Backdating an S3

[iambadgerous]

On 17/01/2019 at 03:03, drdoom said:

Hello Darren,

That's a knockout car you're putting together, and yellow is one of my favourite colours for Esprit!

Which yellow is it that you have chosen? 

Hi Steve,

I spent ages looking at colours and finally settled on the current Citroen DS colour, I believe it's called 'Sport Yellow'.  Mostly seen on DS3s.

Glad you like it!

Darren

[iambadgerous]

Hi All,

Due to other commitments including work, the small matter of a house renovation and extension, and swapping my Jag XJC from auto to 5 speed which was supposed to be easy but ended up taking months, the Lotus has been sat under a cover for about 18 months.  But today I actually made some progress!

Since (1) I have no history for the car and (2) I know it's been off the road for quite some time I need to replace the cam belt.  I've read that a belt change is possible but tricky with the engine in place, however I have a nice shiny pair of alloy tanks that would be difficult (impossible?) to fit, so today I pulled the engine out.

All fairly straightforward...

 

 

Edited June 12, 2019 by iambadgerous

[iambadgerous]

I had to lift the engine full of oil because the drain plug was so tight that I couldn't budge it from under the car, once out my biggest breaker bar did the business.  However the oil looked like snot so it clearly has water in it....

There doesn't appear to be any mayonnaise under the cam covers...

Could be the head gasket, but is it possible that this has happened because the car has been sat?  I'll do a compression test...

[silverfrost]

Could well be just a large collection of moisture,  fingers crossed,  just put some new oil in her and pop it back in, 

[iambadgerous]

One job I was dreading was getting the exhaust manifold off.  In my experience they're generally a nightmare combination of rusty nuts, stripped threads and snapped studs.  Remarkably (despite the amount of time this car has been standing) everything came undone really easily!

Looks like there's been a blow on No3...

 

I offered up the sexy 4-into-1 downpipes to see how they looked.  Sweet....

[iambadgerous]

The engine and box look a bit minging due to a combination of grime, sprayshop dust etc.  I've given the engine a quick wipe with a petrol-soaked rag and it looks like it will respond well to some cleaning...

The gearbox will be a bit more of a challenge as at some point it's been (badly) painted silver and there's overspray on various bits and pieces.

Once I've established if I need to do the head gasket the next steps are:

 - Replace cambelt and tensioner, v-belt

 - Oil and filter change

 - New plugs and leads

 - New clutch plate (hopefully the pressure plate and bearing will be OK to reuse)

 - Clean up and re-paint things like the exhaust silencer mounting plate, brake disk retaining plates etc.

[iambadgerous]

Flywheel and clutch look OK, a little surface rust on the flywheel and pressure plate but no scoring so all good.

I think even the friction plate is OK, there's certainly loads of material left on it, but I'd be silly not to replace it now...

[jonwat]

On 12/06/2019 at 16:53, iambadgerous said:

However the oil looked like snot so it clearly has water in it....

There doesn't appear to be any mayonnaise under the cam covers...

Could be the head gasket, but is it possible that this has happened because the car has been sat?  I'll do a compression test...

If the HG was leaking there will be contaminants in the coolant,  you can test the coolant for these. 

[iambadgerous]

Hi All,

Spent a few hours yesterday cleaning up the gearbox, it was a bit crusty:

I used various drill mounted wire brushes to get rid of the corrosion, flaky paint and other grot:

 

Then a good wish with some heavy duty degreaser:

Much better:

While I was at it I cleaned up and painted various bits and pieces, including the clutch-release linkage, expansion tank and chassis crossmember:

Then I treated the box to a couple of coats of silver and started reassembly.  The brake disks look OK apart from the inevitable surface rust so I'm going to reuse them:

I have a load of bits on order from Steve at SJS including a clutch plate, belts and service parts, so I should be able to crack on with the engine soon.  Then I need to get the fuel tanks swapped out and do a general clean up of the engine bay before reassembly.  There is some proper shonky wiring in there so I'm also going to remake some of that but with some decent waterproof connectors instead of the blue crush-on bullet connectors that seem to everywhere on the car!

That's all for now, cheers

Darren

[Trevsked]

Good work and well done. I have a bit of a hankering for an S3 N/A and prefer the S2 lines.

 

Trevor.

[iambadgerous]

Hi All,

I got my care package from SJS....

One of the things I was waiting for was a nice stainless silencer mounting channel, mine is a little worse for wear...

Much better....

Also fitted the spruced-up clutch release mechanism with a new rubber boot...

[iambadgerous]

Set about cleaning up the engine, I didn't want to get carried away and potentially end up with a stripped engine, so a wipe down with some degreaser was the order of the day.

Before:

After:

Next off came the cambelt and tensioner:

 

Next job is to rebuild the tensioner and refit the belt, then give the engine a service, replace the clutch plate and mate it back with the gearbox.  Then it's on to the fuel tanks....

Cheers

Darren

[iambadgerous]

Last job of the day was to fit the wheel centre caps with new badges and replace the rusty old wheel bolts with shiny new ones.  I've invested in a set of locking wheel bolts too....

From this...

...to this...

Nice!

Cheers

Darren

 

 

 

[silverfrost]

Looks awesome,  you so need to put some speedline on it though after all that hard work

[GTK]

Putting Speedlines on it would mean having to lower it too though, or it'd look like it was trying to lift off

[iambadgerous]

7 hours ago, silverfrost said:

Looks awesome,  you so need to put some speedline on it though after all that hard work

 

6 hours ago, GTK said:

Putting Speedlines on it would mean having to lower it too though, or it'd look like it was trying to lift off

Thanks chaps, I did consider Speedlines when I set out on this build but ruled them out for a couple of reasons; first I don't want to go to a 14" wheel (I'd rather go bigger than smaller) and second the cost of converting the hubs to 4 stud is considerable and I'd rather spend that on new wheels!  I'm going to stick with the BBS for now.

The car will be lowered, I've already fitted coilovers at the front and I'll be doing the rears soon as part of the engine-bay tidy up.  Once the car is usable I'll be able to experiment with springs and damper settings.

[iambadgerous]

Hi All,

I rebuilt the timing belt tensioner today, it seemed silly not to as the engine was out and SJS supply a kit to do it.  Started with a quick clean with some degreaser...

Stripping it down needed nothing more than 10mm and 13mm sockets and a small screwdriver for levering.  You get replacements for everything on the right of the red line in the kit, plus a new earth strap.

I gave everything a further clean at this point then reassembled...

I should find some time early next week to refit the timing and V belts.

Cheers

Darren

[lotus-62]

this is the spring loaded timing belt tensioner isn't it?  do they let the timing belt jump a tooth or two?  and would it make sense to replace it with the later non spring one? (to avoid jumping of the belt, or is ther another issue on the root of the belt jumping problems I hear once in awhile?  )  thanks, rick

[iambadgerous]

7 hours ago, lotus-62 said:

this is the spring loaded timing belt tensioner isn't it?  do they let the timing belt jump a tooth or two?  and would it make sense to replace it with the later non spring one? (to avoid jumping of the belt, or is ther another issue on the root of the belt jumping problems I hear once in awhile?  )  thanks, rick

Hi Rick,

Yes, it's the earlier spring loaded type.  I did think about changing to the later type but it's not a bolt on swap as far as I understand it; I'd need to drill and tap an extra hole in the front of the block.  I think (hope!) as long as the tensioner is in good nick and the belt is properly adjusted then I shouldn't have any issues.

Cheers

Darren

[Guest]

From what I understand...keep the auto tensioner because you have a square toothed belt / sprockets.  The early Jensen supplied engines were fitted with a manual tensioner and a square toothed belt / sprockets, it is this set up that had belt jump issues. The auto tensioner was the solution to this issue.  It was only when Lotus started using the round toothed belt / sprocket that the manual tensioner was reintroduced. The rounded tooth design is way better and unlikely to jump as long as the correct tension is applied. Even loose belts will not jump...I know from experience.

[iambadgerous]

6 hours ago, gtookey said:

From what I understand...keep the auto tensioner because you have a square toothed belt / sprockets.  The early Jensen supplied engines were fitted with a manual tensioner and a square toothed belt / sprockets, it is this set up that had belt jump issues. The auto tensioner was the solution to this issue.  It was only when Lotus started using the round toothed belt / sprocket that the manual tensioner was reintroduced. The rounded tooth design is way better and unlikely to jump as long as the correct tension is applied. Even loose belts will not jump...I know from experience.

Good information that, many thanks! 

[iambadgerous]

Hi All,

Didn't get a lot of time today but made a bit more progress. New timing belt and V belt fitted and tensioned...

Inlet manifold refitted with a new gasket...

Next job is the clutch and mating the engine and gearbox back together.

 

Cheers

Darren

[iambadgerous]

Hi All,

Today's effort, new friction plate....

...old pressure plate...

...then I mated the engine and gearbox back together, which seemed to go well, however no matter where I put the gear selector I don't seem to be getting a gear.  When I turn the engine by hand there is no movement at the axles, and there is no resistance from either brake disc when I turn them.  So either (1) I have a gearbox full of neutrals (but it was fine last time I moved it under it's own steam), or (2) the input shaft is not properly engaged with the friction plate (but then I assume the gearbox wouldn't bolt up properly, which it has) or (3) there's something else I'm missing, any ideas?  For example is it impossible on these boxes to get a gear without operating the clutch?  I may have to pull the gearbox back off to take another look...

Anyway, I thought I'd take the opportunity to bolt up the exhaust.  A couple of reasons for this.  First I'd heard that it could be tricky to get the four individual header pipes into the collector and I wanted to know what I was letting myself in for.  Turns out everything I'd heard was true, even with everything very loosely in place it was difficult.  The only parts that can remain fixed to the engine when I drop it back in are the header pipes so I'm predicting plenty of swearing and skinned knuckles when that comes around.  Second reason for fitting the exhaust is that I'm not going to be able to see it in all its glory once it's in the car...

I also bolted up the rebuilt carbs for no other reason than to see what they'd look like with their new braided and anodised fuel lines...

I'm now contemplating rigging up a fuel supply and running the engine on the bench (and when I say bench I mean trolly).  It would certainly be easier to set the timing while it's out of the car.

Anyway, that's all for now, it's on to the fuel tanks at last!

Cheers Darren

[iambadgerous]

Hi All,

Made a start on the fuel tanks today.  There are four fixings holding the plyboard covers in place on each side, these were all pretty rusty and with hindsight I should've soaked them in WD40 a few days ago.  The ones that needed to be undone in this picture are the rusty ones in the background on the vertical, not the less rusty ones ones in the foreground on the horizontal...

As it turned out I managed to get them all undone apart one on the nearside, so I've doused it in fluid and I'll have another bash tomorrow.  If that doesn't work I'll try a nut splitter, and if that doesn't work it's out with the grinder.  I'd normally hit a rusty nut like that with a blowtorch, but I'm not sure burning a nut with carpet covered fibreglass on one side and wood on the other is a good idea.  Oh, and the petrol tank.

I managed to get the offside one off though, exposing the tank...

Disconnected the hose from underneath and the filler and vent pipes, and cut the wires to the sender because I'm going to replace the crappy blue connectors anyway.  Unbolted the seatbelt and wrestled the tank out...

Hopefully I'll get the other side out tomorrow.

In an earlier post I mentioned the dodgy wiring that I need to sort out, here's what I'm talking about...

...but here's my favourite bit...

...uninsulated wiring next to the fuel pump in a fibreglass car, what could possibly go wrong?

Hopefully more tomorrow.

Cheers

Darren

[iambadgerous]

Hi All,

Today I attacked the one remaining nut that was preventing the nearside tank from coming out.  Despite copious amounts of WD40 it still refused to turn and started to round off so I gave up on being nice.  There was no room to get a nut splitter but my grinder did the job.  Undid filler hose, breather and fuel line from the tank, moved the seatbelt out of the way and out the tank came...

I also pulled out the fuel pump and all the hoses, so basically the whole fuel system apart from the hard line which is clipped to the chassis under the bulhead and the flowlock valve...

...As the car has been off the road for who knows how long I'm replacing everything in the picture just for peace of mind.

Next job is a clean up of the engine bay including sorting out that dodgy wiring