upgrade recommendations

[techspy]

I purchased my 94 S4 about a month ago. http://hometown.aol.com/oneshotcop/myhomepage/profile.html
I haven’t even seen her in person yet. I basically bought it sight unseen with the advice of the guy in the picture, Rob who owns Exotic Auto in Sufside SC (near Myrtle Beach). Rob knew the owner and has serviced the car for him. He recommended it because he knew I was in the market and he knew the car was in excellent shape. I had an 83 Turbo a while back and came to know Rob then. If anyone in the coastal SC area needs any work done, I highly recommend Rob. He works only on Ferrari, Jag and Lotus. Very knowledgeable.
Anyway, I should go home for a couple of weeks in July, and would be gone another 6 months so I figured that would be a good time to request some mods be performed and was wondering where and what brands you guys recommend for the following. I have done the searches and researched on my own, but personal experience/opinions are hard to beat. A US distributor would be preferred. And for the first time in my life money is no object (except for the obviously outrageous), so please recommend the best.

1) BOV, not the recirculating dump valve.

2) Pre-luber/turbo timer

4) Sport exhaust, I want something as un-restrictive as possible with good sound, but still need to keep the cat for emissions purposes.

5) Larger charge cooler and possibly electric chargecooler pump.

6) A K&N type of free flowing filter setup.

7) Maybe a mild chip to improve smoothness etc. (or maybe a programmable ECU?) I have had a programmable ECU in a mustang previously, and I really liked the diagnostic and tunability features.

I plan on these wheels as well. www.certifiedwheels.com/
Anyone have these or have an experiences/opinions on them?

Oh, in my previous performance cars I ran Mobile 1 synthetic engine oil and was very happy with it. Does anyone know what type of effect it will have on the Lotus engine?

A major factor for me is not permanently altering anything. I want to be able to return the car to original if wanted. I am really more interested in making the engine more efficient therefore making it work less for the same output. If there is a gain in power at the same time, that is great, but not the first priority. Durability and reliability through less stress is.

Sorry for such a long request. Thanks ahead of time.

John
94 S4

[rob.e]

John - the best S4 i've seen belongs to Dermot:

www.lotusespritworld.co.uk/EOwners/dermot.html

His car will stay with my v8 no problem when we've driven together, so its pretty quick. Suggest you take a look at some of the mods dermot has done.

cheers
Rob

ps - the uk yahoo group is a good place to discuss mods:

http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/UKLotusEsprit/

[techspy]

yeah, I have seen that site...awsome car..Thats where I got some of the ideas for mine..Like the larger chargecooler. I guess the information I am looking for most is a US distributor for the mods I have listed. I have pretty much decided to go with these mods, unless someone advises it is not a good idea.
Thanks for the info.

John
94 S4

[Doors]

Marcus at:

http://freudhoefer.de/lotus/esprit/

doesn't charge that much for posting if you can't find a distributor.

Doors.

[abrussich]

For parts in the U.S. try Dave Bean engineering, (www.davebean.com), and JAE, (www.jaeparts.com), both have provided good service and prices. Strongly recomend checking out SJ Sporstcars, (U.K.), look for their link on this site. I know dealing with an overseas merchant can be trying at times, but have not had that problem with SJS, nice chaps ;-).
K&N can be purchased stateside easily through the above, both of which are based in your home state, (Ca. right?).
I have a sport exhaust from Stebro, (Cananda), which aside for a less than perfect mounting system should meet your needs for sound, free flow, and power gain. The can is stainless steel and weighs a good twenty pounds less than the stock muffler.
Check out the "dump valve" mentioned on this site. Have a similar one on my wifes Beetle and the difference is VERY noticeble.
I purchased a chip from California based Superchip. It seems that there are now more sources available then there were back in 98 when I did mine, so take some time to shop around and if your faith in Rob is that strong, ask him for an opinion.
Hope this helps some, good luck
AL B. 89 Esprit turbo, N.A.

[techspy]

Thanks for all the info guys. I have requested some qoutes from a couple places in Europe (Marcus was very helpful by the way)and will do the same from JAE and DaveBean today. I also joined the LotusEspritUK group and have been doing some reading there. Followup question. Has anyone used the cat offered by Marcus and used it in an emissions test? If so how did it do? And, any opinions on synthetic motor oil?

John
94 S4

[rob.e]

techspy said: Has anyone used the cat offered by Marcus and used it in an emissions test?

I may be wrong here, but i thought marcus's "cat" pipe was a cat replacment, ie there is no cat there. Ie you wont pass emissions with it.

c.a.r.s. also has one:
www.cars.u-net.com/lotus/esprit.htm

[roadburner]

This is an cat replacement pipe.You can`t pass the emission test.

[Squelch]

You could check out the BOV that Sanj (grungex) offers and also see if you can find a "Micklewright" cat back exhaust... the craftsmanship is a work of art and it sounds great...