overreved

I was cruising on the highway at about 40 miles in 3rd gear , when I decided to pass the car in front of me, I floored the gas pedal and I think the the pedal got caught in the floor mat ,the rmps passed the 6000 ,caught by suprise my first reaction was to clutch and put the trans in neutral (bad mistake) the engine screamed and I saw a cloud of smoke in the rear , my second reaction, I shut the ignition and pulled the car on the shoulder,(should of been my first reaction) checked the engine no visible damage no oil leak started her and noise from the engine,I managed to drive for 20 miles back home (very slowly), the oil pressure was at 40 and the engine was not heating up, but the knocking continued, had the engine rebuild 6months ago, hope its just a bearing , will I need to rebuild the whole engine again? Ther goes the vacation plans.!!!

You really need to dismantle as check vitually everything to be sure of no damage. If you have done a bearing with a big rev you could also have a lot of other potential problems such as cracked pistons, rods, rod bolts, crank or cam followers that may fail very soon.

Fit an electronic rev limiter. The original Lotus mechaincal distributor limiter was needed as the engine will rev to detruction quite easily as you found out. :cry:

I hope the damage is limited

best of luck
Rohan

brought the car to my mechanic, took the pan out , everything seemed find, very puzziling, afther about 2hours checking, found the cause, loose bolt from webber carb. got sucked in the carburator, for sure need new piston head, . have to get rid of those k&n filters

Check the throttle cable. Same thing happened to me. I thought it was the floor mat as well, but actually the throttle cable was hanging up inside the sheath if pushed past a certain not commonly used point. Cheap easy replacement. Great peace of mind. Dan

Overrevving has been a worry hidden at the back of my mind for quite a while.Can someone advise me of the easiest way to fit a limiter? For that matter how do i find out if i already have one?other than overrevving my engine of course!

Ian.

I think that Lumenition are going to run out of limiters, I think I’m going for this one. Apparently easy to fit
larkspeed.com/index.pl?a=i&c … iter-ERL-V

Terry

Check under the distributor cap for the cut-out rotor arm - it has a spring-loaded contact that is supposed to disconnect at high rpm.

:arrow_right: Matthew

Happened to me 16 years ago. Airbox to carb nut sucked in. Needed a new piston, spark plug and inlet valve. :open_mouth:

The marks are still to be seen on the head. :mrgreen: