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[StephenH]

Getting the foot down for passenger sessions at Sandown racecourse.

[3929R]

 

[StephenH]

1st run for me at one of the oldest (running more than 80years) hill climbs in Australia, limited to historic (pre-72) cars and bikes it follows the access road from the camping area at the bottom of Mt Tarrengower to the fire lookout at the top.
Met my targets of:
1. Drive home at the end of the day.
2. Time within 3sec of the class winner.
3. Get below 50sec.

Link to video here: https://youtu.be/Lp8MZR-ZxSU

There is time left in the car and shifting back to 3rd would have let the engine pull better even without more commitment half way up (where I was losing speed), but all those trees, rocks and armco look a bit close given the bumpy and undulating nature of the surface.

[GavinT]

Brilliant Stephen.
Mt Tarrengower isn’t slow and there’s certainly no shame in remembering you're expecting to drive the car home after the event.
You make me want to be back in Melbourne now . . except for the weather.

[StephenH]

A day of competition run by the Porsche club started with being banished to the 'other cars' part of the paddock away from the nice neat garages and run on the track among the unworthy (joking in both cases, Porsche club does a great job of making you feel welcome).

Track is actually a motorcycle track so not often available to cars but suits the Europa quite well.
I have run many laps here years ago on 2 wheels but this is the 1st time I have had 4 wheels and a roof.
Event was a Super Sprint, so running against the clock for 4-5 laps at a time with cars released with about 5 seconds separation.

Link to a lap on Youtube here: https://youtu.be/OaKlUpjq_AA
Bit messy and I need to do some work both on the vehicle throttle response as well as my throttle control.
Tends to be stall, fast ideal, fart, surge, full noise...... good old Webers .

Great day in the winter sunshine, and by the end of the day starting to get my head around the lap.
Running in the non-members group I was 5th with a  997 Carrera S  being the only registered car in front of me (by about 3 seconds which I thought was OK).
Missed my sub-70sec target by about 1/2 second but I at least know where to look for that time.

[BDA]

Nicely done, Stephen! 


I know what you mean about Webers. For me, it almost doesn't matter what kind of carb, they are all a challenge! You might consider joining the sidedraft_central yahoo group. There's a lot of knowledgeable people there. I've learned a lot there.

[StephenH]

It's more about finding the time to invest
Did run through a few changes and adjustments previously which improved the tractability considerably for road use, as well as shrinking the thirst for fuel so that a tank (I only run the L/H one) can actually take me somewhere useful.

Have a Weber guru ready to organise along with dyno time to take the next step (Weber and timing tweaks), just need to find a window that works.

Or I could just learn to driver better

[StephenH]

And this folks is why you can't trust anyone to have used the parts or work performed claimed, unless you see evidence.
If anyone can identify that piston..., would also solve a mystery....

[EuropaTC]

 

ouch, I bet that was noisy.

I've no idea on the piston source, I've only experience of Ford & A series engines which have had basic simple things.  Have you figured out what happened, valve contact or something like that leading to metal bouncing around ?

Brian

[StephenH]

Actually wasn't that noisy.

Clatter, clatter, clatter, loss of power, bit of a light knock.

More details here: http://www.lotuseuropa.org/LotusForum/index.php?topic=2154.0

Has been a long winded return to a functioning Europa between availability of parts and discovery as the engine came apart.

Root cause is simple enough, the previous owner/engine builder wasn't completely honest about the build components.
Excessive material removed from the head to get the cylinder pressures up, insufficient valve/piston clearance and possibly the timing chain tensioner backed off or misbehaved on downshifts enough for a valve to give up.

Wasn't any apparent witness marks on pistons during earlier inspections (was a camera in there a few times looking) and I'm confident on the RPM (camera and logger in the car) so combination of factors, time and use.

It is now a known build and I have sighted pretty much every component as well as the progressing build each time I was back in the country long enough to go and look.

[LotusJoe]

And this folks is why you can't trust anyone to have used the parts or work performed claimed, unless you see evidence.
If anyone can identify that piston..., would also solve a mystery....

I can definitely identify that piston a broken.

[StephenH]

I can definitely identify that piston a broken.

Thanks, I was concerned I might be replacing parts without cause 

[GavinT]

Excessive material removed from the head to get the cylinder pressures up, insufficient valve/piston clearance . . .

G'day Stephen,

That piston looks like a Renault 12G or Alpine equivalent to me . . the 160HP version.
The quoted ~ 11.5 compression is achieved without shaving the head.
However, some material needs to be removed from the combustion chambers in order to clear the dome of those pistons.

Cheers,
Gavin

[SwiftDB4]

As Gavin said looks like a Gordini version piston. I had an 807-G 160 hp engine years ago. The pistons were 11:5-1 compression and looked like yours. Original manufacturer was AE. At some point I had custom replacement ones made using the AE as patterns.

[StephenH]

As Gavin said looks like a Gordini version piston.

Not according to my local Alpine/Renault expert, piston crown too low for a start.
Sort of a pointless identification exercise now anyway I suppose.

Engine now carrying forged pistons and rods, 43mm inlet and 37mm exhaust valves, new 'everything' that wears/breaks or leaks other than the camshaft and block (which has been reworked around the main caps).