Craig Beck Racing Engines & Tom Airey Tuning

[Stevie-Heathie]

The day before the Goodwood Club Lotus track day in April this year my Elan’s engine decided to stop playing ball. I dried my tears and called Craig at Craig Beck and he couldn’t have been more helpful.

Fast forward a couple of months and I had the Elan back, engine fully rebuilt and running on song with a few sensible upgrades like a 123 distributor and TTR fast road exhaust system. 138bhp which I was delighted by.

In sensed the engine was running a bit rich though so I followed up with a visit yesterday to Tom Airey (the master!). Tom fine-tuned the jetting and now I have a smooth as silk 153bhp twink under the hood of my Elan.

I’m delighted and impressed with both Craig and Tom. They are both charming and a pleasure to deal with, and they absolutely know what they are doing with our engines.

No connection with either of them except as a very satisfied customer.

https://www.craigbeckracing.co.uk/

https://www.aireytuning.com/

Best
Steve
1967 Elan S3 SE

[elans3]

138bhp & now 153 bhp at the wheels ????? What did he do to obtain those figures ?
A lot more fancy bits than a "standard" build I'll bet !
A good Sprint engine, run in, is a good one at around 105 to 110 at the wheels, a good SE about 100 to 105bhp at the wheels at best.
Do tell what other mods he did.

[Stevie-Heathie]

Edited original post - those power numbers were at the crank

[Stevie-Heathie]

I was asked about the spec of my engine:

- Originally SE spec
- 701M6015 engine casting
- Regular exhaust valves but “big valve” inlet valves
- QED 420 cams with 55 springs etc
- Vernier timing pulleys
- Twin webers 40s
- Craig Beck cartridge water pump
- polished and ported
- 123 Bluetooth distributor with Craig Beck curve
- TTR fast road manifold, y piece, straight pipe and back box
- electric fuel pump.

I think the product is greater than the sum of its parts because it was stripped and rebuilt by a shop that absolutely knows these engines inside out.

[rgh0]

Does it also have a new SAS head ?

cheers
Rohan

[Stevie-Heathie]

Hi Rohan, no, not as far as I know. I must admit I don’t know what an SAS head is.

It’s a mystery to me why some previous owner upgraded the inlet valves to “big valve” spec but left the exhaust valves as-is.

Best
Steve

[elans3]

I was asked about the spec of my engine:

- Originally SE spec
- 701M6015 engine casting
- Regular exhaust valves but “big valve” inlet valves
- QED 420 cams with 55 springs etc
- Vernier timing pulleys
- Twin webers 40s
- Craig Beck cartridge water pump
- polished and ported
- 123 Bluetooth distributor with Craig Beck curve
- TTR fast road manifold, y piece, straight pipe and back box
- electric fuel pump.

I think the product is greater than the sum of its parts because it was stripped and rebuilt by a shop that absolutely knows these engines inside out.

That and your previous post editing the figures to "crank" or flywheel output explains it. Thanks

[HCA]

I must admit I don’t know what an SAS head is.

http://www.sasengineering.co.uk/lotus-t ... -head.html

[promotor]

Hi Rohan, no, not as far as I know. I must admit I don’t know what an SAS head is.

It’s a mystery to me why some previous owner upgraded the inlet valves to “big valve” spec but left the exhaust valves as-is.

Best
Steve

Standard and Big Valve engine use the same size exhaust valves so to upgrade to Big Valve spec only means upgrading the inlets.

Nice result on the engine by the way!

[DamianB]

Hi Steve
Thanks for sharing details of your rebuilt engine. Very interesting. Do you know what chokes and jets you are using in your webers? And what timings your cams were set to?
Many thanks
Damian

[Roland]

Steve,

Just out of interest when CBR rebuilt your engine did he fit oil seals on the valve guides?

Also I see you are running the TTR fast road exhaust. I have looked at this system but didn't like the look of the rear silencer fit, seems quite large and would sit quite low and be vulnerable. Do you find this a problem?

Regards

Roland

[Stevie-Heathie]

Hi all,

As requested here is the final jetting Tom Airey settled on:

Lotus Jets
Tom Airey Sep 2023

MAIN CIRCUIT
Emulsion Tube F16
Air Corrector 155
Main Jet 125+ (scored out by hand because Tom drilled out half a size bigger)

IDLE CIRCUIT
50 F8

PUMP JET
50

[DamianB]

Hi all,
... here is the final jetting Tom Airey settled on:

Thank you sharing that spec Steve.
To complete the picture, do you know what main Venturi size you are using in your DCOE40s?

[Stevie-Heathie]

Hi Damian,

I’m afraid I don’t know apart from to say they look neither long nor short! So probably standard size whatever that was. I’ll let you know next time I get the car out

Best
Steve

[Stevie-Heathie]

Hi Roland

I don’t know about the valve guides but I’ll ask Craig.

The TTR fast road exhaust looks and sounds amazing but you are right it does hang low and it does catch a lot, especially with two people in the car. I’m going to take it to an exhaust place locally to see if they can find a few more mm.

Best
Steve