Engine to hood / bonnet clearance question

[sabbot]

Hi,
I’ve recently managed to reassemble my +2 that was bought as a part completed project. However I’ve noticed that there is next to no clearance between the front of the cam cover and the bonnet. The corners of the cam cover are actually rubbing on the 1/8” thick heat protection. The engine mounts are correct but I’m wondering if the tail end of the 4 speed box is sitting too low and therefore pushing the front of the engine up slightly. Some of the pictures of the gearbox mount in the workshop manual look like it sits about an inch higher than mine. I would appreciate if someone could tell me what the distance between the back of the cam cover and the body is (see picture), mine is 5 inches, alternatively the pitch of the cam cover would also work.
Thanks,

[Chrispy]

Mine was rubbing as well. The gearbox mount spacers were missing on mine, which I added. This improved it a lot, and I also increased the bonnet catches a bit. This gives enough clearance, but has created a very annoying whistle at 80kph+ I've recently replaced the engine mounts with an OEM type, hoping this will allow enough room to drop the bonnet back down.

[pptom]

It's not just mine then!
Front of the cam cover touches the thick insulation on the bonnet. I rebuilt my car with all new mounts etc, so it should all be there and chassis correct. The only thing I wondered about was that in the 90's apparently my car had a new chassis shortly before it's 25 year hibernation and I wondered if there was any spacers which were left out

[Billmack]

Make sure motor mounts are not the tall right side baby elan mounts. Possible two of those are in there.

[sabbot]

Thanks for the suggestions, and glad I’m not alone. The engine mounts seem correct but oddly the engine is perfectly level from side to side and the bottom of the sump is level and flush with the front cross member (I’ve seen some pictures of +2 where the sump sits about 1” lower than the chassis cross member). Unfortunately even if the engine mounts aren’t correct I can’t lower them much or else the airbox will hit the inner wing (you have got to love Lotus clearances)
Based on the suggestions I’m going to fabricate a couple of 1/2” spacer plates for the gearbox mount and see if that helps and will report back in due course.

[Bigbaldybloke]

Just another point to check, is the front of the bonnet level with the bodyshell in front of it, if not the centre of the bonnet can be adjusted / raised by the little “L” shaped bracket that bolts to the centre of the bonnet metal frame near where the springs attached. It is slotted and can push the front of the bonnet up a small amount. If the front of the bonnet is low, raising it by adjusting this little support bracket can give you a bit more clearance between the cam cover and the bonnet.

[EPC 394J]

https://lotuselan.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=45400&p=324328&hilit=+Engine+mounts#p324328

Most topics have been discussed here on previous occasions.

If you DEFINITELY have the correct engine mounts. (A pair of identical ‘Ford’ mounts) The next thing I would wonder is whether any shims between the chassis and body may have been omitted when the two were last put together?

With the Ford mounts, you should find the carb air box very close to the fibreglass wing, but even with torque movement, it shouldn’t touch the inner wing on a Plus 2. The taller Lotus mount was only ever required on the two seat Elan, due to a (even!) less generous inner wing shape.

Final question: Is your carb air box standard?

[Bigbaldybloke]

Picture shows airbox clearance, my radiator cap and cam cover just clear the bonnet when shut.