Esprit Turbo project car - part3 - the further continuation

[williamtherebel]

Years ago, it was recommended to me to get my wheels balanced whilst the were on the car. My local tyre supplier had a machine that you actually sat on, offered up to the tyre then set it going. A disc that touches the tyre spins it round, and then tells the operator where to put the weights. It seemed to be a lot more accurate than the modern balancing machines and I never had any vibrations. However, I dont know of any tyre fitters in my local area that still does balancing this way. Probably too old fashioned!

 

[Lotusfab]

2 minutes ago, williamtherebel said:

Years ago, it was recommended to me to get my wheels balanced whilst the were on the car. My local tyre supplier had a machine that you actually sat on, offered up to the tyre then set it going. A disc that touches the tyre spins it round, and then tells the operator where to put the weights. It seemed to be a lot more accurate than the modern balancing machines and I never had any vibrations. However, I dont know of any tyre fitters in my local area that still does balancing this way. Probably too old fashioned!

 

Wow, I have heard about this machine, but never seen it. Funny I was telling the manager at HL motors about it today. Why they don’t use that now 8 will never know. Apparently they get a lot of new Porsches with steering shake and their Road Force machine is the only thing that can stop the shaking.

[Lotusfab]

New front discs fitted. Now just the steering U/Js to replace

I was lucky and got new old stock compomotive hubs fitted too. 

I am using new protech adjustable front shocks. I really don’t like them and will be replacing them. They ones I have only fit with the adjusting knob removed! 

Car is running great and a pleasure to drive now the wheels are correctly balanced!

[Lotusfab]

Took the opportunity to grease the wheel bearings, adjust the hub end float with a dial gauge, measure the runout and fit new inner felt seals. I was shown how to correctly pack the bearings by an SKF expert who worked for them for ten years. funny who you come across! Oh and I cleaned and greased the calliper pins, anti rattle plate  and checked the piston operation. Happy to say its all perfect still. Brake dust does build up though which I cleaned off. Constant work to keep these cars tip top! 

[Fast Eddy]

Hello Fabian and all! Newbie here- I suppose I need to register on this site, and perhaps start a thread. Fabian, I must say that your car has floored me! I'm smitten hopelessly! Great job with this car, and of coarse the gen 1 as well!! I enjoyed the YouTube videos! A little back story if you don't mind. I am in Utah in the U.S. Some 6 yrs ago I purchased site unseen on eBay a 83 Lotus Turbo Esprit "Investor Edition" (#32 of 50) with the odometer saying 44,000 miles on the clock. It had been languishing in the out doors in Michigan for 7 yrs. It was running, but not great. The paint was blistering a bit, and the leather interior was very dried up, brittle, and cracking , especially the seats and dash. On arrival  I had the local Ferrari dealership looking after some wiring issues. I had a car guy friend who also had a gen 3 Esprit, and come to find out he had an Investor Edition as well! Coincidentally he had #33 my sister car! I had test driven the car down the street and back, and put some fuel in. My friend wanted to get pics of the sister cars, and after doing so, I went out to do another quick drive. As I got to the light, I heard a "thud" and the engine stopped abruptly!!! I think you all might know exactly what happened! Yes, cam belt failure! Ugh! I should have known better! I'm mechanically inclined, but Thought it might be cool to do an engine swap to a LS Chevy at this point.  My friend, a Lotus guru of sorts, having built engines and raced these cars (He has a gen 2 as well) was mortified at me looking to swap! He doesn't work on other peoples cars he said, but would rebuild my engine if I would not get the swap idea out of my mind! So he has done so. From polishing the crank, to new cylinder liners, light weight Molly pistons, new valves everything has been machined and as new. Turbo was re engineered by a diesel shop near by, as no parts are available to rebuild the stock one. Also got a new water pump, starter, alternator rebuild etc. The delortos were rebuilt. I did the red wrinkle paint on the intake, and polished the raised bits, re zinc coated all bolts and washers. It also has a heavy duty new blue cam belt now!!! This motor is ready to rock and roll, but it needs to be installed. My guy decided he didn't want to do the install. I had another acquaintance that did the removal, so I might be in the dark if I go ahead with the install. I have purchased the "Super circlip" to replace the weak link clip we all know about. So here I am, wondering if I should do a full nut and bolt restoration, or a sympathetic one. My budget is quite limited at the moment. Should I restore the car to original scheme of red-orange/black, or a bond car? I do have a love for the FYEO cars. I've thought of doing the white one, but Fabian, wow, your copper ski car is the bomb as they say!!! Wondering if you wouldn't mind me going in that direction? If so, any chance of you supplying me with the ski mount fiberglass shells, and mounting design? I also wondered what the real paint code actually is? any other tips if I go with copper replica? As for the wheels, mine are silver one piece. I could polish  outer rim, paint gold center, and install fake 3 piece look bolts to approximate the look. Your thoughts? Many Thanks, Ed Davenport  

[Fast Eddy]

Here is a pic of #32

[Bazza 907]

On 07/07/2022 at 22:53, Lotusfab said:

Wow, I have heard about this machine, but never seen it. Funny I was telling the manager at HL motors about it today. Why they don’t use that now 8 will never know. Apparently they get a lot of new Porsches with steering shake and their Road Force machine is the only thing that can stop the shaking.

I've used the Roadforce guys in Chingford but the absolute best place to get the wheels balanced was using the on car wheel balancer. There is a place in Oxfordshire that does it using the machine in the You tube video. Expensive but I found it totally worth it 

[Bibs]

@Fast Eddy welcome and have a read of this

https://www.thelotusforums.com/latest-news/our-news/back-in-the-us-of-a/

[drdoom]

@Fast Eddy welcome! Many have tried engine swaps, few have succeeded. Lotus became world leaders in engine development over time, notably beginning with their success in the Esprit Turbo 910 program. Further worth bearing in mind, a Lotus is valued above all for sublime chassis characteristics and any engine swap puts that at risk. In short, if you want a Pantera please go forth and buy one but if able to appreciate what you have in the Esprit then be wise in tinkering with mods. You'll be glad you did. There is plenty of power to be had from the 910 engine.

Cheers

[Fast Eddy]

@Bibs Thank you very much for the welcome, and for the link to the Investor Edition story!  I’ll have a good read tonight!

 

@drdoom Thanks for the welcome! I did come around to my senses and will be sticking with the 910! I had a ride in #33, and your point about plenty of power rings true! Now if I can install the rebuilt engine properly into the chassis! I suspect I can find posts here for reference as I was not the one who removed it! Cheers! Eddy

Edited August 8, 2022 by Fast Eddy

[Lotusfab]

On 07/08/2022 at 06:55, Fast Eddy said:

Here is a pic of #32

Hi Eddy, like the car. The Copper fire paint was formulated in a lab using Lechlar paint technology. I can put you in touch with my paint man, but because you are in the states the cost might be prohibitive, not sure ifvyou can import paint. Lotus paint code for Copper fire is A19. It has been reformulated and looks similar, but is not the same as the original colour. As for the Ski racks I will never make another set, as they were so difficult. It took me more than two years of trial and error. They are totally bespoke and were made by hand. Good luck with the project.

[Fast Eddy]

@LotusfabHello Fabian! Thanks for the reply! No problem re the paint and mounts. I’ll cook something up😊You really did a fine job of them. I had just assumed you had a fiberglass mold. All the best to you! Cheers! Eddy

[Kevin Wheeler]

On 07/08/2022 at 11:21, Bazza 907 said:

I've used the Roadforce guys in Chingford but the absolute best place to get the wheels balanced was using the on car wheel balancer. There is a place in Oxfordshire that does it using the machine in the You tube video. Expensive but I found it totally worth it 

I did this last week - Vibration Free, is the name of the company at Fritwell, just outside Bicester.

£120 +VAT for the two front wheels - eliminated completely the shake from the steering wheel that I had at 65mph (or so) on the way up.

Dynamic Balancing they called it.

[PrecisionMike]

On 09/04/2020 at 16:24, Lotusfab said:

Oil Pump

I bought a brand new annulus and rotor. I have just finished my measuring. The rotor to annulus clearance perfect at new end of limitation. So is the annulus to housing. The problem comes. With the end float. Its 1 thou on annulus and rotor with one gasket and the pulley is slightly stiff. With two gaskets its free to turn, but the rotor and annulus end float are both 4 thou. Since the idal new would be 1 thou annulus and 2.5 thou rotor I must conclude the rotor is 1.5 thou thinner than the annulus when new, i would guess this has been manufactured wrong and the width of the rotor is the same as the annulus! Fix. Well get a used rotor and annulus, get a new gasket 2 thou thick, take the rotor out and use wet and dry to reduce thickness by 1.5 thou, Run it at 4 thou( which is out of spec) or get a sledge hammer and smash into a million pieces! 

😡😡😡😡😡😡

Why does it seem impossible to make any good replacement parts? 

Hi. Interesting stuff and I appreciate it's a couple of years after the event but think my recent experience with my oil pump rebuild may be of interest. Upon first dry assembly I found all specified clearances in accordance with workshop manual except that with one shim (gasket) fitted the pump would rotate freely for about 240 degrees and bind slightly over the rest. I measured the thickness of rotor and annulus and found them to be identical and calculated that rotor end float with 1 shim fitted was ok. I checked radial and axial runout of the rotor on its shaft after verifying the shaft ran straight and true. To my amazement I discovered an axial runout at the rotor tips which was in excess of the specified end float. It suggested the bore of the rotor was not square to its surface. I found this to be almost unbelievable since the components are all cnc manufactured . Any way the supplier was great and gave me a new annulus kit. I re measured the rotor axial float......it was Zero😁. I assembled after full re verification and the pump ran smoothly and perfectly and with full conformance to dimensional specification.

My recommendation is to check every thing and never assume parts are perfect. 

Not just on lotus but on anything especially if it is non oem, pattern or aftermarket in any way.

[Lotusfab]

On 28/08/2022 at 23:57, PrecisionMike said:

Hi. Interesting stuff and I appreciate it's a couple of years after the event but think my recent experience with my oil pump rebuild may be of interest. Upon first dry assembly I found all specified clearances in accordance with workshop manual except that with one shim (gasket) fitted the pump would rotate freely for about 240 degrees and bind slightly over the rest. I measured the thickness of rotor and annulus and found them to be identical and calculated that rotor end float with 1 shim fitted was ok. I checked radial and axial runout of the rotor on its shaft after verifying the shaft ran straight and true. To my amazement I discovered an axial runout at the rotor tips which was in excess of the specified end float. It suggested the bore of the rotor was not square to its surface. I found this to be almost unbelievable since the components are all cnc manufactured . Any way the supplier was great and gave me a new annulus kit. I re measured the rotor axial float......it was Zero😁. I assembled after full re verification and the pump ran smoothly and perfectly and with full conformance to dimensional specification.

My recommendation is to check every thing and never assume parts are perfect. 

Not just on lotus but on anything especially if it is non oem, pattern or aftermarket in any way.

Well done for measuring and finding the issue. Parts for this car are becoming an issue. Some of them are now coming from China and the manufacturing tolerances are not up to standard. The issue is most people would not want to pay UK manufacture prices. New old stock original is the way to go. Sadly, these parts seem to be all but gone now. My oil pump measurements were another amazing revelation. Why wouldn’t you make a part the correct thickness?
 

[Lotusfab]

CX500 wheels 

anyone who has read this will have seen the difficulty I had getting a set of CX500 compomotive wheels. Well now its easy Image Wheels have remade the CX500 and improved them. The original rolled lips aren’t available but a modern version with better engineering has be made. They call them CXI and are on their website! Wish these were available three years ago! https://www.imagewheels.co.uk/cxi-alloy-wheel/
 

Whats even better they can be supplied in any pcd, meaning you can keep the original five stud hubs, substantially reducing costs amd making the wheel much better engineering wise. Four stud versions can be machined. They were cast from an original cx500 centre, but are made with an improved alloy. Happy days!  Cost is very reasonable as well! Fill your boots Esprit owners!

[Lotusfab]

Well chaps on the parts quality issue. I needed a new couple of UJs for the intermediate column, both had play. The replacements I got supplied were very poor quality and unusable. I got one decent refurbed one from Lotus bits. The other 1/2 UJ with the splined shaft they didn’t have. But I found this British company that said no problem we can refurb it! Just posted it here because it took me weeks to find somewhere that could rebuild the UJs. Hope it helps someone.

I had a steering wheel shake at 63 mph. Despite balancing the wheel many time it persisted. I then got it road force balanced and their machine detected a defect in the inner barrel. Took it to Harry at Image wheels. He rebuilt the wheel with a new barrel and balanced it. Tried it out perfect no shake throughout the speed range. Should have got the Road force balance at the start! 
 

[Lotusfab]

out for a spin

[Lotusfab]

https://youtu.be/zmY9zsdnUXc

 

Car spotted up North!

[910Esprit]

Have you sold it? 

[Lotusfab]

Yep. Two cars was too much for me. Hope some Northerners get to see now its up there. The new owner did 5 hrs of faultless driving the last few days. Think hes taking it to Lotus in The Peak.

[Lotusfab]

Well the new owner has now covered 500 miles in all driving conditions  in just over a few weeks, so far the car is flawless. It has done 2000 miles since the engine rebuild. He plans and epic journey today. Setting off from Manchester to Norwich. Will be about fours hours continuous driving each way. For us seasoned Lotus owners we know that is like travelling to the moon! Will report back how it performs! Apparently Lotus tested these cars on the Autobahn over 24 hr periods. Lets see how a forty plus year old car can perform! Hopefully he will drive to Cortina in the car. I have volunteered  to ride shotgun and bring a tool kit!😀😀😀😀

[Bibs]

I believe staff could earn a bonus by a return trip to Italy over the weekend for durability testing. 

[PhilW]

Well Im in shock Fabian.   Cant believe you sold but life goes on I guess.  Whats the next project?

[Bling]

Wow, after all that dedication you sold. I didn't see it advertised so a little surprised.