[MRDANGERUS]

Esprit Cruise Control

FYI, worth looking into.

Here is a clever idea and cool gadget for long trips.

Esprit Cruise Control

Pioneered by Jim Knowles from Florida.

The manufacturer installation manual can be found here: www.dakotadigital.com/pdf/dakotacruise.pdf

 

[DaveS4s]

One of the P.O.s had installed this on my Esprit, and it works great. The only problem with Cruise Control is the other traffic on the road.:wink2:

 

[MRDANGERUS]

FYI: all kind of rubber seals and extrusions for sale

Door Seals, Rubber Seals, Rubber Extrusions, Window Rubbers UK | Seals Direct

 

[MRDANGERUS]

Thermostatic sandwich plate

Works very well on my 88' car

https://www.thelotusforums.com/forums/topic/36290-oil-stat/

I'm going to add this to my 'Mad Max'.

P.S. Connections on the mocal plate are the opposite way around to get the same flow through the filter.

 

[MRDANGERUS]

Bleeding the clutch slave

Installing a stainless speed-bleeder makes bleeding a one person event. PN# SB3824.
This hack applies to all Esprits.

Whilst you're "in this area", secure shifter cables to the bracket with a zip tie.
I don't trust plastic holders/clamps.

On our cars, one of the more frequent failure modes is chafing.
Check your stainless clutch hose routing. Often, this line rubs against the edge of the engine mount and fails.

Another observation:
There is a critical interference on the left side. It involves the power steering high pressure hydraulic hose and the edge of the pass-trough hole in the chassis. Plastic U-shaped moulding has been installed over the offending edge.

 

[MRDANGERUS]

Cylinder 3 &4 cooling improvement

Seizures on earlier cars, and other piston failures, are almost always associated with cylinders 3 & 4 (especially 4).
Apparently, there is a design issue with the cyl head cooling method.

Let's look at the whole system.
Coolant comes in from the pump at the front of the block, and goes out to the thermostat and radiator from the front of the head. Coolant circulation around the back of the engine, cylinders 3 & 4, is minimal.

Heater takeoff comes from the rear of the head, which is the same for all 910 engines. If the heater switch is "ON", there is a coolant flow through the block and rear of the head to the heater matrix, which improves the flow/cooling around cyl 3 & 4.
However, with the heater switch in "OFF", there is no flow trough the matrix and coolant flow is stagnant around the rear of the block/head. Temperatures can rise leading to possible piston/liner seizure.
You are especially at risk if your heater valve is not working properly.
On 1989+ cars equipped with a water cooled turbo, some flow is maintained trough the 1/2" hose, which connects turbo CHRA to the overflow header tank. However, such flow may not be large enough to make a difference.

The obvious solution would be to create flow independently of the heater valve position or condition.
One could fit a 5/8" barbed "tee" at the horizontal spigot below the thermostat (heater matrix return hose) and route an additional 5/8"or 1/2"ID hose to the right, along the rear bulkhead and right eng. compartment partition wall to another 5/8" tee fitted into the hose from rear of the head leading to the heater matrix inlet.
Ideally, it would be more efficient to tap into the large aluminum pipe (the shepherd's hook) going to the radiator.

 

[carbuff]

The obvious solution would be to create flow independently of the heater valve position or condition.

Or, do what I have always done:


Run the car with the heater temp control 'cracked' open. Leave the pointer at the 5PM position instead of straight down.

This won't create any noticeable heat in the cabin, but it WILL allow some flow through the heater matrix. (Which prevents clogging from building up in there, as some owners have reported.)


Now, wasn't that easier, MrD? :grin2: :wink2:

 

[MRDANGERUS]

Does it work in summer with A/C operating ?

 

[carbuff]

Yes, it circulates coolant with the A/C operating. But the heat doesn't affect cabin temps.

Remember, the Esprit's face-level vents will NOT provide heated air. If the control is set to INTERIOR you can get some heat, but the A/C in my car easily overcomes it.

 

[MRDANGERUS]

Adjusting the water pump v-belt is "mission impossible". Allen hex head bolt behind the P/S pump pulley is not readily accessible. Pulley has to be removed to engage the bolt.
For future convenience, the offending part should be replaced with a small head hex bolt, which can be slacken with flat ring or open end wrench.

 

[carbuff]

^^^ Wow, on older cars the vacuum pump (which is what you move to adjust water pump V-belt) has a hex bolt from the factory.

But, you need to make a 'Special Lotus Tool' (piece of hex wrench, cut so that you can loosen with a GearWrench) to loosen it.

 

[MRDANGERUS]

The above hack also works on the vacuum pump.

Here is a comment from one of the "other" forums member.

Having spent (too) many hours covered in grease working on various lotus cars, it's easy to get isolated and think that they are awkward to work on, those bolts that are difficult to reach or bits that can only be removed after others (which you don't want to remove) have been removed. The Esprit heater matrix springs to mind.

Today, I worked on the daily driver, and it reminded me just how awkward a family saloon can be.

Lotus, the company have an ethos which involves not putting unnecessary parts into the car, so, it means in a way that there are less parts than there could otherwise be. Mainstream cars, well what's an extra 30-300kg? Lotus didn't have access to complex computer aided modelling for engineering components, so if a pipe went from points A to B, the first question was whether a straight line was possible, if not how far do we need to bend it to get round the obstruction because complexity means higher tooling costs. Mainstream manufacturers have this technology much sooner and used it to the fullest extent, if you can save 10p on a part, it makes sense to do that when you're selling 100,000s of the cars, the initial tool cost almost disappears.

 

[Vulcan Grey]

I think the Esprit is easier to work on than my Acura or the Porsche...

 

[greenisGood]

Is that the "exploded" view of your cars?:grin2:

 

[BobWeber]

All that just to change the oil filter?

 

[Vulcan Grey]

The Lotus was getting the fuel tanks refurbished
The Acura was getting a new radiator
The Porsche had a bad oil leak blocking 1/2 of the radiator, I was trying to figure out where it was coming from.

Replacing the fuel pump is much easier and much cheaper than the Porsche! I also had to do that recently on the Porsche.

 

[esprit888]

The Lotus was getting the fuel tanks refurbished
The Acura was getting a new radiator
The Porsche had a bad oil leak blocking 1/2 of the radiator, I was trying to figure out where it was coming from.

Replacing the fuel pump is much easier and much cheaper than the Porsche! I also had to do that recently on the Porsche.

Looks like the Esprit undertray has seen better days !

 

[Vulcan Grey]

Looks like the Esprit undertray has seen better days !

Yea it's been like that since before I bought it

 

[esprit888]

Yea it's been like that since before I bought it

I have three spares sitting in the garage, but shipping would likely cost more than the undertray!

 

[Vulcan Grey]

I'll eventually fiberglass it.