cylinderhead

REMOVAL OF CYLINDER HEAD

One or two people asked to know how I got on, so here goes.

907 Engine in Lotus Elite/Eclat

To remove the cylinder head with the engine in situ.

Special Tools and Equipment

. a small 1/2 in AF socket - 3/8 square drive and with thin wall thickness

. 4 BIG washers i.e. 2 inch diameter, and some spacers; sockets will do, so look out your odd larger sized ones

. 0 - 1" micrometer if you can get one ...

General Notes:

I removed the head with both manifolds but without the carbs, with the engine in situ but canted over.

I will not detail every step - only things that differ from the manual, or are not self evident, or merit special mention.

Some things are best done in a certain order, so I suggest you follow the given procedure below.

"Left" and "Right" are as if looking 'ahead'; I

should say Port and Starboard ....

Procedure

*** DISCONNECT THE BATTERY !!! ***

Remove the distributor to give room to work on the carb nuts (Dellorto carbs); remove the carbs. (It *may* be easier to remove the inlet manifold, I really don't know - your choice).

Drain the cooling system and take off all hoses from the connections on the cylinder head. Don't forget the short horizontal one from thermostat housing to the inlet manifold.

Undo the exhaust pipe to manifold joint. Place a block of wood under the sump along the left hand edge of it, place a jack there. Undo the left hand engine mount underneath. Jack up under the sump carefully, watching what happens above. It should come up a few inches then the bellhousing fouls on the scuttle. The bottom of the manifold should then be about level with the top of the chassis (Elite). Support the sump securely on blocks.

Put the crankshaft to TDC. Ensure you are confident that the timing marks on the cams are right, same for the idler (dissy drive) shaft; if in doubt, mark them (esp. the idler). Ensure you know which cam housing is which, if in doubt mark them.

*** Ensure the crankshaft is not at TDC or BDC by turning it about 45 degrees or so ***

Remove the cam belt.

Check the valve clearances and write them down. Take a copy and file it somewhere safe ....

Remove the cam housings. For this you need that slim socket - I had a 3/8 drive 1/2in AF socket that just fitted; a normal 1/2 in drive one did not, so be careful and allow time to go and buy the right socket if you find that yours doesn't fit when you get to this point. When pulling the housings off, you have two problems. The shims, and the washers.

A steady lift will usually bring the shims off stuck to the underside of the followers, but don't rely on them staying there for long! So you have to upend the housing ASAP. But when you do that, the washers fall out all over the place .... so have a big box or a lot of rags ready to take the housing as you upend it. Now measure each shim thickness with the mic, note it down in two places; and keep the shims in the right order somehow.

Double check all wires and hoses are free - incl. temp sender.

Remove the head. You may find (depends on options) that the head *just* fouls on the thermostat housing. Mine did. If so, you can remove the water pump; or I found that it fouled by a mere 1mm or so, on the outside of a boss. I relieved it carefully with a file (hence confirming my status as a DPO ...). Note, I filed the boss on the thermo housing, not the head itself.

Now for those *big* washers. See the bit in the manual showing a special tool to retain the liners - I did similar with the washers. Put them over the 4 studs shown in the manual and use whatever you can for spacers over the four studs; I found a spark plug socket was ideal. Nip up the cyl head nuts, ensuring each washer engages two liners and that's it. IIRC 2 washers need relieving to miss the locating pins, it's obvious when you see it. Anyway, this needs doing before you turn the crank; and it's easiest to clean the piston tops at TDC so you want to be able to turn the crank.

While the head is off, have a good look at the exhaust manifold to pipe studs and replace any that are worn. I'm about to do this; if any break and have to be drilled out, I'll drill it oversize and fit one size larger stud (whatever Steve may say ..... )

The above may look long winded but it isn't when you're doing it; this part of the job went very well. I'm hoping reassembly goes equally as well, but first I have 16 valves to grind in and 16 shims to play with .....

Regards,

Mike Carrick