Ian's S4s refurb

[Chillidoggy]

Finally got the cylinder liners out, and set the wife to work stripping the old wrinkle finish paint off the castings with her new strip gel. 

I've degreased all the last bits so they’re not dripping oil everywhere, and the vapour blasting guy is coming round to give me a quote next week. The carbon on the piston crowns took a bit of elbow grease, but they're all clean now.

Garry Kemp is out of stock of some parts, but I’m hoping it’s not going to hold me up too much. I’ll fit whichever gasket he recommends and supplies.

 

[Steve V8]

2 hours ago, Chillidoggy said:

and set the wife to work stripping the old wrinkle finish paint off the castings with her new strip gel.

I dread to think what you were doing whilst all this was going on....thank goodness I can't picture this, some things just can't be unseen😁

[CHANGES]

Never heard them called castings before ,   must be a down south thing , we just call them ********s up here .. 

[Chillidoggy]

14 hours ago, CHANGES said:

Never heard them called castings before ,   must be a down south thing , we just call them ********s up here .. 

That’s because us southerners are well posh, innit.

[Chillidoggy]

The bottom plate of the oil pump pick-up suction strainer fell off in my hand this afternoon. Looks like the factory glued, or resin-bonded, the strainer gauze in to the top plate, then did the same for the bottom. Which is fine as long as it stays there, but this one didn't. I suspect that if my engine has suffered like this, then it's highly likely there'll be others, too. I'm now mulling a fix which has to be a more permanent solution to the crappy Lotus idea.

Still, I suppose it's better to find it when the engine's in bits than have it fall off in the sump when it's back together.

[Lotusfab]

You can buy them from s and J or do what I did. Use JB weld, its better than the original resin. I have now taken the engine apart and the strainer is perfect.

[sailorbob]

Travis' neat solution is in this thread

 

[Escape]

13 hours ago, Chillidoggy said:

 I'm now mulling a fix which has to be a more permanent solution to the crappy Lotus idea.

Still, I suppose it's better to find it when the engine's in bits than have it fall off in the sump when it's back together.

If it stayed in place for 25+ years, I'd say the fix was well within design spec. Do you think it would have worked loose soon if you didn't take the engine apart? Sure glad you did find it in time!

Filip

[Chillidoggy]

Having done some Internet legwork, and received a message from Dave Lisle, mine isn't the only strainer to have failed. Whilst mine has indeed stayed in place for 25 years, the next bump in the road could have caused it to fall off, because as I said, it fell off in my hand without any real pressure. To secure a critical engine part like this in in my opinion is not good engineering practice. It should have something positive to secure it as well. Moving on, Dave's suggested a repair method which I like the look of, so I'll be cleaning off all the old resin/glue ready for the fix.

The wife is finding that despite the super-duper paint strip gel from Frosts, the red wrinkle is proving to be a lot more difficult to remove than first thought. She's getting there, but it's taking far more applications than expected. The red paint looks to be original finish, except the plenum nozzle, which has red/yellow/red on it. Weird. The next challenge is removing the alloy Lotus name plate from the charge cooler. I haven't had a go as yet, but I'm thinking of using an old guitar string like a cheese wire if it doesn't want to play ball.

I'm in parts cleaning and measuring mode now. I think I can reuse the pistons, but won't know until I've checked them. If so, it'll save me a few hundred quid. I'm hoping to hear about the crank next week, again I think it can be polished and reused with the standard sized bearings.

[Gjk]

Are you going to replace the liners Ian?

[CarBuff]

Based on other reports of the oil pickup falling off over the years, I safety-wired ours in place the last time I had the oil pan off.

Simple fix....

[Chillidoggy]

1 hour ago, Gjk said:

Are you going to replace the liners Ian?

Yes, I'm replacing them with cast-iron liners.

[Gjk]

Hopefully then, the pistons will be in tolerance (obviously without any signs of scoring on the flanks) so you’ll just need new piston rings. Is it a “done thing” to hone the liner to aid the bedding in of the new rings, or am I being old fashioned?

[Chillidoggy]

Yes, honing is the done thing, and no, you're not being old-fashioned!

[Gjk]

I only say “old fashioned” as I used to run a 200 bhp escort rs turbo when I was a youth, many, many years ago!....

[Gjk]

Hopefully the crank will just need a polish like you say and it can all go back together with standard main and big end shells. As it seams to be normal for the one upper shell to wear because of the belt drives I hope this will be a trouble free rebuild but, for the sake of belt and braces I would do a compression check when everything was back together before putting the spark plugs back in. I just like to leave NOTHING to chance! 
Think I should change my user name to MrOTT!

[sailorbob]

Out of curiosity, why are you going with cast iron liners rather than nickel silicon carbide coated aluminium liners? The grey cast iron liners typically wear a little over twice the rate of the coated liners.

[Chillidoggy]

1 minute ago, sailorbob said:

Out of curiosity, why are you going with cast iron liners rather than nickel silicon carbide coated aluminium liners? The grey cast iron liners typically wear a little over twice the rate of the coated liners.

Recommendation from Garry Kemp, plus the original liners are either NLA, or seriously expensive if you can find a set.

[sailorbob]

Why don't you get the original liners re-coated?

[Chillidoggy]

If Garry Kemp recommends cast-iron liners that's good enough for me.

[Gjk]

Just checked Connaught’s website, bloody good pedigree! I fully understand your trust.
 

maybe all the V8 owners could squeeze in a Ford DFV !  

[Steve V8]

2 hours ago, Gjk said:

maybe all the V8 owners could squeeze in a Ford DFV !  

Maybe we already have..

 

[Chillidoggy]

13 hours ago, Steve V8 said:

Maybe we already have..

 

At last some there’s some sense prevailing.

[Chillidoggy]

Received a message from Connaught this morning to say that the head needs new guides, both inlet and exhaust, but all the valves are reusable. It will need a skim on the combustion and exhaust port faces. The valve springs were found to be out of spec, so it will need a new set. They've polished the crankshaft, it's within spec, so I can fit standard bearings. Once the first parts order arrives, I'll take the remainder of the rotating assembly to them for balancing.

Back at Margate Exotics, the oil suction strainer adhesive succumbed to heat from the blow torch and the gauze is now soaking in Gunk overnight. I need to make sure it's scrupulously clean before I assemble it, and if I'm not happy I'll order a new one and modify it to secure the lid.

[Steve V8]

9 hours ago, Chillidoggy said:

At last some there’s some sense prevailing.

For nearly a decade Team Lotus fettled tweaked and assisted Ford with the further development of the DFV, It's hardly surprising that when tasked to design and build a small lightweight and powerful V8 of their own, Lotus engineers used the knowledge and DNA obtained as usual from F1.