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A tale of three Pussy's

Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 11:35 am
by martins
For all the pervs out there this is not what you think...

Put the Exige into MMC to get serviced and its first MOT done. All went swimmingly well apart from the fact the Cat needed replaced. Quoted £1008, but that did include VAT :shock: Took the car home minus the MOT. Put word out via SE that needed a Cat. Scotty obliged informing me he had one on his garage floor off his recently sold 211 and I could have same, plus the old manifold off the car for a small fee as all the Cat pipes were the same be in 211 or Exige S :thumbsup.

Got under the car. Got the standard Exhaust, Cat pipe and associated bits and pieces off the car, eventually. Only 3 sheared bolts and 2 knackered Allen nuts, so not too bad really. Got the sensors out the old pipe (Claw Spanners – Thanks Shug/ Gas Plus – Thanks Neil) and into the new. Got the heat shields pop riveted onto the new Cat pipe and that all back onto the car. Left the spring bolts attached but slack. Wired up the sensors. Refitted the heat shield and presented up the original back box for refitting. Spend the next hour swearing and sweating like a blind lesbian in a fish factory :evil:

I have done the exhaust on a Lotus before but this just did not want to fit and I simply could not figure out why. Eventually decided to compare the Cat pipes and there was the reason. The pipe off Scotty’s 211 had a tighter radius bend on it so the large OEM lotus back box was never going to fit, ever....Now what to do. If money were no object it would be easy. Go to 2ubular and get a new back box. Smaller in size so would fit nicely. However I do not have £500 readily available right now and the hanging brackets might have been too far toward the rear......

Went out to see Mike 711 to pick up my OBD reader as needed a break from the exhaust. Explained the situation and asked for advice. He has Scotty’s old GT back box and was going to fit that to the 111R rebuild he is doing. The 211 Cat pipe off Scotty’s car was manufactured to be different from the standard Exige/Elise. He cannot get the 111R rebuild to run and one of the problems might have been the Cat. He took the Cat off his car, I gave him the Cat originally from Scotty’s 211. I fitted the Cat off Mike’s old 111R and it slotted into place and worked a treat. Spent the whole of Sunday evening fitting the exhaust system, sorting the bust fittings etc but all is now back together again :D

And the point of all this.....I would just like to say thanks to all on SE who made this possible. Scotty for coming up with the Cat in the first place, even though it did not fit( :? ), the suggestions from many for making the job easier and to Mike for all of the assistance and sharing of Lotus knowledge..This really was a team effort :D :D :D :D

Only hope the Cat that is fitted is OK and the car passes its MOT. :shock:

Re: A tale of three Pussy's

Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 11:42 am
by Dominic
SE at it's finest.
martins wrote: Spend the next hour swearing and sweating like a blind lesbian in a fish factory :evil:

:damnfunny

Re: A tale of three Pussy's

Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 1:10 pm
by Lazydonkey
A good result but how on earth does a cat fail in 3 years ?

Re: A tale of three Pussy's

Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 1:15 pm
by robin
Not enough action, they dry up ...

Re: A tale of three Pussy's

Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 1:31 pm
by Shug
robin wrote:Not enough action, they dry up ...
/splutters coffee

Re: A tale of three Pussy's

Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 1:49 pm
by martins
Not sure there was ever one in there in the first place :evil:

Dropped a plumbline into the pipe and it clattered all the way through.....

Per Craig at MMC they can be destroyed if you track the car and do not allow to cool prorerly. This is Gareths old car!!!!

There are also threads out there which seem to indicate Lotus made a bum batch of Cats a few years ago...Anyways the one that is in there better be OK for the MOT or there will be a further swapping of Pussy going on in the SE community. fnar fnar.
Now mind and no choke on that coffee Shug.....

Re: A tale of three Pussy's

Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 2:43 pm
by Scotty C
nothings every easy :mrgreen:

Re: A tale of three Pussy's

Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 4:28 pm
by martins
nothings every easy
Life would be boring if it was....also the only way to properly learn something is to overcome all challenges that can be put in your way 8) 8)

Mind you, had you walked into the garage about 4 on Sunday afternoon I might not have been quite as charitable :D :D

M

Re: A tale of three Pussy's

Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 4:47 pm
by alicrozier
For future reference I have a virgin one (and 211 exhaust) in my garage. I would hate for it to dry up... :shock: :wink:

Re: A tale of three Pussy's

Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2012 12:59 pm
by martins
:D Car passed the MOT with flying colours :D

:thumbsup to JD Motor Engineers in Insch.

Thanks to all who assisted in this epic.

Went to pick up the car yesterday afternoon and in the garage was a 1974 Orange Ford Excort (Mk1)Mexico with I believe a 1600 crossflow engin, sitting on what looked like 13 inch rims with chunky rally tyres. Car was in really good nick although had seen a fair bit of welding (not really surprising given the age and location) and the simplicity was stunning. For a short while was tempted to sell up the Lotus and go but an old favourite from my youth :P

M