SENC

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:

He is the oldest son, still a toddler at the time. As I somewhat expected, drilling 1/32" holes through stainless is above my capability and facility, so after a failed attempt and a few bits I decided to groove the bar slightly and use e-rings. I think that will work fine and maybe look cleaner, but I also made a rod from mild steel that I drilled and polished as a backup. Did a dry fit and part check, perhaps get everything back together next weekend.]

Carburetors cleaned up and back together, with only 1 additional surprise. I somehow missed on disassembly that 1 of the air correctors in the main jet assembly was different than the others (should be 180s, one was a 160 - so obviously someone has been in the back carb). I've ordered a set of 180s, they are fairly inexpensive and may as well make sure none of the others were altered. The originals are in the carburetors for now, a simple swap when the new ones arrive. The throttle linkage cleaned up nicely, but the main rod and brass bushings for the manifold were both highly worn, so I cut some new bushings and a piece of ss rod to replace them, just need to drill the rod for cotter pins. Also took advantage of the weather to pull out the little yellow car to drive the next few days - feels quite refined after driving the Seven!

Helicoiled the bottom screw on the back carb, got everything laid out for reassembly. Got a great surprise from an Australian Lotus fanatic who has been helping me try to find the original owner (along with several here). We learned the original owner had passed, but that his wife at the time is still alive and today Mike emailed me scans of a couple pictures she sent him. Great fun to see some history (these are circa 1966), and to learn the car left Cheshunt green with a red nose (their records had indicated red, which I'd assumed had been aluminum and red).

I, too, would like to see more case flattening, but I'm really thankful it hasn't gone vertical or been more widespread and hope that will continue to be the case. Also hoping the rate of growth continues to taper, I really need a haircut soon!

https://www.racecarsdirect.com/Advert/Details/112842/caterham-420-race-spec-with-trailer

The 3/4 carburetor cleaned up nicely, but the no luck with the bottom plate screw remains, even with further drilling. Didn't have a 5mm .8 helicoil and couldn't find one locally, so waiting for Amazon and boxed the bits up for now. The 1/2 carburetor disassembled more easily and completely, will clean it tomorrow.

Stripping the carburetor for 3&4, no major hangups yet other than the seized and broken screw in the bottom plate. Have drilled that successfully but even with heat and broil it isn't budging, yet. Hoping it will loosen with the hot ultrasonic cleaning as my next largest drill is likely to begin taking some threads (I wasn't perfectly centered). At any rate, a couple of pictures - had definitely sat a while, and frankly not sure how it was running as well as it was with the intake blockage. I'll definitely be adding an online filter between pump and carb.

Carbs, intake manifold and exhaust manifold removed. Carbs were tightly mounted to the intake manifold, completely flattening the o-ring. Is this correct, or should it be a soft mount with thackerys or the like? Insides look pretty good except for signs of a fuel leak and a little corrosion on #1. Tested all of the screws on the carbs to see if any would be a problem - all loosened easily EXCEPT, of course, one on the bottom plate on the back carb that broke off. Another on that bottom plate had corrosion about half-way, so guess some condensation from heat cycles. Now to figure out how to get the remains out without butchering it. Have it soaking in Kroil for now.

Weber components from the Lotus 7 workshop manual, might be helpful to others as well...

Thanks John! EDIT: Started reading and it sounded a bit familiar - here is another version I found but with better pictures. https://cnx.org/contents/oKbaEWQ3@2/Selection-and-Tuning-of-Weber-DCOE-Carburetors

Started the tuning/tinkering process today. Plugs in place are NGK BP7ES, gaps pretty close. Replaced with BP6ES to get a bit hotter plug and to hopefully reduce fouling while staying at lower revs. Pulled the distributor, also looks pretty good. Checked and slightly adjusted the points, and cleaned things up a bit smearing the cam with a touch of grease and a drop of oil in the spindle. No obvious wear, but I'm not at all familiar with this distributor - looks to be an Aussie-modded Bosch - can any of the Australian crowd comment on it? A known or good rebuilder? The car came with the original Lucas distributor, which I've had the Distributor Doctor check out and rebuild for me - checked out well and he made sure it had the appropriate advance curve for the Cosworth 1500 engine, so I'll go back with that once I get some cables made - but in the meantime reinstalled the Scorcher/Bosch. Took it for a short spin to warm things up and took a couple turns at adjusting the timing - ended up reducing the advance just a little over a few short runs. The engine feels pretty peppy, some very slight stumbling at very low revs. Notable exhaust afterfire popping when holding steady just below 3k rpm and on lift. Have started studying up on the Webers - and would certainly welcome any advice from the experts here. In the meantime, will pop the wheels back off to check all of my suspension and brake nuts and bolts now that they've been on the road a few miles.

Winner!

Almost jinxed myself - doing a final run through before lowering the car I found out the hard way I hadn't set the clutch fork fully when installing a replacement slave cylinder, and promptly pushed the piston right out of the cylinder, along with all the fluid. Fortunately, that wasn't too long a fix so I actually did get a couple trips around the neighborhood. Started fairly easily and held a cold idle well with a minimum of revving. First trip just around the block nice and slow in 1st gear to let things warm up, including a quick visit with my neighbor across the street who ran out to see. After a check on the fluids and a slight adjustment to the distributor as it seemed slightly advanced (no, I haven't pulled out the timing light, yet), I took my second journey - about a mile in total. Was able to get all gears (though barely 4th as I was not in a place for speed) and car ran ok, though sputtering and backfiring a bit on lifting off the accelerator, so next step is to check plugs, play with the timing, and learn to tune Webers (my Elan has Strombergs). Here she is cooling after her brief journey: Here is a link to that journey, if you're really bored and need to fill 30 seconds.

Alignment in process... is a trip around the block possible today?

well said!

Ray at rdent.com in the US and Steve at sjsportscars in the UK had them, at last check. Not cheap, though.

Actually, that would be exceptionally good news, in that mortality and complication rates would be much, much lower and we'd have a larger population than expected with antibodies. I suspect, as usual, the truth lies somewhere in between. Our testing and mitigation efforts, in most parts of the country, are actually pretty good - we'll see whether they yield good results or whether we all face a NYC-type of crisis. Either way, I don't think we're headed towards the hundreds of thousands or millions of deaths as predicted by some of the commentary that went viral - at least I hope not!