Those cams run in tiny little shell bearings, yes?
Update by Tim Suddard to the
Lotus Elan project car
Jan 20, 2016
With the cam cover off, Twin Cam Sportscars' Steve Smith determines the cams are to Sprint spec and are in great condition.
Your author—at left—removes a pulley while Steve continues to inspect every part removed from the engine.
With some other projects nearly done and a bit of time off at Christmas, it was time to actively get started on our project Lotus Elan.
We decided to start by taking our engine and transmission to Twin Cam Sportscars.
Noted Lotus expert and shop proprietor Steve Smith had come very well recommend and agreed to teach us a few things about Lotus twin cam engines that we can use in our magazine story series which will start shortly.
When we had bought the car, we were told that the engine had been rebuilt. But we were suspicious, as the entire engine was covered in grime and some ugly yellow paint.
When we pulled the engine apart we were pleasantly surprised. While the bore was still stock, the main bearings and crank were “ten under” and everything was in very good condition. The only red flag being the piston-to-ring clearance was in excess of what Steve was comfortable.
The cams had also been changed to the more desirable Sprint spec.
All in all, nothing was really damaged, and except for incorrect torque specs, the engine had been rebuilt and apparently it had been done pretty well.
Steve’s advice was to move to the later 125E rods, freshen everything up, get some new pistons and rings, and then we would be in great shape with a hot street engine that would make about 125 horsepower.
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Those cams run in tiny little shell bearings, yes?
Are you going to update the water pump? Now might be the right time.
good thing most of the parts are still in a good condition
Jerry From LA wrote: Those cams run in tiny little shell bearings, yes?
Yes
JE pistons are great. I had 20 over ones in the engine that got hit by the right hand corner oil pickup problem. Also if you want to really get it breathing, John McCoy at Omnitech Engineering has an excellent high lift cam grind and porting that can give around 150hp@7,000 while still being nice on the street and autocross.
roblamoreaux - the engine had SE spec cams in it that were in good shape, so we kept them. The engine is now all rebuilt, as is the transmission.
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