I have made a bit more progress and checked the mechanical valve clearances, it was a pretty easy task. I turned the engine over with a long socket wrench on the belt pulley and when the cam was 180 Degrees away from the cam follower I checked the clearance. People have reported that it’s hard to get a feeler gauge in but there is plenty of space. I only had imperial gauges so they should measure 10 thou and 12 thou for the inlet and exhaust in old money. They are absolutely nothing like that, only four are close to correct and all the rest are tighter, some as small as 5 thou. It’s not a major problem but they will have to be shimmed to get the correct measurements. I was also worried that the cam pulleys did not look aligned as the K series workshop manual suggests. After a quick check with Dave Andrews of DVA power fame he tells me it’s correct for a 190 VHPD. That’s worth knowing for anyone else who is a VHPD novice. I’m going to continue pulling it apart and get Dave Andrews to shim the valves (assuming everything else is OK).
Very good point this, it seems even some ‘experts’ don’t know. My car at some point got reverted to standard timing which I only realised at the last cambelt change (courtesy of the eagle-eyed Byron, our friendly neighbourhood Lotus master tech ) Standard timing shown in the photo for comparison, but note also the correct white alignment marks on the left hand pulley and the cam cover
The alternative timing mark came to mind when I posted earlier but, as I haven’t yet fitted the 190 pulley I acquired recently I didn’t want to give out inaccurate info. However this thread has (a) reminded me to fit it and (b) been hugely useful in fitting it correctly!
The plot thickens for my car, even though the pulleys are correctly aligned the cams most certainly are not, the inlet and exhaust cams are closely aligned, opening both valves at the same time. I’m in conversation with Dave Andrews and he thinks some Muppett has put the cam wheel on the wrong roll pin. You can see the inlet and exhaust lobed pointing up. I thought something was odd. It’s certainly never run like that.
Even though it’s all coming apart, I have ordered a camlock tool so I can get the pulley bolts off and see what’s wrong. Progress stopped until it arrives!
I’m slightly confused here…the photo appears to show both pulleys on standard alignment marks, yet the dowel appears to be in the additional ‘190 slot’?
According to Dave Andrews mine is correct with left pulley “exhaust” mark at 12 and the right pulley “exhaust” mark at 9. However my pulleys are probably on the wrong slots/dowels on the cams. I suspect my engine had verniers on it at some stage and when they engine was removed the old pullies where bunged on (literally) and they are in the wrong place. Once I have the cam tool I’ll remove the bolts and check and them get a correct picture of the cams aligned and the pullies on the correct roll pins.
Using a very long (smooth) stick I removed the plugs and expected the engine to be at top dead centre, two of the pistons at the top of their stroke. It turns out that the timing mark at 12 o’clock is at 90 degrees before top dead centre (BTDC), known as the safe position, where all four of the pistons are at the same level (though two are going up and the other two going down).
Next step is to get that pulley bolt off, it’s putting up a fight. I hope to get some metal work next week so I can attack it.
I have tested my impact driver on it with no success. I’m seeing Gavin on Monday to service my S1. I’m hoping he has an old flywheel that I can take away and fit to my engine. Then I can really jam the crank and hit it with the impact driver. At the moment its bouncing, I’ll keep you posted, thx.
After a bit of searching and talking with a Gavin at Unit 4 today I have learnt that once the head is off, if you try to turn the crank over you will lift the liners and they will have to be reseated and sealed. Gavin also advised that he has never seen a Lotus with a damaged bottom end so don’t touch it. I think I’ll remove the head once I have the pulley off do the shimming myself. I have advised Gavin that I may end up bringing him a bag of bits to be reassembled.
) Standard timing shown in the photo for comparison, but note also the correct white alignment marks on the left hand pulley and the cam cover 
