Noting Some Differences

Now that the front radiator stack is out of the car, it is time to make some comparisons between what Lotus put in the car back in 1987 and what they shipped in later cars. Here is the stack that I will be installing in FrankEnSPRIT. Note that it has the same style radiator, but the evaporator and the chargecooler radiators are integrated into the same unit.

Next up is a shot of the tubs without anything in them. I was surprised to see that the newer style tub is a LOT deeper than the original part. In fact, the forward lip of the new tub extends almost to the edge of the lip of the '87 front air dam. Looks like there will be a bit more fibreglass work to be done to integrate this part into the car.

There are several other detail differences between the two parts, like hole placement for mounting and hoses, the way the trailing edge of the tubs are formed, the lack of the raised platform for the oil cooler, and the sculpting of the leading edge. The '87 actually flares out a little (see top photo), while the newer part is narrower in the front and opens out to the radiators. I think part of this sculpting is to make some room for the split oil coolers. There may be room between the tub and the side of the air dam, but I'm not gonna bet on it.





Speaking of oil coolers, it looks like Lotus just about doubled the size of the radiator surface with the split coolers. On the top are the left and right coolers from the V8, below is the single unit used in the early turbos. This setup should be more than adequate for FrankEnSPRITs powerplant, assuming I can provide a good amount of air to them and get the air back out again.

So, the next steps for this end of the car is to secure the new radiators in the new tray and mount them to the car, or at least place them where they belong. I will need to fill the current holes and redrill them to line up with the bobbins in the bodywork, plus sort out how to route the hoses for the A/C and chargecooler. I will also start fiddling around with the oil coolers and ducts to see how they might mount up in the space available.

Changing Focus

Now that winter is settled in and I have some time off, real progress can be made. I've gone about as far as I can go with the frame and drive train, so now I am turning my focus to the rest of the car. It is now up in the air, and I have started to dismantle the front cooling system. This includes the oil cooler, the radiator and the A/C condenser, along with the fan assembly. You can see that here, still attached to the car.

There is a whole mess of hoses and wires that run to this complex. Hoses for the oil cooler, radiator, and the condenser. Wires for the three fans.

This shows the stack halfway out. On the far right side, you can see the hoses for the condenser. These are a bear to remove, as they are relatively stiff hoses and the collets have been exposed to the elements at the leading edge of the car. Fortunately, the red hose has a connection at the drier inside the boot that was easy to loosen. The black hose was another matter. It runs all the way back to the compressor without a break. It took some heat from a butane torch to get it to move. No damage to the fittings though.

This stack of stuff will be replaced with the new parts I got from the Lotus Aftersales extravaganza last year. I will need to make some changes to the lower air dam and possibly to the tray that supports the radiators to get everything to line up correctly. The front lip of the tray needs to fit with the rear lip of the air dam in order for the airflow to go through the radiators instead of around them. I will definitely need to make changes to accomodate the split oil coolers and ductwork that replaces the original oil cooler. This has to go to make room for the chargecooler radiator. I think I can still use the original fans.



I have to say I really like working on this car. Even though it is 22 years old now, since it spent the first 20 years in California, all of the nuts, bolts, screws, clamps, and hose ends all come apart very easily. The oil cooler lines just spun right off, the screws for the lower cover came right out - even the hoses from the air conditioner broke loose with no problem at all. Very different than my '83 which spent its formative years in the Chicago area. This is good news, since most of the stuff that will come off of this car can be used on the '83, so I'll have lots of good spares should I need them.

Next up is how the two cooling stacks and ductwork compares...

Santa's Been to Town

Santa was pretty good this year. Just before the holiday, I found some key components that would eventually hold me up. First off was an oil cooler and ductwork from a 1999 Esprit Sport 350. These came courtesy of Douglas Valley Breakers in the UK. The car these parts came from had an engine fire. There are a few more bits I am trying to secure from this particular car.

I actually got pretty lucky with these parts. About a year ago, I bought some gearbox mounts and one of the oil coolers from a wrecked '99 V8 in the UK. At the time, I thought I was buying the cooler from the left side. The cooler from the Sport 350 was also supposed to be from the left hand side. The only real difference is which side the brackets are welded to. It turns out, somebody doesn't know their right from their left, but instead of two lefts, I actually have a full set.

Next up is a real Sport 300 chargecooler - plate and all. This was in the hands of John Welch of WC Engineering in Illinois. John is a well-known Esprit tuner and runs a top-notch repair facility. If you have an Esprit that you want to make go faster, John is your guy. This hasn't arrived yet, as John just moved shop lately and knows he has a set of mounting brackets for it... somewhere. I don't need it yet, so I am happy to give John plenty of time to find the brackets. There will be a picture eventually when it gets installed.

With time off for the holidays, I'm making some good progress on dismantling the front cooling system. I'll have more on that with plenty of photos in the next post.