View single post by ozzadavies
 Posted: 03-22-2009 07:37 pm
PM Quote Reply Full Topic
ozzadavies



Joined: 10-03-2008
Location: London, United Kingdom
Posts: 17
Status: 
Offline
Nice to see some fellow Brits, and thanks for the advice Colin. Next time you make it over and have a spare couple of hours let me know...

I took the car into a great Lotus specialist (Morland & Jones in Hammersmith) to get the problem checked over. I got there, bonnet up, and was explaining the problem when I noticed the dipstick was totally covered in emulsion. First time I'd seen that. Turns out it was a head gasket problem that they fixed along with de-coking the head, resetting the valve clearances (quite out apparently), and changing the timing belt, tension bearing and plugs.

The PCV valve was pressurising the crank case by the way. I took out the inner white plastic thingy on it today and those plastic beads so that it's now just a catch pot.

All great and fab and all that. Engine is much more responsive at lower revs, seems much more perky, obviously no water or gunk anymore. But...now a new problem seems to have emerged. Over about 3000 revs the engine hesitates and misfires. Could it be mixture too lean perhaps, or an electrical fault like the coil or distributor arm?