SENC

As is so often the case with old cars, messing with one thing to fix another just leads to problems. In this case, trying to clear the "new" breather draft tube I crossthreaded the connection back to the fuel pump so when I cycled the starter to get it pumping it sprayed gas. Though I had an old one (from my Elan) and a spare gasket in my toolbox as an emergency backup, when installed the old pump it filled nicely to the carbs, then promptly began leaking (old glass bowl gasket had hardened). So a couple weeks of waiting on parts, but finally carved out a couple hours on Saturday and got it put back together and running, and started testing different idle jets and main wet/dry jets. Got a great idle, tips in very well at WOT above 2k rpm, and pulls like a train above 3k rpm. Just a little stumble when hitting WOT below about 1800 rpm, but plan to tweak a little more. This is also still on the Bosch distributor, about which I know little about the advance curve built in - but now that I have it close I'll switch over to the rebuilt original Lucas and see what fits the engine better. I realize it doesn't have the hp of the current crop of Sevens, but it really is an amazing little car, you just can't help but smile everytime you put your foot in the accelerator.:driving::driving::driving: Makes me sad I waited this long for a Seven!

:smilielol5: what next, a fuel gauge?

This thread needs pictures!

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Well covered by the last 2 posts. Here is a snippet from Ortenburger's Legend of the Lotus Seven on the topic:

Yes, well, we all have to get our demons out somewhere!

Looks great John! Frustrating when 1 bolt that should be there is not, I sure know that feeling!!!!

Between replacing old with new mixture screws and a bit of ezturn fuel lube, I seem to have knocked most of the afterfire. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to do much experimenting with different main fuel/air jets or idle jets to find the best fit for this engine due to a cracked neck in my swirlpot (revealed as a nice vertical spray when I removed the thermostat and made the swirlpot to head connection leakproof). Mick Beveridge at XtraSpecialSevens makes a spot-on replacement, which I hope to have in hand this week. In the meantime, I got my draft tube and elbow installed - had to replace an oddly bent SS fuel pipe with a piece of cunifer to keep them from fouling, and the original breather in my engine isn't a perfect fit so probably not intended for the elbow, but with a little rtv I think it will work (will be better than spraying mist straight up, regardless, will see whether enough draft to pull air and gases out). I may change to a later Cortina/Capri breather "box" if this doesn't work as I hope.

Thanks for the civil dialogue, Shane and Mike, not common these days and I'm learning from both of you. Thank you.

Great looking Seven!

With just a little common sense and respect for others, I believe we could be doing a lot more than we're doing AND have fewer cases and spread. Good on your midOhio group.

...but only good if you're positive earth

Fantastic!

Dizzy was pretty clean,, but could use some new points. Also replaced the HT leads after finding one with much higher resistance than the rest (though still under 12k ohms). Made some good progress on the running today, thanks to some help from Keith Franck and others. Surprisingly found a primary contributor to my afterfire/popping were the replacement idle mix adjustment screws that came with my rebuild kit. The newer ones are more narrowly tapered than the older, blunter screws - and it seems they were letting in a good bit of air. Going back to the old ones almost completely eliminated the afterfire. Also tried Keith's non-frothing emulsion tube replacements - they had a huge impact on lowering the transition point at which the main jets kick in and went a long way towards eliminating the sub-3k rpm flat spot. I still have some tweaking to do but quite happy.

Thanks guys. I'm back to focusing on the timing - starting with dwell, which was a bit lower than expected when I checked. I'm going to pull the scorcher/bosch distributor apart tomorrow and make sure the advance weights and springs are clean and moving easily, reset the points gap, and make sure there isn't too much play in the spindle. I've also realized I've been misinterpreting the timing marks on the chest as TDC when they really represent 10 degrees BTDC. So, I've been starting with too much advance and don't know how the distributor in place was setup - too many variables, no wonder I can't set my carbs right! I'll keep horsing with it while waiting for some new leads from magnecor for the Lucas dizzy, maybe I'll come on it by luck. I have some of Keith Franck's latest emulsion tubes to try out, too, but really want to maximize stock first so I have a good basis for evaluating his tubes. It is really hard with these cars to stick with just changing one thing at a time!

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Good results on compression test. Got close on tuning, but still have some afterfire. I know the scorcher/bosch distributor is a good one, but I don't have any idea what advance should be to compare against. I have rebuilt the original lucas and it has been tested for the correct advance curve, just need to get and make some leads. Other than the afterfire popping, it is running pretty well. And looks ok, too.

Apart and cleaned up. You have to admire the simplicity!

Wow, that is beautiful design and work! My car originally came with an oil cooler (partially visible in a 1966 photo). The oil radiator that used to sit in the nose and all of the plumbing is long gone, but I have a few pictures from around 2008 that show a rather large "catch can" that was part of the recirculating system.

Thanks Ron, I used a cometic gasket and know I'll need to tighten after the first few heating/cooling cycles, but hope it will be ok afterward. Will keep your thicker gasket recommendation in mind if not. I am curious about the black tubes protruding between the air trumpets. I'm also interested in the history of the carbs themselves - I recently bought a pair of Weber DCOE2s as backups that have 2B/2C numbering like yours.

I've been told elsewhere that the breather I have is an early one and should have an elbow on top of it that terms in a pipe (originally to the environment below the car, or preferable to a catch tank then environment). Here is a picture of the elbow:

Thanks Dingo. I've purchased a set of stubby ball-end L-wrenchs for next time No, not ceramic coated, just a coat of high-temp paint. Reinstalled and running. Have some additional tuning to do but got it in the right ballpark for a short drive - enough to tell me I need to do some more tuning on the Elan, this Seven is exhilarating when in the gas! I realized I was blowing oil from the breather. The dipstick has registered a bit over the full line since I got it so may just have been overfilled. I took advantage of today's warm-up to change the oil and filter and we'll see how it does next tuning session. I'm not familiar with these pre-crossflows or this breather apparatus - does anyone have any advice?

Whew, re-installing the carbs/intake manifolds and exhaust manifolds on the pre-crossflow is a booger! I used hex key bolts rather that studs, but the angles make getting it all in place tough and getting the bolts tightened nearly impossible. I need to find some angled allen keys, or some other trick! But, they're on - will work on the linkage tomorrow, then possibly start it up.

Geez, a bunch of stalkers around here. Isn't there a law? :smilielol5::smilielol5::smilielol5: