Lotus Elan cylinder head

[lotusrichard]

Can anyone help!!!

My stepfather has just rebuilt and old lotus Elan +2 and has a spare twin cam 8v cylinder head that he'd like to sell. He wants to be as accurate as possible when placing the add.

Problem is, he doesn't understand the casting and stamped numbers on the cylinder head to help the buyer. Here's what they read,

Casted on the bottom is: A26E-311

Also on the bottom below exhaust manifold is: 21-7(casted) & N127(stamped) & WM9403(casted)

At the back of the cylinder head(lower part) is D18(stamped)

Does anybody know what these numbers mean???

[ELAN+2]

if it's from a plus 2 the head will be "S/E" spec (118bhp) for a "baby" Elan, if it has cams they have a ring/groove on the timing gear mounting are, no groves are standard, 1 groove S/E spec and 2 grooves "big valve" or super S/E spec.

If it has siamesed inlet ports its a Stromberg head, if it has 4 inlet ports its a Webber/Dellorto head and worth possibly double or more.

your best bet is to advertise it on Ebay and let the bidding frenzy begin IMHO.

if the cams/valves/camcaps are missing, then it will be worth a lot less than complete, Stromberg heads seem to fetch between £400 and £700, webber/dellorto £500(for a damaged but repairable/incomplete head) to over a grand.

Some pics would help as would valve head diameters.

I've got some information re the casting marks somewhere, i can try to find it if you want me to?

Mark

[tempus]

There should be a raised boss just in front of no1 plug,this should have a letter stamped on it if the head was built after 1968,a plain cam is not always a standard cam,E type cams are plain and they were the highest lift.Lotus built 24 variants of the twin cam so it can be confusing,a desription of the cam cover would help, but they may not belong together .Tempus

[lotusrichard]

Thanks very much for your help guys!!

Tempus....I found the raised boss you were talking about and it does not appear to have any stamped letter on it so I'm pretty sure it's a pre 1968.

Elan + 2.........It has four inlet ports (not siamese), I'm told it's a Webber head. The cams/timing gear have no grooves so we think it's standard(his other has two). He has everything other than the cams. I would really appreciate it if you could find the information about the casting marks.

Is the Lotus Cortina cylinder head any different to the Lotus Elan cylinder head?

[ELAN+2]

lotusrichard said:

Thanks very much for your help guys!!

Tempus....I found the raised boss you were talking about and it does not appear to have any stamped letter on it so I'm pretty sure it's a pre 1968.

Elan + 2.........It has four inlet ports (not siamese), I'm told it's a Webber head. The cams/timing gear have no grooves so we think it's standard(his other has two). He has everything other than the cams. I would really appreciate it if you could find the information about the casting marks.

Is the Lotus Cortina cylinder head any different to the Lotus Elan cylinder head?

the grooves are on the end of the cams, under the cam wheels, either none, one or two groves for genuine Lotus cams. The original cortina/elan engines had 105bhp, the S/E had 118 (std in plus 2), It had a minor porting job over the std engine IIRC, The big valve 126BHP definately had a port job over the std engine, higher compression via skimming the head and larger (by 1mm) inlet valves,

the head casting codes are here for +2s :http://www.geocities.com/trevorsparrow/elanplus2/engine.htm

Mark

[andrephillips10]

Hi,
I´m looking for a cylinder head for a lotus elan + 2 (s130 from 1973) do you still have this?
Many thanks

André Phillips (from Portugal)

lotusrichard said:

Can anyone help!!!

My stepfather has just rebuilt and old lotus Elan +2 and has a spare twin cam 8v cylinder head that he'd like to sell. He wants to be as accurate as possible when placing the add.

Problem is, he doesn't understand the casting and stamped numbers on the cylinder head to help the buyer. Here's what they read,

Casted on the bottom is: A26E-311

Also on the bottom below exhaust manifold is: 21-7(casted) & N127(stamped) & WM9403(casted)

At the back of the cylinder head(lower part) is D18(stamped)

Does anybody know what these numbers mean???