lotus sunbeam

[cossiemetro]

can anybody enlighten me on whats needed to get more power out of one
are they the same engine as the esprit ?? how do you make them faster carbs,cams ??
cheers in advance

[anonymous-user]

This is a big questin,
Are the engines the same, as Esprits etc? Basicaly yes but you can not swap them to a Sunbeam as the sump is in the fromnt on the SuSunbeam and the sump is matched to the bearing ladder,so you can't just swap the sump. Water pump housimngs, spigot bearings etc are also diffrent, but can be swapped.
Tuning?, my 9expensie) experience is don't tune with a standard sump, so first, improve the sump, then restrict the oil flow to the head, Change to a HTD, Timing Belt,then you can start tunning.
If you find out about the above, you will probably be well on the way to gaining the knowledge to tune, but the start is cams, and valves. The best source of knowledge I've found on this engine is the Jensen Healey Preservation Society, Engine and Transmission forum.

[ELAN+2]

try the owners club ( www.sunbeamlotus.com/). Skip Brown the rally folk tune these engines, they have a different type code to the ones Lotus used for thier own cars. Standard Sunbeams had around 150 bhp I believe, In the excel and later N/A Esprit 180bhp, The works rally cars had over 240!! on carburettors!!

Have fun

Mark

[anonymous-user]

Elan +2 is right the Excel Se had 180, and the only real diffrence is the cams(107 on the excel I think), Skio brown's dymo is very optimistic, but great source of parts and advice. But sort out the oil flow before you get the engine to rev.

[72twink]

Lots of good stuff here, but a lot depends on what you use the engine for, I've been told by one 900 series builder the reduced oil flow to the head was only worth doing on full race engines. Definitely "trap door" the sump baffles as in standard form they are too good and starve the pick up. Then before any other work fit a works pattern exhaust manifold, this will benefit any further work you do. To get 180bhp Lotus you'll need to fit 11:1 pistons and do some flow work on the head and run either a 104 and a 107 cam as per Excel SE or for a bit more power a pair of 104s, remember the Excel engine is out of the box so with decent flow and manifolding you'd be seeing nearer 200 bhp. To get to 240bhp the works cars were then big valved with wilder cam profiling, dry sumped and running shorter inlet manifolds with 48's.

But first of all you should join our club !!

Tony

www.sunbeamlotus.com