Esprit V8 project

[mike_sekinger]

Hi Travis,

Thanks for the contact on this - I

[Vulcan Grey]

glad I could help.

[mike_sekinger]

The ex-5th Gear Esprit is scheduled to be collected tomorrow morning from the Top Gear Technology Centre.

The car should be delivered to me in France over the weekend, so I can make some progress over the Christmas break. As usual, I have a pretty aggressive timescale to turn the car around, in readiness for running-up the cross-plane engine.

Man, I

[silverfrost]

Mike,

Hope all goes well on the transport side especially after last time Good luck with car and looking forward to the updates over the festive period,

Regards Danny

[mangel]

This souns like another brilliant project Mike.

Good luck and looking forward to seeing and hearing the results!!

[mike_sekinger]

Thanks chaps.

Well the car arrived as promised this afternoon, delivered by a great transport outfit called Heywood Transport. Good job !

Once inside, had a little poke around, but won

[mike_sekinger]

Started stripping down the existing engine and there were a few pleasant surprises.

The turbos had been prepared by Owen Developments and are pretty tidy. I

[kyliesmith.com]

Nice project Mike! Be great to see this beastie back on the road :-D

[WEllison]

Hi Mike,

Nice to see the car getting delivered.

Wayne

[mike_sekinger]

Hi Kylie and Wayne,

I`m really looking forward to making something of this one.

The first job is to get an engine back in to prove the rest of the car. Unfortunately, the weather has taken a bit of a dive recently so once again the workshop is a very cold place to be.......

Hopefully, further updates next weekend.

Cheers,

Mike S

[rogerch]

I'd like to see some photos of the workshop, looks like wonderland to me.

Roger

[mangel]

you need to get a wood burning stove fitted out there mike, that way you can run it for free with what you can pick up on the side of the road/path/woods!!!

[mike_sekinger]

Interesting idea, but given the volume of flammable substances I´d rather be cold/safe than truly toasted....

Cheers,

Mike S

Edited December 15, 2009 by mike_sekinger

[mangel]

Yeah i hear what you say, I was more thinking of one of the units which is effectively a small cast Iron stove with a flue.

Flamable vapour is the only prob with those ie petrol, paint, degreaser, polish...............erm actually I think your right!!!!!

[mike_sekinger]

Weekend of snow and stripping the 5th Gear engine.

Outside

Inside

There was a fear that the engine was damaged at the end of the filming, so I planned to strip and rebuild just to be sure.

Removed the cams and tappets ready to lift the heads

No problems with the pistons or valves

Bottom-end is in good shape for a change

Off with the front and rear covers to remove the crank

Liners out and we´re at ground zero.

I think that I´ll rebuild this engine with the Omega forged pistons, while waiting for the remaining parts for the x-plane engine. At least I can then prove the rest of the car and still be left with an upgraded flat plane engine ´on the shelf´.

Merry Christmas

Cheers,

Mike S

Edited December 20, 2009 by mike_sekinger

[mike_sekinger]

..... snowed in today, so locked myself in the workshop.

Cleaned-up the liners and the block. A horrid, time consuming job but essential before starting putting everything back together.

Cheers,

Mike S

[Simon350S]

Looks good mate, must be a nice supprise to see it in such good condition. Could be a cheap build for a change!

[mike_sekinger]

Granted access to the garage to build the kids Christmas present - a 5m trampoline. The kids absolutely love it !!

Santa was good enough to bring me two pairs of GT2860 hybrids - nice

Here we go again with another V8 that had been sat for a while.... wet rot in the carpet

Cheers,

Mike S

[Iconic Ride]

I think that I

[mike_sekinger]

Hi John

This is the problem when you have too many options !...

The car will eventually have the x-plan engine, but there are some parts outstanding for that build. There is a fair amount of proving required in the rest of the car, so I didn

[mike_sekinger]

Limiting myself in the workshop these last days, so only finished-up with the interior after removing all of the rotten carpet. Aircon pipes and speakers removed from the interior.

Next jobs are removing the aircon radiator and replacing the oil coolers with bigger units.

Cheers,

Mike S

[mike_sekinger]

Last attempt at some progress before returning to work tomorrow.

Out with all of the aircon stuff to improve airflow through the main coolant radiator.

There will be an engine oil cooler going in front of the coolant rad (25 row x 235) in additional to the two existing 16 row ones.

Finally, the two chargecooler rads will sit up front with a space between, for clear air for the oil cooler.

There will also be a transmission oil cooler, but I haven

[WEllison]

Mike did you have any trouble getting the lines off the stock oil coolers? I am getting ready to drop the "stack" out in preparartion for the new coolant & intercooler radiators. I have purchased the new Loctite "freeze & release" product for use on the oil lines to the oil coolers. Any recomendations ?

Wayne

[mike_sekinger]

Hi Wayne,

As I

[Vulcan Grey]

Wayne,

I live in a pretty dry climate as well, and my car usually has no rust issues, but I did have a few problems removing the oil coolers.

I broke one of the bolts that holds the cooler

so I had to machine it off and re tap a hole for a bigger bolt.

Also the large flat nuts, that hold the oil cooler adapters through the body of the car, stripped and messed up the threads on the 5/8 BSPP adapters of the coolers. So I had to re-thread those with a die.

So be careful when you remove those thin nuts! Make sure they don't get crooked. Lotus used green loctite on mine, which makes it pretty difficult even without rust.

The fittings were easy to remove.

Edited January 3, 2010 by Vulcan Grey