Help With Engine Mountings

[wobblyweb]

Can anyone help, I am changing from a Spyder to a Lotus chassis.I have bought Lotus engine mounts. I took 4 spacers from between the Spyder mounts and the block, these are round and sized 3/4" X 1 1/18" but seem too long to fit between the Lotus mounts and the block. There is a gap of about 1/2" only.
Should these 4 spacers be fitted ?
Which side on ?( exhaust?)
What lenghth should the spacer be?
Any help much appreciated.
Cheers
Rae

[gjz30075]

I have those spacers on the exhaust side. My spacers were your dimension until I fitted new mounts. I then had to take off about 1/8" from each spacer to get them to fit. Don't know why your distance between the block and mount is so small. Is the frame tweaked?

Greg Z.

[pereirac]

If I remember correctly, the spider chassis uses the same mounts on both side while the Lotus chassis has different mounts on each side, so that the carbs do not hit the bonnet (I think)

[richboyd]

I received a Spyder chassis this Summer. Prior to purchase, I asked Spyder these two questions about the nature of engine mount required.

Q = I assume that the engine mounts themselves are not included and must be purchased separately. Is this true?
A= Yes these are purchased separately

Q= Are the mounts standard Elans mounts?
A= All mountings are as standard

I interpret this to mean that you need to use one left-hand mount and one right-hand mount (as per standard Lotus practice), not two of the same mounts. I am not sure about the spacers. Since I haven't installed the engine in the chassis, this "knowledge" has not been tested.

[wobblyweb]

Thanks for the replies.
richboyd, the spyder chassis mounts are reversed from the Lotus method. ie the rubber mountings are both the same size and fit to the chassis, the metal mounts are different sizes and bolt to the engine, on the Lotus setup the metal mounts are part of the chassis and the rubber mounts bolt to the block.
I may still have my Spyder mounts if you want them (I have one that i know of and probably still have the other lying about)
Spyder rubber mounts are standard Lotus BUT they are both Lotus exhaust side, as pointed out Lotus carb side mount is higher to raise the engine off the footwell bodywork sypder make the adjustment with a longer metal mount.

Rae

[types26/36]

Rae,
The webber engine uses different mounts left/right as someone pointed out to lift the carbs off the body, I think the stromberg engine and the +2 Elan use the same mount both sides. The spacers should be fitted to the exh side but if you are using a 1600 block (711m or 803c) the spacers need to be shortened as the 1600 engines are wider at this point then the 1500 blocks.I think it is about 12/13 mms which would account for the 1/2inch gap.
Brian
64Elan/72Sprint/J.P.S.Europa

[Bill]

I went thru this problem with 26/0538 (webbered 1600) when I restored her. The origional factory shop manual does not address the diference between the right and left mounts and I put it together backwards allowing the air box to hit the body. even tho both mounts have the same part no. in my parts book the right (carb side) mount is offset to raise the block on the right side. I just checked, the right(higher) mount bolts direct to the block, the left (exhaust side) mount uses the 4 tube spacers and longer bolts twixt the mount and the block.

It took me several years to resolve this one even with ALL of my origional factory info.

Hope this helps, Bill

[SADLOTUS]

Although its been several years since I did a chassis change to a Spyder frame, I think I remember that both engine mounts were Ford Cortina engine mounts. On the standard Lotus chassis one side is Lotus mount and the other is Ford. Helpful?