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Starting out 2014 with a Lotus maintenance/modifying good time!
Getting her up on the lift
Prepping my 4th garage bay for parts storage
Front clam removal... believe it or not this is the first time I've ever done this in my 7 years of Lotus ownership. It took me about 2.5 hours and wasn't that bad at all.
Clam off! I had a friend help me move it into the other garage. I don't know how some of you guys do this by yourselves... :UK:
Working on the interior. Clam directions on LT are for NON-TOURING cars. I had to remove everything behind the seats to get at the bolts behind the speakers.
Rear clam off! This wasn't so bad either. It took me about another 2.5 hours.
Everything out of harms way in the other garage. I set both clams down on some foam blocks I had laying around.
After this, I cleaned a little and flushed the cooling system out. I removed the thermostat first in order to circulate as much coolant out as I could. Then I put it on max heat in the cabin. I drained and filled it (with an Air Lift II, best tool EVER!!) four times in order for clear water to come out. I would drain, fill with just distilled water, run the car up to temp, rinse and repeat.
With the final water drain still going on (water was quite hot at this time) I decided to do an oil change. Man I love this lift... it was so easy.
While the rear was draining of oil I decided to go up front and check out the oil coolers with another drain pan I had. I grabbed my 27 mm wrench, mustered up my strength, and forcefully tried to break the lower hose loose.
... it spun with ZERO effort and I smashed my knuckles against the crash structure :thwack: Turns out all of the fittings were barely finger tight and I could loosen them with a crappy harbor freight crescent wrench. -poke-
I'm going to let them drain overnight and get back at it in the morning. It's been a fun day of work so far

Getting her up on the lift

Prepping my 4th garage bay for parts storage

Front clam removal... believe it or not this is the first time I've ever done this in my 7 years of Lotus ownership. It took me about 2.5 hours and wasn't that bad at all.

Clam off! I had a friend help me move it into the other garage. I don't know how some of you guys do this by yourselves... :UK:

Working on the interior. Clam directions on LT are for NON-TOURING cars. I had to remove everything behind the seats to get at the bolts behind the speakers.

Rear clam off! This wasn't so bad either. It took me about another 2.5 hours.

Everything out of harms way in the other garage. I set both clams down on some foam blocks I had laying around.
After this, I cleaned a little and flushed the cooling system out. I removed the thermostat first in order to circulate as much coolant out as I could. Then I put it on max heat in the cabin. I drained and filled it (with an Air Lift II, best tool EVER!!) four times in order for clear water to come out. I would drain, fill with just distilled water, run the car up to temp, rinse and repeat.
With the final water drain still going on (water was quite hot at this time) I decided to do an oil change. Man I love this lift... it was so easy.

While the rear was draining of oil I decided to go up front and check out the oil coolers with another drain pan I had. I grabbed my 27 mm wrench, mustered up my strength, and forcefully tried to break the lower hose loose.
... it spun with ZERO effort and I smashed my knuckles against the crash structure :thwack: Turns out all of the fittings were barely finger tight and I could loosen them with a crappy harbor freight crescent wrench. -poke-

I'm going to let them drain overnight and get back at it in the morning. It's been a fun day of work so far