Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

I have finally got the twincam in my plus 2 and my spare engine running just so and seeing the prices of rebuilds or replacement rocketing my thoughts turned to using a zetec 1.8 to pile on the miles. I have a few questions I hope you can answer, please
1) Retaining the 4 speed box how easy is it to install the zetec?
2) Are any non reversable mods required (engine mounts etc) that would stop the refitting of the original engine?
I would be using throttle bodies and Megasquit and realise all of what is required on that side of things.
I just need info on physically installing the engine into a standard Lotus chassis.
Any help please?
Regards
Dave

Dave
I recently looked into this and decided it was way too much work,so decided to fit the engine management,fuel injection and ignition onto the old twincam,still have the donor 2.0 mondeo if you want it....

John

Hi there
As a potential owner can you tell me how much it costs for a rebuild of the twincam (just an average, I know it will depend on scope and who's doing it) or what the real killer cost is? Is it really so bad that a Zetec is the only solution? We test drove one last year, and even though the rest of the car wasn't up to the asking price the one wonderful thing was the engine and that lovely induction roar. Don't think I would fancy one with some soulless modern power unit.

Thanks.

A full rebuild can cost in the region of ?3k, assuming that it needs a complete rebuild including rebore, face skimming, new pistons etc, carb refurbish, and that you get the engine run in on the dyno. You can get it done cheaper than this, or do it yourself, but the latter is really only adviseable if you have experience with these engines.

Sean.

Hi John

Did you actually manage to get the engine mgt and induction onto the twincam? If so how? I know that you are pretty inventive but I really did not think that it was possible.

All the best

Berni

Berni
Just got the flywheel back from balancing today after i machined it as per a mondeo (36-1 timing holes) with a pickup mounted in the lower dust plate in the bellhousing.I'm modding an old lucas dizzy to give the cam sensor pickup a place to live.As for the rest i'm taking it as it comes,looking for some 1100gsxzzzzzr throttle boddies etc.etc.etc...

I'm going to take most of the bits to Stoneleigh so you can have a butchers if you wish....I'll probably need lots of input from this forum as and when....

John

Hi John

In my opine the 1100 gsxr throttle bodies will be way too big. You want GSXR 600 K1's (from memory) I have 2 very good condition sets. You are welcome to one at cost. The bodies seperate and are 38mm from memory. Good with standard injectors for up to 200 bhp (from memory again). I looked into this subject a while back before collecting the bits. Link to some pictures below.

http://www.searchsmart.co.uk/lotus/2005_nov_dec.htm

Good luck whichever way you go!

Berni[/url]