esprit engine help

[mageri]

hello,

i have blown my engine, shame on me!!!
its a 4cyl s4 engine and ive got a big hole in the block.
no noisy brokend rods or valves(just compessionlost sound) and no smoke in exhaust.

ive put out the engine but not apart,
should it be becaurse of blown the headgasket or the liners has gone oval?

im driving very high boost BB-turbo, higher fuelpressure, more cooling and so on, the car has(had) around 420hp. (ofcourse the failure depend on that)

do anyone know if an proffessional can fix the block or maybe, can i bay a new nikasil block from for example an excel?
is it the same block?

if the costs are going to be to heavy, i go for an esprit v8 engine with motec system....

tell me the best way to do, and where to get these parts.

cheers
Magnus from sweden

(bad english, i know

[newburymess]

Magnus,

Din Englesk er bedre end vores Svensk. Jeg tror du har ingen problem med at laese Englesk og jeg ville prove at svare din sprogsmaal.

There is no such thing as a Nikasil block, unless you are referring to a block which has been machined to accept Nikasil liners. Early turbos did not have the Nikasil liners, if you source such a block you will need to have it machined to fit your liners.

I would think that it is possible to get a block in England, there are a couple of engines for sale on ebay.co.uk and if you go to Esprit Owners (www.lotusespritworld.co.uk)and look at the parts for sale you may find what you are looking for.
Maybe Gary Kemp has a block kicking around. I know he is selling a complete S4 engine as it is listed in the For Sale section.

Just curious about your blown engine. How did you ever make 420 horsepower? Was this car dynoed, or are you just estimating what you had?

I will keep my ear to the ground, but shipping costs being what they are you will be best served buying something within the EU.

Where in Sweden do you live? I spent 17 yrs in Denmark
(Frederikshavn) before moving back to the US.

Steve '95 S4s

[Esprit2]

Magnus,

Sorry to hear about your trouble with the Esprit.

I'm not clear about what you are saying. Is there a hole in the block, or not? Like a piece of metal missing and you can look inside?

Or is it simply blowing cylinder pressure out of the joint between the head and block? Those are two very different situations.

Heck, if it's just the whoshing sound of of lost boost that you are reacting to, then it could even be a plenum gasket leak or the hoses connecting the turbo and chargecooler. Pretty simple, but it makes a loud "compression noise" and power goes away.

From your other comments, it sounds to me like there is no physical hole in the block, and it just blew a head gasket. Did you perform a compression check before removing the engine from the car? That would confirm the condition of the head gasket.

If it's just a blown head gasket, the fix is relatively easy. And that's pretty common with an overboosted engine making big horsepower. If you're lucky, the fix could be as simple as replacing the head gasket plus any maintenance items you wish to take care of while the engine is apart.

There's no way to know from your description if the liners have failed in some way. But if you make a list of possibilities, a blown head gasket is very close to the top, and oval liners are way down the list.

If there is actually a hole in the side of the block, then things just got much more expensive. Basically, a full rebuild plus a replacement block and main bearing panel (MBP). The block and MBP are machined as matched pairs and sold as sets.

The Excel and Esprit S4 do not use the same block. If you do need a block and MBP, look for parts from a late Esprit.

For parts, talk to Garry Kemp, SJ Sportscars, Paul Matty Sportscars, Christopher Neil.

Fixing a blown head gasket won't be too expensive in Lotus terms. Fixing a block with a hole in it along with all the other damage that would have occured will be very expensive. However, it will be a small fraction of the cost of converting to a Lotus V8 engine. Fix the 4-cylinder.

Don't apologize for your English. It is much better than my Swedish !

Regards and good luck,
Tim Engel

[mageri]

thanx for answers!

now im 100% clear that my head gasket has blown,
the compression went down in waterroom, and pressuring the block so it cracked.

i have proffessional person on alu jobs, and i think he maybe can fix it?
then i have to "machinecut" some tens of a millimeter on the blocktop to make i straight again.....

and ofcourse i do some maintance when the engine is apart.

what i mean with the nikasilblock was ofcourse nikasilliners.

yes, the power are just estimating only....
(freudhoefer in germany gets 420hp, with nearly the exact upgrades) i dont know, but i realy feel the power and its just wonderful

the fueling is capable to reach 420hp and this new ball bearing turbo can be enough to produce 450hp
(even when its so big, turbolag (boostlevel) are nearly the same, beacurse of much more modern construction).

you can read more here:
www.lotusespritworld.co.uk/EOwners/magnusEriksson.html

now it can take a couple of weeks, but i´ll be back

cheers
Magnus