Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hello all , can advise me .
I am after some advice regards fitting / running a Tecalemit-Jackson mechanical fuel injection on a road going Elan ( To fit , not to fit or sell ? )
Firstly is there anyone out there presently running or has run this type of fuel injection system on a Lotus Twin cam engine.
I have done an mount of reading re this system , it would seem that it was commissioned to run on track cars and rally cars one of the big ones being the RAC rally , fitted to works Lotus MK2 Cortina's but for what ever reason the rally / cars did not run.
Mr CC also ran the system on several single seater's but to what level of success I have not been able to find out.
It would seem that the system was under constant development throughout the process of it being used by Lotus.

I was informed by the person who I purchased the complete system from that he had owned and had run / experienced it running on a works ( ? ) MK2 Lotus Cortina and that it ran extremely well , coupled to a good spec TC engine.
My quandary is that any information re this type of system points to the fact that the system was manufactured initially for high performance TC engines for track and or rally use and not for general road use and that
the system runs extremely well 'flat out ,in race conditions' and apparently is still prised and in use today on historic racing / rally cars.( ? )
I also read that after a number of legal challenges against Lucas, Tecalemit - Jackson sold all development rights to Lucas and that Lucas still provides parts for the original system today but under the Lucas name ( ? )
I lack first hand information re fitting the system to my road going Elan so am in a quandary to fit or sell.
Anyone any advice please.

What a coincidence...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111623352789? ... EBIDX%3AIT

John

Getting hold of the engine driven pump and injectors could be challenging!

Greg, they were used on the Mk 2 Lotus Cortinas in the last phase of their rally careers, but when the Escort Twincam came along, the Cortinas were not used. The Escorts used large webers on a Twincam for rally work, and for racing they were homologated to use the FVA with injection. I did read in one contemporary report that the works team preferred webers on the Twincam as they were simple to work on, and the injection system was tricky to set up, and was prone to catching fire! I was looking after Andy Middlehurst's ex Works Mk 1 Lotus Cortina (injected) at Donington last year and we had to push it everywhere as it took 3 people to start it....2 to put out the fire, which happened all too frequently.

But the more standard TJ system was used on Lotus Cortinas and GTs in the London - Sydney marathon, and the London - Mexico World Cup rally, and with some success. These cars were not in a very high state of tune, which may explain why they didn't catch fire!

The system was certainly advertised at the time as a tuning mod for normal cars, and I suspect that it rather depends on how they are set up with regards their suitability for a road car.

Do you have any specification / setup documentation with the set?

Mark

Sounds like an interesting item to park on a shelf!

You might try contact Keith Franck at [email protected], or at his site at [email protected].

He runs this injection on, I believe, his Lotus 41.

Hello John
Thanks for this information.
On inspection of the photo's on ebay there seems to be a lot of bits and pieces missing ie unions , brackets the main one being the dynamo / alternator bracket that holds / locates the running belts , it looks as though its been stood for some time.
I am being advised that parts are readily available via Lucas ( ? ) .

john.p.clegg wrote:What a coincidence...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111623352789? ... EBIDX%3AIT

John

Some interesting downloadable manuals for Tecalemit-Jackson kit on this site for those who want to see what's what!

http://www.mk1-performance-conversions. ... l_carb.htm

Mark

Thanks mark , I will download this information later .
Thanks , Greg.

The system was used on the Type 47 (26R equivalent in the Europa world, Chris Harvey referred to it as "...something to sell in place of the outmoded 26R").

Standing back now...

IMHO the worthiness of this project depends on whether you want to improve your car or build a museum-piece replica of something from the '60s. There are far better electronic FI systems available that can be adapted to fit the TC fairly easily. One of the easiest is that fitted to GM's european boxes, the Bosch Jetronic and its variants. The version with MAF and throttle position sensor and crank sensor as fitted to the Cavalier 1.8i and 2.0i are easily adapted and throttle bodies from various motorcycle installations such as the Suzuki GSR600 can be used. The ECU with the Bosch system is very simple and reliable to wire and there's lots of info out there on the web. I believe this ECU was also used on the Lotus Esprit but I'm open to being corrected on that. I'm just in the process of fitting such a system to my Jensen GT which has a 907 engine.

Those I know who used the TJ system (is it the same system as the TR6 and TR5PI?) fitted to four cylinder cars say its a bugger to set up and needs constant maintenance.

Tin hat on and trench dug.

Nigel F.

nigelrbfurness wrote:
Tin hat on and trench dug.

Nigel F.

No need for all that, Nigel! Seems a sound assessment to me.

It seems the Triumph system was made by Lucas. http://www.lucasinjection.com/Triumph%2 ... ge%201.htm

Mark's info was very interesting. Haven't seen that stuff since 1987!

I had a vey short period helping to keep one going on a Lotus 904 engine in the back of a Daren sports racing car. Not very reliable, problems with the pumps and leaks if I remember rightly.

Initial set up was tricky too as there wasn't a suitable cam available off the shelf, as I recall..

I think it lasted half a season before the system was ditched for carburettors. Then a BDA was put in as the iron Vauxhall block was very heavy!

I seem to recall the Lucas system was phased and timed and the TJ system was constant flow.

The claim by TJ was they ran a Lucas system 180 degrees out of phase and the engine output was the same.

Jon the Chief

I think one of the guys I know runs a couple of Twin Engines on injection, one of them at least, is a "hybrid" - running a Tecalmit Jackson system but with a different (Lucas??) slide - or vice versa - I'm very fuzzy on the details sorry...

Hi Greg
I run a full TJ set up on a 1600 Kent and have for 20+ years on the streets.
When set up they stay in tune very well. I have all so run it with a turbo blowing thue it at 8psi
which was good for 145hp at the wheels.
If you nead and info just let me know.
Cheers PJ

Hi,
Glad to help if you still plan to go ahead. First off, who am I and why do I think I can be of help? Well, I worked for Petrol Injection Ltd (the part of the Tecalemit group who made T-J fuel injection) from 1964 to 1968. In 1967 I was the resident engineer at Ford Competitions department at Boreham airfield. I continued to be involved in T-J equipment for a number of years after this. There is a lot of incorrect info on the web about T-J so be careful what you believe!

I still have a few bits and pieces but not a lot really. Glad to help, please contact me if you wish.

David