So I am ready for the 24 hours of LeMons race!

Andrew and I did some shopping this weekend and I am now ready for the race at the end of the month. You have no idea how hot all this stuff is, man, I don't know how people do this all the time! Nothing like driving a $500 85 Mustang 5.0 to make you really think about your needs as they relate to fire preparedness!!!!

Pin / Racing stripes fixed

So last week I brought my car to www.stickercity.com to have them fix some of the racing stripe that had faded and been scratched. Dean, the owner of Sticker city calls it rusting, which I suppose is sort of what it was, somewhat of an oxidization of the metallic content of the racing stripe. Also, some of the black pinstripe (which I am now realizing seems to be made of inferior quality material) was sun damaged, so he went through and fixed that as well.

We found the EXACT brand and model of grey metallic film, but he had to order it from the manufacturer, which means I am now the proud owner of about 10 yards (by 2 feet wide) of metallic grey vinyl film. Anybody want to do a stripe job on their car! hahaha

I'll post picks once I get the car back from the mechanic, who is sorting out the 3 or 4 little vacuum hoses for my newly acquired and installed stock airbox. Which by the way, has made a world of difference for simply how the car idles and runs.

Maybe there IS a way to drain the oil Coolers

So I think I might have found the beginnings of a way to drain the oil from the Coolers and lines. The Oil Filter block has those 2 elbows coming off of it running to the front of the car, so I could tap into those rubber lines, OR I might be able to use that threaded hole that currently has that black bolt in it, or even perhaps I can use


I was under the car yesterday and was poking my head around checking stuff out, and it looks like the oil cooler lines are rubber (sweet) and terminate into the front of the oil filter block. There is also a drain nipple (like a brake caliper) on the bottom of that oil filter block. I think I would need to take the oil filter block off to see how the internal channels go, it depends if that bleed nipple connects to one hose, both, or neither. If it connects to just one hose then its really easy, my plan would be;

1. On the hose that is not connected to the bleed valve add an inline valve as close to the oil filter block as possible.
2. Downline of that on/off valve and potentially directly screwed into the on/off valve (i.e. closer to the front of the car) attack a petcock or any type of inline drain valve that has an on/off and a barbed protrusion.
3. I would need to rig up a gallon of oil that had a silicon tube attached to the barb/nipple on the petcock.
4. Then you open the drain valve on oil filter block, and as the oil drains out the new oil feeds into the system.

Here is a great picture of the lines going to the oil coolers. Theoretically this could be done on the front hose as well, assuming its rubber and accessible. There is also that black bolt for a presumeably unused port of equal size to the 2 that are being used for the rubber hoses. Who knows, maybe I could use that in some way!

http://www.lotusgarage.com/shop/images/products/112_elise_46.03_large.jpg

The BEST Lotus color available.

Well, I suppose it WAS available. I haven't seen it except on 2006 or 2007 Exige's. I REALLY love this color, and think it would look amazing with some black stripes right down the center.