Winter work Part 3 - Errr...it's Spring now, best get a move on!

Well, it's been six months since it was tucked away, but I took a peek yesterday and it's still there :)

I had intended to just take down the Carcoon for a look and get the roof off so I could start to clean that up, re-dye it and weatherproof. Then the clouds cleared and the sun came out, so I got out the tools and set about making a start into the trickier bits. Two drilled out bolts later I had the wheel arch liner out and "access" to the timing belt end of the engine. 

A few more bolts later and the alternator belt was off, the timing belt covers were off and I'd discovered I had a manual belt tensioner so had ordered the right one *phew*. I need a 22mm socket to cut down to size for the crank bolt, and a breaker bar, and some brave pills, and a flywheel lock out tool before I go any further at this end. So I left it alone and reminded myself to read up some more on Dave Andrews' excellent DVA power site, the Seloc TechWiki and the Elise S1 workshop manuals before getting stuck into the outstanding spannering bits that could mean a lunched engine if I do them wrong  :)

DVA Power - http://www.dvapower.com/

Seloc TechWiki - http://wiki.seloc.org/a/SELOC_TechWiki

Moving to the far side of the engine, I whipped off the leads and distributor and then took off the cam cover to have a look-see. Everything looks to be very clean, but again I couldn't go further until I had the engine locked out and had done way more than planned so left it as is for now.

Cam cover off:

Everything is very clean with no scoring on any of the lobes, but I guess it should be as it's only done 25,000 miles since this was last off when the head was getting fettled:

With that much done I placed the cam cover back on loosely just to keep the engine internals clean and moved on to the interior. I gave the floor a hoover and started to wash the section of the floor that would normally be under the seats to get it ready for the POR15 treatment. Then put the Carcoon up again for another few weeks. 

Next step is to get the sump baffles welded, I'd like to get that on, get the engine locked out and the timing belt off and then de-grease and wash the block because it's messy as it's been weeping oil from the camshaft seals for the past while. With the block clean then I can move onto the more involved jobs on the engine.

Plans for the next few weeks are to get the roof cleaned and treated, sump baffles welded in and my exhaust cleaned, painted, wrapped and source all gaskets/joiners for it so it'll be ready to bolt in place when the time comes.