For those who might be interested, I've been posting updates on the subject of 'living with a 1967 Elan'.
See here.
The car now has a new engine!
Friday, 22 May 2015
Wednesday, 13 August 2014
Restorations are never complete, but.....
Reading through the last few posts, this blog has changed from a history of the restoration to something different - "we did this and the car did that". A bit self-indulgent and not really in line with the original objective, so this will be the last post on this blog.
I've enjoyed writing it, and I hope that anyone reading it has found it either interesting or informative, or even sometimes both.
(Updated to add a link to a separate blog - jottings on the joys of living with the Elan).
(Updated to add a link to a separate blog - jottings on the joys of living with the Elan).
With the benefit of hindsight, I didn't realise fully what I was taking on when I bought the car. At the start, it was impossible to estimate what needed to be done, and only as the car was dismantled bit by bit did it become clear what needed to be done - and the cost and timescales involved.
One point of sadness for me - in additional to the distraction of moving house at the end of 2013 I've had a few health problems in the last year and I was unable to do as much work as I would have wished. This despite the open invitation from the good people at Lakeside to help out whenever I wanted and was able.
If I could turn the clock back, would I have taken this on? I'm not sure either way. The car is just great to drive on the open road but is obviously still less than reliable and is not at all fun to drive in heavy traffic. And it has truly been a money pit. Sadly, the previous owner had been ill for a number of years and had obviously been unable to keep on top of the work required and had taken a number of shortcuts - the scope of which only became obvious as work progressed.
We loved our old +2, and - perhaps this was a historical perspective through rose tinted-glasses - had hoped that the Elan would be an excellent touring car. So far it isn't, and may never be; the +2 is a different car and when we owned it was less than 20 years old.
Which brings me to the main conclusions of the blog:
1. Running an old car can't be justified in terms of money. They will go wrong, overheat and throw unexpected tantrums. You either love the car for what it is or you let it go.
2. You have to use the car or it will just deteriorate...... and what's the point in that?
3. However, as you use it you have to treat every journey as an adventure and be prepared for issues to arise.
4. I'm really pleased that another of these fantastic cars is still on the road.
1. Running an old car can't be justified in terms of money. They will go wrong, overheat and throw unexpected tantrums. You either love the car for what it is or you let it go.
2. You have to use the car or it will just deteriorate...... and what's the point in that?
3. However, as you use it you have to treat every journey as an adventure and be prepared for issues to arise.
4. I'm really pleased that another of these fantastic cars is still on the road.
Finally a few words of thanks.
- To Max at Lakeside for all his work and advice. He has amazing knowledge of how the cars go together and also how to source components and work around short-term problems. I would have never started the project if I hadn't known of his skills and knowledge.
- More recently, to Brian Buckland of Club Lotus fame. He runs an Elan, which I believe was previously owned by Jim Clark and has now done 870,000 miles. I've recently bought his book on Elan restoration and wish that I'd had that from the start. His advice, freely given, has been most useful.
- And of course to Pauline for not exploding every time I've told her of the latest list of problems and the cost of fixing them. And helping me at the scene of roadside rescues, coping with the general discomfort, having the heater on in hot weather, carbon monoxide poisoning and more. :-)
- To Max at Lakeside for all his work and advice. He has amazing knowledge of how the cars go together and also how to source components and work around short-term problems. I would have never started the project if I hadn't known of his skills and knowledge.
- More recently, to Brian Buckland of Club Lotus fame. He runs an Elan, which I believe was previously owned by Jim Clark and has now done 870,000 miles. I've recently bought his book on Elan restoration and wish that I'd had that from the start. His advice, freely given, has been most useful.
- And of course to Pauline for not exploding every time I've told her of the latest list of problems and the cost of fixing them. And helping me at the scene of roadside rescues, coping with the general discomfort, having the heater on in hot weather, carbon monoxide poisoning and more. :-)
'Bye for now.
Monday, 4 August 2014
Oil and plugs
Another trip of around 110 miles, this time down to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard - well worth a visit. Exhibits include the Mary Rose, HMS Victory and the fascinating HMS Warrior, the first sail/steam hybrid battleship!
And a tour of the main dockyard.
Another hot day, but no traffic holdups and all was well apart from a mid-range misfire on light throttle.
On checking the oil level when the car had cooled down, I decided that consumption was too high so drained the 5/40 synthetic and filled with 20/50 mineral. I also refitted the original longer-thread plugs. A brief test drive went well.
The Halfords 20/50 mineral oil is supplied in a rather jolly retro-style metal can. The oil itself looks and smells like Duckhams Q 20W/50 of fond memory.
I've ordered the Kenlowe auxiliary fan together with a "dry" temperature probe and additional manual override switch. I decided against the "wet" temperature sensor which goes under the top hose as experience suggests this leads to small amounts of coolant loss.
A set of the recommended (by NGK) plugs, BP7ES, is also on order.
Saturday, 26 July 2014
Silverstone Classic
160 mile round trip to this event, part cross country but mostly M40 and dual carriageway. Calibrated by GPS, motorway speed around 63-65 @3500 rpm seems to be a reasonable compromise between making progress and liiting noise and vibration levels. Unfortuately the worst NVH is between 3000 and 3500, 54-62mph.
Hot weather and an hour of start / stop traffic entering the circuit meant that the engine temperatur
The event itself was good. Great to see old F1, classic touring and sports cars being driven hard. Also loads of old sports cars in the car club displays.
Silverston
Hot weather and an hour of start / stop traffic entering the circuit meant that the engine temperatur
The event itself was good. Great to see old F1, classic touring and sports cars being driven hard. Also loads of old sports cars in the car club displays.
Silverston
Friday, 18 July 2014
That's better
Cycled over to collect the car and to inspect the failed y-section, which had indeed failed at the circular weld. It had obviously cracked much earlier and the cracking had gradually increased - only about 15% of the circle was bright metal.
Driving home, it was clear from the start that there was a serious misfire with the engine under any load, and tickover had dropped indicating one cylinder may have gone walkabout. I decided to carry on home and have a closer look myself.
Having let the engine cool a bit, the plugs were removed one at a time..... the spark gap on no 1 plug was completely bridged with carbon. As I had mislaid my plug-cleaning wire brush in the house move, I decided to fit a new set of plugs, although these had shorter bodies - a quick call to Max confirmed these would be OK.
So on to the test drive - a bit sluggish to begin with (probably no 1 cylinder was a tad gummy) but a few miles at high revs improved things considerably.
A very hot day so windows down meant it was a bit difficult to judge noise levels - but the combination of the new propshaft, a full set of cylinders and an intact exhaust certainly seems to have improved noise and vibration levels.
Note to self - check plugs more frequently.
Wire brushes and new feeler gauges purchased, ironically a 10% discount for me as a British Cycling member!
And I should have said, I've settled on tyre pressures of 24f/28r.
Driving home, it was clear from the start that there was a serious misfire with the engine under any load, and tickover had dropped indicating one cylinder may have gone walkabout. I decided to carry on home and have a closer look myself.
Having let the engine cool a bit, the plugs were removed one at a time..... the spark gap on no 1 plug was completely bridged with carbon. As I had mislaid my plug-cleaning wire brush in the house move, I decided to fit a new set of plugs, although these had shorter bodies - a quick call to Max confirmed these would be OK.
So on to the test drive - a bit sluggish to begin with (probably no 1 cylinder was a tad gummy) but a few miles at high revs improved things considerably.
A very hot day so windows down meant it was a bit difficult to judge noise levels - but the combination of the new propshaft, a full set of cylinders and an intact exhaust certainly seems to have improved noise and vibration levels.
Note to self - check plugs more frequently.
Wire brushes and new feeler gauges purchased, ironically a 10% discount for me as a British Cycling member!
And I should have said, I've settled on tyre pressures of 24f/28r.
Tuesday, 15 July 2014
Exhausted.
We thought that a trip down to Dorset, around 250 miles in total, would exercise the car nicely.
Luggage loaded easily, as the boot has reasonable space and there is quite a lot of room behind the seats for squashy bags.
The route down was via a section of the M3 and then through Salisbury. The car is very noisy at motorway speeds so single carriageway roads are much more relaxing, even though there were several hold-ups in which the car threatened to overheat. The car seemed to get noisier, particularly on the overrun and I made a note to investigate when we arrived back home.
We were both extremely tired when we arrived after about 2.5 hours and with hindsight may have been breathing a tad too much CO.
We stayed for 3 days at in lovely cottage about 2 miles inland from Durdle Door.
The weather was good, and we drove into Weymouth and to visit friends who have a cottage nearby.
I decided to drive back via the M27 and (slower, 60ish mph) along a short section of M3, stopping for lunch at Hinton Ampner, a NT property between Winchester and Petersfield. A lovely place, grand house and fantastic gardens.
Then things started to go badly wrong. The car started to misfire under light load, and the noise increased. Finally, about 20 miles from home, on the A31 near Alton, the Y connector between the exhaust manifold and straight pipe failed, dropping the front of the straight pipe section on the road. I was able to coast into a layby which was fortunately very close, looked at the options and called the RAC. Helpful chap turned up after about 45 minutes and tried to lift the pipe up using plastic cable ties.... I pointed out that these would melt so he added a bit of wire onto the gearbox mount. He then suggested that we drove to Farnham and try an exhaust centre. We drove a few miles, slowly, with the RAC van following. The car was incredibly noisy, lots of misfiring and backfiring and of course fumes all around. So I pulled into the car park of the Bull pub near Bentley and asked the RAC to send a tow truck.
So we sat in the pub garden and drank tea until the tow truck arrived about an hour later. The driver was a real star and took great care of the car which I drove onto the tilted flatbed. We were then driven back to Camberley.
So, this morning, Paul from Swiss Cottage (see the first blog post!) collected the car with his usual efficiency, and took the car to Lakeside. Max confirmed that that a weld on the (new) Y-section had failed, so a new one will be ordered and fitted, hopefully in the next couple of days.
With a bit of hindsight, it's obvious that the section had been starting to crack, hence the noise and fumes on the way down. The misfiring just before the exhaust failed was due to lower back pressure messing up mixture, timing, etc.
Luggage loaded easily, as the boot has reasonable space and there is quite a lot of room behind the seats for squashy bags.
The route down was via a section of the M3 and then through Salisbury. The car is very noisy at motorway speeds so single carriageway roads are much more relaxing, even though there were several hold-ups in which the car threatened to overheat. The car seemed to get noisier, particularly on the overrun and I made a note to investigate when we arrived back home.
We were both extremely tired when we arrived after about 2.5 hours and with hindsight may have been breathing a tad too much CO.
We stayed for 3 days at in lovely cottage about 2 miles inland from Durdle Door.
The weather was good, and we drove into Weymouth and to visit friends who have a cottage nearby.
I decided to drive back via the M27 and (slower, 60ish mph) along a short section of M3, stopping for lunch at Hinton Ampner, a NT property between Winchester and Petersfield. A lovely place, grand house and fantastic gardens.
Then things started to go badly wrong. The car started to misfire under light load, and the noise increased. Finally, about 20 miles from home, on the A31 near Alton, the Y connector between the exhaust manifold and straight pipe failed, dropping the front of the straight pipe section on the road. I was able to coast into a layby which was fortunately very close, looked at the options and called the RAC. Helpful chap turned up after about 45 minutes and tried to lift the pipe up using plastic cable ties.... I pointed out that these would melt so he added a bit of wire onto the gearbox mount. He then suggested that we drove to Farnham and try an exhaust centre. We drove a few miles, slowly, with the RAC van following. The car was incredibly noisy, lots of misfiring and backfiring and of course fumes all around. So I pulled into the car park of the Bull pub near Bentley and asked the RAC to send a tow truck.
So we sat in the pub garden and drank tea until the tow truck arrived about an hour later. The driver was a real star and took great care of the car which I drove onto the tilted flatbed. We were then driven back to Camberley.
So, this morning, Paul from Swiss Cottage (see the first blog post!) collected the car with his usual efficiency, and took the car to Lakeside. Max confirmed that that a weld on the (new) Y-section had failed, so a new one will be ordered and fitted, hopefully in the next couple of days.
With a bit of hindsight, it's obvious that the section had been starting to crack, hence the noise and fumes on the way down. The misfiring just before the exhaust failed was due to lower back pressure messing up mixture, timing, etc.
Saturday, 5 July 2014
Summertime
Some great drives in the last few weeks, including a visit to to the Festival of Speed at Goodwood.
One of the best new road cars there.
In other news, I've managed to resolve a few more rattles and areas of vibration, through the use of cable ties and sticky-backed foam!
The car now has a new propshaft, and that has also reduced the level of vibration. Kudos to Max, who managed to remove the old one and replace the new, defying the workshop manual by doing this without removing the diff or engine/gearbox. And also swapping the coupling at the diff end when he found that the flanges on the old propshaft and diff were non-standard (it seems a few left the factory like that).
Rear brakes adjusted (so the handbrake works again!), the bendix on the starter motor cleaned, exhaust mount reattached and engine oil, gearbox and diff topped up.
Finally for now, a view of the massive cars car at our local BMW dealer..... where it rained, proving that the Elan isn't entirely waterproof. More on that later.
One of the best new road cars there.
In other news, I've managed to resolve a few more rattles and areas of vibration, through the use of cable ties and sticky-backed foam!
The car now has a new propshaft, and that has also reduced the level of vibration. Kudos to Max, who managed to remove the old one and replace the new, defying the workshop manual by doing this without removing the diff or engine/gearbox. And also swapping the coupling at the diff end when he found that the flanges on the old propshaft and diff were non-standard (it seems a few left the factory like that).
Rear brakes adjusted (so the handbrake works again!), the bendix on the starter motor cleaned, exhaust mount reattached and engine oil, gearbox and diff topped up.
Finally for now, a view of the massive cars car at our local BMW dealer..... where it rained, proving that the Elan isn't entirely waterproof. More on that later.
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