Vegantune engine info

[Mali]

Hi i wounderd if anyone could help in identifing what engine i have fitted to my se3 1968 elan se
I was told when i bought it it was a vegantune and it has vegantune stamped into the front waterpump houseing.
There is no letter L benind the n/s engine mount it has a twin cam head and the engine number is
701M6015EA ?
Mike

[types26/36]

The L is behind the o/s engine mount (carb side) but the 701M is just a casting number (the last blocks cast for Lotus T.C.'s.) I'm afraid it wont help to I.D. the Vegantune engine.

[nmauduit]

I'm rebuilding a Vegantune engine, I believe they offered a range of preparation going from stage1 (possibly something like blueprinting) to maybe stage10... I had a form listing briefly the different stages, I'll try to look it up.

I would think that for the lower stages the preparation was rather mild, and based on the engine provided by the customer.

The tag on the cam cover looks like that :

Vegantune engine preparation

[Mali]

Thanks for the replys its not the original engine as i got its original engine with the car but the head as had a unsucsefull repair so i think the engine must have bee purchesd outright from vegantune ?
Mike

[billwill]

Vegantune's own design has no internal timing chain it has external cogged wheels and a cogged rubber timing belt (like most modern engines).

If yours has an internal chain it is probably just a partly tuned variant of the Lotus/Ford Twin-Cam engine, done by Vegantune of Spalding.

[nmauduit]

Vegantune's own design has no internal timing chain it has external cogged wheels and a cogged rubber timing belt (like most modern engines).

If yours has an internal chain it is probably just a partly tuned variant of the Lotus/Ford Twin-Cam engine, done by Vegantune of Spalding.

Mine certainly was not a highly developped unit : standard big valves, ports smoothed and chamber polished but not significanlty enlarged... camshafts had been reground (I have not identified the profile) and were timed specifically by redrilling the sprockets (standard chain distribution). Engine and head were painted in the "attractive hammer finish blue" (though some of it flaked away when I cleaned the components...)

here are some documentation I had gathered :

Vegantune leaflet

Vegantune list of preparations

Vegantune stages

Vegantune stages end

Vegantune Stage two rally

[billwill]

As far as I know, George Robinson started Vegantune by improving Twin Cam engines and repair/renovation of Lotus cars.

They did a complete renovation of my S3 Coupe in 1982 and again in 1983 (after I has a carb fire).

At some stage they developed their own version of the twin cam as I described above. It was called the VTA engine (I think).

Then they went on to develop an improved Elan called the Evante and spun off a new firm called Evante Cars Ltd.

Alas (as far as I know) it was both a bad time for a new sports car and the backers 'meddled' too much and Evante cars went bust taking Vegantune (Spalding) with it.

The Name and some of the resources were bought by a small motor firm in London and Veganture was reborn in Finchley which later moved to Borehamwood, but that too went bust and the name is currently owned by a member of this forum, but he hasn't been on-line here for ages.

...
Rob Morley , who used to be the main engine mechanic at Vegantune Finchley had left before the bust and operates as Protune Racing Ltd in Potters bar. He knows lots about those Vegantune engines. I still ask him to do any of my tricky engine work.

[tvacc]

I really don't know where my car fits into all this. All I know is the motor very clearly has a Vegatune cam cover on it. It I pretty much a standard TwinCam, It has cams, bored out to 40 over. Been that way since I bought it in 1986.

I have freshened it up 3 times with new rings and bearings but it has been very resistant to wear and strong. one time I just did not know how the Accusump worked and I lost oil pressure at an autocross at a Lotus Owners Gathering. I put in new bearings after that. Then when I bought the car back in 2004 from selling it in 1993, I went through the motor again as I needed to change the waterpump (put on a Bean cartridge front cover) so why not check it out and refresh it.


My car was a running chassis from Spyder, with the Spyder guys in the USA (Lee) putting a body on it in the early 80's.


Tony V

[nmauduit]

here are photos showing the shade of blue the Vegantune engine was painted in, head before cleaning and block during reassembly (head is due tomorrow from the machine shop, I'm not sure how much of the paint will remain... )

Vegantune head painted "attractive hammer finish blue"

Vegantune block painted "attractive hammer finish blue"

[Craven]

Very characteristic of Vegantune, camshafts turned down between the lobes. Why did they do that.

[nmauduit]

Very characteristic of Vegantune, camshafts turned down between the lobes. Why did they do that.

I have not measured the profile, the lift is about 9mm iirc : will replace them with Q420 cams.

Also the sprockets where drilled for a specific timing (will replace them with adjustable sprockets)

[billwill]

Just for interest, here are a couple of pictures of a Vegantune VTA engine.

VTA engine

VTA engine

vtengineb400.jpg (65.09 KiB) Viewed 3978 times

[pharriso]

For anyone interested here are Vegantune engine Catalogs from the mid 80's

Lotus Twin Cam - http://www.lionheartsolutions.com/lotus/Vegantune/VegantuneEngineCatalog-min.pdf
Vegantune VTA engine - http://www.lionheartsolutions.com/lotus/Vegantune/Vegantune_VTAEngine-min.pdf

[gav]

Don’t know if this helps but I had my twin am rebuilt to fast road spec in 1996 (was it really that long ago) when they were in Finchley.
I think it was one of the last that Nobby did and I think he did a great job - really tractable power all the way up the rev range. It has been on the rollers a few times over the years and it consistently produces 150 BHP and 129 ft lb. It is out of the car at the moment awaiting a refresh but it was running it on joe vey she and an emerald ECU and was no trouble at all.
Here is their plate which was stick onto the cam cover. Sorry about the photo being inverted - I couldn’t work out how to reverse it.
Gavin

[billwill]

VeganTune of Finchley were really a completely different firm from the original VeganTune of Spalding.

The Finchley guys just bought the name and a few licenses to build or maintain original Vegantune things after Vegantune of Spalding went bust (probably due to overreaching themselves by producing the Evante at a bad time for such sports cars).

I don't think there was any continuity of staff at all and I had had work done by both firms.

See my posting in this topic above Sat Nov 24, 2018 9:57 pm

Rob Morley , who used to be the main engine mechanic at Vegantune Finchley had left before the bust and operates as Protune Racing Ltd in Potters bar. He knows lots about those Vegantune engines. I still ask him to do any of my tricky engine work.