The Lotus Grand Tourers

Has anyone had any luck with this kind of oil: https://www.smithandallan.com/products/transport-classic-and-vintage/4393-smith-and-allan-select-xl-20w-50---low-detergent-vintage-motor-oil/ It says it 'The product contains desirable levels of ZDDP and exhibits excellent resistance to wear. ' but they...

Thanks for the replies, that's a huge help. The exhaust/manifold bolts were pretty tricky, I managed to do it in the end, I don't have an engine hoist so this really was my only option if I'm do get this done is a reasonable amount of time. A new timing belt has been ordered, along with Loctite 515 ...

It looks like I need to take the cylinder head off a 1984 excel A few quick questions before I start: Are there any special tools or parts required? Do I need something to hold in the liners? Has anyone managed to remove the head with the engine in the car? If so what was the trickiest part? Also th...

Thanks for your useful info and advice, I'd rather to a proper fix instead of having to worry about it wearing again in the future, so I'm going to replace the valve and shim.

I'll do some research into what head gasket is required, and order it along with the valve, shim and a few other bits.

I have a 1984 Excel with the LC type engine, and I checked the valve clearances over the weekend. 7 out of 8 of the exhaust valves were fine, all around 0.25mm. However 1 valve, the 3rd one from the timing belt is almost double the clearance: 0.45mm So I took the cam shaft carriers off the head so I...

Take a look at T7 Design's website - lots of heater valves. They are very happy to help with queries as well. Pete Thanks, that's a great site, this valve looks like it should do what I'm after: https://www.t7design.co.uk/tx2-heater-bypass-valve-16mm-5-8-pull-to-bypass-149-cdb-560.html I'll have to...

Thanks very much for the info and posting up the pics, it makes much more sense now why the bypass is there. I guess the previous owner had done this mod, the only downside I can see is that when the heater valve is fully open, some of the hot water would still pass thru the bypass pipe, but I guess...

I've recently aquired an early non-SE Excel and it's a bit of an unfinished project by the previous owner. The car came with some blue aftermarket silicone hoses, but it looks like they reused some of the orignal hose and made some sort of heater matrix bypass and used some copper 'T' pieces that lo...

Thanks very much for the help, I've managed to find the stamped engine number now. The engine looks to be the correct type, a LC engine with PAS.

I'll need to order a few spares in the future so wanted to be sure to get the correct parts.

I was searching thru the service history of my Excel and it looks like it's had a replacement engine at some point. Is there a place I can find the engine number? I've had a look and I couldn't find it marked anywhere, thanks. All I know so far is that the engine isn't the HC one, it's got the black...