Lotus Elan Central

by **Doc Fizzix** » Tue 18.04.2006, 18:52

Nitro, you are paving the way again and I am very glad that you started up a thread on your new Elan so I can follow your lead as I finish my motor, your timing is perfect. I am very interested in what you are doing with the turbo, I might have to give you a quick call and talk to you a bit on this.

By the way, do you still have the red one (the parts car) sitting arounnd? When does the insurance pick it up?

by **Doug** » Tue 18.04.2006, 19:03

Doc Fizzix wrote:By the way, do you still have the red one (the parts car) sitting arounnd? When does the insurance pick it up?

I was wondering the same thing!

Probably looks like fish bones at the edge of a river by now :shock:

by **nissias** » Tue 25.04.2006, 18:39

Doc Fizzix wrote:Just ordered and on its way

I had to order one for the 91-93 Isuzu Stylus since they do not list the Impulse but it is the same thing. I have been talking with Robie and he has confirmed that this is the same thing since the Stylus uses the same motor 4XE1

From Fidanza's web site

Fidanza flywheel can mate with any type of clutch material, including organic, kevlar, ceramic, metallic and sintered iron. We attach the friction surface with military grade aerospace fasteners. The ring gears are made from 1050 steel and are heat treated for durability. The gears are heated then pressed on and secured with grade 8 button screws. We were the first to use a stepped dowel system in most of our flywheel applications. This doweling method ensures that once the pressure plate is installed the dowels cannot be removed because they become locked into place. No chromemoly can compete with the awesome serviceability, strength and superior design of Fidanza's aluminum flywheels. If there was a better material out there, we would be using it.

Do you know if this same lightweight flywheel will fit on our M100's?

by **Doc Fizzix** » Wed 26.04.2006, 00:36

nissias wrote:Do you know if this same lightweight flywheel will fit on our M100's?

This is the same as the M100. It will fit perfectly

by **Doc Fizzix** » Thu 04.05.2006, 04:26

This is just FYI (use at your own risk)

I have discovered that the Elan exhaust cam gear is advanced and not the same as the Impulse turbo exhaust cam gear. Yes I know they have different cams and lifters but I am not sure if those Isuzu owners that have switched out their solid lifters for the hydraulic have also changed their cam gears.

I am in the process of removing my Elans motor and replacing it with the rebuild that I have been working on when I discovered that the Elan exhaust gear says E5 and the Isuzu motor exhaust gear says only E. After removing both gears and lining them up it almost looked like they were the same but once I set each up and actually measured them on the cam I discovered that they are NOT the same, the Elan gear is advanced and I but by 5 degrees (although I have not measured the actual degrees) Both the intake cam gears on the Impulse and Elan are the same and each is stamped with an "I4". So now the question, why does the Elan use a more advanced exhaust cam gear and why did Isuzu not use the same on the Impulse?

In the picture bellow, if you look at the cotter pin holes for the cam you will see that the Elan gear has the cotter pin hole off centered to the right (advanced)

by **Doc Fizzix** » Thu 04.05.2006, 20:52

I found that two old valves work great for locking the cam gears in the correct timing position.

I have also noticed that the timing marks on the gears do not line up exact and I have also varified this on the motor still in the car.

by **Doc Fizzix** » Thu 15.06.2006, 01:16

A busy day, got the old power plant out of the Elan. One word of caution, make sure you disconnect the ground wire :oops:

We had a hell of a time until we spoted the ground wire was still attached.

by **Doc Fizzix** » Thu 15.06.2006, 01:18

Here is the old unit out of the car, I now need to swap out some sensors and other parts in order to get the rebuild ready to drop in.

by **Doc Fizzix** » Sat 17.06.2006, 04:44

The rebuild is just about done. I shipped off a bunch of parts to Extrude Hone and Hot-Jet, also dropped off more bolts and parts to be plated. My shop is currently building a US version of the "Stiffy". Here are some pics of the rebuild as it looks today.

by **Monty** » Sat 17.06.2006, 11:37

Nice work, so when do u think u`ll have her running?

by **F1 LOTUS** » Sun 18.06.2006, 05:17

Looks great :clap:

by **Doc Fizzix** » Sun 18.06.2006, 16:19

Monty wrote:Nice work, so when do u think u'll have her running?

I still have a lot of parts that I am waiting on so I am guessing another month.

by **Houdini** » Tue 20.06.2006, 02:54

F1 LOTUS wrote:Looks great

I second that!

by **Dave M** » Mon 26.06.2006, 14:31

Way to go! Great to catch up on your thread, Doc and see that shiny engine. Best of luck on the final assembly.

Make sure all your exhaust gaskets are good and bolts are all tight. You really don't want to know what my engine looked like after the manifold gasket gave out at a track day! Took me about 5 hours to get it looking like your pictures again.

by **Doc Fizzix** » Mon 10.07.2006, 22:42

For what it is worth, I was in discussions today with my tech and we were talking about putting on one of those lightweight crankshaft pulleys instead of the heavy original version. I am not expert so I am posting this only for discussion and consideration. My tech was against the Underdrive pulley because the original one acts as a harmonic balance and the Underdrive pulley does not and will not damper the vibrations. My tech belives there will be more stress on the bearings with the Underdrive pulley. It sounded like good reasoning but I would like to hear more input on the subject.

by **Dave M** » Tue 11.07.2006, 13:46

Doc Fizzix wrote:For what it is worth, I was in discussions today with my tech and we were talking about putting on one of those lightweight crankshaft pulleys instead of the heavy original version. I am not expert so I am posting this only for discussion and consideration. My tech was against the Underdrive pulley because the original one acts as a harmonic balance and the Underdrive pulley does not and will not damper the vibrations. My tech belives there will be more stress on the bearings with the Underdrive pulley. It sounded like good reasoning but I would like to hear more input on the subject.

My engine guy said by balancing the whole rotating assembly, I shouldn't have any issues. You can't see it in the above picture, but somewhere I've got another pic showing holes drilled in both the flywheel and the underdrive pulley due to balancing.

by **Doc Fizzix** » Tue 11.07.2006, 15:23

Dave M wrote:My engine guy said by balancing the whole rotating assembly, I shouldn't have any issues.

We have also balanced the crank, the flywheel, and the pressure plate.

by **Elanlover** » Tue 11.07.2006, 21:47

Wow. That engine looks like it came off the factory floor at the Lotus (Isuzu) plant! Maybe even a bit better.

by **Doc Fizzix** » Wed 12.07.2006, 03:54

Elanlover wrote:Wow. That engine looks like it came off the factory floor at the Lotus (Isuzu) plant! Maybe even a bit better.

I need to post the latest pics, the motor is ready to drop in and looks even better now

by **Doc Fizzix** » Wed 12.07.2006, 04:30

I am a little behind on my postings so here are the updates:

First, I ported out the exhaust manifold and had all the cracks welded up.

If you look at the opening on the exhaust manifold you can see there is a lot of obstruction point to the flow caused by the casting. We removed the casting marks and the extrusions with a Dremal tool and then polished the ports.

This is the before picture, please note all the extrusions

THis is the after were as the extrusions have been removed and polished

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