By Don Nester
From the Chapman Report - 1978

PART 1
With all my new found knowledge from last month’s articles on "Keeping Your Europa Cool", I decided to check my Twin Cam Europa which had recently started to run a trifle on the warm side. After trying the simple solutions (tuning it up, bleeding the cooling system, adding water and checking hoses) with absolutely no results, I finally decided to check the water pump belt. Reaching around the front of the engine, I found the water pump pulley. To my surprise, the pulley wobbled as if there were NO bearings in it at all (I later found that there were no bearings left). Well, this certainly explained the slight rise in running temperature since my water pump was barely turning at all. (By the way, this problem gave me plenty of warning – more than 3000 miles with gradually increasing temperatures and absolutely NO water leakage.) As a result of my experience, I strongly recommend that the very first thing that you check when your Twin Cam runs warm is the water pump. The word is that the water pump will last only between 20-50 thousand miles.

Now peering into the shop manual under WATER PUMP, one is met with the following un-nerving statement. "To remove the water pump, first remove engine." ARRGGGH!!! Well, that’s not too bad, it only takes 1-2 hours to remove the engine. So, I proceeded:

• Out came the trunk.
• Off went the carburetors with linkage.
• Off went the electrical connections.
• Lower suspension arm lower bolts were removed.
• Roll pins from inner U-joints removed and wheels pulled free from transmission.
• Out came the muffler.
• Off went the clutch linkage, clutch cable from arm, clutch cable support and bell housing bolts.
• Hoses removed and water drained (mostly on me).
• Floor jack placed under transmission.
• Two transmission mounting bolts removed, two top engine mounting bolts removed, two bottom engine mounting bolts slightly loosened, jack lowered so transmission clears frame; and then, with friend, transmission came out.
• Then after placing jack under engine, the last two engine mounting bolts removed, engine dropped to floor (with jack and friend), car jacked up by center frame AND now engine was removed from under car (with help of friend).
• Buy friend a beer.

Now once again peering into the shop manual, one is met with the next unwelcome command, "Remove Head and Pan"…. DAMN!

After resting a night and being suitably stocked with liquid refreshment, I once again began the water pump replacement process.

• Off came the head.
• Off came the starter, pan, and finally off came the front cover with the water pump.

Well, when one is sooo close to the engine’s internals, (even though the engine has only 34K miles on it, it’s kind of a good idea to check the engine’s vital parts (for a TC it is a verrry gooood idea). Dismantling the valve train I found 1) bad cam bearings, 2) bad valve guides, 3) sunken valve seats, and 4) badly worn valve stems… HMMMM…. I wonder if the last owner did a bit of racing?

After completing the disassembly of the valve train, I decided to check the rugged Ford bottom end which probably wouldn’t be bad… WRONG!!! All bearing down to copper… I wonder how many RPMs this engine has seen. Well, the saving grace was that the bore looked ok… but, on the other hand the top piston grooves were worn out.

Now, if you have been keeping count, the following was required to correct the engine problems which I discovered while I was replacing my water pump:

1. Compete valve job with all new parts.
2. All new bearings including wrist pin bushings.
3. Reboring cylinders to 20 over to fit new pistons.
4. Turning crank to 10 under to clean up scoring.
5. A water pump rebuild kit.

i.e. A Total Rebuild was required!!!

Well, parts and machining aren’t that expensive, so off I went…

PART 2
The first real problem in the rebuilding of a Europa TC is the locating of machine shop(s) which will reliably perform the required machining on the engine. For the work on the block, any high quality automotive machine shop will do. After locating that machine shop, the following will be required by the shop to rebuild the block:

1. The dimensions of the engine block which they usually have.
2. The engine block (note: The pick up for the oil pump can not be removed without destroying it… so, don’t remove it).
3. The new pistons to be matched to the rebored block.
4. The connecting rods with bearing caps and bolts. The rods will have to be resized and new wrist pin bushings will have to be fit.

(Ed. Also, take crank, new rod bolts, flywheel and new clutch (if engine is to be balanced) and jackshaft bearings.)

The machine shop work on the head is altogether a different story. It is best to select a machine shop that routinely does TC heads and who is known to do quality work. The machining of the TC head is not that much unlike a garden variety cast iron head, but it is different. The shops that routinely do the TC heads will know how to set up the head correctly.

There are two ways of handling the head with the machine shop consisting of 1) having them fully rebuild the head, or 2) having them only perform the required machining. If you select the first method then you simply give them fully assembled head to the shop and they will disassemble it, clean it (NO sand or bead blasting!!!), perform all required machining, replace all bad parts, reassemble it, and adjust valves.

The second method requires that you disassemble the head, reassemble the head, and adjust the valves. The machine shop will do the rest of the work. This method allows you to control the determination of which parts are bad and allows you to control of the set up of the head. Also, you will save a little money, but it will require about a day of your time. If you go the second route, as I did, the following must be observed:

1. If you replace the valves (as you will probably have to), have the new valves surfaced by the machine shop. The reason this is required is (to my surprise) that new valves are not always totally true (and mine were not).
2. The machine shop must guarantee that the valve clearance is between 70-155 thousandths. This is very important because the standard Lotus shims that are available only go between 60-150 thousandths. This is for a very good reason. If the clearance is greater than 155 thousandths the valve seats are too tall and must be ground down. Replaced seats may be too tall (as mine were). Because of the minimum clearance between the valve guides and the valve keepers, tall valve seats will cause the keepers to bottom out on the valve guides. It is easy to detect this condition since the cam will not turn (as mine did not). By the way… If you can get the valve clearance to be about 100 thousandths you can save some money by using Triumph TR7 shims. They cost between $0.35-0.70 and Lotus shims cost from $2-3 (note: 1978 prices!). Note: If the valve clearance is less than 70 thousandths, the valve seats are too short and MUST be replaced.

Well after I selected a machine shop and left the parts to be machined, I went out to acquire the pistons since the shop was unable to find them.

PART 3
Well, after a very short search, I found a shop where I could order my pistons for about $130 (actual price turned out to be $160). One week went by and not pistons had arrived; nor had the second gear synchro for my transmission which I had also ordered. After checking I found that both the synchro and pistons were being shipped via United Parcel.

The synchro landed at my doorstep the next Monday; however, because no one was home, the synchro was returned to the UPS depot and then lost! After many phone calls, threats, high temper, and 3 days, the synchro was found and my wife picked it up. (It would have been faster and less trouble to have picked it up from the Lotus parts dealer.)

Well, it was the 3^rd weekend and again I had no engine parts because the pistons had still not arrived. This, however, left me ample time to replace second gear synchro in the transmission, clean parts, and replace the transmission motor mounts. On the next Monday I went directly to the parts house (instead of going to work) which had ordered the pistons to find out what had happened to them. After a couple of calls to UPS, we located the pistons and they were delivered within the day.

At the end of the week, I had all of the parts back from the machine shop and was ready to start the rebuilding process. Starting with the head, I checked the valve and seat mating using a light grinding compound. This revealed that the new intake valve faces were not true and had to be ground. Luckily, I found a friend locally who resurfaced the valves Saturday morning.

Having reassembled the head, I checked the valve clearance and found the intakes had none and the exhausts (which had new seats) had an awful lot. Well, since valve shims could not be attained on a weekend, I spent the rest of the weekend cleaning parts and reassembling the block.

Monday morning I started my valve shim search (instead of going to work). This resulted in the purchase of 4 shims in the 60 thousandths range for the next try at the intake valve adjustment, and ordering from Los Angeles the very large shims (at great expense) for the final exhaust valve adjustment.

By the fifth weekend the shims had arrived and I was ready once again to start rebuilding the head. After reassembling the head, I was able to measure the intake clearance and found that the exhaust valve clearances were perfect. However, there was one small problem, the exhaust cam wouldn’t turn past a certain point… Well, after pondering the problem for a while, I determined that the valve seats were too tall. DARN!

On the next Monday (instead of going to work) I took the once again disassembled head back to the machine shop to have it’s new valve seats ground down. By the end of the week, I had gotten the head back, completed the rebuilding process, and I was once again ready to put my Europa engine back together on the weekend.

On this 6^th weekend (after a very late evening enjoying a GGLC meeting), I completed the engine rebuilding and reinstalled the engine in the car. Now, was the time when the fruits of my labor would be harvested and I would once again hear the fine purr of a Twin Cam… It wouldn’t start… Well, after a can of instant start (ether), and the exhaustion of my 4 letter word vocabulary, my wife cautiously opened the door to the garage and authoritatively suggested that the starting motor might also require rebuilding since everything else had needed rebuilding… DAMN! She was right… Even worse, a bushing was missing (probably a minor oversight at the factory).

Well, Monday morning (instead of going to work) I went to a friendly BMC dealer to purchase the one remaining starting motor bushing in the Bay Area (cost of $0.90). Hooray! The rebuilt starter spun that engine like gang-busters and the engine immediately sprung to life… The joy of Lotus ownership was once again returned, and as you would expect the 6 week ordeal was immediately forgotten.

But wait, what was the cost? It wasn’t cheap, $750 and I did all the work. You might be able to do better, but I doubt it. Here’s the summary:

	Parts	Machine Shop	Total
Head	$161.72	$92.22	$253.94
Block	$233.04	$132.50	$365.54
Water Pump	$49.73	--	$49.73
Miscellaneous	$75.48	--	$75.48
TOTAL			$744.69

If you add up my labor, the total price gets close to $3000. Oh well, it sure is nice to be driving my Europa once again!

PART 4
After last month’s article, I received many questions about Twin Cam rebuild costs especially for the water pump. In clarification, these costs were inclusive of all parts and machine shop costs for the listed item. For example, the water pump that was listed at $49.73 included the following water pump related parts:

Rebuild Kit $28.09

Venturi Insert $9.34

Gaskets $3.28

V-Belt $9.02