Next trip out to the garage I was sitting on the concrete floor and unbolting things when I remembered that cold concrete kind of sucks the life out of your old body. When I would try to stand up, it would take me a couple minutes to be able to stand fully upright and move around. I have a rolling table in Des Plaines that is great for bringing big objects off the floor to a good working height. But not here up at our lake house. I looked around the basement and found an old wood chest of drawers. Seemed sturdy enough so again I called Sue out to the garage and together we lifted the greasy chassis with some remaining suspension components onto the old chest. Can't roll it around but at least it's at a working height now!<\/p>\n
Another rainy Sunday so I spent some time in the Lake house garage. I do have basic cable TV out there though so as I was finishing up stripping bits off the chassis, I got to watch Paul\u00a0Tracy drive over Sebastian Bourdais' head in the Champ car\u00a0race at Cleveland. Also got to see the stock car boys wrestle with\u00a0turning both left AND right at Sonoma. The last thing to come\u00a0off the Europa chassis was the brake lines. Pretty brittle and\u00a0crusty. I'm sure I will be replacing those.<\/p>\n
I would venture to guess than every old Lotus Europa weighs\u00a0about 20 lbs. heavier than when it left the factory. There are two\u00a0reasons for that. #1 is all the oil that is caked all over everything.\u00a0Keeps the chassis from rusting and actually makes some of the\u00a0bolts easier to break loose. But it is a mess to scrape and clean up. #2 reason for the weight gain is all the acorn shells, leaves and\u00a0dried up mouse mung that you find in the bowels of the chassis.\u00a0Don't know how those mice get in there and make their nests, but\u00a0the only way out is with my trusty old shop vac. Now since this\u00a0is house number 2, we bring up all the worn out stuff up here so\u00a0this shop vac is VERY tired. At least 25 years old, the motor is\u00a0still quite willing, it's just everything else that is struggling. As\u00a0Sue was walking through the garage, I had the shop vac going and\u00a0it suddenly burped and emitted a belch of dust up into the air.\u00a0The bracket that held on the air cleaner rusted off and now all the\u00a0dust in the vac was spraying all over the garage. Well, at least for\u00a05 seconds until I could shut it off. Sue laughed as she ran out of\u00a0the garage to avoid the dust. Took me about 45 minutes to fabricate\u00a0a bracket to hold the air filter in place. Then I spent another\u00a045 minutes vacuuming up all the sprayed dust as well as the kitty\u00a0litter I had spread around on the floor to pick up the little grease balls that had fallen off the chassis during the disassembly stage.\u00a0(No Italian jokes please).<\/p>\n
Disassembly all done. At least everything is off the chassis. I\u00a0still have to tear down and rebuild the engine, trans. steering rack,\u00a0master cylinder and other bits. But technically, the tear down is\u00a0done. It's Miller time! I grabbed a cold one, a lawn chair and my\u00a0ledger where I have been keeping track of my hours. I added up\u00a0the hours and found that it had taken me 42 hours to strip all the\u00a0junk off the chassis up here at the Lake. I had previously put in\u00a085 hours in Des Plaines taking the body off, stripping it down and\u00a0getting it primed. So at 127 hours, I'm turning the corner and I\u00a0will now actually start the restoration work. Better have another\u00a0ice cold can of planning fluid.<\/p>\n
Although the next logical steps at this point would be to get the\u00a0chassis sandblasted and painted, that work would need to take\u00a0place based out of the Des Plaines garage instead of the lake\u00a0house. Since the Des Plaines garage and Des Plaines spare time\u00a0was still occupied by the 1965 Elan and the final detail work on\u00a0said Elan, I had to find something else to do at the lake house garage\u00a0on one very, very hot Saturday afternoon. It was the day before\u00a0our club picnic the next lake over at Greg and Ann\u00a0Wisniewski's. I decided to spend that Saturday,afternoon tearing\u00a0down the engine.<\/p>\n
I already had the engine mounted on my trusty engine stand. As I popped open the drain plug to drain the oil out. I was amazed to\u00a0find so much oil in the oil pan. You would think judging by the\u00a0thick coating of old oil on the entire outside of the engine that\u00a0there would be nothing left inside! As the oil drained I took a\u00a0chunk of scrap wood and scraped off some of the oil sludge from\u00a0the outside of the oil pan letting it fall into the drain pan below.\u00a0Lotsa muck all over the engine.<\/p>\n
I popped open the valve cover and everything looked pretty\u00a0good in there. Cams in good shape, no rust, no real sludge. Cam\u00a0bearings looked almost reusable. No visible wear. Hmmmmm, I'll\u00a0have to see how expensive new ones really are these days. Last I\u00a0heard they were becoming very rare and very expensive. The\u00a0distributor, fuel pump, clutch, pressure plate and flywheel all\u00a0looked OK as well. Couple of exhaust studs were broken off by\u00a0the previous owner (Rich). Those will have to be drilled and easyouted\u00a0later. Popped off the head, no surprises there. Valves got a\u00a0lot of gunk on them but it don't matter. Bill Truesdale at Apex\u00a0will make them like new, or I'll just buy some new ones. No spare\u00a0parts laying about inside the oil pan (always a good sign). Pistons\u00a0popped out OK, no ridge buildup. Piston skirts in good shape and\u00a0the bores looked smooth with no real wear. Perhaps just a hone\u00a0and new rings? Bill will tell me for sure.<\/p>\n
The only thing that was a bit askew was the timing chain tensioner.\u00a0It apparently had never been adjusted so there was a ton of\u00a0slack in the timing chain. The tip of the rod that pushes against\u00a0the chain sprocket had nicks on it instead of a wear mark. Must\u00a0have caused some performance issues.<\/p>\n
Some neighbors stopped by for a brew just as I was pulling off\u00a0the crank. They were coming in sweating from being out in the\u00a0direct sun on a pontoon boat all afternoon. I was a greasy mess so\u00a0I did a quick goop clean up of my hands and arms in the slop sink\u00a0(excuse me, the laundry tub). I then just took off my shoes and\u00a0socks and walked out into the lake for 2 minutes to cool down. I\u00a0then joined them and my wife on the screened porch and dripped\u00a0and drank for the rest of the afternoon. Nice way to end the day.<\/p>\n
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