Ground Strap and Lotus Grey

[surfguitar58]

A couple of unrelated questions:

  1 - Is there supposed to be a dedicated ground connection between the frame and the motor? There are a few tenuous incidental ground paths on mine, but I don't see a dedicated strap or wire. I put a short AWG #8 wire from the frame to the starter mounting bolt because I thought I was having a grounding problem (though that wasn't it.) If there is supposed to be a dedicated connection, where would it be?

  2 - Does anyone know of a readily available (preferably in the USA) rattle can spray paint color that approximates "Lotus Grey" (engine block, and in my case frame color) for touch-up around the engine bay?

Tom

[BDA]

I THINK there was originally a ground strap between the engine (or tranny) and the frame. In any case, I put one on my car. It sounds like your AWG 8 wire is a good ground for the engine but I would use a much bigger cable. I don't remember specifically the size I used but it was probably something like AWG 2. That may be overkill but this is a situation where bigger doesn't hurt. I bolted mine from where the bell housing bolts on the motor to the frame.

[Certified Lotus]

There is definitely a large copper ground strap from the chassis to the engine. It is located at the engine mount.

[Sandyman]

Yo Surf, hope these pictures help. It looks like there is a battery cable sized wire for a ground. This was the reference I used to get the body off my S2. My car had a braided uninsulated strap running from the right side if the block to the frame.

[jbcollier]

If the battery is grounded to the frame, then the ground wire from the frame to the engine must be the same size as the battery cables.

If the battery is grounded to the engine, then the the ground wire from the chassis to the engine can be smaller such as the #8 mentioned above.

[Pfreen]

I used VHT SP137 on my engine.  I also used their engine primer. I did not like the color of the  Duplicolor new Ford Gray, which I considered

The VHT goes on nicely and holds up..

[Lotuswins]

For the paint color, I got a reference somewhere that the allis chalmers tractor grey is a good match to the original color, so stop by the tractor store? Comes in spray can too.

For the ground, my TCS came with the large braided uninsulated lead between starter mount and frame, but to ensure absolutely the best path for the starter current, I ground the battery negative to the starter bolt also.  Use the right grease to ensure no corrosion on the connections also (like a british car corrodes in the engine bay....yeah, right....lol).

Jerry Rude
4005R