Weekend spannering

The Oily Bits S2 Specific Topics
1

Thought some of you might be interested in my spannering over the weekend to add a second oil cooler to my car. I have not heard of anyone else doing it before, but if you have a base or touring spec Exige built from April 05 on (easily identified as they have the LOTUS lettering rather than the badge on the back), the car already has a single oil cooler and it is a fairly straightforward job to fit a second one as per peformance pack cars - all the necessary plumbing is already in place. The bad news is the front clam has to come off

Here is a pic of the nearside of the car with the arch liners removed and the clam moved forward about 6 inches (I didn’t lift it right off the car to avoid having to disconnect the headlight wiring). The cooler and its feed pipe are pretty obvious:
[image]http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y92/ryallm/oil%20cooler%20fitting/DSC02121.jpg[/image]

And here is the offside of the car showing a joiner union in place of the second cooler.
[image]http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y92/ryallm/oil%20cooler%20fitting/DSC02119.jpg[/image]

Here is the second cooler going into position with its new plastic duct already bolted into place:
[image]http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y92/ryallm/oil%20cooler%20fitting/DSC02124.jpg[/image]

Here is the end result - second cooler in place, oil feed pipes back on, clam back in position with just the arch liners to go back on:
[image]http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y92/ryallm/oil%20cooler%20fitting/DSC02125.jpg[/image]

This is the relevant bit from the service manual which explains the routing of the oil pipes:
[image]http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y92/ryallm/oil%20cooler%20fitting/OilCoolerLines.jpg[/image]


Took me a good few hours to do thejob, but it was all thoroughly enjoyable, and I think a very worthwhile upgrade considering I am planning to track the car quite a bit this year. The only really fiddly bit was refitting the clam and getting the alingment right so all the panel gaps were spot on.

Let the track thrashing commence

Mark

2

Good stuff, & well done Mark

Did you not consider fitting braided brake hoses, whilst the clam was “off”, or have you already done that?

3

Good stuff, & well done Mark

Did you not consider fitting braided brake hoses, whilst the clam was “off”, or have you already done that?

now you tell him

4

Good work Mark!

I had a good look through a previous thread with a link regarding removing the clam.

Looked a right pain in the @rse. Was this the case?

How much was the second oil cooler? Looks a worthwile mod while the clams off to replace my brake lines.

Cheers, Mark

5

Good stuff, & well done Mark

Did you not consider fitting braided brake hoses, whilst the clam was “off”, or have you already done that?

now you tell him

I must be related to “Mystic Meg”

6

V. impressive
It was very interesting having a poke aound without the mud flap in place
Cant wait to find out what will be next

So did I persuade you into Donnie?

7

Did you not consider fitting braided brake hoses, whilst the clam was “off”, or have you already done that?

To be honest it never occurred to me - don’t have a multi-tasking brain . I have actually been pretty happy with the brakes on track up to now - maybe I am not trying hard enough!

Mark

8

I had a good look through a previous thread with a link regarding removing the clam.

Looked a right pain in the @rse. Was this the case?

How much was the second oil cooler? Looks a worthwile mod while the clams off to replace my brake lines.

Removing the front clam was actually easier than that guide suggested - in particular there was no problem at all getting at the fittings where the central spine bolts to the wiper bracket - perhaps these are slighly different to the 111R. The only awkward fitting was the bolt you have to get at next to the door hinge - the trick here is just to undo it a few turns rather trhan try to take the bolt out. Once unbolted there was also no problem at all moving the clam, contrary to what the guide suggests. The hardest part of the job as I mentioned above is getting the clam alingment right when putting it back on - this involves lots of fiddling with shims to make small adjustments to its position. The oil cooler and duct are �300 (10% less with Seloc discount at B+C)- pretty steep considering a similarly sized Motec cooler from Demon Theives is about half that, but I guess thats Lotus parts for you
Still worth it though and a fun wee project too

Mark

9

congrats Mark

nice job

shame about mystic meg and the brake hoses tho