701M BLOCK ENGINE NUMBER P30477

[512BB]

'I know 1973 to 1982 is only nine years, but is it conceivable that the block (at least) was extracted from a crashed or written off Plus 2 and transferred into a Ford Escort TC during that time, before you bought it, Les?'

Yes, that is what I assume must have happened to it Tim. It certainly did not take long for the block to become caked up with muck, see first and second pictures. All cleaned, scrapped and washed out now. All plugs, inc the small lead soldered oil gallery plug now removed. I found a brilliant product that removes rust, which has restored the 2 surfaced ends of the block to as new, see 4th pic.

More to follow.

Leslie

[rgh0]

Hi Tim

Have you matched the number to an actual Plus 2 ?
As I said previously maybe the engine ended up in an Escort from new as they were short of Escort engines that day

cheers
Rohan

[2cams70]

It’s not an engine that was originally out of an Escort Twin cam as the block doesn’t have a “J” prefix although it probably has been in an Escort Twin Cam wannabee replica at some stage. Genuine Escort Twin cams had a slightly differently shaped pick up and the one pictured looks to be standard for a standard rear bowl sump and not a big wing one. I’ve got two genuine Twin Cam Escorts. I think I do have a spare genuine pick up lying around somewhere. If people are interested I can see if I can find it and post a picture.

[trw99]

[quote="rgh0"]Hi Tim

Have you matched the number to an actual Plus 2 ?
As I said previously maybe the engine ended up in an Escort from new as they were short of Escort engines that day

cheers
Rohan[/quote]

No, Rohan, I don't have detailed Plus 2 records that go into 1973/4. However, if what you suggest had happened at the factory, I would expect them to have over stamped the P with a J on the Engine No stamping, which is what they did when similarly upgrading/changing engine specs.

Tim

[rgh0]

Hi Tim while your probably right but they could also have lost the J stamp that day ..... you of all people know all about Lotus accurate admiistration and record keeping

cheers
Rohan

[trw99]

Oh yes, quite a possibility!

Tim

[2cams70]

Based on what I’ve learned about these engines they seemed to have been assembled as CBU units by a third party contractor. They were probably built by that contractor to order from either Ford (to fulfill Escort and Cortina builds) or Lotus (to fulfill Elan builds). The contractor would have been responsible for stamping the engine numbers before shipping them according to the order from either Ford or Lotus. I very much doubt it was Lotus themselves assembling these engines. The fact that the letter sizing, font used etc. for the block engine number stamping is the same irrespective of what the engine was fitted to (Elan, Escort, etc.) suggests to me that it was the engine build contractor stamping the numbers and not Ford or Lotus

[rgh0]

Based on what I’ve learned about these engines they seemed to have been assembled as CBU units by a third party contractor. They were probably built by that contractor to order from either Ford (to fulfill Escort and Cortina builds) or Lotus (to fulfill Elan builds). The contractor would have been responsible for stamping the engine numbers before shipping them according to the order from either Ford or Lotus. I very much doubt it was Lotus themselves assembling these engines. The fact that the letter sizing, font used etc. for the block engine number stamping is the same irrespective of what the engine was fitted to (Elan, Escort, etc.) suggests to me that it was the engine build contractor stamping the numbers and not Ford or Lotus

The Twincam was originally assembled for production by JAP until around 1967. When Lotus moved to Hethel they setup to do their own engine assembly.

cheers
Rohan

[2cams70]

Based on what I’ve learned about these engines they seemed to have been assembled as CBU units by a third party contractor. They were probably built by that contractor to order from either Ford (to fulfill Escort and Cortina builds) or Lotus (to fulfill Elan builds). The contractor would have been responsible for stamping the engine numbers before shipping them according to the order from either Ford or Lotus. I very much doubt it was Lotus themselves assembling these engines. The fact that the letter sizing, font used etc. for the block engine number stamping is the same irrespective of what the engine was fitted to (Elan, Escort, etc.) suggests to me that it was the engine build contractor stamping the numbers and not Ford or Lotus

The Twincam was originally assembled for production by JAP until around 1967. When Lotus moved to Hethel they setup to do their own engine assembly.

cheers
Rohan

I know that is what it says in the Miles Wilkins book but it doesn’t really make good sense from a production engineering point of view given the need of supply to both Ford and Lotus. Lotus speciality back then was not engines and building small volume complex specialized engines for a volume manufacturer like Ford is not something they would have have been interested in doing either (although they may have partially assembled the short block). Chapman only ever saw an engine as being a means to an end. Personally I’m not sure the Miles Wilkins book is 100% correct here (perhaps JAP assembly went beyond 1967 up until there was no longer a need to supply Ford for their production as well) and I’ve never seen pictures of Lotus Ford engines actually being assembled at a factory. It would be interesting if they exist somewhere.

[mbell]

Can't speak to the accuracy of the claims but saw this recently...

[trw99]

[attachment=0]Twin Cam Engine Assembly.JPG[/attachment]

Picture in colour of the engine machine shop at Hethel from the 1970 Annual Report.

Tony Rudd writes about the 'Lotus's own engine build facility' at the time of his arrival there in 1969. He goes on: 'The Twin-Cam cylinder head was machined on antiquated multi-spindle pillar drills ...'

Tim

[2cams70]

trw99 and mbell. Thanks - that's very interesting information and it was great to see those old photos. It's a pity photos such as these don't seem to be formally documented in a book somewhere.

Ford probably contracted the final build to Lotus in that case. I'm not sure how the Escort Twin Can engines were built with their different sumps and oil pickups. Perhaps they were supplied to Ford without these parts fitted. My sleuthing of these parts on my cars suggest they were originally painted black and therefore separate from the grey painted parts of Lotus production. Around 900 of these engines would have been built for UK Escort TC production and a further 850 for Australian Escort TC production.

I think there's still a strong possibility that Ford supplied Lotus assembled short blocks (i.e blocks bored with pistons and crankshaft fitted) and leaving Lotus to do the rest. Assembly process for just the short block would not have been much different to Ford's regular engines so it would have made some sense for them to do it.

I wonder where those assembly line workers ended up. They probably would have had more interesting stories to tell than those working in the office! There was certainly quite a range of different specification engines that the line would have had to cope with.

[512BB]

A little bit of progress made. I heated up the crankshaft sprocket and affixed a suitable puller. Still needed to apply a considerable amount of torque but it gave up in the end. Glad I did when you see the muck left behind. After cleaning and on examination of the old Morse sprocket, it is clear it has done very little work and will go again. You cannot beat original OEM parts if they are in good condition.

All for now.

Leslie

[512BB]

I do not recall Ford's own brand of bearings before. Perhaps that is because I have only ever rebuilt Lotus engines! Interesting to note that the bearings fitted were not made of VP material. The crank is still on standard sizes, but although the journals appear in reasonable condition, on close inspection, there is quite a lot of fine scoring and will need to go to 10 under.

[512BB]

The block and rotating parts are finally ready to go off to the company I shall be using this time to carry out a rebore and full engine balance. The block was cleaned in its bath, all paint removed, and all other parts either cleaned, refurbished or NOS. I have supplied NOS + .015 and + .020 Lotus pistons to see what the smallest over bore is that they can get away with.

I had a small mishap when a 1/4" tap broke in the block as I was chasing out the threads. The shaft of the tap was tapered. I shall not be using one of those again, even though I had used it probably 5 times to do the same job. I had to have it spark erroded to get it out. The company I used did a great job, but I was pretty miffed to see that they had scratched one of the end faces of the block when handling it.

Looking forward to getting all the bits back to start reassembly.

Leslie