Lotus Elite: Lots of Trouble....EXCELlent news P33

[scruff]

It's a 907 engine not the old Lotus Twink.
The same basic lump with a turbo nailed on is in my 1994 Esprit (OK mines a 2.2) pumping out 265 bhp and over 300 in other models
They are fine until IF they let go then they cost a fortune to fix. Standard bits (HG, gaskets,etc) are reasonable but major bits (mains, rings, pistons, liners, etc) are costly.

Lotus Bits are your new bestest friends Followed by SJ Sportscars and Paul Matty's

One thing though oil pressure on the 907 is PATHETIC at idle. Even on a good one hot idle is 0.35 bar.
I crapped myself first time I saw the gauge hovering just in the red... It's normal, they all do it, it's because the oil pump is half way up the engine. Should make good pressure when above idle.

Tappets are shims and need a load of magnets to do, need to do mine but haven't got around to it yet.

Looks like it's going to be an interesting project!

Rich

[ToolsnTrack]

Keep the lump, but at least clean the crud out the engine bay! I've seen loads of Eclat and Elites, but most significantly none have ever been running. I'd be curious to hear one being handed "the beans"

[Brian Damaged]

This is superb. You WILL be needing to grow that porn-tastic tache back though, amigo.....and I hope you've got some brown Pittard's leather driving gloves on your Christmas list.

The 907 lump had its troubles, but like others from the same period (Stag V8 etc etc) it now has the benefit of 30-40 years of enthusiast knowledge and club/specialist backup. A bit of research, a careful recomission, and all will be fine I'm sure.

If you need anything from Paul Matty's give us a shout. His place is about 90 seconds' drive from Damaged Towers. ;D

[superchickenlegs]

Don't chuck out the original lump please. We service a 2.2 turbo and after lots of engine work, it was of course necessary to take a test drive. The rumble off them is AWESOME. You won't be dissappointed if you keep it.

[ToolsnTrack]

Moved to readers rides i see, so now bookmarked in readiness for an awesome build...

[Rich606]

Dec 17, 2011 2:39:44 GMT cairyhunt said:

Good buy man, she looks a beaut! Id say keep the twink and polish up those cam covers, but I seem to remember your not into bay porn

I concur. I think in this case, with an engine like that it would be well worth making the exception.

[borednow]

I'd forgotten just how retro tastic these things are.

there was one up for sale in the local classic specialist near me a few years back. So tempted but all the stuff I'd heard about un-reliability put me off.

Wouldn't now though as I know which end of a spanner to use.

I've got loads of Dellorto bits sitting around in the garage if you need owt mate.

Can't wait to see the rst of it and how it develops

[ettorebugatti]

I don't see any reasons to swap it for another engine, especially when you want to keep it reasonable stock.

However it is quite a struggle to get the engine properly running on these twin carbs. New gaskets and a rebuild of the carbs would be the least I would do.

The automatic is a 4 speed. So it isn't really pathetic in use, I would imagine.

Interior would match a brown exterior perfectly.

[Lopez]

The Lotus engine is part of what makes it what it is. It's not like it's a Crossflow or a Pinto or anything is it? It's a Lotus engine. It must be retained!

[Soopahfly]

Didn't you say you had one of these?

[fermanta]

Love it.
That center console is the mutt's nuts & I used to have that Sharp stereo in a Capri I'm almost sure. If it's the same one it was the latest thing circa 83-84 with a ff feature that went to the start of the next song on the tape like CDs do (APSS or something it was called).

[xbo11ox]

I reckon these things are gonna be worth serious coin before too long. No car is more concentrated 70's than one of these, the interior is just class in a glass. OK they have a bad rep for reliability but thats because theyve been so cheap for so long that they were for a while the classic 'cat pi$$ tarp' vehicle, sat in a council house garden beside an old fridge, while the owner sits inside the house smoking fags and watching daytime TV in his grits. If you look after one i'm sure they're perfectly OK reliability wise.

You just cannot top that interior for sheer 70's ness, that alone is reason to have one, but I reckon the styling is great too. It looks better in 2011 than it ever has done and why on earth would anyone jettison such a good-looking, all-alloy, british-made, high-revving DOHC with two snorting dellortos? Only someone who was completely missing the whole point, as far as I can see. The idea of fitting one of thee with a Rover v8 or (even worse) a Ford V6 is just appalling.

For a manual conversion, I would have thought an Excel would provide its Toyota-sourced 5-speeder without too much of a war rather than the misery of Lotus's Maxi-based effort. Although I tend to agree that the auto box is part of the appeal in this case.

I seem to recall an article in one of the classic mags a few years ago where someone was trumpeting a conversion kit they had developed for these to fit a Peugeot 406 3.0 V6 engine. The cost of the kit was about £4500 (excluding engine, or fitting) or something equally ridiculous, I bet they sold a grand total of 0 kits.

Anyway great work! I am a big admirer of these things.

[marcusandrew]

As there are less & less Elites left would it not be an idea to keep it original ? I have a '79 Elite 503, been in storage since 1991, maybe one day they might be worth something. Both of my parents were Lotus fans, elans in the 60's & then Elites, Excels & Esprits in the 80's & early 90's.

[bigperm]

Ace car bruce... good buying skillz, i am now watching with great interest!! please tell me its getting slammed .......

[octagonalpaul]

Excellent! I absolutely love the lines on these, what a phenominally brilliant looking shape.

[cairyhunt]

As said, I would keep the lotus twink.....

....but a rover 2.5 KV6 would *fit* really rather well! And they sound lovely.

[Soopahfly]

Dec 17, 2011 14:41:44 GMT marcusandrew said:

As there are less & less Elites left would it not be an idea to keep it original ? I have a '79 Elite 503, been in storage since 1991, maybe one day they might be worth something. Both of my parents were Lotus fans, elans in the 60's & then Elites, Excels & Esprits in the 80's & early 90's.

Go wash your mouth out, then stand in the corner and think about what you've done. ;D

[sumpcracker]

Dec 17, 2011 14:26:35 GMT xbo11ox said:

OK they have a bad rep for reliability but thats because theyve been so cheap for so long that they were for a while the classic 'cat pi$$ tarp' vehicle, sat in a council house garden beside an old fridge, while the owner sits inside the house smoking fags and watching daytime TV in his grits. If you look after one i'm sure they're perfectly OK reliability wise.

OMG - you were looking at me throught the f****** letter box?

This was mine.



Loved for the reasons pictued , bought for the centre consul, hated for the reasons mentioned
Loved its green sueade interior!

Bruce- manual conversion, mint it, crazy wheels - it will be a retro icon.

[PandaSelecta]

To the people who say keep it original - the car was sat in a garden for (probably) years, if it wasnt for bruce it would still be there and eventually crumble away or get scrapped. So its another Elite on the road no matter what Bruce decides to do with it, and thats the main thing.

Plus if he makes it into something uber cool (no doubt he will), it might make others see how cool these are, and push the interest and prices up

[craig1010cc]

I shall join the long list of those that can't wait to see what you do with this one chap (and now makes sense why the fugitive went this week). If the engine is toast (and I hope its not ), why not look at a MX5 lump as I recon that is a good modern day equiv (and you know your way round them/sourcing cheaply).

Have to say that yours has the most fantastic interior i've seen in a long while