A few questions- eng, brake etc
Discussion
Sorry guys if this has been covered before but search is not working so I wanted to see what your thoughts were to the following issues/queries for the 96 V8 Esprit:
1: Wet sparks/lumpy feel at lower revs
2: Painting calipers?
3: Painting rocker cover
1: Recently (i.e. since winter) the car started to sound and feel extremely lumpy - it was lacking power until the higher revs kicked in and would backfire horribly when pushed in3rd/4th - the mechanic isolated this to 2 of the sparkplugs being wet. I have replaced these and the car runs fine for a bit, then seems to wet them again - this has been 3 times now. The mechanic is checking deeper today with compression test etc but does not think that the head is shot, just that water gets in somehow. I owned the car for a year and this nevrer happened, however even when I get it back from the garage it still lacks the smothness in low revs in 3rd/4th, where is sometime lumpy until revs are increaed - any thoughts/advice dearly appreciated!
2: I have been contemplatign painting the calipers in Lotus Yellow, I appreciate that I will need specialist paint but does anyone have any experience/advice for this - i.e. is thee any reason why this should be avoided?
3: Lastly, and thansk for readign this far. The rocker cover has seen better days and needs to be repainted. Does anyone have and advice/expreience of this?
Kind regards and thanks in advance!
Mark
1: Wet sparks/lumpy feel at lower revs
2: Painting calipers?
3: Painting rocker cover
1: Recently (i.e. since winter) the car started to sound and feel extremely lumpy - it was lacking power until the higher revs kicked in and would backfire horribly when pushed in3rd/4th - the mechanic isolated this to 2 of the sparkplugs being wet. I have replaced these and the car runs fine for a bit, then seems to wet them again - this has been 3 times now. The mechanic is checking deeper today with compression test etc but does not think that the head is shot, just that water gets in somehow. I owned the car for a year and this nevrer happened, however even when I get it back from the garage it still lacks the smothness in low revs in 3rd/4th, where is sometime lumpy until revs are increaed - any thoughts/advice dearly appreciated!
2: I have been contemplatign painting the calipers in Lotus Yellow, I appreciate that I will need specialist paint but does anyone have any experience/advice for this - i.e. is thee any reason why this should be avoided?
3: Lastly, and thansk for readign this far. The rocker cover has seen better days and needs to be repainted. Does anyone have and advice/expreience of this?
Kind regards and thanks in advance!
Mark
Check the coil packs to see if they are firing correctly. Maybe they have gone bad. I suppose you can swap leads and still keep the firing order intact to see if the problem goes to another cyl when swapped.
You can use high temp spray paint cans for the calipers. An ordinary person can do this, many times people just mask the area with calipers still on the car. All one has to do is a fairly decent spray as it's not like an in your face eye level finish like the exterior of your car. Just keep in mind that the calipers will dust up and need to kept clean so it looks sharp if it is painted other than black.
The rocker covers need a better spray job as this is going to be something one looks closely at a lot unlike the calipers. I suppose you could use an HVLP gun and do it in your garage.
You can use high temp spray paint cans for the calipers. An ordinary person can do this, many times people just mask the area with calipers still on the car. All one has to do is a fairly decent spray as it's not like an in your face eye level finish like the exterior of your car. Just keep in mind that the calipers will dust up and need to kept clean so it looks sharp if it is painted other than black.
The rocker covers need a better spray job as this is going to be something one looks closely at a lot unlike the calipers. I suppose you could use an HVLP gun and do it in your garage.
markuskj said:
Thanks for the detailed reply, and forgive the novice question (I am only just getting to grips with her innards), what is a coil pack?
Kind regards,
Mark
Well one side of the spark plug wire has the actual spark plug and the other side of the wire plugs into a coil pack that generates high voltage current in the correct firing order.
If you have wet plugs that usually means your plugs are not firing at all or not firing when it is supposed to. I suppose the plug wires could be bad, but some people have had problems with the packs.
If your car is running and you have a few wet plugs, I suppose the course of action to follow is change plugs, check plug wires, test coil packs, then the computer. You could check the compression for leakage but you would really had to have bad luck for something like that to happen.
Oh forgot to ask a basic question. I assume the plugs wires are connected in right order. I have seen a few wires that were connected in the wrong order. In a 4 cyl car the coil packs have numbers on them that indicate which cyl they are supposed to connected to.
>> Edited by cnh1990 on Tuesday 24th May 15:47
The coil packs on the V8's are of the wasted spark type. Each coil pack fires two cylinders at the same time, and BOTH leads and plugs are in the circuit - the spark effectively jumps one gap, up the lead, across the coil, down the other lead and across the other spark plug. If either of the plugs or leads connected to one coil pack are faulty, neither will fire.
Check if both your "wet" plugs are linked to the same coil pack ...
Check if both your "wet" plugs are linked to the same coil pack ...
I just read the original post again.
Are the plugs wet with water or fuel?
If it's water you might have a leaky cyl liner seal. I thought just about all the V8's had upgraded seals installed by Lotus as a warranty item. There has been much discussion about this subject. Also if the plug wells are not sealed right rain water or when washing the car they get can get wet. I'm sure the V8 people can tell you more about this subject.
Are the plugs wet with water or fuel?
If it's water you might have a leaky cyl liner seal. I thought just about all the V8's had upgraded seals installed by Lotus as a warranty item. There has been much discussion about this subject. Also if the plug wells are not sealed right rain water or when washing the car they get can get wet. I'm sure the V8 people can tell you more about this subject.
It is with water apparently, sorry I should have mentioned this. The mechanic said he got a hint of antifreeze in the smell but can find no further visible signs of something more serious i.e. we dry the sparks, replace them and it works fine for a while, then becomes sluggish again.
I contacted Lotus a year ago and they said that I did not have any outstanding warantee issues - how would I know if it had been upgraded, as mine is one of the early press cars?
Cheers again
Mark
I contacted Lotus a year ago and they said that I did not have any outstanding warantee issues - how would I know if it had been upgraded, as mine is one of the early press cars?
Cheers again
Mark
It was my mistake. When someone mentions wet plugs I usually assume it is wet with fuel not water.
In the USA one could just get in touch with LUSA and they would give you all work done on the car. But with the Elsie sales and small office staff they no longer provide this service unless you are a dealer.
In the USA it was a big deal when the faulty leaky lower liner seals of the early V8's started to fail. I heard they sent over a team of people install new seals at no charge and they did just about every car that had those faulty seals.
Not sure what the proceedure is in the UK to find out the history of work done on the car. The UK guys will have to chime in on this one.
In the USA one could just get in touch with LUSA and they would give you all work done on the car. But with the Elsie sales and small office staff they no longer provide this service unless you are a dealer.
In the USA it was a big deal when the faulty leaky lower liner seals of the early V8's started to fail. I heard they sent over a team of people install new seals at no charge and they did just about every car that had those faulty seals.
Not sure what the proceedure is in the UK to find out the history of work done on the car. The UK guys will have to chime in on this one.
cnh1990 said:
It was my mistake. When someone mentions wet plugs I usually assume it is wet with fuel not water.
I assumed that too .. "ass-u-me" .. dammit!
cnh1990 said:
In the USA it was a big deal when the faulty leaky lower liner seals of the early V8's started to fail.I heard they sent over a team of people install new seals at no charge and they did just about every car that had those faulty seals.
I think the UK cars were done if they failed within the warranty period. For some "variable" time after, Lotus typically made a contribution ...
Just a quick point, I don't think there are seals as such, it's just the type of sealant used when the liners are pressed into the block. This was changed in production at engine number 30600 ... so if you have an engine later than that, it should be ok.
cnh1990 said:
Not sure what the proceedure is in the UK to find out the history of work done on the car. The UK guys will have to chime in on this one.
Phoning the factory should do the trick. They've been pretty helpful when I've called - with the exception of my complaint about the lacquer lifting on my 1990 Excel.
When the seals on the liners fail, water enters the oil. How does the oil look on the dipstick? If it's creamy / milky, start crying. If it's ok, your liners are probably ok from the "sealing" point of view.
It would help to know which cylinders have the problem. If you do have water in the cylinders, that could be either a cracked liner or perhaps a head gasket.
Another issue with early cars was that water could creep into the spark plug recesses - I believe these were sealed differently on later cars. You could just be experiencing rainwater running in through the vents on the engine cover and poorly sealed covers for the coil packs/plugs. On removing the spark plug, water would run down the plug and a little into the cylinder. This may even wash fuel from a non-firing plug away and mask a bad lead / coil pack. See .. I'm being optimistic for you here :-)
Which cylinders have the problem?
Steve
Gassing Station | Esprit | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff