Lotus Elan Central

by **F1 LOTUS** » Thu 27.10.2005, 18:56

With turbo engines it has long been 'standard' practice to squirt oil at the underside of the piston crown as a cooling aid, in moddified engines this is usually done by tapping into the main oil gallery and fitting a spray bar to direct a jet of oil up there, maybe Lotus use the rod to get a pressure-fed small-end bearing then let that spray the piston?

by **Doc Fizzix** » Thu 27.10.2005, 20:36

I total understand all that, the problem is that I am trying to get verification from someone who might know for sure if the connecting bearings have this oil hole or not. Dave Bean looked at the Elan turbo rods and bearings they have and did not see the oil hole as in the manual, I want to make sure about my rods before I start putting this motor back together. I find it very hard to believe that Lotus would order its motors from Isuzu and then tare them apart and put in different rods.

by **Costas** » Thu 27.10.2005, 21:06

Will have an answer on monday...

by **desmondsee** » Fri 28.10.2005, 09:43

actually, i am in need of engine vibration dampers, brackets, bushings, exhaust dampers etc. anyone know if lotus is still having specials on this items?

by **Doc Fizzix** » Fri 28.10.2005, 16:21

As promised, here is a picture of my connecting rod from my Imuplse RS turbo motor, notice that there is no oil hole in the bearing as stated in the manual, I belive this is an error in the manual since I have called Dave Bean and they have verified for me that their connecting rods and bearings do not have an oil hole as well. Does anyone know different?

Thanks for your input

by **Dave M** » Fri 28.10.2005, 18:02

Sorry its taken a bit getting back to you on this!

Just scanned through my pics the engine builder sent me of the rebuild and I didn't find any that showed the rods in enough detail or the right angle to verify. Hopefully someone else has a rod to check...

by **Doug** » Fri 28.10.2005, 20:46

Dave M wrote:Hopefully someone else has a rod to check...

well, I've just checked my rod and it definitely has one hole in the end of it

hope this helps . . .

by **Doc Fizzix** » Fri 28.10.2005, 20:55

HA HA HA, Doug, what rod are you talking about

I am not sure we are talking about the same thing here.

The connecting rod from your motor, the one attached to your crankshaft AND the piston :wink:

by **Doc Fizzix** » Fri 28.10.2005, 21:19

Just came back from GTI Coatings. They have done several sample platings for me and on Monday I am going to drop off a ton of parts to be plated including all bolts and nuts (no comments Doug). Here is a sample, hard to see from this poor quality picture but the plating is beautiful! This engine is going to shine!

These guys do great work and they also restore coatings on car parts:
http://www.gticoatings.com/

The bolt on the left has been coated (electroplated) and the bolt on the right is old and faded

by **Doc Fizzix** » Sat 29.10.2005, 03:58

Most of all the parts have now been cleaned and I am getting excited to get the motor back together. The block and the head are being dropped off at the machine shop on Monday. I have not shipped anything off to Extrude Hone yet but I hope next week to get things in the mail.

Here are some pictures of several of the clean aluminum parts. All the bolts will be cleaned and re-electroplated on Monday.

by **Doc Fizzix** » Mon 31.10.2005, 16:20

Costas wrote:Will have an answer on monday...

Costas, any update on this yet?

by **Costas** » Mon 31.10.2005, 18:35

Sorry buddy, I just came back from a 3day trip (2000 driven miles) and dint have the energy to go at DSP. Will do so tomorrow and shall update you first thing when I come home, plenty of rods there

by **Doc Fizzix** » Tue 01.11.2005, 01:04

Brian_MDB wrote:With turbo engines it has long been 'standard' practice to squirt oil at the underside of the piston crown as a cooling aid, in moddified engines this is usually done by tapping into the main oil gallery and fitting a spray bar to direct a jet of oil up there, maybe Lotus use the rod to get a pressure-fed small-end bearing then let that spray the piston?

I think I finaly have the answers here, the connecting rods DO NOT have an oil hole as in the manual, this is an error. The pistons and cylinder walls are cooled by oil jets mounted on the other side of the block.

All is good

by **Doc Fizzix** » Tue 01.11.2005, 04:52

Bad news today

My machine shop says that Dave's pistons will not work

We have to order larger pistons, the Isuzu (and Lotus) motor has three sizes of pistons that depend on the original bore size of the cylinder "A", "B", and "C". My motor's original bore size is a "B" so the new pistons are not large enough once the cylinders are honed

by **Costas** » Tue 01.11.2005, 13:24

LotusM100 wrote:
Costas wrote:Will have an answer on monday...

Costas, any update on this yet?

This is Greg's Feedback...

On tubo Elans there are no holes on those con-rod shells. The picture you posted (page 51 of Elan Lotus service book) is reffered to NA Elan which on the contrary have those holes on the con-rods.

If you check page 56 on the Elan Lotus service book, which you obviously have, you will notice the difference between Turbo and NA at the main bearing shells. Check the 2 holes on the turbo (the 2nd one is for oil jet) and also check that on the NA there is only one hole. That explains you why the oil jets are fitted to the con-rod and thats why you need the hole there for the NA only since the turbo has the oil jet fitted at the main bearing shell since that were it needs it.

All and all that hole that you asked for is a mistake if you are reffering to a turbo engine, and correct if you are reffering to NA engine.

Costas

by **Doc Fizzix** » Tue 01.11.2005, 18:44

Thanks Costas

I have just been informed that Dave Bean has found a bunch of complete engine gasket sets that were not on their inventory, I have two sets coming. I have also received my Isuzu gasket set and I am not as happy with it as I was hoping, many of the gaskets that are needed do not come with the set, example: no thermostat housing gasket, no EGR gasket, and so on. I will take a picture and list what came in the set

Also, after discussions with Robbie I have discovered that the relief valve and the check valve on the Isuzu head are not the same and have to be swapped out in order to use hydraulic lifters, I have ordered the "Lotus" correct valves from Dave Bean.

One more note: I have been told by Robbie that the Lotus head is the same head in every way (including hydraulic lifters) as the GEO Storm GSI 92-93 1.8L motor. I am going to order some tappets from the local GEo dealer and see how they look

by **Houdini** » Tue 01.11.2005, 19:05

How much is Bean selling the gaskets sets for?

by **Doc Fizzix** » Tue 01.11.2005, 20:08

Turbocharger wrote:How much is Bean selling the gaskets sets for?

I will have to call and double check, but i thought it was $145.00 or about that for the full engine set

I will update later

by **Doc Fizzix** » Thu 03.11.2005, 03:20

New pistons have been ordered today from Atomic Speedware.

The pistons I got from Dave would have worked great in mine motor but I had one cylinder slightly out of round and it was measuring a little larger then the specs at the top of the cylinder so my shop wants to go one size over the standard piston

Also, I have found a great source for Isuzu performance motor parts that can be used with our engines, high performance main and connecting bearings, gaskets, and tons of other items:

http://www.importperformanceparts.net/i ... isuzu.html

by **Costas** » Thu 03.11.2005, 15:53

I dont know how "larger" are the pistons you need and have ordered, but if its of any help mine are JE forged and they are 1mm wider than the stock ones. Had to treat the Engine block accordingly off course....

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