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Thomas Krapf's 1985

Thomas Krapf from Zug, Switzerland, owns a 1985 Turbo Esprit in White with a White Interior.

Model:

Turbo
Year: 1985
Colour: White
Interior: White
Driving Style: Normal
Miles per year: 2 – 4,000
Owned Since: August 2004
Purchase from: Dealer
Serviced at: only by myself
Other Cars: Audi S4
Previous Lotus': None
Why an Esprit: What else can you buy if you want a mid-engined Sportscar and if you don't like the Ferraris and Porsches to much ?
Upgrades: Everything is in original shape with the addition of a bov
Problems: See below
Info: See below

The Story of this Car is special: from 1985 to 1990 it was running in England. Then it was imported to Switzerland. They had to do some changes for getting the registration here. They also had to put in a Cat/Converter ! (now it is removed again, of course ). The Car was basically just storaged, it has only 25k Miles on it.

      

I bought it in August 2004 with an Engine Damage caused from a stucked Wastegate Valve. Now the work is done and it would be fun to drive it, if there wouldn’t be winter now… So it’s time to storage it again. But anyway, sometimes i also drive it during the winter. On some Pictures you can see some snow on the Windshield. James Bond proved earlier that winter conditions are no problem for this Cars

  

There was always some Oil in the intake System, i saw this because there have been some Drops under the Dump Valve. The max. boost Pressure was about 10 p.s.i. After some time when the Engine started smoking very badly i decided to rebuild the Charger and the Wastegate first. The Wastegate Valve was stucked and the max. boost should have been only 7 p.s.i. At this point i knew that the Engine will have taken some damage. The Oil in the intake System came over the Engine breather Hose because there was to much pressure in the Sump.

  

This meant removing the Engine and check the Pistons/Rings. And yes, this was it: Piston number two did not take the high boost pressure very well. This also caused a damage at the Liner. After replacing all the Pistons and the Liner and putting the Engine back it was running good again. But hell, it was a lot of work…

   

And from now on i always have an Eye on the boost pressure Gauge in the instrument Cluster when i’m driving it !
P.S: Thanks to PNM Engineering. The organized the Parts for me. It took them about 4 Weeks but at least everything fitted perfect.

         

thomaskrapf@gmx.ch

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