clock...

 

...and in with the Lotus/VDO oil temperature gauge from an 1989 vintage Esprit.

 

The VDO gauge isn't as good a match for the rest of the CAI gauges in the S4s as I'd first thought now it's in place, but given it's not right next to any of the other smaller CAI gauges it doesn't draw your attention too much. The OCD in me can just about forgive the mismatch for the more useful information I hope the oil temperature gauge will ultimately give me compared to the clock.

The gauge isn't fully wired in just yet because I'm waiting for some electrical connectors to arrive in the post, but it should be all sorted and ready for use by the time I'm ready to run it for the first time.

[cweeden]

Hi Tom,

Did you make the new fixing plates yourself or did you have them made? Anyone who has been into the bumpers will know how much of an improvement having them in stainless will be, great work. 👍

There are a few other plates in that area, will you be replacing them with stainless items too?

Would you consider having a few more made? I'm sure there would be a few takers on here....

cheers

-Chris

[tomcattom]

Yes I have replaced all the other smaller bumper fixing plates with new stainless alternatives @cweeden

These are the plates that are secured in the nose of the body in front of the headlamp pods - pig to fit, especially if you have large hands! The little diamond shaped plates don't seem to exist in the parts list (no part number that I could find) and none of the usual suspects could supply them, which is what set me on the path to get these stainless alternatives made up.

These are the plates that are fixed into the main portion of the bumper which the lower spoiler section secures to.

 

Originally I had planned to prepare all the parts myself and then get a friend to do the welding for me but then the first lockdown happened and I ended up creating CAD drawings for each of the four types of bracket and had a local engineering firm manufacture and post them to me. Price wise they ended up coming in fractionally cheaper than buying the lot from the normal suppliers, which was a pleasant surprise given it was a one-off small batch. I was also impressed by the fact that they welded all the way round the bolt heads rather than simply tack welding them as on the OE plates.

If there is interest I'm more than happy enquire about getting more made, the company in question would happily make more I'm quite sure.

[mike_sekinger]

Nice work.  I would be interested in a set of stainless brackets for the front bumper.

[cweeden]

Yup, sign me up for a set. I was planning on doing the same but see no reason to reinvent the wheel yet again. 👍

I'm wondering if there is an option to have a nut welded rather than the rivnut? I would trust a welded nut not to spin more than I would the rivnut. 😇

cheers

-Chris

[tomcattom]

Got the illumination sorted for the oil temperature gauge this evening. Just waiting for one more connector to be able to finish connecting up the actual gauge side of things.

Here is the little adapter loom I made up to convert the bulb holder. The CAI gauges use a 501 bulb for illumination but the VDO gauges use a much smaller 286 bulb.

 

The gauge itself came with a green filter on the bulb so I've changed that to a red one to match the existing instruments.

 

I also fixed the ABS light for the second time. The crimps in one the binnacle connectors turned out to be a bit loose and so the ABS light would only come on when it felt like it rather than every time.

[tomcattom]

Spent the first part of this morning trying to work out why my front drivers side indicator wouldn't work, turned out to be a dodgy centre pin in the bulb holder so I cut the old one off and soldered in a new one I luckily had laying about in the garage 😌

I then moved onto the job of refitting the front lower spoiler section to the front bumper. It was a pig of a job to do because the layers of fibreglass "repairs", if they can even be called that, restricted the already limited access to most tools even more, but after some perseverance and a liberal application of expletives I got it all bolted up.

These two photos illustrate the poor standard of the repairs done on the drivers front corner. What a lovely consistent gap between the various sections of bumper 🤣

 

I then prepped the fog lamps with all new brackets to replace everything that was missing before. They don't flap about all over the place like they did before!

 

Drivers side oil cooler duct went in next with very little fuss. Given how mis-shapen the front valance is on that side I was expecting to have all kinds of trouble.

 

On the passengers side I ran into an unexpected problem. Sometime last summer I noticed that the hard pipes for the charge cooler that run under the passenger side oil cooler duct had some pin holes in them so I ordered a replacement pipe and duly painted it ready for this moment. Its wasn't until I offered it up to the car today that I realised one of the pipes on the new part is too long and so the shorter of the two rubber hoses that join it to the chargecooler radiator can't make the necessary bend 😠

That bottom pipe is a good 75mm longer than it should be

 

While I wait for that to be rectified by the supplier I've chucked some chemi metal into the pin holes and refitted the old pipe. No idea if it will work at all, but it will allow me to get the car running again and mobile. It should be easy enough to swap out when the pipe issue is resolved.

 

Is this the correct route for the charge cooler hoses? I don't have a photo showing a clear view of them from before I took it all apart so I picked what looks like the sensible natural route for them.

 

I had planned to secure the front edge of the oil cooler ducts to a new bolt fibre glassed onto the lower spoiler, but given its trashed I decided it wasn't worth wasting the time and effort, so I'll save that for the new spoiler when I get it. For now I've just drilled a hole through and used a nut and bolt. Excuse the delightful crack in there - a good illustration of why I'm not bothering to waste too much effort on the spoiler!

 

I then put my new radiator duct in place. The old one came out in several pieces, unsurprisingly. Annoyingly its not lining up properly for the front bolts to fit into jack nut in the underside of the front bumper. Again I've chosen not to waste effort trying to correct this now and just slapped a self tapper into the bumper on each corner. When I get the new bumper I'll mock it up and make any necessary modification to get things to line up properly then.

 

New alloy header tank

 

At long last the car is starting to look a lot more complete. I've left the dust as it is just for you @Barrykearley

I'm going to start fill the cooling system tomorrow, but I'm going to wait to prime the oil pump until next week because my new oil pressure sensor didn't arrive in the post today as I'd hoped.

[Barrykearley]

That’s a layer of dust to be proud of chap. Fret not - it washes off super easy with a pressure washer 

[Chillidoggy]

Yes, that's the correct route for the CC hoses.

[Chillidoggy]

Reference my previous post, originally mine were routed like that.

However having just spent a nice afternoon under the car, I noticed that when I replaced them with new hoses, I ran them in front of that angled rad support bracket. I don’t suppose it matters though, just me being pedantic.

[tomcattom]

In typical fashion posty delivered my new oil pressure sensor after the weekend.

 

Clearly not the same part that was in there to start with, so I've no idea how reliable the readings I was getting from the gauge were. It clearly wasn't miles out, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't correct.

 

All fitted in its rightful place and the height issues relative to the underside of the inlet manifold are not a problem any more.

 

With the oil pressure sensor installed I could also crack on with priming the oil pump by back pumping oil down the turbo oil feed hose.

[tomcattom]

So I had a go at priming the oil pump this evening. I back pumped a good litre of fresh oil down the oil feed line and after some nervous cranking this stream of oil was observed from the turbo oil feed.

Does that seem like the right amount of oil to flow or would you expect more than that?

Page 7 of section EF in the workshop manual says I should crank "until oil pressure is registered on the gauge". While cranking I got no movement from the oil pressure gauge. However elsewhere in the manual it says I should expect 0.35bar for idle, which given the scale on the gauge makes me think I'll be lucky to see the gauge move when cranking it over on the starter 😕

Also, if filling the Esprit from dry, i.e with all the oil coolers, lines and engine having been dry, how much oil would you expect to need? The workshop manual says 6.3 litres for a "refill" which I presume is simply an oil change (excluding what's left in the lines and coolers) because so far I've put around 7 litres into mine and the level is about midway between min and max on the dipstick following the priming activities this evening.

[Barrykearley]

No - that doesn’t look anywhere near what mine was churning out.

[Chillidoggy]

Put the oil line back on the turbo with the nut wound back slightly so the joint is just loose. Wrap a rag under the joint to catch any oil, and crank the engine with the fuel off. Then tighten it up when until you see oil oozing out.

With the pipe off it's 'got nothing to pump against' for want of a better phrase.