Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hi, I've just finished a 4 month rebuild of my twin-cam and reinstalled on saturday - but have forgotten which way up the engine mounts go. One way up the crank pulley ends up very close to the chassis cross-member (Spyder chassis), the other way up the cam cover seems perilously close to the bonnet. The Lotus manual is no help.

If you look at the mounting you will see one end of the rubber is enclosed and the other end is open, the enclosed end should be to the top so if the rubber seperates the engine is still supported (be by just metal)
If you have the different mountings, the one that holds the engine higher should be on the carb side.
Brian

On the Spyder spaceframe plus 2 chassis the engine mounts go up the opposite way to the Lotus chassis. This is because the Spyder chassis engin mount design is reversed with the 4 bolt side flange bolted to the chassis and the 2 bolt side flange bolts to an adapter that connects to the engine block. Thus the mounts also needs to be upside down so that it is still fail safe and if the rubber fails the U shaped section bolted to the chassis in now with the open to the top and catches the engine before it hits the road !

The spyder chassis were also designed to use the same standard ford mounts on both sides in the Elan rather than require the high lift mount on the Weber carb side.

Rohan

Thanks for the rapid replies, I should have joined this forum long ago. I reckoned the "failsafe" way-up made most sense and assume that there must be enough bonnet clearance as I never had a problem there before removing the engine. Maybe the new mounts just need to bed-in and sag a little.

By the way, though the chassis has a Spyder plate it is of a stressed-skin design (similar to original), not spaceframe. Did Spyder make two types of chassis or was this a Lotus chassis refurbed?

Thanks again.

Somebody correct me if I am wrong, but I think sypder made at least two versions of replacement chassis for the +2. The latest one includes a modification from the original Lotus design so that an extra set of wishbones can be used in the rear end.

I believe my car has an early spyder replacement chassis. Evidence is the removable front crossmember under the sump, but no extra mounts on the rear towers.

Chris

Spyder used to graft in sections of their chassis into used Lotus chassis to reclaim them due to rust or accident damage so you can have a full spyder spaceframe or one that has only sections such as the front towers and crossmember grafted to the rest of an original Lotus chassis.

I dont know if Spyder still do this or only offer the complete space frame chassis. The early Spyder rear chassis sections may not have had provision for the twin wishbone rear suspension that all the later ones have had for at least the last 12 years

Rohan