Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

I decided to go down the route of fitting a K & N cone filter mainly because of the obvious benefits from removing the old pancake filter box to improve the airflow to the rad, less maintenance than original filter and improved airflow to carbs. I thought I would share my installation method for any interested parties.
I used a piece of 1/2" marine ply and cut out a 94mm semicircle for the cone to be supported in and I also made sure that the height of the former was minimal to keep the cone as low as possible. I then fitted a couple of right angle plated steel brackets to attach the former to the bodywork close to the RH vacuum pod. I screwed a round metal eye on either side for the short bungee cord to attach. Gave it a couple of coats of satin black cellulose paint and bolted it in place with 5mm bolts. Before fitting the flexible pipe on the cone I used a piece of 3" alloy tube as an inner sleeve for the cone so that the large hose clip would tighten ok. The bungee cord seems to offer enough force to keep it in place and makes the filter easy to remove.
I managed to source a suitable K & N filter from Ebay and the alloy tube for very reasonable prices.
Very pleased with the result and less clutter in the nose area.

Is that a +2 or baby?

Looks like a neat installation and an awful lot cleaner than the nose area of my car!

My only reservation would be that the filter is directly in the line of fire when it rains. Would it clog up with water?

I slid mine mine over just a bit to get it out of the direct line of fire, and also added their sleeve to act as an external filter and to (hopefully) help shed wetness. Mounted with RD Enterprise's ss mounting plate through the wheel well.





Also hope removing the original will improve airflow to the radiator.

I have a similar setup with oiled foam filter circa 1979 but what I want to know is whether right and left vacuum pods is correct because my, very knocked about, S4 only has one.

Your Federal S4 will have failsafe headlights with one vacuum pod. Failsafe = headlights go up with no vacuum instead of down.

Well that's a relief! Since my first LBC, an AH Spite, I seem to have spent half my time figuring out how the mess should have been fixed the first time. I'm getting gun-shy.

I mounted mine on wheel arch using a wooden half moon fixed by screws from the outside.
I screwed a jubilee clip to the wood so that combines mounting and holding.
I had room because I moved the overflow/top up bottle behind the radiator.



I've tidied the wires up since!

Just to say my car is an S4. Good idea, Mark in using the hose clip as the fixing to the wood bracket, I missed that trick!
Regarding driving in wet weather, the cone does have a plastic front end to it and I don't use the car much in the rain so shouldn't be any issues. Just keeping my fingers crossed that I don't have to make any adjustments to carbs.

Just adding lightness!