Hi, my mate is looking for an elise as a weekend toy, no more than 10 grand. Can anyone tell me what he should be looking out for when buying?

cheers

 

One without a K series engine

although that's not going to happen unless it's a transplant.

 

Ask him if it comes with a spare headgasket

Ive just done a couple of rovers with headgasket problem's. A 214 & 216 their fairly easy engines to sort out so maybe he could look for one with a headgasket problem and then get it fixed. Ive no idea abiout how easy the engine is to work with when bolted into an elise thou.

The problem is when you run the engine after the initial gasket problem (i.e running it hot), this warps the head, gunks up the resevoir cap, can cause a cracked block or head, and a few other minor cooling system problems.

Good luck with it! Their great cars when they run right, my mate has just sold one (which just had a headgasket blow)

They have rover metro wingmirrows and Pug 205 instument switches which I couldnt help noticing last time I saw it.

 

Blah blah blah headgaskets, k series etc......

So much misinformation, so little time.

1. For

 

And if the Head Gasket did happen to fail the Honda K20 conversion is a pretty good idea

However as already mentioned the Rover engine is pretty much the lightest out there.

As with most cars check the usual suspects for any damage, doors not shutting smoothly etc.

 

[QUOTE=MarkB,Sep 5 2006, 01:44 PM] Blah blah blah headgaskets, k series etc......

So much misinformation, so little time.

1. For

 

he wants to spend 13,000 now so is that a new shape?

 

Only just. It's a point for debate whether getting an S2 at that price is any better than getting an S1.

Plus points of an S2 is that there are more creature comforts (relatively speaking, it's not exactly your 911 in there....) and a slightly more forgiving chassis setup (again, only slightly). Downside it that it's heavier, and at that price, you're still looking at a K Series.

He could also get one of the higher output S1's for that price, a Sport 160 will be in his reach.

If he could strech a little bit more, he can have mine (I'm selling), the ultimate S1

 

Oh, and whatever he does, if he buys privately, get a specialist to look the car over before he buys it.

They're too unique to buy without this precaution IMO.

 

[QUOTE=MarkB,Sep 5 2006, 01:44 PM] Blah blah blah headgaskets, k series etc......

So much misinformation, so little time.

2. K Series cars had problems with thermal shock when the thermostat opened allowing cold water from the radiator to run straight into a hot cylinder head, and causing shrinkage that wasn't matched by the block which stayed hot (and therefore bigger) for longer. Exacerbated by plastic locating dowels, this allowed the two surfaces to contract at different rates and cause HGF. This is easily fixed. A remote thermostat (for