[Nobbc] Sunday's drive and a brief technical note...

[gtwincams]

Hey All,

That was a great drive today, and what a nice turnout! Thanks Ron for a 
great job keeping us all in a tight group. It was also great to see the 
newer members and get some new cars on the drives.

For those of you who did not attend and those who didn't stay through 
lunch to see John having troubles starting his Lotus after lunch and the 
subsequent resuscitation, I thought it might be useful to share with 
members who may not have gone through this before. 

After cranking with no throttle to no avail, Walt and Dennis suggested 
open throttle, so we tried 1/2 and wide-open, both to no avail. After 
verifying we had spark and the fuel pump was working, we saw that the 
fuel filter in the engine compartment was almost completely empty. We 
were smelling fumes and assumed we had fuel flow, but the engine 
wouldn't even cough. A check of the plugs showed no fouling. Finally, we 
removed the air filters and with John propping up the Stromberg's air 
valves 1/2-way (constant-depression carbs won't draw up the pistons, 
even with throttle butterflies open, until the engine starts sucking 
air), we cranked with 1/2 throttle and the engine fired up.

When I lived in So Cal I had an MGB that would cook off gas in the fuel 
bowls on hot days when parked in the sun, even cooking off fuel in the 
engine compartment fuel lines. I'd smell what I thought was gas, but was 
only fumes, and would sometimes not be able to get the engine going 
until it had cooled enough to clear the fuel line vapor lock and/or fuel 
bowls. That's what seemed to be the problem today. It was quite a hot 
day, John's Elan is painted BRG (dark color), and it was parked in the 
sun. After moving it to the shade, cooling it down, and getting the air 
intakes open, away she went. The fix for my old MGB was heat shielding 
on the engine room fuel lines and SU fuel bowls; John's will be cutting 
two vent holes in the inner fender well, a modification Lotus employed 
in cars built after John's.

Have a great week!

Greg and Trish