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BlownCoronas Lotus Seven


BlownCorona

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Hi mate. I found this thread last night and read with interest. I also have an 18rg powered chevron that I've had for 4 years. It's a 1989 build. It seems we've come up against some of the same issues! Did you ever sort out your steering not centering properly? The previous owner of my car kept a book of notes for his 17 years of ownership, he sorted his steering not centering with an alignment. I could dig them out for you if you'd like them? My car is the same build, viva front end and holden HR/HQ rear end so the specs should be helpful.

Did you ever sort your overheating on the track? I had the same original radiator as yours (it also had the heater matrix hooked up as an additional rad) but it sprung a leak 3 years ago. I also changed to civic half rad, 48mm thick, 2 core, fan mounted to pull through and I got rid of the secondary heater matrix/rad. I did work to create a shroud at the front (between rad and nosecone) to channel air into the rad. It was fine on the street though I felt was marginal. Took it on track and got 4 sessions in before it was overheating. I don't think the gauge is very accurate. The head gasket is now blown...engine is hooked up to the hoist as we speak and engine will come out for a rebuild. If you sorted your overheating problems and could share what you did, that would be awesome!

 

Cheers, Dale

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Hey mate. 
i did sort the steering centering by winding in some more caster (mine was set at 0 degrees) that said id be keen to see your alignment numbers. 

As for the overheating, I've not done too much on that front while ive been trying to buy a house and all my stuff is in storage. i pulled the waterpump hoping to find missing fins, it was rough but not too bad but it could have been causing cavitation so ill still replace it. the radiator was not blocked either.  
my assumption was that the heater bypass which runs very high nearly above the valve cover was struggling with air bubbles and ill reroute it lower and with a bleed point. your experience worries me to a degree though. i may look to get a larger radiator for it. 



also, on this forum we do things slightly different with separate discussion threads so keep the build threads nice and tidy, you will find the discussion for this project here

 

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Hi mate, I just posted this in your build thread. Sorry, think this is the right place.

I also have an 18rg powered chevron that I've had for 4 years. It's a 1989 build. It seems we've come up against some of the same issues! Did you ever sort out your steering not centering properly? The previous owner of my car kept a book of notes for his 17 years of ownership, he sorted his steering not centering with an alignment. I could dig them out for you if you'd like them? My car is the same build, viva front end and holden HR/HQ rear end so the specs should be helpful.

Did you ever sort your overheating on the track? I had the same original radiator as yours (it also had the heater matrix hooked up as an additional rad) but it sprung a leak 3 years ago. I also changed to civic half rad, 48mm thick, 2 core, fan mounted to pull through and I got rid of the secondary heater matrix/rad. I did work to create a shroud at the front (between rad and nosecone) to channel air into the rad. It was fine on the street though I felt was marginal. Took it on track and got 4 sessions in before it was overheating. I don't think the gauge is very accurate. The head gasket is now blown...engine is hooked up to the hoist as we speak and engine will come out for a rebuild. If you sorted your overheating problems and could share what you did, that would be awesome!

 

Cheers, Dale

021645352

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BlownCorona

Hey mate. 
i did sort the steering centering by winding in some more caster (mine was set at 0 degrees) that said id be keen to see your alignment numbers. 

As for the overheating, I've not done too much on that front while ive been trying to buy a house and all my stuff is in storage. i pulled the waterpump hoping to find missing fins, it was rough but not too bad but it could have been causing cavitation so ill still replace it. the radiator was not blocked either.  
my assumption was that the heater bypass which runs very high nearly above the valve cover was struggling with air bubbles and ill reroute it lower and with a bleed point. your experience worries me to a degree though. i may look to get a larger radiator for it. 

 

DaleRous:

I actually put a new water pump in when I did the radiator but still no joy. The first track day it overheated, I noticed the belt was chewed up, a bit melted so had obviously been slipping at the high revs. It was 1mm under width. I had hoped that was the problem but I changed the belt and did another track day. This time it only managed 2 half sessions before there was overheating. I'll track down the aligment specs for you and post.

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I've also just bought a shroud for the pull through fan (not tried yet though) and will likely reinstall the heater core as another rad. Wish I went for the 3 core civic rad. I'll report back once I've got this thing rebuilt and on track again to test it. 

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BlownCorona, another question for you if you don't mind? My steering column has a ton of play at the top (I've had the rack rebuilt so I know that's good). Did you figure out what bearing you need to replace? It sounded as though you had the same issue. Thanks.

 

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yes its just the standard bearing, also used on kingswood from memory. 

costs a bloody fortune from rare spares and is still an incredibly shitty looking bearing, so i intend on machining up a bush from something nice. 

https://www.rarespares.net.au/rsnz/buy/7800269/bearing-steering-column-upper-hk-ht-hg-hq-hj-hx-hz
i think its that part but please dont quote me on it. i took one look at the price and construction and dismissed it as an option.

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  • 2 years later...

No problem, message any quesions here and ill do my best. that way they will become searchable on google for any others looking, there are also people who know these cars/lotus reps better than I on here too. Congrats on the purchase of an epic car though, i love mine and im just about to head out to the shed to make a start on getting it ready for summer, for various reasons, ive missed out the last couple of summers and it feels like a crime to have a lotus 7 and just not use it. 

This might prompt me to actually make the deflectors properly as the ones i have now were just to test if it fixed the problem, they are definitely a massive improvement though! 

i just had a quick google because id never heard the term shadow 7 before, it absolutely blows my mind that Australia has replica Chevrons! im not surprised though, other than the big names, the chevron is one of the nicest lotus replicas ive seen. 

 

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Thx BlownCorona, will be interesting to see how similar the 2 cars are.

 Whilst reading through the whole thread, I noticed a few photos may ne missing. Also interested in how the new wheels went. I have a set of 13x10 and 13x9 i might try to fit for track days. 

 Also, do u have links to any other Chevron 7 related stuff? There is virtually nothing on google i can see. 

Also, what kind of hardcopy stuff do you have for it? Was there every a build book etc for them?

One day to pick up the beast.

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i haven't tried the new wheels yet, they are 4x100mm whereas the chevron is 4x4" (4x101.6). i think i will get some floating taper wheel buts but this may require a change in wheel stud as ive not had much luck finding 5/8ths floating nuts, it will also be smart to run hub centric spacers to make sure the wheels a center properly. Im toying with the idea of machining the front lip off the rear wheels and fitting deeper lips to fill out the rear fender instead, but they are very heavy and the stud holes are insanely close to the very large centre bore so i do prefer the idea of the wide steels, they look the part too. 

i dont have a build guide, but my car was more than likely bought assembled by the factory as it has both a chevron branded VIN plate and chassis number plate. The rest of the hard copy stuff i received was just photocopy's of various books from a library that were simply info related to the engine and carb tuning ect. certainly from a time before the internet where all of that stuff was much easier to get.

image.thumb.jpeg.10a8e692b36af3584942e7181ca0e951.jpeg

ive been putting some effort into getting it ready for this summer so with some luck, it might see the light of day again shortly! i very much miss driving it.

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On 11/10/2024 at 13:33, Chevronrod said:

Thx BlownCorona, will be interesting to see how similar the 2 cars are.

 Whilst reading through the whole thread, I noticed a few photos may ne missing. Also interested in how the new wheels went. I have a set of 13x10 and 13x9 i might try to fit for track days. 

 Also, do u have links to any other Chevron 7 related stuff? There is virtually nothing on google i can see. 

Also, what kind of hardcopy stuff do you have for it? Was there every a build book etc for them?

One day to pick up the beast.

Head to https://www.ozclubbies.com.au/ for lots of 7 content including a bit of Chevron that they often know as Shadow which is what they were sold as there.

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Thx BlownCorona and FraserNZ, picked up yesty and I think side screens are a no brainer, the buffeting is intense. 

Indeed mine is a Shadow, a copy of the Chevron (pity not a Chevron, would live to have the logo on it-the B12 and B8 are 2 of my favourite cars),little bits of info on ozclubbies. I know the Shadow was 'agricultural' compared to the well triangulated westfields, Frasers and even Locosts, but for the price i got ir, and the driving i will do, it's a winner.

Surprisingly,  the owner didn't realise it actually had  a hood. I got it home (4 hour driving in the cold, had to thaw out my face to release the frozen ear to ear grin). Yes, hoods are ugly, but nice to know it os there.

  So, from what i can gather, front is Holden Torana HB. Lockheed twin pots on front. One is seized and pads and rotors destryed - explains the spongey pedal and virtually non- existatnt brakes. 

First question, I cannot find a part number for the master cylinder. May i see a photo of yours and any info you have on it please. 

17287827052053041692929152311483.jpg

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