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Lotus in the Peak
28th - 30th June 2024

Ongoing Temperature Woes

chrislane

By chrislane
in Technical Talk

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Elise+Imp Apprentice

Elise+Imp

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just to add you need to be at TDC for the particular cylinder you are testing, you can poke a long cable tie down the bore as an indicator, turn the engine over and get it close to highest, you may find it easiest to jack up a wheel and turn it over via the wheel in top gear, i substitute the cable tie for a piece of wooden dowel then rock the piston around tdc until i'm happy it's pretty close.

 

once in position you can then leave it in gear and pull the handbrake on hard to stop the compressed air turning the engine, which it may still do a little bit as it takes up the wind-up in the drivetrain

 

even with the piston at the top you need to make sure it's on the fireing stroke, don't stress you have a 50/50 chance and it will be obvious if you''re not on it, all your air will be hissing out of inlet/exhaust as the cams will be on the overlap with inlet and exhaust valves open.

 

Brian

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  • 4 weeks later...
chrislane Enthusiast

chrislane

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I took the opportunity of a bit of time off work last week, and a few days away with the family when i wouldn't be driving it, to take the car over for gav and leave it with him so he could take another look at it again. After a pressure test and then whipping the head off it is indeed a blow across the firering - top marks Martin!

 

In a turn of events very similar to dean's, Gav thinks the gasket has been replaced before, but for the old style gasket, so hopefully getting a better gasket on there will reduce the chances of any repeat problems. Also as with dean's it turns out that the cambelt tensioner was fitted the wrong way, which is a bit disappointing as stratstones said they changed the belts just before i bought it two years ago.

 

Anyway, hoping that i'm going to be able to go over to burton to pick it up at the weekend and start to rebuild my confidence in it. I wonder if that will have returned in time for donnington on 22nd as there is still a couple of places left............

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chrislane Enthusiast

chrislane

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Picked it up from Gav on saturday and ended up doing quite a few miles over the weekend. Started off relatively easy and built up. Took it out on sunday night around some fave roads and had the sort of drive that definitely would have had the temp gauge flashing and the coolant boiling a couple of weeks ago before the head gasket was changed. And the good news is the temp stuck resolutely to 88! It occasionally crept into the low 90s when i backed right off through a village but that is normal. Very happy indeed.

 

Thanks to all the advice from various members on here over the past three months; particularly dean and russ at blyton, martin and brian for the technical advice, and everyone else who has had hgf over the last 18 months for the general "come on, just get it sorted and get on with it" comments.

 

Also, massive thanks to Gav yet again for all his help and advice. Through this he has really shown that he will only recommend work being done if he really believes that it will solve the problem. Always good for the mechanical numpties like me to know there is a knowledgable guy there that above all else you can trust not to rip you off!

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chrislane Enthusiast

chrislane

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Chris, do you have a PRT fitted? I would consider it in the future if you dont have one. Mine runs at 84 - 86 with one fitted.

 

Gav and i have spoken about this a few times and he is pretty adamant that i don't need it. But as with all these things there is a difference between "need" and marginal improvements! We'll see - not one i'm going to get done immediately but maybe at some point in the future for piece of mind

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