Half a Mondial

Very nice Mark! Please post some more pictures inside out.
I trust the other Mondial owners won't mind?
I was a passenger in my teens in a black one a few times and always liked it.
Good performance, lovely sound, good ride/handling compromise.
There is a red one rotting away in the New Territories here in HK:
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Very nice! It has been a while since I have seen a nice pair of Strombergs! A Jensen Healey dealer opened up in Denver on West Colfax back in '74. I was in lust.

Brock

 

Thanks!
Funny idea to have to drain the coolant to change the cam belt on those Lotus engines.
And the intake camshaft isn't driven by many teeth!
I have no clue about the owner of the red car; unfortunately, it had water on the seats... additional oil cooler?
I love black Mondials.

 

Ah an early Lotus engine... Originally conceived as a V8
No need to drain out the coolant just undo the clip remove belt and replace. 160bhp out of 2 litres and 4 valves per cylinder 9 years before Ferrari.
Cool!

 

My father owned an Elite for many years. Driven it a lot! What a treat...
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Wow! Retro cool, wish I had one of those.

 

Superb roadholding and steering, and reasonably comfortable too.

 

GM did that on their new alloy block (iron head) Chevrolet Vega engine in the early 70s - belt drive for the single overhead cam, but the water pump was the tensioner - had to be loosened and adjusted to tension the timing belt. Any movement of water pump required draining the coolant and a new water pump to block gasket!!!

 

Unbelievable...

 

Chevy Vega and Pontiac Astre, in french we called them Dega and DesAstre which mean mess and disaster.

 

Yes it look like the thermostat neck is as high as the top radiator tank which is mostly air so no room for too much leak when removing it. WISE!

 

I had two and half of those cars. Back in college.
One was a rust free blue 1974 Jensen Healey.
Great handling machines. Sold them all to pay Cal Poly

 

LOL - I may have to sell my Mondial to pay CalPoly too....for my daughter.

 

Remember the world needs ditch diggers too.

 

I have rebuilt 2 of those engines in the past and I have the 180bhp HC version in my old Lotus that has 300.000miles on it....excellant engine very solid and powerful. So if you ever need any advice there's not much I don't know about these engines.
All the best Bell

 

300k is a nice figure for that engine!

 

LOL....I don't think the little princess would be a very good ditch digger...

 

Aaaa ha ha that would be worth it.
But tough to do

 

These are so flipping cool. I got close on one a few years ago but then I realized it wasn't going to scratch my Elan itch which I still have. Hell, Now I think I want one of these more. Good looking ride-great work.

 

I had a 77 Elite myself, bright red, they had such great looking interiors, and those rear seats!! I knew a guy that had a Jensen Healey, bright yellow with a roll bar, it would pop out of 3rd gear all the time. As a joke I said I will give you $500 for it..........He said yes, so I bought it and sold it for more.

 

Yes you certainly got my attention alright
Really great to see that engine looking so clean, don't think I've seen one that good. Believe it or not in the 300,000 miles that my Excel SE has covered, never have I ever had to touch the carbs, Dellorto carbs on the later engines are superb.

 

My Esprit uses basically the same motor.

Aaron
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