Big thanks to Jonny who sent me a boot divider panel that was missing on my car 
It fitted like a dream.
That’s great news Klaus, looks the business. And thank you for my carpet 
he’s a good egg that jonny
Although it’s freezing cold here I spent some time in my workshop. With some double layered clothing and an electrical radiator it is just fine.
Checking the camshaft timing and the valve clearances was still on my to do list.
As the VHPD uses solid lifters the cams has to come out to get access to the shims hidden beneath them.
Valve clearances before adjustment:
cylinder--------1-------------- 2 -------------- 3 ------------- 4 ----
inlet ------ 0.16 0.16 – 0.16 0.18 — 0.14 0.20 — 0.20 0.20
exhaust - 0.24 0.24 – 0.28 0.26 — 0.30 0.28 — 0.28 0.28
Dave Andrew commented over at seloc that the clearances are ‘just about tolerable’. I decided to adjust them anyway as one of the camshaft seals was leaking and needed to be replaced.
The procedure is as follows:
- measure the clearances before disassembling
- disassemble the cam ladder and remove the camshafts
- measure the existing shim
- calculate the new shim size to achieve the required clearance (0.20 mm inlet, 0.25 mm exhaust)
- order new shims or try to re-use some of the old ones
- reassemble the camshafts using anaerobic liquid sealing
- measure the valve clearance and hope that it is fine. Otherwise re-start again
I ordered shims which are used on KTM motorbikes. They come in the required diameter of 10 mm and in 0.025mm steps of thickness.
Unfortunately some of them were 1 to 2 hundreds of millimetres thicker than stated.
Valve clearances after adjustment:
cylinder--------1-------------- 2 -------------- 3 ------------- 4 ----
inlet ------ 0.22 0.22 – 0.21 0.21 — 0.22 0.19 — 0.18 0.18
exhaust - 0.28 0.27 – 0.24 0.24 — 0.24 0.24 — 0.27 0.24
Although it’s not perfect I’m quite happy with the result. As you can see on the inlet valves of cylinder four
just dis- and re-assembling plus new sealant may change the clearances although the same shims are re-used.
Cheers, Klaus
Brilliant Klaus, must be bloody freezing! 
lovely project Klaus !!! congrats
Merci Julien 
I’m still chasing my slight stuttering problem and so I checked the compression today.
With warm engine, all plugs removed and at full throttle I measured the following values:
1: 16.50 bar
2: 17.0 bar
3: 16.5 bar
4: 17.25 bar
I’m surprised to see such high values. Almost Diesel-like. Is this common on VHPD engines?
But most important the values are pretty close to each other.
hi klaus
I would like to know which product did you use to clean the aluminium chassis ?
if you have some advice, let me know !
its the next step for me before rebuild the interior
thks in advance
I start with some white spirit to remove any surface dirt and grease. Then I’m using 1200 to 1500 grit wet and dry paper together with 3M Finesse-it compounding paste as the wetting component. This helps to flatten small scratches and marks. From my experience the anodizing is quite robust and does not suffer from the very fine sanding paper.
The 3M-Finesse-It is my personal cleaning wonder weapon. I use it to clean a lot of stuff including all sorts of plastics and painted surfaces. It doesn’t contain any silicon and is easy to wipe off.
[u]https://www.bitec.co.uk/3m-finesse-it-finishing-material-compound-1l-09639.html[/u]
But I’m sure there are plenty of other good ways around to clean the chassis.
Klaus
Thank you very much for your help !
Now that the spring has finally arrived I started to use the Exige on a regular base. I’ve done nearly 1000 miles since the rebuilt and the car drives absolutly fine.
Some minor things are still to sort like fixing the squealing brakes, fit some sort of oil cooler and probably a PRT. I also need to add some sort of oil temperature gauge.
The fuel consumption is quite moderate for a car of that state of tune. I managed to get about 27 mpg (10.5 l/100km) on spirited backroad driving and about 32 mpg (8.6 l/100km) on a trip with lots of Autobahn cruising at 80 to 90 mph. I expected it to be much higher and I am pleasantly surprised.
I collected the skimmed cylinder head of my Elise 111S at Motoren Ritterbecks today. Being there I took the opportunity to let them measure the power of my Exige on their rolling road. They measured a P(engine) of 188 hp at 7100 rpm (P(norm) is given with 180 hp).
I’m very happy with the result as I’m still running the original ECU with the standard inlet cam timing. No cat was fitted at that time.
The owner of the company really knows its job with lots of classic cars at the workshop. I saw a Maserati pre war Grand Prix car, Jensen Interceptor, Jaguar XK 120, Aston Martin Vantage and lots of Lotus Esprits as the owner collects them.
I’m enjoying driving my Exige. I recently visited a friend and his children loved to have a seat in the car.
I’d be a happy kid if I had those sports seat’s Klaus, are you sure you don’t want to trade them for some carbon ones???
Kevin, did you notice the bright eyes of the driver? That’s because he knows he is sitting in one of those ultra rare genuine Lotus Exige motorsport seats.
Aftermarket carbon seats just wouldn’t do the trick
Never buy an S1 without the Motorsport Seats 
Even if it’s £30k less than the ones advertised with Motorsport Seats
Yup!
HaHa, you guys… (I’ve got serious seat envy!)