Lotus Europa Community
Lotus Europa Forums => Garage => Topic started by: Impromptu on Tuesday,July 27, 2021, 06:36:26 AM
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Hi everyone,
2 weeks ago I got an Europa Twin Cam from 1972. It looks nice and the previous owner used it regularly but sparingly. I bought it hoping it to be a good driver. Some old photographs show that the car must have been rebuilt with a body off restoration in the early 1990s.
I did a few short runs with the car (nice to drive), and discovered it leaks from the gearbox selector shaft (4-speed, 352?), which I improved by changing the transmission oil to Red Line Heavy Shockproof Gear Oil.
There is some motor oil coming from the front of the engine (water pump side), but haven't been able to have a closer look where it comes from exactly.
But most awkward is that the flexible brake hose on the trailing arm is punctured and sprayed old brake fluid on the chassis and trailing arm (removing the paint in the process). I ordered new hoses at Lotus-Supplies, but I am still puzzled how the access these hoses on the rear trailing arms to replace them. Any suggestions, since the workshop manual doesn't seem to provide much help. Can it be done with the body on the chassis?
Thanks in advance for your feedback.
Jan
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I did a few short runs with the car (nice to drive), and discovered it leaks from the gearbox selector shaft (4-speed, 352?), which I improved by changing the transmission oil to Red Line Heavy Shockproof Gear Oil.
There is some motor oil coming from the front of the engine (water pump side), but haven't been able to have a closer look where it comes from exactly.
But most awkward is that the flexible brake hose on the trailing arm is punctured and sprayed old brake fluid on the chassis and trailing arm (removing the paint in the process). I ordered new hoses at Lotus-Supplies, but I am still puzzled how the access these hoses on the rear trailing arms to replace them. Any suggestions, since the workshop manual doesn't seem to provide much help. Can it be done with the body on the chassis?
Thanks in advance for your feedback.
Jan
Oil leaks from those places are quite normal.
L eaks O il T hrough U nusual S ources.
To change those rubber hoses, you just need patience, 9/16 spanners, and an extended 9/16 socket. It can be done with the arm in situ.
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:Welcome: Impromptu!!
You got yourself a really pretty baby! Congratulations! :beerchug:
I concur with 4129R. Almost all trannies leak a little bit. And replacing the rear brake hoses is not as hard as it looks.
Your car has some nice custom accents. I think I speak for everybody here when I say we’d love to see more pictures!
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Hoses get old and fail. After a restoration, people tend to think of the car as new even as it slowly gets older and older. Everything on the car is now 30 years old. Rubber, seals, etc will naturally deteriorate due to time, acids in the oil, ozone in the air, etc. I would fit new rear wheel cylinders and master cylinder just due to their age. Flush the system with fresh brake fluid. I would have a close look at the tires and change them if they are over five years old.
You can build a dry Lotus Twin Cam, but it is not easily done. The first thing to check is the engine breather. Engines are happiest with a small negative pressure in the crankcase. Your photos show open bell-mouths but it looks like there are air filter bases there as well. FIT AIR FILTERS! Plumb the engine breather to one of the air filter bases. That may help reduce any oil leaks.
Your rebuilt engine is now 30 years old! Might be time to reseal it. I would first clean it and see if you can see where the oil is coming from. Valve cover leaks are VERY common. After that, all the now-old seals. The front crank seal and valve cover you can do insitu. Rear main seal will require the transaxle out at the least. If you are doing a full reseal, might be easiest to just pull the engine.
Transaxle, same thing. Shifter o-ring is probably flattened and it can be changed with the transaxle in place. Check that the transaxle breather is clear as well.
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Welcome to the forum, impromptu. That is a nice looking Europa you have there. Nice wheels, look a lot like a Cromodora.
I find the rear flexible brake line easier to access if the forward mount of the trailing arm is released from the chassis.
Cheers :beerchug:
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:Welcome:
Impromptu
Is this your first Europa? My first drive put a huge smile on my face, not my car but a friends. It gave me a huge boost in movation.
Glad you found your way here.
Dakazman
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:Welcome: You might want to check the camshaft half moon plugs. If they are not not sealed properly, they will leak and they are located on the front side of the motor (firewall side).
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Thank you all for your welcome and reassuring tips. I will give it a go with the spanners and socket that 4229R suggested. Quite reassuring it should be possible with the arms in place.
BDA: I'll try to get a few more pictures asap and post them here in this thread. The car clearly is far from original, but the engine is still original, and the transmission could be too.
jbcollier: thank you for your constructive encouragements. Indeed the rebuilt is a long while ago now. Luckily the previous owner recently changed the brake calipers and the drum brake cylinders. When I flushed the brake fluid, I discovered the leaky hose. Since the photo of the engine was taken, I fitted an ITG JC40 airfilter, but upon your suggestion I'll connect the breather outlet to the filter. I hope I can postpone re-sealing the engine for another year or so, but I agree it would be good to try to do a more thorough job with the engine and transmission removed from the car.
Bainford: I'll see if I can release the trailing arm. This is going to be an interesting project ;)
Dakazman: this is my first Lotus. I like the older cars, and was attracted to the mid-engined layout and lightweight construction of the Europa. And it's so low, very cool! It attracts a lot more attention from people than any other car I have driven.
Literarymadness: thanks for the tip. Didn't even know they existed.
For now I would like to get the car on the road again by repairing the brakes. If time permits it would be nice to reseal the engine and transmission in the winter. Also I was thinking of replacing the probably original radiator since it shows some rust. I found some chinese aluminium versions on ebay. Very cheap compared to a refurbishment of the original one. Are they any good?
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Very good looking car Impromptu with what appears to be a very well presented interior.
Can somebody on the Forum please tell me what is going on with the auxiliary tapping's and pipework reporting to a common, but seemingly unused, T piece on the inlet manifold?? :confused:
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I got the impression from the old restoration photos that this was connected to brake booster before (vacuum?), but presently there is no brake booster. The circuit nevertheless resembles the federal variant with a MC with 2 lines going to the back of the car into the differential pressure valve and subsequently act on front and rear brakes. Why would the brake booster(s) have been removed? Braking is now rather heavy.
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The vacuum for the brake booster/s is indeed tapped from the inlet manifold - but at one point only and not 4. :confused:
There are many reasons for the PO removing the brake boosters, it is a subject discussed at length on this Forum.
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Hi Impromptu
:Welcome:
Nice car, you are in the right place for support and tips.
Maybe the PO was going to use nitrous.... :D
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Why would the brake booster(s) have been removed?
Maybe they stopped working and the owner could not find suitable replacements.
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:Welcome:,Impromptu. I replaced my heavy, clogged rad with an Ebay 3 core aluminum one, including fan. About 200 euros delivered. It works great. If you feel that the brake peddle is to stiff your friends here can recommend a different sized bore master cylinder replacement that will solve this issue.
Sandy
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Thank you all for your warm welcome and advice. It’s indeed my first Europa, and I am discovering the world of classic Loti.
With the help of my son, the flexible brake hoses are now replaced. We undid the arms in the rear to improve access. At the same occasion we replace the spring/dampers with adjustable AVO ones sourced from lotus-supplies. Getting the ARB back in was a bit of a hassle though. The car is a bit lower, and in the rear it seemed too low. Therefore we added helper springs, which raised the car 16 mm, without having to pretension the springs too much. The resulting ride isn’t harsh, and I put the dampers on 5/19 and 7/19 front and rear.
Next I started looking into the engine idle, which was around 1800 rpm warm. The idle screw on the Dellorto’s helped to reduce it to ~1000 rpm, but I am still looking into how to check the carburetor settings. First I wait for an air flow synchroniser to arrive, to set up the balance between the 2 carbs. I checked the compression. The tool I used wasn’t great, and needed some fettling before it worked. Although the values between cylinders are close, the absolute value seems low, even for a 9.5:1 engine: between 105 and 110 psi (butterflies wide open, engine warm). When I did this test I noticed 3 spark plugs were rather dark and 2 of them even somewhat wet. No good! I will see what I can do to set up the carbs, but if that doesn’t work out I’ll try if a local classic car garage accepts to take the car in.
To be continued.
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You have a lovely car there. Sorry to be off topic, But I was in France a number of years ago and you guys have great roads especially with a Europa. Where area are you in, in France?
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The car is in the eastern part of France, with the Jura mountains and the Alps close by. The Europa is indeed fun to drive in the mountains, but I am still discovering its capabilities.
I read in the Miles Wilkens book that low compression of the Twin Cam engine could also be due to poor (I guess too tight) valve clearance. I am a bit reluctance to open the cam cover, since I see some sort of silicone protrude between the cover and a cork gasket so it might be difficult. What is the best approach to open the cam cover? Should one use a knife to cut through the gasket to be able to remove the cam cover?
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Buy a new cork gasket before taking the cam cover off, then clean both head and cover with a knife to get rid of all cork, silicone the new gasket to the cover, then put the cover on the head when the silicone has dried.
I have never know an old cover coming off with the cork not being damaged, unless it has been fitted recently.
When re-shimming, use plain nuts to tighten down the cam pillars until all the clearances are correct. Then change the plain nuts for self locking nyloc nuts.
The shims are available from QED in Quorn/Loughborough, UK.
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Braking is now rather heavy.
You can drill a new hole in the pedal arm to increase the pedal ratio some. The pedal assembly is easy to remove. Pic is mine with hole moved up. I don't remember how much I did.
Here's a few links on pedal ratio too.
https://techtalk.mpbrakes.com/how-to-series/calculating-pedal-ratio
https://www.markwilliams.com/brakepedalcalculator.html
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Buy a new cork gasket before taking the cam cover off, then clean both head and cover with a knife to get rid of all cork, silicone the new gasket to the cover, then put the cover on the head when the silicone has dried.
I have never know an old cover coming off with the cork not being damaged, unless it has been fitted recently.
When re-shimming, use plain nuts to tighten down the cam pillars until all the clearances are correct. Then change the plain nuts for self locking nyloc nuts.
The shims are available from QED in Quorn/Loughborough, UK.
+1 about the gasket (I don't have a TC engine so I can't comment on the rest of 4129R's advice but I expect it's very sound). I would only add that after using silicone to "glue" the gasket to the cam cover, then smear some grease on the side of the gasket that will press against the head. This will make it MUCH less likely to get stuck and thus easier to take off the next time.
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Always, always, always start with the valves. An engine is nothing but a giant air pump. Tight valves really affect the air flow and, thus, the carburation and performance. Compression gauges are just indicators. Readings vary from gauge to gauge. The fact they are consistent is good, though.
After sorting the valves, check the ignition setting and advance.
Once all that is good, then you can set up the carbs.
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Thank you all for your swift advice. So opening up the cam cover it will be. I’ll order a new gasket at the same time as the shims, while I already have the half moon plugs.
Has anyone used Hylomar Blue for the gasket sealing, or what silicone would you suggest (sorry for basic questions, :newhere:)?
Clifton thank you for the trick about the brake pedal. That seems very logical and do-able.
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I have used Hylomar a few times and have been pleased. It doesn't harden so I wouldn't try to use it to stick your gasket to the cam cover. You could use it on the gasket where it's against your head but grease is a lot cheaper and works just as well. It has a strange consistency that makes me wonder if it will really seal but it always has. I don't use it a lot and tend toward silicone sealer probably out of habit. I would think Hylomar would be great for your half-moon plugs. I would not use silicone on fuel applications unless I was VERY careful because gasoline softens the silicone and it can get mixed into the gasoline clogging up hoses, filters, etc. A guy told me of a time where he couldn't get his race car to start. Everything seemed good but he wasn't getting any fuel to his carbs. He started taking things apart and found he had a rope of silicone sealant in his fuel lines! Apparently, over time and several applications of silicone, it softened and collected in his lines. I don't mean to disparage his knowledge or skill (he's probably forgotten more about cars than I'll ever know) but it doesn't seem like he was very careful with his silicone application!
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Use only oil-proof sealers. Use silicone sealers sparingly as excess has been know to break free and cause problems. Allow your sealers to set at least 24 hours before starting. Do not over-tighten the retaining nuts, especially with a cork gasket.
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Has anyone used Hylomar Blue for the gasket sealing, or what silicone would you suggest (sorry for basic questions?
I like the Hylomar Blue and don't use silicone any more - highly recommended.
It seems to hold together better as a single piece and doesn't go to jelly like silicone does sometimes. It's also fine with gearbox oil where silicone can be problematic.
Interesting link including the differences to silicone:
https://www.newmantools.com/chemicals/hylomar.htm
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Very interesting link about Hylomar, GavinT! Thanks!