Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Folks

Have the engine reinstalled in my 71 Sprint, we bought new engine mounts and reckoned we had them on the correct sides, with the metal fail safe to the top and spacers in the exhaust side.

However on fitting the gear lever stub to the ?box, the plastic dome is hard against the side of the hole in the chassis and cannot be removed.

The engine slopes across the car to left/passenger side, is that correct?

Hi Mike, yes the engine is supposed to be slightly canted over so that the Weber/Dellorto carbs have adequate clearance above the grp footwell top.

Do you have the two spacers on the gearbox mounting?

Yes spacers are in

Does not look right to me, I'm sure my engine is level from left to right

Steve

Similar problem discussed at length here .... viewtopic.php?f=36&t=40453

Eventually resolved by fitting uprated engine mounts.

Thanks for that link, interesting stuff, will recheck the engine mounts. One thing to note is that you cannot screw the heater valve onto the side of the head as it fouls the top of the passenger footwell, is that normal, do it need to be fitted before the engine is lowered in?

Cheers

Michael

If you haven't bolted up the engine mounts you can usually jack the engine up enough to screw in the heater valve, though ideally you would fit it andvorient it before engine installation.
No doubt you've looked at the engine mounting thread but in short the exhaust side mount is a Ford part derived from the Anglia. The carb side is a Lotus part and does lift the engine at that side. However original mounts are very hard to find now and the latest repros may well vary in the amount of lift. If you don't use the correct handed mounts you will find no clearance under the carbs and may not be able to fit the airbox. All the above relates to the Elan S1-4 and Sprints, I have had very few +2s through my hands.

Thank you.

Have the mounts on the right sides and both have the metal U facing down and are new, so should be right, but maybe need a set of the updated ones, as per the linked thread above, to regain the correct posture

Cheers

Michael

On an Elan the engine should tilt as yours does, if it does not then your mounts are shot or you dont have the high lift mount fitted on the Carb side ( or maybe have 2 high lift Lotus mounts fitted !). On a Plus 2 you dont need the Lotus high lift mount and the engine sits level as the footwells are lower so the carbs do not hit them. If you have a Spyder chassis for either Elan or Plus 2 then the mounts are fitted to the chassis not the block and standard Anglia mounts are used on both sides as the required lift for the Elan is built into the arms from the mount to the block.

All simple really and maybe a few other possible variations I have not thought of

cheers
Rohan

I still don't think that level of leaning looks right, here's a picture of my engine which is on standard mounts with weber carbs that clear the body



Steve

I too thing the angle of tilt is greater than I have seen before, my S4 has half the tilt Mike's photo shows.

I've forgotten which side of the chassis Mike's gear box is close too but tilting (rotating) the engine will certainly move the gearlever housing sideways.

Ian

My Sprint pretty much matches MikeB?s

The engine on an Elan with Webers is supposed to have a tilt. If we want to establish the design tilt angle then that is possible with a little simple geometric analysis of the high lift Lotus mount versus the standard mount and the width between them. Maybe my curiosity will enable me to find time to do that in the next few days if no one else beats me to it.

cheers
Rohan

The two mounts look different, one having a curved arch and the other being square but I don't recall which way round. If they are both the same to look at then they are wrong.