The Birth of FrankEnSPRIT

VIPs and not so VIPs

2010-07-11T20:10:00.003-05:00

Very Important Parts.

I received some in the past weeks. What makes these important is that they are the bits I need to integrate the late V8 shifter and cables to the early V8 high torque gearbox. They are the brackets in this picture:

The right hand bracket fits across the gearbox mount on the right hand side and retains the gear select cable. The pivot bracket in the center mounts to the cross shaft/selector shaft, and the gear select cable attaches on the hard to see bend at the end opposite of the hole. The bracket on the bottom bolts to the rear cover and retains the cross shaft cable. The smaller bracket with the flat edge gets welded on to the cross shaft. The hole in this bracket is where the cross shaft cable end attaches.

The pulleys are the infamous "green dot" pulleys. These pulleys are used to shift the MOP of the intake and exhaust cams to something more performance oriented (104 degrees vs 107) instead of the emissions optimized pulleys that were shipped on the stock engine. With these 3 pulleys plus the ones on the Emme engine and the original FrankEnSPRIT engine, I have enough to set up both the Emme and the engine going into the black Esprit with 104 pulleys. An additional benefit is that these are all HTD pulleys, which means they have a better belt tooth shape than the original trapezoidal tooth pattern found on the black Esprit engine. So I will get a little better belt reliability with this swap.

Now for some not so very important parts.

This is the rear cover of the Renault UN-1 gearbox as used in early S-bodied Esprits. As you can see, the shift translator is on the left-hand side of the gearbox as you look from the rear. There is something unique about this particular rear cover, however. If you look closely, the shifter shaft itself has been sleeved to make it thicker, presumably to keep it from bending under shifter loads. This is not what I needed in terms of parts, but I got myself convinced from some not-so-very good photos on an eBay auction that this was the rear cover I needed for the later V8 shifter cables. I think the modifications are what threw me. Oh well, it wasn't that expensive, and now I have something to sell on to someone else if I need to raise some quick cash.

Oil, Leather and Leather Oil

2010-05-31T17:15:00.006-05:00

The blog has been pretty quiet lately, partly due to work, partly due to slow, sure, but unexciting progress. I have been treating the door panels, center armrest, and center console panels with Leatherique rejuvenation oil. This stuff really works well to rehydrate old leather. It works best with the old dye removed, which, as you may recall, we did in the last blog installment. I have been treating the leather every day or two with the oil, massaging it in on every surface. It is about done, as it takes almost all day for a treatment to be absorbed. Next step is to fill a few small nicks, cuts and scratches with their filler, followed by a prep solution treatment and airbrushing the dye onto the panels. These panels will be dyed the original grey. I will do the leather below the windshield and the instrument cluster in black to cut down on glare. The rear panel will be grey, as will the seats. I haven't decided if I want to do the rest of the dash in black or in grey. My '83 Esprit has a black dash with tan leather for the rest of the interior and I really like it. The car is black, so that may have something to do with how well the black dash works. I'm not so sure with the blue car yet.

Dave Cammack, another multiple Esprit owning LOON, brought the front valance from his X-180R down to the barn over the weekend. He was doing some radiator work and as long as he had it off the car we wanted to see how well it would line up with the G-body contours. As you can see from the photos, with the trailing edge of the valance even with the front wheel arch, the valance extends in front of the bumper by about a half inch. Otherwise, it fits to the lower part of the bumper and the radiator duct pretty well, all things considered.

One problem that you can't see very well in the photos is the contours of the valance. The original valance has negative radius (concave) curves on the sides of the valance, where the X-180R part is convex. It just doesn't look right. Part of that may be the white color against the metallic blue, but it would still be a big difference when compared to the side sills and rear valance.

Side to side, the X-180R valance winds up pretty much where I thought it would - about an inch wider than the 87 valance. This could be made up with a light shell panel to blend the trailing edge of the front bumper to the leading edge of the front wheel arch below the bonding seam, but that will probably make the car look nose-heavy. Another possibility would be to see how an SE front bumper cover would look, but that would be even worse when compared to the squarer contours of the rear bumper and valance.

Tim Engel, another multiple-Lotus-owning LOON had a spare '87 valance he has donated to the cause. We talked about some ways to modify this valance to fit the contours of the newer radiator duct while maintaining the design elements of the car. We can pull molds off of the valance of my '83 to make some splitters to duct air into the radiator duct and the brake cooler ducts. This would take some cutting and glassing back together the front part of the duct to extend it further forward and to widen it. We also discussed ways to accommodate the oil coolers along the sides without having to mess with as radical of a false panel behind the front bumper. Dave also suggested abandoning the V8 oil coolers and going with smaller, more common coolers from an aftermarket supplier. At this point I am thinking I will build up some wooden models of the various coolers available to see how they will fit. If I can find something that would work in the original width of the valance, that may be the way to go. The V8 coolers are probably overkill for the application, so I can give up some cooling capacity for space. Time to break out the table saw...

Leather Prep

2010-03-08T18:45:00.003-06:00

Everything leather-covered that can come out has come out. I hadn't planned on removing the lower portion of the dash, but it turns out it was easier to take it out than to try and remove the eyeball vents, the side vents or the speaker covers with the dash in place. Here you can see what is left of the passenger compartment.

The last little bit of leather by the windshield is glued to the car. In fact, the leather is tucked into the channel that the windshield is bonded to, so in order to replace that leather you have to remove the glass. Fotunately, the leather is in good shape. It will get redyed with the rest of the interior after some prep work.

Here you can see the lower dash out of the car. Taking these cars apart gives you some insight as to how they were put together. There appears to be a lot of hand assembly with these cars, as the center stack with the HVAC controls and stereo appear to be assembled after the lower dash pad is put into place. I couldn't get the frame to fit through the opening without stripping all of the components out of it first. There are also a lot of little bits screwed to the lower dash, like electrical modules, relays, and such. These could have been put in place before the dash was installed and then attached to the wiring harness. Another interesting tidbit is Lotus' mantra of making each part perform multiple uses in order to save weight. This is even true with rivits. The fuse panel and relays are tucked into the opening on the left side of the dash panel. The relay holders clip together and are then rivited to the fibreglass dash panel. There are two rows of relays - the one on the left hand side backs up to the fuse panel. The rivits for the relays also help hold the fuse panel in place.

Before the leather can be redyed, it needs to be prepared. Leather dye isn't really a dye like a fabric dye. It is not absorbed into the leather, rather it is applied to the leather a lot like paint. Unlike paint, leather dyes are very flexible and somewhat porous - but not very. All of that leather conditioner we slather on our cars doesn't get into the leather unless you close up the car and park it in the sunlight for a few hours. Anyway, before you can apply new dye, you really need to remove as much of the old dye as possible. You do this by wet sanding the leather with 320-grit wet/dry sandpaper. You need to pay close attention while doing this, because if you go too far, you create suede. You also need to be careful around folds and seams - folds because they become suede faster because they are raised, and seams because you don't want to sand the thread in the seams. Below you can see how the back panel looks after I sanded half of it.

And here you can see how some of the smaller bits look after dye removal. All of the leather is salvageable, with the exception of the instrument binnacle. The leather around the defroster vent has become unglued over the years and has started to shrink and dry out. It doesn't appear that it will ever be pliable enough to glue back down.

The next step is to start treating the leather with Leatherique's Rejuvenator Oil. This stuff really works well with the dye out of the way. I treated the leather in my '83 Esprit with this stuff 10 years ago when I thought I would replace the leather anyway. That leather was like cardboard - very stiff. I sanded the dye off and treated the panels with the rejuvenator oil twice a day for several weeks. At first, I couldn't get halfway down the door panel with a handful of the oil before it was all absorbed. By the end of the treatments, you could still see some oil on the surface for an hour or two after I rubbed it down. I'll do the same with this leather.

Scrubbing Bubbles

2010-02-21T20:56:00.003-06:00

I took some time today to try out some different leather cleaners I have around the barn. Since FrankEnSPRIT's interior was so dirty, I figured this would be a good test. So out came the Leatherique Prestine (sic) Clean, Zymoil Leather Cleaner, and Simple Green. Here is what I started with...

The Leatherique product had the least amount of impact on the dirt. To be fair, it is about 10 years old and had separated some while sitting on the shelf. In second place was the zymoil product. Top of the heap was good ol' Simple Green. You could see where it was sprayed on the leather, as the spots where the liquid hit were cleaner than where it missed. I did the whole thing with Simple Green, and while pleased with the results, I will still be redying the interior. It sure does a good job of cleaning the leather, but it doesn't help the fading. Here is an after shot...

I don't think I would use Simple Green as my regular cleaner. It is pretty harsh and needs to be rinsed off. For tough dirt, Simple Green is great, but for every day cleaning, I would use the Zymoil cleaner followed by their conditioner.

Inner Space

2010-02-20T22:07:00.003-06:00

With the front ductwork on hold until I can figure out what to do next, I have turned my attention to the interior. When I first got the car, the interior looked reasonable. The lighting in the barn where I first saw the car wasn't all that good, but it seemed it would be presentable after a good scrub. So that is what I thought I would do over the next week or so. So I stared pulling out door panels, A-pillar trim, center armrest, and whatever else I could get to while not able to get the doors open all the way. Which means the seats, dash, and binnacle are still inside the car. What I was able to take out will keep me busy enough until I can move stuff around.

While removing the door panels, I found more parts of the alarm system that just had to go - these were the power lock actuators. I never got a key fob with the car, so it is just as well that I get rid of all of this stuff. I think that is the last of it with the exception of a wire leading up into the instrument cluster. I'm not sure what it would be for, but it will be gone soon enough.

Here you can see all of the interior parts I was able to take out - door panels, console, rear panel, steering column surround, fuse box cover, center armrest, A-pillar trim, glovebox door, headliner, and cant rails. When you lay them all out on a table where you can set parts that don't normally go together, you can see just how distressed this interior is. So now, instead of a good scrubbing, I'm faced with redying everything. That's not a bad thing, as I did this with the interior of my black Esprit as stopgap until I could afford a retrim. It turned out good enought that 7 years later I still have not had the leather replaced.

One of the trouble areas of this vintage Esprit is the headliner and cant rails. Lotus took the foam-backed material and wrapped it around the pinch rail for the weatherstrip for the sunroof, as you can see in these photos. This leads to a problem if you happen to park with the car facing downhill during a rain shower. Water collects in the gutter around the sunroof and wicks into the fabric or it leaks in through the slots for the tabs on the sunroof. This leads to stains in the fabric. I'm not sure just what to do about it other than trying to seal the tab slots and weatherstrip to the body to prevent water from reaching the fabric. If anybody has solved this problem, I am all ears...

One piece of good news is the sunroof itself. When I got the car, the sunroof was well and truly stuck. In fact, the original sunroof was damaged by someone trying to pry it out of the car. I was able to find an unpainted repalacement, but it too got stuck when I tried it out. Since the car has been sitting on jack stands and not on the wheels, the sunroof now works like it should. It appears that several years without the weight of the engine or the rear frame support installed had warped the body enough to capture the sunroof. Now that pressure has been relieved, the body seems to have returned to its normal stance. Now I have to decide if I want to use the painted but damaged original top or have the undamaged, unpainted replacement top. I will have to paint the bumpers and front valance anyway, so it is a bit of a tossup at this point.

Next up I will start removing the old dye from the interior. This involves lots of wet sanding of leather. The trick is to stop sanding before you start making suede.

Making It All Fit

2010-02-07T19:09:00.010-06:00

Its one thing to find all kinds of good used original parts at reasonable prices all over the world and have them shipped to your home. Its another to get to the point where you can actually start fitting those parts to the car. Today I fit the SE radiator duct and the Sport 350 oil cooler ducts, coolers and duct platforms to the nose of the car.

I expected that there would be some fibreglass work and some new holes to add to get everything to fit. I was pleasantly surprised at how well things lined up. The mounting holes on the right hand side lined up perfectly, although some of the holes cut to fit around some of the other mounting hardware in the body will need to be moved. On the left hand side, two holes have to be moved in addition to the relief holes. I drilled some quick holes in the duct to get it bolted up to the car. I will need to patch the holes in the wrong place and redrill, but it is good enough for now. There are also two holes in the front of the duct that were not used on the '87 duct, so those have been drilled into the car. They are located in the space below the headlamp pods, so I will need to add nutserts when I finally mount it up.

The oil cooler duct platforms also mounted up a lot easier than I expected. Most of the holes are already in the radiator duct, so some old M6 bolts are holding it together for now. The platforms are also supported by the lower edge of front spoiler, so they will help define the dimensions of the new spoiler.

Since a lot of space in the sides of the spoiler was empty in the early cars, Lotus put stuff there - like horns and hoses. These had to be moved to make room for the oil coolers and ductwork.

Once space is made, you can see that everything will fit in the space available. Some holes will need to be moved and others will need to be filled. The oil coolers are hanging from one of the bolts for the original front spoiler. They aren't quite in the right spot, but that's the nice thing about fibreglass. It's easy to move stuff like holes. You can also see that some of the bits extend outside of the body lines...

Lotus made a styling change in 1988. In my opinion Peter Stevens did a great job, as the car was modernized yet still instantly recognizeable as an Esprit. The hard origami edges of the Esprit were softened and the front and rear bumpers were integrated into the overall design. One of the changes he made was to bring the front spoiler forward to almost match up with the leading edge of the bumper. The cooling boys took advantage of this and moved the leading edge of the radiator duct forward as well, as you can see here.

In addition, the width of the front bumper was carried all the way back to the wheel opening and down into the sides of the spoiler. When the chargecooler was added, this extra space in the sides of the spoiler was filled with oil coolers and ductwork. So part of the fibreglass work I will need to do is make a whole new front spoiler and bumper cover to hide all the new stuff. And make it look nice.

Noting Some Differences

2009-12-31T15:40:00.008-06:00

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

2009-12-29T19:30:00.007-06:00

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

2009-12-26T16:54:00.007-06:00

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.

(Almost) New Rear Brakes

2009-11-21T12:09:00.003-06:00

I have been fishing around on the web for a different rear brake solution. I had originally picked up a pair of early V8 rear brake calipers but they seemed to be a little under spec when compared to the 4-pot Sport 350 AP Racing front calipers I picked up from the Lotus aftersales list. I am very close to landing a pair of Sport 300 rear calipers from a gent in the UK. He has a pair that will need some reconditioning before I can use them, so they will spend some time with AP in England getting refurbished before being shipped to me.

So, as far as parts acquisition has been going, I think I am in pretty good shape. There are two relatively rare major assemblies I still need to source, and that is the chargecooler and a late rear housing for the gearbox. The rear housing isn't a complete necessity as I can use the cover on the gearbox as it is, however I can't use the better shifter mechanism with it. Another alternative would be to have another cross-shaft made if I can't find a rear cover that is reasonably priced. I should be able to have a cross-shaft made for the price of some of the covers I have seen out there.

It's a Gearbox!

2009-11-16T12:29:00.006-06:00

I was finally able to complete assembling the spare Citroen gearbox the LOONs and I started working with way back on Memorial Day weekend. We got as far as torquing the speedo drive gear, which is also the nut that retains the pinion shaft. Because of an assembly order glitch, I couldn't tighten up the nut (to 120 ft-lbs!) with the crow's foot wrench I had made for this purpose because I had already put on the rear housing. Harry Martens in the Netherlands has had a purpose-made tool built for just this situation, and rather than save a few hundred bucks and take the rear housing off and using the tools I already have, I ordered on up. Due to customs, it took a couple of months to get here. Plus my natural tendency towards laziness, it took this long to finish up.
As nice as the new tool is (and it is a nice piece of kit - it requires a 30mm socket to drive it!), it still won't fit over the speedo drive gear with the 5th gear synchro and shift ring in place. In order to remove that, you have to remove the shifter fork, and in order to remove the shifter fork, you have to remove the selector rail. In the process of pulling all of these bits out, you release 4 spring-loaded ball bearings - one for the selector rail detent and three for the shift ring detents. Of course, they all go in different directions and can bounce and roll a long way on a smooth concrete floor. I knew there was a reason I keep the floor relatively clean. After 45 minutes of rounding up the wayward bearings and 15 minutes of reassembling everything (after torquing the nut), I could put the top and rear covers on.

Four and a half pints of Redline gear oil and the box is ready to go on the shelf....

Or not.

There is a keyway cut into the tail of the pinion shaft. This isn't really for a key. Instead, after torquing the speedo drive gear, you are supposed to take a punch and dimple the drive gear into the keyway to keep it from backing off of the shaft. I distinctly remember seeing the slot and reminding myself to take that step, but I also remember not doing it. So, off comes the rear cover.

A whack with a hammer and a punch....

Clean up the mating surfaces and back goes the cover.

Now for FrankEnSPRIT. I was looking to hook up the oil lines for the turbo. What's wrong with this picture?

It turns out that the orientation of the turbo inlet, outlet, oil and coolant lines is different in the Emme front engine configuration vs. the mid-engine location for the Esprit. Fortunately, it is pretty easy to loosen up the housing bolts and rotate things into the proper position.

Odds & Ends

2009-09-19T19:31:00.006-05:00

We have had an unusually dry, sunny and mild summer. It has been over three weeks since our last cloudy day, and the highest the temps have been is low 80's. So, not much time has been spent in the barn working on cars as I have been out driving the cars and enjoying the weather. Some of the activities have included the annual Labor Day Porsche Picnic in our front yard. This marks the third year we have had the event here. It's the easiest party to have, as all we need to do is announce the date, fire up the grill, and cars from all over SE Minnesota show up. We have had perfect weather each year and are already making plans for next year. We have had everything from early 356's to GT2s and GT3s show up.

Another diversion was hepling a DeLorean buddy reinstall his engine. Jim tracked me down about 12 years ago looking to see a DeLorean for real and maybe get a ride. He came down with his dad and spent a Sunday afternoon looking at our DeLorean I took him on a short drive before they headed home in Minneapolis. Now Jim has his own car, a house, wife and son. Yeesh time flies. He rebuilt his engine over the summer and wanted to get the engine back in place in time to go to a wedding in Chicago. I went up to his place on a Saturday afternoon and helped him get it installed. He does really good work.

Finally, today I went to Bremseth Body Shop's annual open house. John painted my black '83 Esprit shortly after opening his shop in Wykoff Minnesota after years of working out of his garage. He now has 3 full time technicians in addition to his son Cory working on all manner of stuff, from VW microbuses and Things (one stretch version and a shortened one), hot rods, trucks, pony cars, Jags, you name it. He is currently working on my '71 Mustang convertible. It has been there a while, but progress is being made. It will eventually sport a Grabber Blue exterior with silver hockey stick stripe, black top and white interior. I really need to get FrankEnSPRIT done before this car comes back all shiny and bright, ready for final assembly.
Progress is being made on FrankEnSPRIT in spite of the good weather. I finally found a muffler support cradle, I've mounted the coil packs and started hooking up the electrics, and I have finished as much of the old FrankEnSPRIT engine reassembly as I am going to do for now. The exhaust manifold, wastegate and adapter, turbo and turbo outlet have all been mounted. The engine is now sleeping under it's sheet, waiting for a real rebuild.

A Slight Diversion

2009-08-31T09:48:00.002-05:00

And no, it's not quilting. While driving the '83 Esprit late last week, I noticed the unmistakeable sound of an exhaust leak as I passed near walls and other vehicles on the driver's side of the car. I knew I had lost at least one exhaust manifold stud over the years since I fixed the original leak the car came with. So I figured I lost a couple of more and that was causing the leak. In fact, once the car heated up, the leak disappeared.

I put the car up on stands and pulled the left rear wheel. I have a supplemental heat shield between the wheel housing and the engine compartment that blocks the view of the manifold. I took that off and started looking around. What I found was that 8(!) of the 12 studs had parted ways with the car. That explains the leak. I also noticed I have an oil leak from the base of the exhaust cam housing, I haven't changed the timing belt since the car was painted 5 years ago, and I haven't done the carbs or checked valve clearances in that time, so there is definitely some deferred maintenance to tend to this winter. All of those tasks are easier with the engine on a stand. Given that and the amount of time it would take to get new studs from JAE, I decided to secure the manifold with what I had on hand and plan on pulling the engine this winter to handle the rest of the work.

I managed to scrounge up enough studs from FrankEnSPRIT and some exhaust bits I had collected up over the years. Five hours and six pairs of latex gloves later, I had managed to get 6 of the 8 empty holes filled. One I just can't get to with the engine in the car and the length of the studs I have on hand (kinda makes you wonder how it fell out in the first place), the other I think is blocked in part by the gasket. This runner was furthest away from the studs that were still installed in the car and the gasket had moved a bit. I got it centered enough to get two studs in, but the third just doesn't wanna budge. At any rate, the noise is gone, so it is good enough for now.

Next up on FrankEnSPRIT is hoses. Jeff is pulling together a set of silicone hoses for the front and rear plumbing. I'll order up two sets to cover the '83 Esprit when I take the engine out when the snow flies.

When Hobbies Converge

2009-08-12T17:37:00.003-05:00

My wife is a quilter. A very focused, prolific quilter. Most of what she does is given away to friends and family or to local support groups or charities for auction. You can see more of her work here. And apparently she is running out of things to quilt. So now she has turned her attention to the barn.

The first project she completed was a cover for the hardtop for the Boxster. It sits on a little cart all summer, and the quilt keeps it from getting scratched or dinged as it gets rolled out of the way. It also keeps dust and overspray from settling on it.

Her latest project is a quilted cover for my barn TV. I don't actually get any stations on it since I'm too cheap to buck up for an extra satellite hookup for it. Instead, it provides occasional background entertainment with the replay of the decade of F1 races I have recorded over the years.

Rumor has it she's planning a car cover-sized quilt...

Engine Compartment Brace

2009-08-10T10:45:00.003-05:00

With the engine in place and most of the bulkier accessories attached, it's time to fit the engine compartment brace. This brace stiffens the engine cradle and was a key handling improvement in the Sport 300. The brace is bolted to the frame tubes over some conical fixtures. This is my first attempt to figure out where those fixtures need to be welded to the frame tubes.

The brace has to provide additional rigidity to the frame, but it also has to clear the engine while fitting into the engine compartment and under the rear hatch. It also needs to be removable in case the engine has to come out.

Here is the brace sitting on the frame.

As you can see, the fit is pretty tight at the top of the engine.

And even tighter around the front of the engine. Here it has been bent a bit to make room for the cam pulley. With the body on the car, the bulkhead will be very close to this tube, and there are a number of hoses and cables that need to fit through here. To make sure everything fits, I am planning to fashion a bulkhead I can bolt to the frame to make sure I'll have room for everything before reaching for a welder.

There are also some things that will need to be moved. This post provides an attachment point for the coolant tube that runs from the top of the water pump down to the coolant hose to the radiator. It will have to be cut off and moved.

Square Peg, Round Hole

2009-07-29T18:06:00.008-05:00

This installment sees the completion of bolting together the parts of the old FrankEnSPRIT engine, installing the gearbox mounts and mounting the shifter. None of it too difficult, but satisfying for the progress and increased shelf space. First the engine:

The first steps were to install the alternator and the AC compressor. I'm still missing two spacers for the compressor - one behind the rear bracket where it mounts to the aux housing and the other between the rear bracket and the compressor itself.

The parts that really freed up space were the intake manifold and plenum. I finally have all of the parts up off of the floor! This assembly will be tucked under a sheet until either FrankEnSPRIT is on the road or I blow the engine in the '83 turbo. With the wastegate diaphragm torn in the '83, it's neck and neck as to which will occur first.

Gearbox mounts were next. This allowed the removal of the board under the gearbox and got the whole unit down to the proper stance in the frame. I also bolted in the rear crossmember to keep everything nice and rigid. This will be important when figuring out where to place the Sport 300 engine cradle brace. Fixtures for that will need to be welded to the tubes of the frame and then the brace is bolted through the fixtures.

Another part I need to source is the muffler support cradle. This is a small bit of framing that bolts to the open holes in the gearbox mount brackets that provides hangers for the muffler behind the gearbox and cable mounts for the "midyear" shifters. There is a set of cable mounts on both sides of the latest cradles so they will work on cars with either left-hand or right-hand translators. If I can't find a gearbox rear housing for the V8 shifter, I will have to revert to the midyear shifter. Fortunately, I was able to secure one at the Lotus Garage Sale.

The last task of the night was fitting the shifter and cables into the frame. Here is a shot of the opening for the shifter. Note the coolant and vacuum tubes inside the box section. The main engine coolant tubes have flats formed into them to allow clearance for the shifter side to side. The tubes in the bottom are deep enough to not interfere with the levers. If you look closely at the round in the upper right hand corner (click on the photo to make it larger) of the shifter opening you will see a small crack forming. Another upgrade I will need to do is to add the frame reinforcement around the shifter. These parts are no longer available, but hopefully I will be able to find one I can use as a pattern to make one.

There is another modification (also known as fettling) to make to fit the new shifter. Note the round section of the opening and the square section of the base of the shifter. Corners will have to be opened up in order to get everything to fit. I ran some tape from the straight sections as a guide and eyeballed the left edge. It looked like it need to be tangent to the circular section, so that is where I decided to make my cuts. If I needed more space, a grinder or file would make short work of it.

Here is the result of a few minutes with a Dremel tool, a flexible extension to get into the small area, a handful of (fragile) cutoff wheels.

My initial guess was spot on, as the shifter slipped nicely into place, in perfect alignment with the mounting holes. The hole is where the shift lever mounts, and the aluminum block below the mount is the reverse lockout. This is the bit you have to lift the collar over in order to shift into reverse. It will need some adjustment after I get the mechanism at the rear of the gearbox sorted out.

Appeasing Mother Nature

2009-07-19T19:36:00.007-05:00

It is said that nature abhors a vacuum. Nature also seems to abhor an empty engine stand. Today I reassembled the major components of the engine that was originally installed in FrankEnSPRIT. No pistons, valves, or crank, but all of the other mahor bits have been bolted back together. This accomplishes two things: it protects the mating surfaces of all of the components and it frees up some valuable shelf space. While going through the reassembly process, it was pretty easy to tell that this is not the first time this engine has been apart. There are some non-standard fasteners and sealants in use, some dodgy repairs to accessory mounts like the air pump mount, and some stripped threaded holes in the block (for the oil pan). There is also some kind of coating on the block. I haven't seen this on other Lotus engines, so I assume it was added by a previous owner. It is not grime, as it is too uniform. The solution in the parts cleaner won't touch it, so I'll try some paint remover on the bottom of the pan.

Here is the front of the block, with the front cover and aux housing installed. You can also see the motor mounts - and the gaping space where the crank would be.
Here the auxiliary housing and oil gallery cover have been bolted up. The horseshoe for the oil lines to the oil cooler is installed, along with the lower A/C compressor bracket and alternator mount bracket. The distributor is also present and accounted for.Here is the rear cover. Note the hex-head screws. All other Esprit engines I have seen use button head screws here.
On goes the head. This is the intake manifold side. The exhaust manifold side has stainless studs (not original equipment, and about a third of them are missing.
The cam housings and covers have been added. The cams installed are 107's. You can gain a little more low-end performance with a 104 cam on the intake side, along with the infamous "green dot" cam pulleys on both the intake and exhaust cams. The pulley on the aux housing is a green dot pulley, the others are red and blue dot. So not only do I need a cam, I also need another pulley.Here is the exhaust side.Here is the front with the water pump, vacuum pump, and A/C compressor mount in place.

A Milestone

2009-07-11T17:47:00.006-05:00

While waiting for the additional shims to arrive, I decided it was time to mate up the gearbox and engine and set them into the frame. Since Jay replaced all of the fasteners with stainless, that end of the frame was ready. So, the first step is to remove the engine from the engine stand and reinstall the flywheel and clutch. The flywheel was easy enough, however the clutch was a bit of a problem. It turns out, the Emme clutch disc has a different spline pattern than the input shaft of the Renault gearbox. Fortunately, the clutch disc from the original FrankEnSPRIT drivetrain matches the input shaft.

With the clutch and flywheel installed, the next step is to mate the gearbox up with the engine. This is a little tricky, as you need to work the bell housing around the exhaust manifold as you insert the input shaft into the clutch and spigot bearing. Once lined up, the bell housing is drawn up to the block with the bolts.

With the drive train bolted together, the whole shebang is picked up and rolled over to the frame. I removed the rear crossmember, as it makes it a lower lift to put the engine in place.

As you can see, it's a tight fit, even with the bodywork removed. The eagle-eyed readers will note that there is a plank holding up the gearbox. Tim has my gearbox mounts in order to make some drawings of them. The mounts are getting pretty rare, and as long as we have a loose set, it only makes sense to measure them up and make some drawings in case we need to have some made later on. Once the drawings are done, the mounts will be installed and the plank removed. I can also hook up the halfshafts when the gearbox mounts are installed.

Next up will be to install the hoses for the front of the engine compartment and make sure I have all the pipes and tubes to close the system. I also have to modify the shifter mount to make room for the new shifter. This will involve some cutting of sheet metal to make room. I will also be bolting up the major components of FrankEnSPRIT's original engine and puttint it on the engine stand. This will give me a little more storage space and help protect the engine mating surfaces, studs, and the liners. All of the internals, like pistons, crankshaft, rods, valves, and the like will not be installed at this time. I can also start working with the wiring harnesses I got from the Lotus garage sale.

Almost a Gearbox

2009-06-28T15:37:00.012-05:00

Tim, Dave, Jay and his son Ben came down yesterday to help me put my spare Citroen gearbox back together, and if we were lucky, mate up the new Renault 'box and Emme engine and put them into the frame. Turns out this was an ambitious plan.

We made some pretty good progress on the gearbox. I had all of the bearings, gears, and other bits on hand, along with the setup tools I had made a few years ago. By the way, the setup tools and shim/spacer kit I have is available to anyone who needs to rebuild their gearbox. Just let me know and I'll ship it out to you.

Rebuilding these gearboxes is not hard, but it is fiddly. You have to make some educated guesses for the shims and spacers for each step, put most of the gearbox togther, torque everything down, and take measurements. Then, take it all apart, calculate what your next set of shims/spacers need to be, put it all together again and take another measurement. Most of the time the math works and you don't have to make another trial. Other times you are not so lucky. We ran out of luck when setting the backlash for the crownwheel and pinion.

The first step in this process is to set the pinion height. This is the distance between the top of the pinion and the centerline of the differential. Part of the kit is a fixture that is used to accurately measure this distance. The tool has a known thickness and fits in the saddles for the differential support bearings. There is a pin that drops through the fixture and rests on the top of the pinion. A dial indicator is used to measure the distance the pin drops below the fixture. The goal is to match the sum of the fixture thickness and the distance the pin drops to the number etched into the top of the pinion. The distance is adjusted by replacing a shim in the stack of gears behind the pinion. We were off a bit with our first measurement, but calculating a new shim thickness and replacing it with the closest shim we had in the kit.

This blurry picture shows the fixture with the brass pin just resting on the top of the pinion.

Next, you need to figure out how much thickness you need in shims to set the differential bearing preload. This is the amount of "squish" on the conical roller bearings that support the differential provided by the spacers and the clamping force of the output housings. This is measured by wrapping a string around the differential hub and pulling on the string with a fish scale. The highest reading you see before the hub starts to move is the preload. In order to get a good reading, the differential support bearing races need to be clamped into the gearbox housing. These clamps are parts I had made 3-4 years ago and are part of the rebuild toolkit. We used the shims that were originally installed in this gearbox as a starting point and sure enough, the preload was within spec.

Setting the bearing preload.

With the pinion at the correct height and knowing the total thickness of shims you need to have the correct preload, now you need to determine how much of that thickness needs to be on the right side of the diff and how much needs to be on the left side to get the correct amount of lash between the crownwheel and pinion. With the pinion in place, the differential is put back into the box, with shims, clamps and output housings installed. The pinion is locked in place, and with the dial indicator on a flat of one of the crownwheel teeth, the crownwheel is rocked back and forth from pinion tooth to pinion tooth. The amount of movement is the lash. If the lash is too much, you move thickness from the right side to the left side to move the crown wheel closer to the pinion. If the lash is too small, you move thickness from left to right.

The trick is to move the crownwheel closer to or farther from the pinion by swapping out shims without changing the overall thickness of all of the shims. This is where we ran out of luck. We didn't have a large enough selection of shims to give us the right balance right to left. This has stopped us until I can order up more shims to fill in some gaps in our stock.

While we were doing this, Jay was working on swapping out some steel hardware in the motor, gearbox and trailing arm mounts with stainless fasteners. Ben made himself busy riding his unicycle, shooting up defensless pop bottles with a pellet gun and carving me a nifty, monogramed open-end combination wrench. He was moving around enough we didn't get a picture of him...

Here is the Renault gearbox, ready to be installed.

Thirty Three Pounds...

2009-06-09T09:31:00.002-05:00

of bolts. That's what the boxes from McMaster Carr weighed according to UPS. Inside were 18-8 stainless steel fasteners that will be used for non-structural uses in FrankEnSPRIT.

I hate rust. That is one of the reasons I like cars like Lotus. With fiberglass bodies, galvanized frames and aluminum drive trains, rust is usually not a problem (fuel tanks not withstanding). There are still a lot of steel fasteners in the car, and that is what the bolts are for. I am replacing as many of the bolts, washers, nuts, and screws as I can reach with stainless parts. So,engine accessory bolts, cover bolts, gearbox cover fasteners, exhaust, interior, ductwork - all of these fasteners will be changed out for stainless.

There are some fasteners that really shouldn't be replaced with stainless parts, including parts like suspension bolts, body to frame mounting bolts, and anything that would take a lot of shear forces or impact forces. There are a couple of reasons for this. First - stainless is relatively hard, and because of that, relatively brittle compared to steel. Hardness can cause problems for bolts that take a lot of impact stress, like suspension bolts. The constant hammering from bumps, turns, starts and stops put a lot of stress into the bolts and the mounting points in the frame. A hard bolt will transmit those forces into the frame and could damage the mounting points by bending them. A brittle bolt (vs one that will bend) is a problem, since it is much better to bend a suspension bolt than to have it shatter under load. Shattered bolts mean wheels don't stay attached to the car. Usually at the most inopportune time. So those will be replaced with brand new parts from a quality supplier to better ensure the quality of plating, hardness, and threads. Those won't go on until all of the suspension parts have been refinished.

In other news, there is another Lotus garage sale going on this month. There aren't any new parts in the list this time and the prices haven't come down, but there are still some things that I didn't buy last time that have been ordered through Bell & Colville. Unfortunately, Andy has resigned but Tom seems to be just as attentive, so I expect another great experience. This time I am picking up some fuel tanks and front and rear shock absorber sets from various years of Esprits. The fuel tanks are more insurance than needed parts. These tanks have a habit of rusting, and the tanks in the '83 have never been out of the car or inspected. With a spare set of tanks in the barn, they will never rust, so I won't have to replace them. At least that is the plan. The dampers will give me some options when it comes time to actually drive the car and set up the suspension, and the whole lot of them is less expensive than a single pair of adjustables, so it seems like a pretty good deal.

Finally, there are plans to put the engine and gearbox into the car. I am off the week ahead of the July 4th holiday. Tim will be coming down the first weekend to help me reassemble a spare Citroen gearbox I have for the '83 car, which will free up some space in the barn by consolidating parts. I think I have found a source for all of the clutch acutating parts (fork, adjusters, spring) for the Renault gearbox and those parts should arrive in time to put the gearbox and engine together. Once that is done, the whole lump can be dropped into the frame and I can start hooking up wiring harnesses, plumbing, etc. Stay tuned...

All Quiet on the Barnward Front

2009-05-25T20:34:00.004-05:00

Not much progress on FrankEnSPRIT in the last six weeks. I've picked up a set of suspension bushes for the front lower A-arm that should improve breaking response. Other than that, I've been spending time getting the rest of the fleet on the road for summer and rearranging the barn to be able to get all of the cars in and out without having to move anything.

Oh - and yardwork. Lots of yardwork.

Here are the other toys...

The DeLorean got a new steering rack, some idler bearings, and a bunch of other bits and bobs during the winter. After a first class alignment at Uptown Firestone in Rochester, it is handling as well as it ever did.

This is FrankEnSPRIT's older sister. My 1983 Esprit Turbo. It got a new set of BF Goodrich G-Sport tires this spring to replace the balding Yokohama AVS Intermediates. No opinion on the grip levels yet, but the ride is a bit better. Uptown Firestone provided the mounting and balancing.

Finally, our 2005 Elise. Almost road ready, with the exception of a check engine light for a P0012 code - a retarded cam. It is taking awhile to sort this one out, but I should have it on the road in a week.

Plumbing - Ugh

2009-04-13T19:37:00.007-05:00

There is something about plumbing that I just don't like to do. I'm not very good at it for one thing, and it always seems that no matter how many parts you have on hand to fix a drain, you always need one or two more. Plumbing on a car is a little better, but still not one of my favorite jobs. In this case, I actually had MORE parts than I needed, which sometimes is just as perplexing - especially if you don't know which parts are the spares. So, I am happy to have this job out of the way.

When I got the frame from Keen Young, I also got an armload of aluminum tubes and rubber hoses. I started with 10 pipes. Two long larger-diameter pipes with 90 degree bends on one end and flats pressed around midway, another long larger-diameter pipe without a bend with a nipple soldered on to one end and a flat pressed in. Six medium diameter straight pipes with various lengths of hose attached to one end, and a single small diameter straight pipe. Some of them are shown here. If you click on the picture and look at the enlargement, you can make out the flat spots on the bigger pipes.

The location of the smaller pipes was pretty easy to figure out. There is a row of five holes along the bottom of the frame that is just right for four of the long medium pipes and the small pipe. The four pipes are for coolant - one pair for the heater core and the other pair for the chargecooler radiator. The smallest, center pipe is a vacuum line. This runs from the mechanical vacuum pump bolted to the engine to the brake power booster. These smaller pipes need to be installed from the rear of the car, as the front T section obstructs access from the front.

The big hole in the center is for the oil cooler lines. These are high pressure flexible rubber hoses that carry filtered oil to the front of the car and return it to the engine. I don't need to install these lines for what I want to do now, so I will leave them out. The smaller hole to the lower right is for the shifter cables.

The bigger tubes were the challenging bits. I assumed that the second bent pipe was a spare and that I was to install one bent pipe and the pipe with the nipple. The problem was, I couldn't find any parts manuals that showed that combination of pipes. I also missed an important detail in the '88-'92 parts manual that showed the two bent pipes in the cooling diagram. The drawing had some splits in the tubes that looked like a flanged pipe end and some 90 degree hoses. I put a post out on the turboesprit list for some help, and within an hour, alert reader Ed Young sent me an email with the relevant picture AND an enlargement of the pipe drawing. Thanks Ed!

The big pipes need to be installed from the front of the car, as that is where the bends are. It turns out, the flats are in the pipes to make room for the gearshift mechanism, as you can see here.

There are still some bits missing. There are grommets that fit around the pipes where they pass through the frame that will need to be replaced, and there are some high-tech sleeves put around the pipes where they run through some interior bulkheads to keep the bulkheads from sawing through the pipes. I'm not going to worry about those bits just yet, as the frame will come apart once again to be refinished before reinstalling everything for real.

She's A Roller!

2009-03-22T21:16:00.007-05:00

FrankEnSPRIT is now mobile - sorta. It is on all four wheels, ready for plumbing and a drive train. The wheels and tires it is sitting on weren't part of the original plan. I bought these wheels for the black Esprit in the photos, but, they don't quite fit. They have the correct offset front and rear and the proper diameter and width, but they don't have the right bolt pattern. At least not for a 1983 Esprit. They fit a treat on FrankEnSPRIT, but only for build purposes. They are too small for the brakes I plan to use on the car, so they will have to be replaced. In the meantime, I am going to figure out how I can use them on the '83. They would look awesome...

The ductwork in the front of the car are the radiator, AC condenser and the chargecooler radiator. Off to the sides are ducts for the oil coolers.

Rubber Buggy Bumpers

2009-03-21T21:11:00.007-05:00

The rubber mounts and Sport 300 brace have arrived. You can see them here...

The mounts to the right are the trailing arm mounts, in the center we have the motor mounts and buffer washers, and on the left are the gearbox mounts. I installed these today, along with one of the shocks Dave brought down. I now have a three-wheeled frame. I should get the fourth corner mounted tomorrow.

For the first time since starting this blog, it has the opportunity to actually help somebody. One of the guys on the Turboesprit list has an '84 Esprit that needs new motor mounts. So, here are some pictures to help you through the replacement.

First - here is a shot of the orgami heat shield over the left motor mount. This shield is required, otherwise the exhaust manifold would cook the rubber motor mount in a matter of weeks. Early cars had an asbestos shield that was not this complex. The top 2 layers of this need to be removed to get at the bolt holding the mounting leg to the motor mount.

There really is a motor mount under all of that. This is what they look like - from the right side, which does not have a heatshield - instead it has part of the shifter installed over the top.

The nuts for the motor mounts are inside the box section of the frame. You can get to them with stubby wrenches fro mthe side (you can just see an access hole to the left of the mount) and from underneath.

There is enough slack in all of the hoses, pipes, wires, etc. around the engine that you can tilt it up high enough to remove the mounts, or you can remove the mounting legs from the block. Here is a picture of the right hand side leg bolted to the block. The left side is similar, but behind the exhaust manifold, which is not as restrictive as it might sound.

The next steps for FrankEnSPRIT are to assemble the Sport 300 brace and figure out how and where to mount it to the frame. The brace bolts to 4 bungs that are welded to the engine cradle. There is one bolt per leg that passes through the brace into the bung. The bungs are tapered at the top, like steel tepees. When the boys at Lotus were welding up the Sport 300 frames, they welded the bungs in place before sending the frame off for galvanizing. As a result, there aren't any spare parts to be had, so something will have to be fabricated. My plan is to pull molds of the inside of the brace legs to get the tapered shape, and then fit the engine into the frame to figure out where the bungs should be welded to the frame.

So, the next steps are to pull those molds, bolt the engine and gearbox together, and then mount the assembly into the frame.

Preparing for Some Assembly

2009-03-10T22:04:00.004-05:00

Not much has happened in the barn lately. When we last left the workshop, Dave had brought down some scrap rear shocks I will use to hold up the rear end of the car when I start test fitting the drive train. That day is coming soon, as I just placed an order for the rubber engine and gearbox mounts with JAE. I have also ordered a special bit of kit that was made for the Esprit Sport 300.

The Sport 300 was a special version of the Esprit that is arguably the best-handling road-going Esprit ever offered for sale. Roughly 64 Sport 300's were built in 1993. What made them special was uprated everything, from horsepower to torque, brakes to chassis stiffness. The only thing that wasn't uprated was weight - a couple hundred pounds were trimmed off. My engine will not quite reach Sport 300 performance, at least not until I can find a big-valve head and Sport 300 chargecooler. I have the right front brakes and can add the appropriate rear brakes to the hub carriers I already have. The '87 body of FrankEnSPRIT is already lighter than the Stevens body the Sport 300 started with, so weightwise I should be in good shape, maybe even a bit lighter overall.

The piece I have ordered is an engine compartment brace that is bolted to the top of the engine cradle. This brace, coupled with a stiffening plate at the opening for the gearshift lever and some additional gussets around the front crossmember is what gave the Sport 300 its exceptional handling. With a bare frame and a factory part, how could I resist? It will make access to the engine compartment a bit tougher and I may have to make some "adjustments" to the engine cover. Time will tell. But it should be worth it in the end.

Next step is to spend some quality time with the parts manuals and order up all of the fasteners I will need to bolt the gearbox to the engine and mount all of the new rubber bits coming from JAE. I like McMaster-Carr for stuff like this, as you can order stainless parts a bolt at a time and they charge you the same rate per part as if you bought a box of 100 pieces. Brilliant!

It's A Sad Day...

2009-02-10T09:32:00.003-06:00

Our 1994 Lincoln Mark VIII is headed off to who knows where today. After 155,384 of relatively trouble free miles (an alternator, suspension compressor, AC compressor, and lastly, a new fuel pump), the car has been donated to NPR. The fuel pump failed during the last cold snap. We had that replaced, and less than 10 miles later, the front air suspension sprung a leak. Probably a 14 year old o-ring around the solenoid valves that controls the air in the air spring. Fixing this would lead to replacing the shocks and struts, a repair we put off last year as the cost of the repair exceeded the value of the car. It's a little rusty now (I HATE rust), it got biffed on the rear bumper in a Rochester parking garage a few years ago, and it would need tires this summer. It's time.

The only domestic cars we have now are the 1999 Silverado 2500 (the Official Truck of the Lotus Owners Oftha North) and the perpetually under restoration 1971 Mustang Convertible I've had for (gulp) 28 years now. Looks like I need to update that picture album. The car is still at the body shop. Most of the front end metalwork is done, trunk floor replaced, taillamp panel, and core support. The rear fenders have been opened up and now we are waiting for Dynacor to start remanufacturing '71 to '73 body parts like they have been for the '67-'70 model years. But this is a blog about a Lotus...

Not much progress on that front. Some minor parts have come in and I have found some additional parts and service manuals on eBay. I'm still looking for a muffler cradle, so if anybody reading this knows of one I would appreciate the lead.

Strategizing

2009-01-25T12:16:00.002-06:00

Not much has happened over the last few weeks. I received the interior carpet kits from Tony Grasso, and I must say, I am very impressed with his work. I ordered a set of black and a set of grey, so I can do both Esprits. Now I have to decide which color goes into which car. I had planned for a long time to convert the black '83 Esprit interior from tan to grey, which is why I had the headliner redone in grey instead of the original tan. That would leave the black set for FrankEnSPRIT, which may not go quite as well with the metallic blue exterior. Ah well - that's a decision I don't have to worry about for a few years.

I also received some gearbox mounting brackets. There was a bit of confusion on both sides when I went to buy them from a guy in the UK who is parting out an Esprit V8. I wanted the mounting brackets, he thought I wanted the gearbox mounts - which are rubber donuts that fit into the frame to which the mounting brackets are bolted. Fortunately he still had the brackets and he even picked up the shipping tab from the UK. So it all worked out.

Yesterday, Tim, Dave C, Clark and Karl came down from the Twin Cities to pick up Dave's part of the shipment from Bell & Colvill and to take a look at the project. Tim has some '86 Esprit fibreglass parts he was going to use for his Series II Esprit, but has changed his mind. We think we can use these parts (a radiator duct and a chin spoiler) combined with the later radiator duct I got from Lotus and some creative fibreglass work to come up with a radiator duct/chin spoiler combination that would match the '87 front body work better and be easier to install. We also think this could become the basis of a kit for others interested in putting a chargecooler into an earlier G-bodied Esprit withought going to the same lengths that I am. Time will tell. It could be an interesting way to earn back some of the expense of the conversion and help out the rest of the community with some quality parts. We have some other kit ideas, namely a later V8 shifter conversion kit, a frame strengthening kit, and some suspension modifications that could be added to the early cars.

Attitude Adjustment on a Cold Winter Day

2009-01-13T19:12:00.003-06:00

There is something about the arrival of the DHL van (or FedEx or UPS or even the US Postal Service truck) crammed with three big, heavy boxes from Bell & Colvill to take the edge of a cold (-7 as I type) winters day. I had to pull the pickup out of the barn to make space to unload. The result is a nice cache of shiny new parts.

This batch consisted primarily of wiring harnesses and suspension parts purchased through the big 60th Anniversary Lotus Aftersales liquidation. I pick out what I want from a list, send a note to Andy at Bell & Colvill in the UK and he packs it all up and ships it out. It's a great sale, with most parts going for pennies on the dollar. The recent strength of the dollar against the British Pound helps as well.

In the foreground is the combination AC condenser/Chargecooler radiator that will fit nicely in the radiator duct that came with the last batch. Behind the matrix is a used LH oil cooler I got from a V8 being parted out in England, flanked by a pair of oil cooler air ducts. The next row left to right are a couple of harnesses, a makeup tank, springs, gearshift lever for the new shifter, a coolant reservoir tank, more road springs (rear this time, and another harness. Behind the reservoir is a rear hatch release cable and a big pile of wiring harnesses - front harnesses, rear harnesses, engine harnesses, door harnesses, fascia harnesses, a binnacle harness, radiator fan harness, even an oil pressure sensor harness. I probably won't use all of the harnesses, but at the prices being asked, I couldn't buy the connectors from an electrical supply house for less.

The real gems of this shipment are the AP Racing calipers for the front wheels. As you can see, they are almost too pretty to put on the car. Almost. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the front calipers are almost the same shade of blue as the car - that was not planned. They are pictured here with new splash shields and the rear calipers I will be using. Don't worry about the relative sizes of the calipers. The fronts do most of the work anyway.

The last outstanding box to arrive is a set of gearbox mounting brackets for the hi-torque gearbox. Once they are here, I can order up some rubber bits and bolts and such from JAE and start fitting things together. That'll keep the barn good and warm...

It's Just Like Christmas

2008-12-18T11:04:00.001-06:00

I use a number of sources for parts, some more reliable than others. It really helps to get familiar with all of the Lotus Esprit parts manuals that are available out there for this kind of conversion. I have a couple of 80-87 manuals - one for UK cars and one for US cars. I also have PDF files of most of the other parts manuals, such as the S1 and S2 models, 88-92, 93-95, and 96-97 vintages. These can be had from various sources, such as Lotus Esprit World (you have to join Club Lotus to get access), individual websites where owners have scanned in copies of their manuals and making them available online, RD Enterprises has a website with the S1/S2 guides, and some people sell bootleg copies on CD, usually on eBay.

One problem with these electronic manuals is that most are graphical scans - they can't be searched for text, so finding part numbers is a real pain. Some are secure files, which means I can't use Adobe Professional to convert them to searchable PDFs, others are low-resolution scans, so even if they can be converted, the results aren't that great. So, as part of this project, I have created a spreadsheet that contains all of the parts manuals that I have managed to glom onto. It has taken about 3 months of evenings and weekends to transpose everything into Excel. I'm just about done, with some updates for the 80-87 turbo manual, and LEW has a 96-04 book that I need to compare against the 96-97 V8 book I've already converted, plus an S3 book I have on the way from the UK. Oh - and a lot of proofreading to make sure I haven't made any mistakes. I have taken some liberty with the formats of the manuals to fit them into a common table structure and I've tried to improve the consistency of part names and abbreviations used. The result is I now have a searchable list of a whole bunch of Esprit part numbers. What is missing, and what I will be working on in my spare time, is a parts chronology - a "horizontal" list of part numbers by section that shows when parts were added, deleted, and modified. There appears to be enough information in the parts manuals to take a good swipe at it. The problem so far has been trying to come up with a format that works.

The work has paid off, as I can now piece together all of the individual parts I need to glue everything together. More importantly, I know what I don't need to buy, so I can avoid jumping on a "rare" part that "might" be necessary. I can also understand the differences between various vintages of parts like wiring harnesses, fuel tanks, shift mechanisms, and other systems that are specific to model years. I'm counting on it to reduce the amount of wasted expense and the amount of rework I'll need to do on the parts I use.

Speaking of the parts I use, they are starting to arrive. There have been a couple of opportunities that have been too good to pass up that are stretching the budget a bit. Fortunately, my wife is a darned good banker, with flexible loan terms. The biggest source so far has been the Lotus Aftersales list. Lotus in the UK has been having garage sales for all kinds of parts for most of the road cars they have produced over the years. There are some Really Good Deals on this list, especially now that the dollar is stronger. Lotus opens up the factory for a day or two to punters, who pick through the parts and purchase what they need. For those of us unable to get to the factory, we can order parts through a Lotus dealer in the UK. I have been using Bell & Colvill. I send them a list and a credit card number, and Andy boxes everything up and ships it overseas. The first order arrived a few weeks ago, and I have another one in the works. I have found brakes, cooling system parts, wiring harnesses, ductwork, and shifter parts that are brand new for much less than retail. The wiring harnesses are a particularly good find, as I couldn't get the connectors and wires to make the harnesses for the price of the Lotus factory part.

Another great source of parts lately has been Martin Creech at SGT, also in the UK. They have recently announced a 75% off sale on some of their Lotus parts inventory. They have filled in some gaps in ductwork, clutch parts, and other bits and bobs, again new parts at good prices - even when shipping is added.

Other parts are coming from individuals parting out cars all over the world. I find out about these through the various forums out there that support Esprits. The hard part about this method is that in many cases, the owners of the parts don't set prices - they want the buyer to name a price and the negotiation starts from there. Sometimes, the price I pitch is apparently insulting, and that's the last I hear from them. Frustrating. Other times, deals can be worked out where everybody is happy. eBay seems to be the easiest route, because the market is a little more open, and the prices paid are set competitively - for the most part.

JAE is my preferred source for all things consumable, like hoses, suspension bushings, rebuild kits, gaskets, bearings, and brake parts. Jeff is an incredibly knowledgeable resoure, and he has the connections to find parts that are a little harder to find, like brand new hi-torque UN-1 gearboxes. He is a living encyclopedia on Esprit parts and has helped me figure out which routes to take when options arise. I wouldn't be able to do this without his help.

Clearing Out the Interior

2008-12-14T18:38:00.004-06:00

One of the interesting things about this project is that everything seems to be falling together easily. I've been following the Lotus parts market for a long time, first to find parts for my '83, and then for this project. Since I bought the blue car, there suddenly seems to be just what I need popping up on eBay or LEW or somebody decides to part out a car that has just what I need. A case in point is carpeting.

Tony Grasso is an Esprit owner in Arizona. A year or so ago, he decided he wanted to recover his interior. Now Tony is not like most other Esprit owners. Instead of finding a good automotive upholsterer, Tony bought a sewing machine, some leather and a sharp knife and taught himself how to redo an interior. He then started making headliners for other owners and advertising them on the turboesprit list on Yahoogroups. About the time I decided to scrap the carpeting, Tony announced he was going to do carpet sets, and he was looking for patterns for as many Esprit models he could. Soo....

Out came the carpeting. It's one thing to remove carpeting from a car if you don't care about how it looks when you are done. It's another to try and peel it up so it can be used as a pattern for its replacement. Automotive carpeting is designed to be light, inexpensive, and conform to the contours of the interior, which includes some pretty tight corners. As a result, the backing is not very strong, at least when compared with the glue Lotus used to stick it to the car.

It eventually all came out. Above is the drivers side. Tony is also going to reproduce the luggage compartment carpeting, so I took that out as well. It is all now in Arizona, serving as patterns for Tony. Sometime after Christmas, a grey set and a black set will fall off the UPS truck. Later he will turn his sewing machine to the luggage compartment sets.

In addition to removing the carpeting, I started to pull out the rats nest of an alarm that was installed in the car. It was actually well-installed. All of the wires were routed along with the rest of the wiring harnesses in the car, so finding them wasn't a problem. Its just there were a LOT of them. The driving lamps installed in the front air dam were installed at the same time, so I took those out as well. I'll need the opening for airflow to the oil coolers anyway, so they won't be missed. There is one more wire to go that seems to wind its way into the instrument cluster. That will be removed when I pull the binnacle for redying.

This is the stripped out passenger side. The hoses and cables running along the sill are the AC lines and wiring harnesses for the dash and front of the car. These hoses will be replaced, as they tend to get porous over the years, and there is no better time to replace them when the sill is out. The carpeting won't go back in until the car is on the new frame, as the carpeting is glued over the access holes to the bolts holding the tunnel to the frame. The dash will be redyed in place, as it forms a structural part of the car.

Looking Inward...

2008-12-12T09:24:00.007-06:00

The interior is a light grey. Everything is light grey - seats, console, dash, instrument cluster, headliner and carpeting. I have one other car that also has a grey interior. It gets driven year round, and Minnesota winters are not kind to light interiors. From the looks of it, neither is California. At first I thought it would clean up, but after working it over with a couple of different cleaners, it got better, but not good enough. So, the entire interior will get the Leatherique treatment this winter. I will also replace the carpeting, as that has taken a beating as well.

The materials in the interior are in pretty good shape overall. A lot of older Esprits start to have separation problems with the glue holding the leather to the dash. The glue gives up and the leather starts to pull away from the edges. This is almost impossible to fix without taking the windshield out. Fortunately, this car has not suffered that problem.

Another problem area is the corner of the seat bolsters on the outboard side of the seats. The seam splits and the foam starts to get damaged from getting in and out of the car. Before Lotus started installing seats that reclined, owners would often swap the passenger seat for the drivers seat when the bolsters got bad, so sometimes you see damage to the passenger seat bolster next to the console. The reclining Esprit seats still have the bolster wear problem, but the big 'ol knob on the outer side prevents the seats from being swapped. This is the passenger seat. As you can see (sorta), the bolsters are in good shape. Whoever the previous owner was, they must have had many passengers.

The drivers seat is another issue. Here you can see the seam has started to split, and there is some scraping on the seatback. I'm not sure what the scraping is from. The only way to fix it is to redye the seat. Bremseth has an interior guy working next door who does fabulous work on custom auto interiors (I really need to remember his name...). I'll have him take a look at the seam to see if it can be repaired. It's kind of a moot point since my wife can't drive Esprits with non-reclining seats. The fixed rake on the early seats is too far back and she can't see over the instrument cluster. I replaced the original seats in my '83 with V8 Esprit seats (reclines and has a lumbar support - Bonus!). They drop right in and don't look too much out of place. At the time, it was cheaper to go that route than to recover my original seats. I'm not sure if that is true anymore, but if somebody knows of a set of V8 seats out there looking for a home, let me know. In the meantime, I'll fix these up.

Leatherique will match the original color if I send them a sample. There are plenty of places where I can snip a bit of unexposed leather. I'm thinking I may make a color change, however my taste is pretty questionable when it comes to this stuff. I've considered moving the tan interior from the '83 over to this car and putting grey in the black car. We'll see.

A huge benefit of the Leatherique process is that to really make it work, you have to strip as much of the old dye off of the leather that you can. It takes some care to not wreck any stitching and you have to stop before you start making suede. Once the dye is removed, the Leatherique rejuvenating oil really has an opportunity to work. I redid the '83 interior more as a learning experience because I thought the leather was so far dried out that it was not salvageable. I was impressed with the results - the leather is much more supple even after 7 years. There will be lots to blog about when I start in on these panels.

Now Checking - Exterior

2008-12-11T16:31:00.008-06:00

There are a couple of issues with the exterior of the car that will get addressed eventually. Some of it will get done while the frames are being exchanged because the parts that need refinishing will have to come off the car anyway. Others will take more thought.

The front and rear bumpers have their original finishes. They don't look too bad from across the room, however up close they have issues. The front is rippled slightly and the top of the rear bumper has stress cracks. The rear bumper will probably come off during the swap, so I will have the guys at Bremseth fix it up for me.

Both bumpers are the original semigloss black. When I had my '83 repainted (by Bremseth, by the way - they did an awesome job), I stayed with the semigloss front bumper but went with a gloss rear. I'm not sure what to do about the bumpers on FrankEnSPRIT. I think I may want them painted body color. Matching the finish may be a trick given how old the paint is.

The character line molding needs to be replaced. It has some sun damage and it is coming off the car on the right front corner. This stuff is still available so it should not be a problem.

The side marker lamps have a rubber mount that holds the lenses and a bright trim piece. These are dry-rotted and will be replaced. I think Moss Motors still has these new. I've seen them used on eBay now and again.

The CHMSL has a cracked housing. This is also black, so would be a good candidate for painting to match the body. If I do the bumpers, this will get painted too - after it is replaced.

The inner door seals are dried out as well.

The mirrors look pretty good. The mounting pads have discolored. If I can find replacements, I will change them out when I take the door panels off to redye them.

The front screen deep in the lower air dam is the only place where I have found rust. Bremseth found a guy to make a stainless mesh replacement on the '83 that really came out nice. I may do that again once I know what the final shape of the air dam will be. With the possibility of splitting the oil cooler like the later cars, I may want to use an '83 version that has some divisions in it already, or modify the '87 to better direct airflow.

The biggest problem is the top. The car has the composite roof with the old-style post and clip retainers at the rear. The top can't be removed without unscrewing the posts. Fortunately there is access to them from the engine compartment. This is not a new problem, as the top has some damage to it from someone trying to either pry the top off from the outside or push the top off from the inside, as the fibreglass around the posts is broken. This may be a simple matter of adjusting the clips. I think I will wait until the car is on the new frame, as the fact that the engine is out and that the rear frame brace had not been installed for several years may have allowed the body to change shape a bit. It was an effort to put the brace back in, with lots of raising and lowering of the car with a floor jack under the lower frame hoop to get the frame to open up enough to get the bolts in. On the plus side, those tiny posts and clips really secure the top.

I'll reserve judgement on the paint until I can polish it up. I've started using a system from Griot's Garage that is pretty slick. I have always been uneasy about using a power polishing system as I was afraid of burning the finish. The random orbital machine in this system is clutched so the pad will stop moving before the paint is damaged. It really works, and they have a good line of polishes to work with. It will be a good project to do while I'm waiting for parts.

The Evaluation Starts - Electrical

2008-12-11T09:02:00.003-06:00

Now that the car is clean, parts have been inventoried, and a place for the car has been found in the barn, it's time to start documenting what needs attention. I've already mentioned a few things, such as the missing BBS front wheel, the condition of the interior leather and the carpets.

I hooked up a battery to see what systems still worked. With the starter out of the car, some temporary wiring needed to be done in the engine compartment to hook up the battery. The positive power post on the starter is the place where the positive battery cable is attached to the car. There is also a ground post on the frame right next to where the starter goes that hooks up the primary ground. After making the connections, I attached the battery to the car with jumper cables. I wanted a quick way to disconnect power in case something started smoking. Fortunately the car passed the sniff test.

Without an engine, you can test about half of the cars electrical systems. Accessories like power windows, audio systems, lights, blower motors, wipers, and radiator fans is about as far as you can go. The charging system, gages, and all of the engine control stuff is out of reach. Testing could have been complicated by the fact that there is an aftermarket alarm system installed in the car. There are no instructions for it, so I don't know how to disable it. Long term this isn't a problem, as the alarm will be one of the first things to go.

Here is what I was able to test:

Windows - both worked fine
Audio - Receiver worked, antenna went up and down
Wiper - wiped. Couldn't tell on the washer
Lights - Both headlight pods raised and lowered more or less at the same time. Headlights and brights worked. Taillamps, running lamps, turn signals, worked. Can't tell about backup lamps or switch on gearbox. I did not test the brake lights as I didn't want to press on the brake pedal with the rear calipers cabletied to the frame.
Blower motor worked, but was a bit noisy.
Horn did not work.
I couldn't tell about the dash lamps, as there was too much ambient light.

Once the alarm is out I'll take another run at the horn, and a couple blocks of wood will make dandy brake disc simulators.

Lots and Lots of Parts

2008-12-10T09:15:00.006-06:00

The previous owner of the car had said the engine had been disassembled in an attempt to track down a problem. He wasn't kidding. This engine was well and truly taken apart. The parts weren't packed well for long term storage, so I was worried that I was going to find damaged parts, and worse, I would not find the one or two Very Expensive parts that I would eventually need to put the rebuilt engine into the '83 Esprit. One by one, I emptied the boxes onto the floor. We had some rainy/snowy weather on the way back from California, so many of the boxes had started to come apart, opening up gaps where things could fall out.

Armed with my trusty parts manual (THE most important document you can have for any car, in my opinion), I dove into the pile. Most of the big pieces were easy to identify and as I marked them off the list, I organized them as they would go together. This way I would be able to identify parts that might be missing quicker. It got a little harder when I got to the head, as there are a lot of little bits holding the valve train together. The bigger pieces went to a local machine shop to take a trip through their parts washer to remove all of the oil and grime. Smaller parts got a soak in my parts washer.

All of the little bits, like valve keepers, shims, bolts, washers, tappets and anything else that looked like it could get lost easily was stuffed into ziploc bags and labeled with an indelible pen. Then everything that could fit went into a big plastic bin and put on the shelf . This will make it easier when things go back together.

I was very pleased and quite surprised to discover that everything was there with the exception of the rear air conditioner compressor bracket and the bolts that attach the sump to the bearing support. These bolts were going to get replaced with stainless parts in the rebuild, so they aren't a big deal. I'll turn to the web to find a replacement bracket. There is still a lot of measurements to take, and there are no markings on the pistons or bearings to indicate which piston goes with which liner, or how all of the valve train matched up. There is no indication that there was piston to valve contact, which is a Very Good Thing with these engines. I'll probably never know why the engine was dismantled in the first place, but as long as it goes back together well, I suppose it doesn't really matter. And it makes the story better.

Home Sweet Home

2008-12-09T17:41:00.002-06:00

In this post, the car is now home. These pictures were taken after the engine compartment had been unloaded and a trip to the car wash. The building in the background will be its home while the transformation happens.

Overall, the car is in better shape than I was expecting. At least parts of the car have been repainted at one time, and whoever did it did a reasonable job. There are a few stress cracks in the paint here and there and it could use a good buff and polish. I don't think I will need to worry about paint any time soon.

The interior is another matter. The leather is complete but quite dry. The good news is there is only one split seam in the drivers seat. These usually take a beating over the years as people slide in and out over the bolsters. The seat padding is fair on the drivers side. It's a little hard to tell for sure since the leather is stiff. I had already planned on redying the interior, so this is not a problem. I used Leatherique on the '83 and was very pleased with the results. Their rejuvenation oil works great, especially if you remove the old dye before applying the oil. I should get good results with this leather. The carpeting is very dirty and will need to be replaced in both the passenger compartment and the luggage compartment.

There are a few fibreglass bits to fix. The trunk floor has a crack in it and it looks like the engine cover got dropped on a corner somewhere along the way. The car cleaned up great - you can tell it spent most of its time in the west, as the steel parts show hardly any rust at all. The wheels are fair, with some pitting on the polished aluminum. It should polish out ok, but the real problem is one of the front wheels is missing. The car is currently riding on the spare tire. These wheels are pretty hard to find, so if anybody out there has a lead on a polished rim BBS front wheel for an Esprit - please let me know.

Next up - More cleaning and an inventory of all of the parts in boxes.

Project Takes Another Turn - Introducing FrankEnSPRIT

2008-12-07T16:11:00.006-06:00

Fast forward to the middle of last year. About June or July of 2007, an ad for a 1987 Esprit Turbo was placed in the Golden Gate Lotus Club newsletter. The GGLC is one of the largest Lotus owners clubs in the world. They run lots of track days, drives, dinners, car show meetups, and general Lotus camaraderie, plus the run the West Coast Lotus Meet. They also provide a lot of technical assistance to owners and wannabe owners world wide. In fact, some of the members of the GGLC were instrumental in me buying my first Espit. The previous owner sent me a video tape tour of the car. I was able to show the tape to a number of GGLC Esprit experts for their evaluation of the car. I would up buying it, partially based on their advice. They also provide a ton of documentation, advice and technical information on their website. That alone is worth the fee for joining. There are a couple of other Lotus resources that we will get to in the next few posts that are worth looking into.

Anyway, back to the ad. The car was described as being in pretty good condition, however the engine had been taken apart. The color of the car as described was one I had never seen on a G-bodied Esprit before, so it sounded kindof interesting, however the price was a little high for a car in it's condition. The ad ran in the newsletter for several months in a row, when I noticed that the price was coming down with each passing ad. Eventually it got to the point where it was an interesting deal.

As you may recall, I started this whole exercise with the idea of putting my later frame under my recently painted '83 Esprit. The more I thought about it, the less I liked the idea, because of the chance of wrecking the paint lifting the body off of the old frame. By now, I had gotten the bugs out of the car and it was (and still is) running great. I also decided that I liked the carburetor setup on the car. The induction noise is like no other fuel injected setup, and I am pretty darned good at balancing the carbs. It takes about 20 minutes start to finish to keep them running at their peak. So, I got to thinking that this partially disassembled '87 Esprit would be just the ticket for my project. I could take the old frame of the '87, put in my "new" frame and drive train, sort out all of the bugs, and still drive my '83 - and have no deadlines.

Plus, I'd have a bunch of extra parts that would be handy for the '83 when the cast aluminum pistions finally melted and I'd have to rebuild the engine. Pretty much everything would be useful, even the extra Citroen gearbox. About December of last year, the price finally got down to the point where I called about it.

The car had a bit of a history to it. It seems the seller was an artist (still is, actuall) and had a loft studio in the San Francisco area. There was some extra space in the studio, which he rented out for storage space for cars. Apparently, the owner of this Esprit stored the car in the studio and disappeared. Eventually, the seller wanted to leave the loft and move out of the city. He tried to locate the owner, but was unsuccessful. He went through the process of obtaining a title for the car, as it had been abandoned. He moved the car to his new location and put it back into service.

The engine had some sort of problem - a knock, loss of power, something. He took the car to a trusted mechanic to diagnose the problem. One thing led to another, and the engine was removed from the car and totally dismantled. The mechanic presented a bill for $10,000 to put everything back together. The seller didn't like the sound of that, so he had the parts packed up and the car hauled out to a shed in Petaluma. There the car sat for quite some time before he decided to try and sell it.

Now we come back to the GGLC. I put the word out that I was interested in the car and asked if there was anyone in the area who could check out the car for me. Roy Nakamura volunteered to drive out and take a look. He reported that the car was cosmetically in pretty good shape, including the interior. It was a little dirty after having sat for so long, and the leather had started to stiffen up a bit. Tires all held air, and it seemed complete. There were boxes and boxes of parts stacked behind the car, but time and space didn't allow a complete inventory. Most of the big engine parts seemed to be there. I talked to my wife about it and convinced her it was a Really Good Deal based on the price, Roy's report and the spare parts I would have. Once she agreed, I pulled the trigger and bought the car. I sent out a check and worked out a deal to come pick up the car when the winter weather moved out of the Rockies.

A few months later, my wife and I found ourselves in the area (how convenient, eh?) for a vacation in February, so we took the opportunity to meet the seller and check out the car. I was very pleasantly surprised to find the car to be in better shape than I expected from Roy's description. We still didn't have time to inventory the parts, but there didn't seem to be anything major missing. When we got back home, I started rearranging the barn and making plans for the trip out. Oh - and we took some pictures....

We finally got calendars and passes to align in May for the pickup. My dad, brother and I turned it into a guys week out and drove out to California to pick it up. The trip by itself is worth another blog, as we packed up the pickup and dragged an empty car trailer over 4000 miles there an back again. You can see pictures of the Great Western Roadtrip here:

http://mikegriese.myphotoalbum.com/albums.php

There are a lot more pictures of FrankEnSPRIT there as well.

Suspension

2008-12-04T17:02:00.005-06:00

The suspension on Lotus Esprits has undergone a number of changes over the life of the car. It would take a book to go over all of them, but the most important ones for FrankEnSPRIT are the transition to a lower front 'A' arm instead of a lower control arm located by the antiroll bar in 1985 and the move from inboard brakes to outboard brakes on the rear when the Citroen gearbox was changed in favor of the Renault UN-1 gearbox in 1989. The bulk of the changes since them are evolutionary details on a theme rather than revolutionary changes.

The frame I obtained for the project had the newer front suspension arrangement and could accept either the inboard or outboard brake arrangement at the rear. I had purchased a spare Citroen gearbox for my '83 Esprit back when I was having so much trouble with the pinion in my original gearbox. Since this would bolt up to the Emme engine with no modifications other than a new spigot bearing in the Emme crankshaft, I planned to use this gearbox and an inboard brake arrangement. So I kept my eye out for the appropriate parts on the Lotus Esprit Forum, Lotus Esprit World, eBay, and Yahoo Groups turboesprit forum. I was eventually able to find everything I needed for the back end of the car.

Here's the outboard brake version of the rear suspension. The parts wrapped up in towels are the driveshafts...

For the front suspension, I wanted the most adjustable pieces I could find. The original Esprit front suspension did not have caster or camber adjustment. You got what you got when everything was torqued down. Later models provided full adjustment, so that is what I looked for. I got close enough on an Esprit SE that was being parted out in Arizona. I got the complete front suspension, steering rack, gearshift mechanism, and rear suspension and driveshafts. All of the rubber parts of the suspension will need to be replaced, as well as the ball joints and bearings. There are still some bits I would like to upgrade to, such as the later V8 lower front control arm bushing arrangement, the upper front control arms for camber adjustment, and an adjustable upper link to set rear camber, but that can wait until the car is on the road. I have enough to build a working suspension that will get the car driveable. I'll also be able to find out where I might have some interference between the front wheels and the front wheel openings. Wider wheels with a greater range of adjustment at the front will cause rubbing of the front tires on the bodywork somewhere.

Here's the front suspension. Note I haven't hooked up the rack to the steering arms...

Springs and shocks will be another decision down the road, as I'm not sure just how much the finished car will weigh. It will be heavier than a stock '83, but not nearly as heavy as a '95 S4S, so a combination of stock Lotus parts probably won't work out. Brakes are another area that need some thought. I want bigger brakes, but just what to use (SE, S4, S4S, Early V8, Brembo, AP Racing, or go outside and use Wilwood) is still a mystery. Wheels will play a role in this decision as well, as the brakes have to fit inside the rim. I figure it will depend on what is available and what I find first - brakes or wheels.

The Frame

2008-12-03T15:48:00.000-06:00

Replacing engines in an Esprit is not terribly difficult to do, as long as there aren't any differences between what you are taking out and what you are putting in. When you make changes from carburetors to fuel injection, or non-chargecooled to chargecooled, the problem gets a lot more complex, as there are significant differences in plumbing, fuel delivery, and electronics. Fuel tanks are different, tubing in the center backbone is different, wiring harnesses and relay compartments change, and you need to find a place for the engine control unit.

After doing some research into the various systems, it became clear that if I wanted to minimize the amount of time the Esprit was down while making the conversion, I would need to sort out the differences outside the car. The easiest way to do this seemed to be to build up a completely separate undercarriage that could be swapped for the original frame and running gear. I doule work out all of the bugs in a lot more open environment and still drive the Esprit while I was doing it. This also opened up the schedule, since I wouldn't need to cram everything into a sinle winter. This path had the additional feature of allowing me to upgrade suspensions without having to mess with cutting and welding the original frame, which means I would have a much wider variety of wheels, tires and brakes to choose from. And the fact that Keen Young just happened to have a spare frame cluttering up his shop made the decision a heckuva lot easier.

This particular frame started out life as right-hand drive. This means that the mounts for the pedal box are on the right side of the front crossmember. A previous owner installed the frame in a left-hand drive Esprit racer. A second set of pedal box mounts was welded to the left side of the front crossmember, and some welds were made to the central box section to anchor a rollcage. Other than a little warping from the heat of the welds, the frame is in very good condition. The plan as of now is to grind off the remainder of the rollcage mounts, clean up the welds for the added pedal box mounts, and have the frame coated. I'm not sure what to use at this point, but there is plenty of time to sort that out. First, I need to add the suspension, plumbing, shift mechanism and other various bits and pieces to get the drive train tested out. That will take some time (and money!). Then I will disassemble everything, refinish what needs it, and then put it all back together again.

The Engine

2008-12-02T10:08:00.001-06:00

A curious happenstance helped get the ball rolling. Back in the mid-nineties, a Brazilian company was building a supercar called the Emme. It was built around the Lotus turbocharged 4-cylinder engine available at the time, what is commonly known as SE-spec. Eventually, the compay failed (after only building about a dozen cars) and the remaining parts inventory was sold off for liquidation. For some strange reason, the liquidator chose to announce the availability of the engines to the world - still in their original packing crates as shipped from Lotus - on the LOON website. Our tiny little organization in the middle of Minnesota was the first to find out about them. The price for the engines shipped to your door was less than the cost of a set of replacement pistons and liners, so a whole new engine could be had for less than the parts cost of a rebuild.

After convincing my wife that this was a Really Good Deal (a theme that will present itself over and over again in this tale), I contacted the seller and ordered one up after asking for pictures of an engine as it was uncrated. I was astonished by the condition of the engine when I unpacked it. It was perfect. It included all of the accessories, belts, wiring harness, ECU and even sensors. The bolts and other cad-plated parts were still shiny and bright. There were still signed assembly and dyno test tags attached to the intake manifold. The exhaust manifold was made for a front engine rather than mid-engine installation, and I would have to source a chargecooler. The only problem area found was the water pump. Some coolant was left in a pocket when the engine was drained and rusted the impeller. One of the other LOON members ordered an engine after seeing mine, and after a water pump rebuild and gasket replacement, the engine fired right up. I now had an engine that could run up to 350 or so horespower - a significant upgrade from the 212 provided by the carbureted engine in my '83 Esprit.

And the rest of the engines? Once word got out, they were snapped up pretty fast. Some by individuals, others by some of the parts houses. They're all gone now.

In The Beginning

2008-12-01T20:20:00.000-06:00

I got the idea to do something like this about 3 years ago. I have a 1983 Esprit Turbo that was a bit rough when I bought it in 1998. Over the years, I have been steadily improving the car, fixing exhaust leaks, oil leaks, gearbox leaks and other various and sundry mechanical issues. I've rebuilt the gearbox (twice!) due to a munched pinion and an ill-advised replacement part made by a gear house in Australia. The going rate for pinions and the exchange rate made it seem like a good idea at the time. Since then, I have found Harry Martens in the Netherlands who is able to provide most any part you need for the Citroen gearbox. Dave Bean Engineering and JAE are also excellent resources for parts and technical advice (Thanks Ken and Jeff!). I have recarpeted the car front and rear, redyed the interior, and had the car repainted. I guess you could say the car has been pretty much restored. It has been driven to a number of Lotus Owners Gatherings, and has never failed to place in the casual concours.

I joined the local Minnesota Lotus club (the Lotus Owners Oftha North - or LOONs) early on, and they have been invaluable with providing help, advice, tools, and encouragement. My wife would call it enablement. Tim Engel, Jeremy Engel, Dave Lindemann, Dave Cammack, Jess Hartley, and Keen Young have been particularly helpful in getting my '83 into the condition it is in. Another great resource is the turboesprit list on yahoogroups. What we can't figure out locally, the list can usually resolve within a matter of hours.

But I digress. Keen Young got started with Esprits by finding a repairable car and doing the bulk of the repairs himself. Watching his progress with his first car, the work he did on his second Esprit, along with helping out with gearbox rebuilds, engine rebuilds, along with all of the other work I helped out on for other LOON Esprit owners convinced me that there really isn't much to this stuff as long as you are willing to make the occasional mistake. Armed with a service manual and (most important) a parts manual, there isn't anything I won't try on these cars. I have gotten to the point of picking up some of the original Lotus service tools, and have had fixtures made for tools I couldn't find. For anyone who is rebuilding a Citroen transaxle, I have a kit with all of the factory tools necessary to properly locate the pinion, set differential bearing preloads, and torque the speedo gear. Let me know if you need the kit and I'll send it out. You pay shipping both ways, use whatever shims you need, and put your old parts back in the box to replace the parts you take out.

I digress again. After having driven my Esprit for a number of years and taking it out on a few tracks, I have begun to want more power. More power means more brake and tire, and in the case of the Esprit, more brake means bigger wheels. One of the peculiarities of the early Turbo Esprits is the inboard location of the rear brakes. This leaves a lot of room at the hub for some pretty radical rear wheel offsets. Lotus used this to put together some great looking BBS wheels, but because of the offsets, no generally available wheel with a larger diameter is available. Wheels can be made, but they get pretty spendy as you are automatically into a 3-piece wheel at the rear. So, I got to thinking.

Keen's experience taught me that the hard points of the Esprit have not changed in the 20+ years the cars were made. This means that the frames are pretty much interchangeable. As are the drivetrains, brakes, suspension and anything else that goes under the car. My original thinking was to build up a later frame with all of the running gear, suspension improvements, plumbing, and accessories sourced from the Lotus parts bin. I would then swap out the '83 frame for this new frame over a winter. This way, I could work out most of the bugs on the new parts and still drive the car. My original idea has changed, and as the blog goes on, I'll get into the reasons why, and how I am going about the task of building FrankEnSPRIT. Some of this is past tense, some is happening now, and the rest we will learn about as we get there.

Welcome!

2008-05-13T15:13:00.000-05:00

Welcome to FrankEnSPRIT. This is where I will document the transformation of a standard 1987 Lotus Esprit Turbo into a Turbo Esprit S4 in sheeps clothing.