1981 Chassis Scraping Plastic Plough Lotus VIDEO OUT THERE:

That trumpet shot in the rear window is what it is all about .

Just when I thought it looked cool enough as it was, you go and make it cooler! I hope you get many miles out of it when its done!

I've got to say. I've seen pictures of this car on the internet and I've never given it too much interest as on the surface it just looks like an old Lotus, lowered on some wide wheels. After seeing all the work and engineering that's gone into the car as a whole I'm blown away by it and ashamed of my ignorance towards it. Great build thread!

Sorry - double post

Seriously, it’s been way too long since my last instalments. Believe me I’ve been desperate to get back at it! Seeing the plough sat there for that long is quite depressing but I had the chance to work around Europe so I took it.
So, I have been busy with various things engine related, the first thing being the sump. Whilst the ally sump was being welded it had twisted slightly. This I wasn’t happy with so I decided to have a steel sump fabricated, reason being, I want reliability and with the ally modified one I doubt it would have lasted. They have done a terrific job but I forgot about the crank sensor mounting so it’s gone back to be modified again. This is the only photo I took but you can see it’s a tidy job.

On to the next issue, wiring the sensors to work with the emerald ECU. I wanted to use the original Alfa wiring and circular multi-plug as well as the emerald loom, I’m going to mount the bulkhead plug through the upper part of the engine cover. The wiring really wasn’t too bad although I am having a little difficulty with the cam phase sensor because the schematic says it needs a live feed (SENSOR K47). As you can imagine I don’t want to short out my new ECU so for the mean time I’ve set the injection to batch fire instead of the standard sequential. A bit of reading up shows that the only real advantage to sequential is economy? Anyway, if you can point me in the right direction with this then let me know……

The working outs….



Injector test was next. I rigged up a little test sump so all injector spray pattern could be inspected and fuel pump /regulater tested also. The shortened fuel rails worked a treat with no leaks, all fittings were bought off the bay….. the cost of those AN fitting is a bit steep but the do look the nuts. I also tried a various types of hose, turns out the nylon coated hose looks the best and is also the easiest to work with…………………… no holes in fingers like you get with the stainless coated type.



I wanted the rocker covers to have the writing the correct way up for no real reason except athstetics. I cut the alfa section out, I don’t have an air compressor at home so I fired the die grinder mandrel onto the old dewalt, it cut through like butter!


I thought about welding both sections together but I thought it way distort like the sump. I decided on metal bond, only thing was I didn’t know how it would react with the wrinkle paint. I know it will be supper strong and its only a cover, not structural

Sooooooo onto paint, turns out I didn’t have to worry. Paint went on fine and the hour bake in the oven revealed this……..


Right, the bit that stressed me out as all that work boiled down to one thing…………….. THE START!
Double, triple checked everything, from the wiring to the tempary fuel setup (didn’t use the swirl put or filters at this point). Turned engine over, showed good cranking, all oils were good. So time to connect the fuel pump and start……………………………..

Well actually, that was the second start as in my hast, I forgot to record the first 1. I did however have a small issue with cylinder 2 and 5 having low exhaust temp. As you can see in the video, I check 2/5 with a temp gun and were normal. It was just adjustment of butterflies ( 2/5 controlled forn the same rod and were almost closed in first run).
Ive bought a syncrometer to check all itbs. I will be welding up a simple exhaust the weekend so you can actually hear the engine, far too loud with just exhaust manifolds!

Does anyone have an old radiator they want to get rid of which is not leaking and had a rad cap? I would like to run the engine for a longer period so I can adjust the linkages so firing a little water through is the way to go before putting engine back into the car.

GREAT TO KNOW IT RUNS. SORRY TO SHOUT. I THOUGHT MAYBE YOUR EARS WERE STILL RINGING.

That is frigging awesome

Glad it starts up and runs, even if a tad too much for recording equipment without any silencers


You shouldn't need much of a radiator for cooling duties outside of the car will you?

That is just SUCH a cool car...