Decisions decisions...

[Bainford]

Is there a weber head among those parts?

[Roger]

Advertise them for sale here and on:

British Car Forum  www.britishcarforum.com

British Speed www.britishspeed.com

Lotus Talk www.lotustalk.com

The Lotus Europa Yahoo Group, the Lotus-Cars Yahoo group

and it might also be worth trying the Lotus Elan group http://www.lotuselan.net/

Then eBay if you must!

[Steve]

Regarding a 308 Ferrari engine transplant, unless I'm mistaken, a 308 engine is an integrated sidewinder, engine & gbx married closely together. Be a tough sell in a Europa.

[Pete Gossett]

Is there a weber head among those parts?

Unfortunately, no - or I may have re-thought my decision! Both are stock ~40kmi Big Vale Twinks. One is still in the '72, the other is partially disassembled(by the PO) and setting on my workbenches.

[Pete Gossett]

Advertise them for sale here and on:

British Car Forum  www.britishcarforum.com

British Speed www.britishspeed.com

Lotus Talk www.lotustalk.com

The Lotus Europa Yahoo Group, the Lotus-Cars Yahoo group

and it might also be worth trying the Lotus Elan group http://www.lotuselan.net/

Then eBay if you must!

Thanks Roger! I hadn't considered the Elan crowd, but I suppose it'd fit just as well in one of those. 

[LotusJoe]

I say go for the Zetec

[Pete Gossett]

You know I'm going to be pestering you quite a bit Joe, right??? 

[Bainford]

I quite like my Twin Cam, but the idea of running a Zetec is tempting just so I can fit a set of those sexy headers 

[cal44]

I with you Trevor........"those sexy headers"..........I can just hear Fat Bastard in Austin Powers.

[Pete Gossett]

Those "sexy headers" are a turbo manifold for the Focus, they just happen to fit in a Europa without totally reworking them.

[Pete Gossett]

Well, I've "officially" started working on the Lotus today.

Ok, so it wasn't any monumental progress, but "The journey of a 1000-miles blah blah blah...." 

Here's the before:






And after:






$6 and 20-minutes at the carwash, and somehow I ended up dirtier than the transmission started out as? 

So what is the best way to get something this grungy show-car clean?

[cal44]

I try and keep my trans clean as much as possible.  But, I have noticed the aluminum on these is very tough to get clean.  For instance, cleaning the bell housing seems to come out all right.........but that stinkin' trans does not want to cooperate. 

Could it be French castings are to rough or the makeup of the material just won't clean.

I think the only way to do the job fully is hot tank.  But, that now leads to a whole new issues.  I think I stated in another post I have Kano degreaser shipped to the house, and of course their penetrating oil (the best) IMO.

I also like the citrus degreaser spray from Kragen O'Reilly, that seems to do well.  And of course the power washer.

Mike

[EuropaTC]

How about a degreaser to shift the worst of the oily gunge followed by something like washing up liquid worked into a foam by a small, 1" paint brush to get into the casting ribs. That should move most of the external stuff and I think I'd follow it up with alloy wheel cleaner (acidic) and do a small section at a time.  If you really want a shiny alloy finish then I'd go for a small wire brush in a drill, I can't see any other way (apart from bead blasting) to get into those crevices.

None of which are environmentally friendly I'm afraid......   but then again, neither is a thick covering of old oil and dirt when you're working on it !

[Steve]

If this is a repeat post, forgive me, but I went through the same denial/acceptance process regarding some "easy" way to remove this asphalt-like crud from my 336 gbx. I am an aircraft mechanic by trade, and have access to many aggressive industrial-use-only cleaning chemicals, as well as a large Empire plastic media blasting cabinet. Nothing touched the worst of it.

What I ended up doing, and it was a nasty, labor intensive, filthy task, (and I'm used to nasty jobs, ask my long suffering wife / launderess) was to first use clay sculpting tools, such as these:

http://image.misterart.com/grouppix/528x352/000/g822.jpg

to mechanically remove the gunk.

followed by a dremel tool with these, #428, #442, & #443 brushes.  I bought these in bulk on ebay, and I bet I went through scores of them.

http://www.toolbarn.com/accessories/abrasives/wire-brushes-wheels.html?manufacturer=82

I would dip the brushes in some of that gritty hand cleaner, and that helps alot, cleaning as well as preventing the crud from gumming up the brushes.

a full face plastic eye-shield is essential.

Like this:

http://tinyurl.com/9jpwlp2

as well as some expendable clothing.

This is easily the most unpleasant Europa task in my four year journey.

If you are willing to strip the case of mechanicals & seals, cal44 has the answer;  hot tank it.

[Pete Gossett]

Thank you Steve, that's sort of what I'm discovering - it's an arduous, labor-intensive task. But I've been hitting it for 10-15 minutes at a time, and at least it's making a dent. Though I have a hunch that like most things, the last 10% will take 90% of the effort.