My new S3 OTS

[jagwit]

Introducing my latest acquisition. Now I can also claim to have purchased a real bargain:

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"Delilah and Samson"

73, S3 OTS, auto with drop-top and hard-top,35000 miles

Sadly the car has been resprayed, rather well, but not perfect. Beige Interior original 1973. I found evidence of rust and rust repair, but much less than expected.

So now the whole process of sorting out all the usual V12 issues starts all over again.

Already done:

• Thermostats removed, tested, reinstalled

• Fans come on but temperature at which they come on, not verified yet

• Carbs balanced (draw the same air at idle)

• Carbs synchronised (they all open at the same time)

• Needles removed, O-rings replaced, free movement of needles when adjusted verified, set to 1.5 turns out from full in (full rich). Final fuel tuning yet to be done.

Top priority work to follow soon:

• Remove OPUS ignition, install modern ignition system

• Set timing as per Philip's method (ignore "the book")

• Implement Philip's version of Lutz mod (4,6,12mm)

• Correct front ride height

Observations thus far:

• Engine, gearbox and diff sounds like it has done only 35k miles - it runs very quiet

• header tank leaks profusely, handed in for repair.

• 4200rpm @ 75mph !!!!!! This is like driving my Coupe in 2nd all the time!!! (2.88 diff going in, in due course)

• Some slap dash aftermarket aircon system was installed in place of the usual heater box. Must all come out. AC pipes running right through the centre of the V !!! As if there is not enough going on there.

[lowact]

And there was me thinking the only reason u sold the white one was you must have wanted a roof ...
Was AC ever original eqpmt on OTS's?

[jagwit]

And there was me thinking the only reason u sold the white one was you must have wanted a roof ...

You're kinda right...
I needed a roof for the Jensen interceptor I bought at the time.

But during a long road trip I diacovered that the convertible roof offers very little by way of protection against the sun's heat, cold, rain, dust, and noise. Basically, just not a pleasant experience on a long trip.

Now I have a lovely coupe for lobg trips and this one can just stand there, look pretty and appreciate.

[AussieEtype]

Was AC ever original eqpmt on OTS's?

Yes was available on as an option on all LHD series 3s.

[jagwit]

• Implement Philip's version of Lutz mod (4,6,12mm)

Thought I would offer a bit more detail on what I did:

Grind tapered edge into port using die grinder and bullnose toothed bit (don't know the correct name for this):

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Glue washer in the port - just to keep it there while the manifold is being re-installed.

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[jagwit]

A few nicer pics of the car:

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[christopher storey]

It sounds to me as though your gearbox is stuck in intermediate gear. There is no axle ratio ever used on Es which would produce only 18mph per 1000 rpm

[AussieEtype]

Is that a "sunroof" I see in the removable hardtop of a convertible

[jagwit]

It sounds to me as though your gearbox is stuck in intermediate gear. There is no axle ratio ever used on Es which would produce only 18mph per 1000 rpm

It turned out that the tacho was incorrectly calibrated, overreading by almost 20%. I simply removed the tacho from the dash, opened a round brown sticker on the rear, exposing a yellow trim pot and checking against my timing light that displays rpm, turned the trim pot anti-clockwise until the tacho matched the timing light. Now things make more sense.

[jagwit]

Is that a "sunroof" I see in the removable hardtop of a convertible

It is indeed!! Crazy.

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[MarkRado]

Wonderful! Such a low mileage original condition Etype must be very special