Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Does anyone recognize this valve cover? It has a cast in boss for fuel injection.

"a cast in boss for fuel injection"?

John

It looks a lot like the Novamotor cover, except that in that one the space between the cams (ie over the plugs) is also covered, with similar ribbing. I don't know if there's any connection.

Paddy

Sorry, no identification tips but I think it could be someone's own solution to cure leaky Cam Covers.
Those longitudinal Ribs together with added stiffness across the clamping Nuts will have increased the overall stiffness of that Cover & most interestingly the use of additional longer Studs & Nut locations on all the Cam Bearing locations will also help to spread the load more evenly across the Cover Gasket.
Even the use of Capped nuts (as shown) will help in stopping Oil leaks along the Stud Threads.
Needless to say it's been designed mainly for competition use on a dry sumped Engine.

Cheers
John

looks very much like an HRE cam cover I saw on a an inject twin-cam, minus the HRE over the cams though....

G

cabc26b wrote:looks very much like an HRE cam cover I saw on a an inject twin-cam, minus the HRE over the cams though....

G

You may be correct as the sump pan and fuel pump cover plate both have HRE cast into them which I believe is from Hutchinson Race Engines.

Pete

john.p.clegg wrote:"a cast in boss for fuel injection"?

John,
The tab cast into the inlet side of the cover between cylinders 1 and 2 could have been use to mount a Lucas or Tecalmit mechanical fuel injection pump.

These cam covers were made by Hutchison Racing Engines. I emailed Gus Hutchison and he told me he made about 100 sets. A set consisted of the cam cover, cast dry sump with fins similar to the cam cover, a mechanical fuel pump blanking plate and a 4 port dry sump pump.

Thanks for the update!

What are the chances of finding one of these? I have been happy with my original 1965 valve cover until I saw this-I really like the idea of the rigidity and the extra hold down studs-the original has too few.

Chances of finding one of the HRE valve covers are probably pretty good. I have two originals which I found in the last couple of years. I also have an original HRE head. If anyone has any of the original HRE Lotus Twincam engine internals I would very interested in acquiring these also.

CBUEB1771 wrote:

john.p.clegg wrote:"a cast in boss for fuel injection"?

John,
The tab cast into the inlet side of the cover between cylinders 1 and 2 could have been use to mount a Lucas or Tecalmit mechanical fuel injection pump.

Picture below shows the fuel injection pump mounted on a twin cam. It does look as if it would line up with the boss.

https://lotuselan.net/lel/29438/0/PHK%20Engine%20Bay%20zoom.jpg

knockoffnut wrote:Chances of finding one of the HRE valve covers are probably pretty good. I have two originals which I found in the last couple of years. I also have an original HRE head. If anyone has any of the original HRE Lotus Twincam engine internals I would very interested in acquiring these also.

Interesting to read. Is there anything different externally on an HRE head ?

Would you be willing to share what was done to the head internally? I'm sure there are plenty of people on here it will interest!

Hi Promotor, I apologize I have been off of this website for ages. During Lockdown I was learning to do gasflux welding working of a 7/20. My HRE head has some beautifully executed porting and polishing. I have quite a few heads which were ported and polished for racing, but the HRE head is by far the best executed porting work I have seen on a twincam. Externally there are no modifications or differences.