Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

In the final stage of the rebuild of my Lotus Twin Cam we struggle to get the oil pressure sorted out. Block is 711M full hight, no decking.
At the moment we try to get a high pressure / high volume pump from Autopump to work properly.
Running on the starter, pressure build up far too slow, more than 30 seconds or longer to finally give 40 psi.
Two new pumps has been tried, same result. When putting in an old used standard Ford original
pump pressure hits 20 psi at once. No delay. Changing back to new HP/HV pump; same behavior as before.
Any id?as any one? Preasure release valve, intrenal cracks in pump housing or new chanel pattern causing the oil to leave the pump as soon as the engine stops turning over?

As I believe Autopump supplies all suppliers with a reputation in UK and the budget once get there parts from Asia, there is no piont in ordering more of those.
My hope is to the Pace wet sump pump. Expencive, yes. 260 ?. It has +20% volume and adjusable preasure.
Does any one have experiance with this one? Is this over kill for the road, probably, but I like to give lube to my new power plant.

Many thanks in advance!

Johan, Sweden

Once you have achieved a minimum oil pressure on the starter, then it is safe to do a start-up, which normally does a final air purge of the system and gives a good pressure.

I have often spent days trying to get oil pressure on the starter with plugs out

I'm facing the same dilemma as you. Pace seem to be a company that don't value the importance of good customer service. I've contacted them on numerous occasions enquiring about this pump and the response is always that they will get back to me and never ever does this happen. Same with emails - you never get a response. Checking their Facebook page it seems I'm not the only one with this experience.

Recently I spoke to a reseller of this product and although they have a few on the shelf they told me that it seems to have design problem. At high RPM it produces excessive pressure and they believe it's caused by the oil return passages being too small. They haven't had a chance to properly investigate the exact cause however.

All this is a real pity as it seems their would be a sizeable market for a good quality aftermarket wet sump pump suitable for Ford Kent engines that is externally pressure adjustable and a direct bolt on fit for the original with no modification of oil lines or sump required. Although there are other quality wet sump pumps available from Titan and Omnitech these all require other intrusive modifications to the oiling system.

2cams70 wrote:I'm facing the same dilemma as you. Pace seem to be a company that don't value the importance of good customer service. I've contacted them on numerous occasions enquiring about this pump and the response is always that they will get back to me and never ever does this happen. Same with emails - you never get a response. Checking their Facebook page it seems I'm not the only one with this experience.

Recently I spoke to a reseller of this product and although they have a few on the shelf they told me that it seems to have design problem. At high RPM it produces excessive pressure and they believe it's caused by the oil return passages being too small. They haven't had a chance to properly investigate the exact cause however.

All this is a real pity as it seems their would be a sizeable market for a good quality aftermarket wet sump pump suitable for Ford Kent engines that is externally pressure adjustable and a direct bolt on fit for the original with no modification of oil lines or sump required. Although there are other quality wet sump pumps available from Titan and Omnitech these all require other intrusive modifications to the oiling system.

Yes, I guess that is an issue for a few people: the Ford design operating range appearing difficult to durably extend beyond 7000 rpm, I was sort of counting on Pace to handle lubrication then I noted a distributor signaling it as "non available" while it is still on the manufacturer site...

there is also the pump from Neil Bold, I wonder if someone from the forum has experience of it


http://www.historicracing.org.uk/parts/ ... ltipic.jpg

Am I correct in understanding that to be "wet sump FIA compliant" the oil pump should not have scavenging ports?

Did Neil by any chance once work for Pace products?

I dealt with them in the 80's there were just 2 people, the boss David Lazenby and a very young sounding but dedicated number 2 called Neil.

I assume that David will have retired by now, if the Neil I dealt with back then is running the company I am surprised about the seemingly poor reputation and communication, if Neil Bold is the Neil who worked for Pace then I would confidently give him my custom.

Neil Bold runs his own engine building company and is a Formula Ford engine specialist and leader in his field. Very knowledgeable and helpful every time I have spoken to him. Not sure what his early history is though.

If you have any queries about his oil pump I would pick up the phone and speak to Neil or email him if that's a problem. I seem to recall speaking to him about seeing his pumps being available through other vendors and him being surprised as he was the only official distributor seeing that he designed it!

Those in the picture don't look like a wet sump pump to me - rather it looks like a dry sump pump that uses a spin-on filter. Maybe you can adapt them to just supply oil from a wet sump by blanking off some of the unions? I notice that it appears to have a hole in the mounting face to put oil into the gallery in the traditional (ie wet sump) way?

I checked with Neil Bold if he could offer a solution but he replied that he only does wet sumps, and actually the pump pictured was made for him by Titan.

Has anyone used one of these oil pumps?
https://omnitech-engineering.com/images ... p10-11.htm