Most liked posts in thread: The Lotus arrived

Well...... It looks like this as of this morning.......


I have learned a LOT!! about these cars. The down side is it looks like I will miss my first track day this weekend.
What I find funny is the lack of good info about this motor. It is in a lot of cars. It a Toyota 2ZZ-ge motor.

I got a new cam and upgraded rockers. The cams have a small lobe with a roller and a large lobe with a slipper.


That slipper plate is on a spring and does nothing till about 5k RPM when oil pressure is sent to it and pushes it up to engage it. Kind of smart. Best of both worlds......
To adjust the valves you change little buckets that fit on top of the valve stem. Kind of like an Alfa. Heres the problem. Depending on witch Toyota manual you read you measure differently. This is FUN!!! Here is some of the ways I have read to do it. Measure between the roller and small lobe only. Pry up on the rocker to compress the spring on the slipper till the roller touches the cam and measure between the rocker and top of the valve on both the slipper and roller with a 90deg feeler gage. Measure between the roller and cam, don't worry about the slipper but then get the smallest feeler gage you can and make sure both valve stems are touching the rocker evenly. Depending on where you measure you use different clearances.
Its mind numbing!
The guy that modded the car asked how the car was, (the guy I bought it from had it only 5 months he was 6 feet 5 in with a size 15 shoe) I told him about the cam, he was very surprised, he told me the cam only had about 2k on it, well thats good news.
There are probably several reasons the cam can wipe. Low or no ZDDP in the oil, oil to cool on the street, among some other theories.

So here is where I am. No Toyota dealer in Memphis carries the buckets so I can adjust the valves so I ordered them yesterday, hope I measured correctly. I have a oil thermostat that will block the oil from the coolers to maintain 200f oil temp I will be installing. A oil gage I will be adding so I know the oil is hot enough before I party. Lastly I got some Lucus oil additive with ZDDP that I will add to the Motul 5w 40 oil I am running. I hope these measures will help keep the cam in good shape.

I am taking the seats out to clean it up really good, I am starting to think the car had a hard life for 5 months. It has clear bra or as Lotus calls it star shield on it that has yellowed so I will be removing all that and detailing it. I haven't decided what I will put back on it.

But to answer your question.....

It is a no compromise car for the track that you can drive every day on the road(If you're a sadomasochistic). It is like driving a R53 on steroids. When you crank it up it sounds like a race car, one of the mods is a very aggressive exhaust. When you floor it the super charger screams so loud your brain ceases to function. Above 5k it is a beast. Its the loudest car I have ever been in, I guess thats due to no insolation between you and the aluminum monocoque. No power steering so you are very connected to the road. It is a great car.

We named it Speed because it's small and white and reminds us of Speed Racer's Mach 5.

I have had the car for a month and 2 days. For a week and half it was the funnest car I have ever had...........

Sorry for the long post but you guys asked. You can blame @old81

P.S.
Now that I think of it it reminds me of that old top gear where the guys are in search of the perfect road. They each pick what they think will be the perfect car to drive when they find the road. James May shows up in an Austin Martin race car. He is miserable the whole time they are searching for this mythical road. In the end they find it. The show ends with Clarkson saying the happiest man in the world at that moment is May in the Austin Martin. Yea it will be a long ride to the Dragon....

 

You are correct about jacking them up. I watched a couple videos and rear before I tried to jack it up.

I found why it was lower on the right side. There is a snap ring that goes in a grove to hold the bottom spring seat. The snap ring some how came loose and let the bottom spring seat fall. I got the wheel off and fixed the spring seat. Took it on a couple rides and it is holding. I have a feeling it happened in transport.
I eyeballed the adjustment when I reset the coilover. put the car on the ground and rolled it to settle it. I was 1/16 off on the hight. What luck!

 

I have done a lot of reading on these cars. They have a 1.8 Toyota 2ZZ-GE engine. Yamaha designed the head. It is an interesting design. The motors have a low speed and a high speed lobe on the cams. The high speed lobe is higher lift, longer duration and different timing. The high speed cam ,as they call it, comes on above 5000 RPM. Boy can you tell.
The down side is they are prone to what is called cam wipe. It seems no one knows why it happens. It may be a combination of factors. One thought is the oil temp not getting hot enough during street use. It has 2 oil coolers up front. The other theories are: the OEM cams are not hard enough, not being oiled properly. They say to let the car get to running temp then run it another 10 min before getting on the second cam.
Knowing this is a problem I pulled my valve cover off last week. Here is what I found.


That would be my intake cam. I have ordered a new cam, its an after market that is harder so they say it will not wipe as easy. $405 not to bad. I also ordered 4 new rockers I got upgraded ones also. The pad is bigger and harder. I could have got OEM ones for $75 each but I am not sure why this happened so I opted for the better ones at $195 each.
I have also ordered a oil temp gage to install to make sure my temps are not too low. If they are I will install a higher oil temp thermostat or make covers for the coolers for the street.

So the fun starts. I am planing to do a test and tune track day in 3 weeks. I hope.....

 

The head is machined. The only hard part is the valves have tappets on top of the them you change to get the adjustment correct. Kind of like an Alfa, ho joy. I will probably mic all of them so when I put it back together and check the adjustment I will know what size to get before I tare it apart agin.

 

A small update. I have driven the car only a hand full of times. I am surprised how long it takes the oil to get to 200F. Its at least 15 min or maybe 20, this is with the thermostat installed. Normal running temp now is water about 195 oil 200-205
It turns out I have an aftermarket aluminum oil pan with baffles. The stock pan takes 4.5qt. This one I think takes 5gal. Ok maybe not that much.
I had it out a few days ago when it was cool mid 70's I believe. There were a few times the oil temp dropped about 5deg. When winter comes I may have to make covers for the oil coolers.
I have noticed several other Lotus owners also have Minis.
I learned today that a first and second Gen mini has a lower CD than the my Exige. Mini .33 Exige/Elise .44. I haven't found numbers for the Helmet I don't know if the windshield being racked back would lower the numbers or not.

I reached out to the owner that did all the mods (one before the guy I got it from) to see if he still had a list of what he did and where all the parts came from. He pointed me to his build thread but it is vague, he defiantly did it right but still not the info I want. He does want to sale me all the left over parts though.
I have taken it to 7000 RPM a few times and to the shift light once 8500. The ECU adjusts it depending on the temp of the car there is no redline on the tach. So in a day or two I will pull the valve cover and make sure every thing is still good.

 

Well I have some small things I am sorting out. It has a blower for the intercooler. It has a switch between the seats to turn it on. It was not working. Found the fuse for the power outlet blown. Replaced it and the blower fan works. But as soon as I plugged in my V1 it blew agin. I think the guy that did the mods must be running the power for the fan off the power outlet. I will have to pull it apart and see what's up.
I was told the car was aligned and cornered weighed. I dont think so. The right rear is 1.5 in lower then the left. with me in the car it is about 3/4 lower. It looks like the right side is already adjuster up a little more than the left. I wont know till I get it on a lift. You have to be careful where you jack them up. I dont see anything that looks bent so I believe it is ok just out of adjustment.

 

This is from a couple weeks ago during the SCCA Track Night America. Full disclosure I changed the sky.

 

Getting in, no pRoblem. Get out well it ant a pretty sight.

With me in it the right side is 3/4 lower at the back and 1/4 in the front. I am going to have to adjust that.

 

Not sure. I am going to take it to a friends house to look every thing over. He has a lift and everything to weigh it and do an alignment.