54/0651 My unexpected project.

[matmacwac]

Thanks for your detailed solution BDA.
I would love to see some pictures of your exhaust.
The Language barrier was a factor. It seemed to be important to Michelle that there was enough time for the exhaust to cool and there was discussion of back pressure.  He said that this was a tuned exhaust system and these were the requirements and it didn’t sound like it was negotiable.

Wil

[matmacwac]

January 2019.

I've had a couple of opportunities to drive the car up and down the country road in front of my house. The Webers have been barking quite a bit and I believe they are setup right. It seems to mostly go away if the timing is advanced. I think its at or beyond 10 deg BTDC.
 
I'm not happy with the feel of the throttle. The cable runs up behind the dash and down into the center tunnel, emerging out the back makes several sharp bends before pulling a bell crank under the carbs.

I decided to order the fancy Sytec linkage. I rerouted the cable inside the cabin under the carpet and out the firewall hole next to the wire harness. This reduces the bends and friction.

[matmacwac]

I cured a lot of the problems by changing the fuel pump. I went up to a 5-7 lb pump. This made a huge difference.

[matmacwac]

Feb 4, 2019

I have bled the brakes about 8 times. I've used the standard method, suction, and reverse brake bleeding.
Every time I press the peddle, I get no pressure until 1/2 to 3/4 travel.

I know that some of the S2 Europa's had a brake servo. My car did not. Feeling that I had tried everything else, I ordered a servo system from Victoria British. I installed it in front of the driver side wheel well. ABS 1/2" pipes were used to feed vacuum from the carbs through the center tunnel. I took a while to order the correct metric fitting for the intake manifold. You would think that metric stuff would be easy to get in Canada … But No.

The system was bench bled and bled again after install. I crawled into the car to give it a try. No Change.   

I have a TV in my shop that is usually tuned to some kind of car restoration show. As I stood there banging my head on the car out of frustration, I overheard someone on the TV describing the exact same problem on a VW Beetle. His theory was that the master cylinder diameter was too small and this required more peddle travel to move enough fluid.

I needed a 7/8" Master cylinder. I had an old one on the shelf from the Healey. The steering rack was dislodged and the cylinder bolted and bled. This made a huge difference. I was still going to need a new one because the MC from the Healey was on the shelf for a reason. It was pitted.

[matmacwac]

Feb 5, 2019

The new master cylinder had a slightly different housing than the smaller one than I had before. The problem is the output line will hit the underside of the steering rack.

I was able to elongate the mounting holes slightly, enough to get about 5 deg counter clockwise rotation of the cylinder. This, and some careful pipe bending solved the problem.

[BDA]

I cured a lot of the problems by changing the fuel pump. I went up to a 5-7 lb pump. This made a huge difference.

Did that solve the "barking" problem? Any other problems it solved. That goes against everything I've heard about fuel pressure for Webers. I've always heard that a low pressure (2.5 - 3.5psi) and high volume was required.

I answered your question about seeing my exhaust setup here: http://www.lotuseuropa.org/LotusForum/index.php?topic=2996.0. Unfortunately, you can't see a whole lot of it but I think you'll get the idea.

[matmacwac]

BDA. I agree. I heard that it should be too much pressure. It did make a significant difference. The rest of the barking was cured with timing advance and carb balancing.

That is an impressive exhaust on your car. I don't have an oil cooler but I'm inspired to look for another solution to allow me to use my trunk.

[matmacwac]

Feb 12, 2019.

My Wife and my Daughter have decided to take a trip together to Florida for Reading Week. This is awesome! I can spend 4 days in the shop.

I decided it was time to deal with the dashboard. I had made a custom one that allowed for the installation of a GPS but it was just meant to be a prototype concept. I was fairly unhappy with the finish, colour, and layout.  The center console didn't fit properly under the bumper strip and the dash top was being pressed against the glass. There was a lot of tweaking required to the shape of the dash. I also wanted to move the Headlight switch down to the center console and bring the ignition switch back to the drivers side.

The 4 days was going to be the perfect time to be able to sit in the car redoing the wiring harness and cleaning up any other electrical indiscretions.

A new dash was cut, sanded, drilled, and shaped. Trial fitted. It was then cut, sanded, drilled, and shaped again and again. I wanted to retain the piece from the glove box opening in order to use it as a door.

A couple of days later it was all done and installed.
I was hungry and tired.

[surfguitar58]

What a beautiful project! Congrats! 

Attached is another take on exhaust layout fwiw. I glasses an arch in the trunk box and mounted an aluminum heat shield with a 1 in airspace around the muffler. Still, beer is going to get pretty warm on the way home from the store.

Maybe you covered this elsewhere in the thread and I missed it, but are you using a keyless remote and solenoid to open your handleless doors?

Tom

[BDA]

Nice work on the trunk tray! Put the beer in the front trunk and let that be your air conditioning!   

[matmacwac]

surfguitar58  that’s a beautiful solution to the problem. I think I will try to adapt your idea into some sort of a trunk that will still be usable. I’ve been hesitant in destroying the original trunk but it would probably be worth it.

 The doors have a keyless entry only because I couldn’t find the appropriate door hardware. If you look back in the thread you will see that my car is a very early S2 that had a button with no relief in the body for your hands to pull the door open. This makes for a streamlined look on the body but there is a real hazard of stepping out of the car and closing the door with the keys in the ignition. I’ve already had to walk home to get the spare remote once.

 I have placed a remote switch next to the brake lines from the servo adjacent to a hole that my finger can get into from the wheel well as a failsafe.

[BDA]

BDA. I agree. I heard that it should be too much pressure. It did make a significant difference. The rest of the barking was cured with timing advance and carb balancing.

That is an impressive exhaust on your car. I don't have an oil cooler but I'm inspired to look for another solution to allow me to use my trunk.

Thanks for the kind words. If I were putting in an oil cooler today, I might consider mounting it in the front. I didn't want to do that because I didn't want to put any extra heat into the radiator, I didn't want to add a cut out for the cooler and steal air flow from the water radiator and I didn't want to have those long hose runs. If I were to do it over again, I might mount it in front of the rear wheels - sort of the same idea some have used to implement an inverse snorkel for their air intake where air from under the car is ducted to the carbs. That is if it would fit there! I'd test the air flow first, of course.

[matmacwac]

 I think that now that the engine is running better I’ll try to change the pump back to the lower pressure and see if the barking returns.

 I guess that if an oil cooler was mounted low and beside the transaxle there’s always the chance that it will get hit from road debris and get damage to the fins.  I thought that might be a place to get under car airflow.

[jbcollier]

Wow, lots of posts!

5 -7 psi is high for Webers.

Fit an air box!  One back-fire and you're calling your insurance agent.  Fibreglass doesn't need oxygen to burn so once it starts, it is hard to put out.

Here is my exhaust system.  It's quiet (seriously):

https://jbcollier.smugmug.com/Lotus-Europa/i-2gd3p7D/A

[Certified Lotus]

Big support for an Airbox! It’s an absolute must.