I am in the process of changing the silencer on my +2. After a struggle I managed to get the old one off yesterday evening. Not as easy as it sounds. I notice the old silencer - long-wise type - has a heat shield welded to the top. The parts book and manual shows a plain silencer with a heat-shield fitted under the body, with usual lotus note - “current production” cars have a heat shield … fitting a heatshied to older ones is recommended.
My questions:
Does your plus 2 have a heat-shield?
Is it worth the trouble?
What happens if you don’t have one? - my car doesnt appear to have had one originally.
Mine had a heat shield on the body, but I didn’t replace it when I rebuilt the car and the rear silencer doesn’t have one. I’ve been running it for a year now with no problems.
Both my Elan and plus 2 have shown some discolourisation of the paint and fibreglass around the rear muffler over time. I now stick heat shield aluminium faced fibregass cloth heat shield to the body cavity where the muffler fits for the Elan and will do the same on the plus 2 the next time the exhaust is off and I have good clearance to fit the heatshield properly.
I stick the heat shield in place using high temp silicone works better than most other adhesives in the hot environment or the stuff that comes with a pressure sensitive adhesive
I have noticed that there is an increase in the amount of “gum” on the rear paintwork and bumper with the use of super unleaded and Millers VSP. I just cut it off with polish. Is the discoloration local heat or exhaust emissions?
The heat affected areas were between the muffler and the body back under the car and was the paint turning black / brown and cracking from the heat. The crud around the rear bumper from exhaust fumes I can polish off like you say.