Lotus Europa Community

I just went and shot Wilwood an email asking basically to confirm those assumptions. Will post their response if/when it comes.
Thankfully, a larger bore master cylinder is the one thing that's easy to find among this mess of part numbers.

Thanks for the lead on ANG, I saw Rimmer got them in stock as well, but at atrocious prices.
May go the rebuild route instead, as the 14s are also a bit heavier. No sense in adding mass (and unsprung!) to something that's already overkill. My Europa has a back exit on the calipers, which I haven't seen on a Girling before. Unsure if there's a reason for that? Seems like it would make bleeding more difficult.
 
Just need a spare set of pistons sitting on the shelf, in case they're ever gone-gone.

Hopefully those thoughts and Willwood's response may be helpful to someone in the future regardless.

Reviving a thread that's already on track of what I'm poking around.

I intend to toss type 14 calipers onto my Series 1 Europa*, which of course started life with type 12 units.

Some napkin math says that swap would be a 25% increase in piston force for the same line pressure, further increasing the potential of a front lockup.
My car would have the same line pressure on the front and rear with a single circuit MC**, so I think a larger rear cylinder would help bring things back into balance. S1 was originally 3/4" rear, so a 7/8" unit may be suitable, but I can't seem to find these, only 7/8" in the TR style.***

With that issue and reading over some threads, it seems like an adjustable proportioning valve installed backwards would work. Reading through Willwood's excellent writeup here, it seems that installing a proportioning valve backwards/on the front circuit would allow the rears to receive full line pressure, then taper off the fronts after a certain adjustable point is reached. This would work in panic stopping events, and I think generally appropriate for how people have described the Europa's braking.
It seems like that would handle most (all?) the changes to the braking system caused by larger front calipers.

I've never had a proportioning valve in a car with mixed drums and discs****, so I'm unsure how the delay and self-energizing of the drums would play into this. A hold-off valve (as mentioned in the first post) in combination with the reversed proportioning system may have more impact on the "delay" felt at the rear brakes.

I don't think a proper combination valve would work here, as it would delay the fronts slightly but also only allow the rear pressure to be reduced, hence separate units so you can flip the proportioning.



*Type 12 cost more for new units, parts to rebuild old ones are tricky to find (pistons have been OOS for years), and my other car also uses 14 so may as well share a single spare pair. BPNW currently has 12s in stock, but I'm not going to rely on those always being there in the future.
**tried to fit a few different dual units, didn't work. Series 1 is much worse than 2 in that regard. 
***Ex: https://bpnorthwest.com/triumph/wheel-cylinder-875-trw-morgan-large-bore-tr4-to-tr6/
****yes, I know about rear disc conversions for the Europa. Later problem.

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Dakazman

Not sure...just thought it should be sealed to try get all the air to go through the radiator ...

Small progress this week …. 

Made a “seal”  for lower radiator hose to body …. Some other misc.

Is the seal standard fitment, or because of the issues you had lining up the hose mentioned in your previous post? Or alternatively, there's no seal but there should be?

Feel your pain on the seat pans - mine had also rusted but not as badly as yours.