Lotus Europa Community
Lotus Europa Forums => Members Cars => Topic started by: Tony Shep on Wednesday,September 01, 2021, 11:34:49 PM
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Hi
I recently acquired a 1970 S2 Europa
No stranger to older cars, between me and my partner we have a long list of old and different vehicles, she had even had an eclat, sometime in the 1990's!
Have been looking for a while and eventually found a good car, albeit with some running issues. This is a lot less of a project than I'm used to, it's almost there, which is a change for me (will need another project car soon)
1970 S2 car in Lotus yellow
One of 150 PR cars that were made for the USA market, but then reworked for the UK after the order was cancelled, 46 made in yellow (info from Lotus archive)
So it has the 1565 engine, side markers etc
Paint isn't perfect with some crazing, but good enough to be left as it is for now
Everything works as it should, a lot of work has been done by previous owners and the car is very original, apart from a modern radiator and different carb
It's not running to good right now, so hopefully will get some help from the knowledgeable members of this forum
Cheers
Tony
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:Welcome:
Nice looking Europa!
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:Welcome:
Looks good in the pictures. There are quite a few Europas in the north west, might see you out and about…
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:Welcome:
Looks good in the pictures. There are quite a few Europas in the north west, might see you out and about…
I've heard of other Europas in the area, never seen one though, plenty of Elans about
Car is good, just got some running problems, when sorted it will be used a lot
Tony
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Welcome to the forum. Nice, tidy looking Europa. I love the look of the steel wheels on the S1 & S2. Cheers :beerchug:
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:Welcome: Tony!!
Nice looking Europa you got there! I’m sure you’ll have her purring in no time. Keep us up to date with your progress!
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:Welcome:
I'm just down the road with a TCS
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Nice looking Europa indeed!
The engine bay looks good as well. I like the fact they fit a decent air filter to it when they did the carb change. Nice that they routed the breather to the filter and excellent that they thought to keep the backfire screen in the breather hose!
One question: The small hose (with the inline brass air bleeder) off the water pump that goes up and exits to the left, What is it going to?
I can't tell for sure but it looks like there may not a be a insulator plate between the carb and intake manifold. Very useful to fit one.
When going through the engine, make sure you first:
- retorque the head bolts and check the valve clearances
- check compression
- check points condition and gap
- initial and total ignition advance
so you know everything is good before fine tuning.
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:Welcome:
She looks great…best of luck with the issues you have. Interesting to hear that a batch of USA Europas ended up back here…..I think I had one of those once
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Thanks for the comments!
Car was running badly, #2 was missing most of the time, plugs were black
The carb is a weber 28/36 DCD, really simple carb, actually feels like its too simple as no control over anything apart from an idle screw
There is an insulation plate under it, it was a thin plate and was not looking too good, looked to have gone brittle, so got a new plate, which is about double the thickness. That is now fitted with new gaskets.
Also got a service kit for the carb and fitted it, cleaned all jets etc
Checked leads were in correct order
Fitted new points, condensor and distributor cap and set points gap
Fitted new coil (didn't know history of the old one)
At this point, it wouldn't even start
Did the carb work and it starts every time now, but still running poor. Also, revs increase after a minute or so of running, up to around 1500, then it drops off and stops
When I had it running sort of OK, I managed to get timing light on it and set to 4 deg's before TDC
I've swapped plugs and leads between #1 and #2 and problem stays witrh #2
Did a compression test, all at around 155 with #2 at 140
Plugs are always black, dry soot black, which is suggesting running rich
I need to check the valve clearances yet
What other carbs are used on the 1565 engine? I assume I have the standard manifold? (will add pictures off my phone later)
Thanks
Tony
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:Welcome:
She looks great…best of luck with the issues you have. Interesting to hear that a batch of USA Europas ended up back here…..I think I had one of those once
I got info from Lotus archive with the car confirming origin
Tony
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Check the valve clearances. They really dislike tight valves.
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Hi Tony,
:Welcome: I have one of the PR cars as well. In yellow too! You car looks amazing.
All the best.
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Hi Tony,
:Welcome: I have one of the PR cars as well. In yellow too! You car looks amazing.
All the best.
Cheers!
Heard of a few yellow PR cars in the U.K. since I got mine
No other colours, all yellow!
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:Welcome:
Tony.
Very nice original S2. Best of luck with her.
Dakazman
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:Welcome:
She looks great…best of luck with the issues you have. Interesting to hear that a batch of USA Europas ended up back here…..I think I had one of those once
I got info from Lotus archive with the car confirming origin
Tony
…thanks Tony…good idea
Not sure if it's helpful but my 65 had a 1647 I'd robbed from a Renault 16TX and I just swapped over the DCOE that was on the 1470 and it seemed to go really well ……no idea what I was doing but it went brilliantly….clearly got lucky. Hopefully someone who knows what they are talking about can guide you more accurately
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Morning Tony,
The PR suffix cars are quite well known about. There’s an article by Graham Arnold (Lotus PR legend) somewhere on here describing it. Apparently a change in Federal safety rules meant a batch of cars were stranded at the factory. Rather than waste them Lotus reworked them as domestic UK cars. Mine was also sold by Else motors. Whilst it’s not a full blown Else stage 5 car it had the single Weber carb with associated manifold, the 4 into 1 exhaust manifold and Spax shocks (probably stage 1).
Just another Lotus quirk!
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This is a letter that came with the car, from previous owner
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UPDATE
I'm using the car every day right now, going to work and getting into the local town, where it is getting a lot of attention
I still need to do some carb work but that can wait as I've got a small, much needed vacation coming up 8)
Tony