Twin cam custom cam grind elan s3

[lotustastic]

Hello All,

I purchased an s3 elan coupe super safety almost exactly one year ago. The twincam was in parts and had been disassembled by the sellers engine builder. The cams, originally SE cams, appear to be a custom grind by Iskendarian (Isky) and marked as follows:

Y74
OCUS-5296CC
Z197

According to the previous engine builder, they had about .385 lift and 244 deg duration at .050. I haven't been able to find much about Isky grind cams for a lotus twincam via the internet and wonder if anyone has any thoughts about the above specs. I was told that the grind was the hottest street grind available for the twink without having to do other engine mods. The engine is bored over .40. In researching, the only thing that crosses with z197 Isky cams are custom grinds for a Porsche 914 and Datsun (states 53 degrees of Iift, 248 degrees) but I imagine it differs based upon the original cam profile used to grind. The specs at the very top of paragraph also appear to match one of Dave Beans staged offerings. It looks like Isky is still in business and I will contact them for advice as well tomorrow. Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts about how streetable an elan would be given these cam specs (.385 lift, 244 degrees duration at .50). I was tempted to purchase a set of stock L1 cams but that may be taking a step back in performance for this engine given that these are a custom grind.

Thanks for any input!
David D,

[rgh0]

Yes it is about the highest lift cam that you can use with the standard valve train and its duration which will be at around 290 degrees seat to seat and 244 at 50 thou is about the longest you would want to use in a road car IMHO. As the Dave Bean manual says the cam will give a bit more top end but you will loose some bottom end and mid range torque compared to the D type Big Valve Sprint cam with its 272 seat to seat duration.

With this type of cam even more important to get the carbs well tuned to maximise drivability and avoid flat spots

cheers
Rohan

[StressCraxx]

Hello David,

I hope you will be pleasantly surprised by Iskenderian. The company is now run by Ed's kids. They should be able to provide the full info on your cams. Ed is in his 90's and is known as the Camfather. He still comes into the shop frequently, I'm told.

Isky was one of my customers when I sold tubing with my first job out of college. Great people.

Regards,
Dan