Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

hi everyone
Got myself an early xmas present this year.....it is the book LOTUS TWINCAM ENGINE by miles wilkins..........it is packed full of information on rebuilding the twin cam, has lots of specs. and tells how the elan was developed and race engines development and lotus cortina.........if you are rebuilding your twincam then this book has to be the best you can get.............recomended ...regards neil

I presume that the deliberate mistakes have been removed since the first edition?

Pete :rolleyes:

elansprint71 wrote:I presume that the deliberate mistakes have been removed since the first edition?

Pete :rolleyes:

Hi there,

Preparing to try and rebuild my Elan's twin cam engine, I was looking at possible resources and came upon that book by Miles Wilkins, as well as another that looks quite similar by Colin Pitt :


Pete seems to indicate that Miles Wilkins' book may not be the best choice (deliberate mistakes ).
Do you have any opinion concerning the other book by Colin Pitt or could someone point at other possible ressources to help me in that process ?
Does the elan workshop manual deal with the engine rebuild ?

Looking forward to read from you !

Hi

I am using this book for my rebuild. What deliberate mistakes?

Many thanks!

Berni

There's also a book "Tunning Twincams by David Vizard" you could get to go with it.
Alan

Don't forget the books from the people who originally designed the engine either!!
Ford Workshop Manuals for either the Lotus Cortina or Twin Cam Escort
Lotus workshop manuals

Certain parts of the MW book are excellent - others not so good! It is worth purchasing however.

Your best bet is to get your information from a wide variety of sources together with your own judgement.

Pete
What were the deliberate mistakes.

A miles wilkins book owner

Hawksfield wrote:Pete
What were the deliberate mistakes.

A miles wilkins book owner

I'd love to know as well

Hawksfield wrote:Pete
What were the deliberate mistakes.

A miles wilkins book owner

Distributor specifications are quite confusing for one thing - they aren't consistent and need to be taken with a pinch of salt! He mixed up crankshaft RPM and distributor RPM in some advance plotted graphs - this has an affect on where the advance is shown to start, where the two advance springs start working together, and where the distributor stops advancing or by how much. I ended up taking the info from various Ford workshop manuals.

Not sure if this was an error based on a mistake Lotus also made, but it's definitely not right.

Brian Buckland's engine advice in the addendum is the holy grail. Knows his stuff does our Brian. D

promotor wrote:

Hawksfield wrote:Pete
What were the deliberate mistakes.

A miles wilkins book owner

Distributor specifications are quite confusing for one thing - they aren't consistent and need to be taken with a pinch of salt! He mixed up crankshaft RPM and distributor RPM in some advance plotted graphs - this has an affect on where the advance is shown to start, where the two advance springs start working together, and where the distributor stops advancing or by how much. I ended up taking the info from various Ford workshop manuals.

Not sure if this was an error based on a mistake Lotus also made, but it's definitely not right.

Yes this distributor advance mix up originated in the Lotus Manuals

cheers
Rohan

Hi
But pete's statement said deliberate
There is plenty of errors in lotus info
But I don't think they are deliberate
Poor comment

so with all this back and forth about the errors, is there a single go-to book for newbies?

I think you need more than one book.
Having recently rebuilt my engine I found that Brian Bucklands book is excellent, it must be the later version or have the engine supplement included. The Miles book is very useful and the workshop manual is also needed. Not because any of them is wrong but because I have never built an engine before and to have it explained in detail by several different experts helped me to understand what was required at each point.
It would be sufficient to borrow an extra book for swatting up before each stage of the job. This is one of the things the classic car clubs are good for.
Take your time and learn slowly. That way you may have to only do it once.
Eric in Burnley
1967 S3SE DHC

The OEM (eg. Ford) books are the best for data, specs. and numbers. Also included is stuff the manufacturers deemed important that the Johnny Come Lately's deemed unimportant - eg. how to tighten the sump bolts in the correct sequence so the sump and cork seals don't leak.

The MW book is a very interesting read about the development history of the Lotus Twin Cam engine. That kind of information you can't get elsewhere. The section on how to time the camshafts is good. The rest of the stuff is stuff you can get elsewhere or at times it's not quite right information. The section on the head rebuild for example. Are you really going to have a go yourself at removing the valve seats or are you going to hand over the work to a good machine shop that you trust? I know what I'd do. A dropped valve seat can absolutely smash an engine.

The Brian Buckland book. I don't have the book. I didn't need the book. However I did read on this forum how he recommends cutting a gasket for your timing cover to go between the cover and backplate instead of relying on the metal to metal with sealant advice from the original manufacturers. Seeing that kind of advice I don't think I'll be rushing out to get this book.

One thing that is always difficult and where sometimes you really can't get all the information you need from books is making judgements about what needs to be replaced and what's OK to reuse. Every engine is different in that regard. Judging wear on things and identifying parts that aren't quite right can take a bit of a developed eye and experience. As can use of appropriate sealants - a stand alone topic with many opinions!