Restoration of 2358R

[Certified Lotus]

Dyno day at Quicksilver RacEngines!  My favorite time at Quicksilver    I've got to tell you, Sandy and Eric run a great shop and I always enjoy my visit's to go see them. Even though they are 3 1/2 hours from me, its always worth the drive.

I was lucky enough to be able to schedule a Saturday dyno run of the twin cam weber head engine they built for me.  Typical of Quicksilver, the fit and finish was magnificent and the dyno run was the proof of the pudding. My spec for road cars is a nice HP ramp up and a torque curve that has a similar progression. Quicksilver always delivers.  I am not interested in high high HP range as this is a road car and with more power than I spec you have to start worrying about the downstream effect on transaxles parts and axle shafts.  I spec 93 octane use and a nice torque curve.

Here are photos of the dyno room, the dyno read out during testing (147.6 HP and 124.4 ft. lbs. of torque), loading the TC on my truck and delivery to my garage. Note that Sandy does test runs to 7000 rpms.  That is a testimony to his build quality.

The light green curve is of the engine they built for me for my 64 Lotus Elan S1 and the dark green curve is of the Europa Engine they just built.

[BDA]

That's a thing of beauty! They have a long reputation for quality, reliability, and power. It's clear they also pay attention even to cosmetic details.

Over 140 hp is good power. I assume you have a cast crank (as I do). 7000 rpm should be plenty for a street car. Your car should go really well with it, but that's not a stretch at all, is it?

It sure looks lonely sitting on the floor all alone without the car that belongs there!

[EuropaTC]

That's very impressive and the curve for the Elan engine looks even better, a very smooth transition.  Are there many differences between your Elan engine and this latest one ?

Brian

[Certified Lotus]

The cams are the only difference between the Engines. My Elan TC uses Kent Cams and the Europa Engine has a Cosworth intake Cam (it was already on the head) and the exhaust Cam was reground to change the profile. Both engines have custom pistons and completely built heads with new valves, springs, etc.

My Elan is very quick. I expect the Europa will be the same 

Jim,  the engine might look lonely but it won’t be long before things start coming together. I just need a full 10 hour day to put the transaxle together. Then the chassis re-assembly can start.

One small issue of wanting to convert to rear disc brakes. Sounds like Milo Engineering doesn’t have a firm date to complete the design.  That might be a hold up.

[jbcollier]

Banks has rear disc kits.

[BDA]

My rear brake kit from Richard is fine but the parking brake is useless. He may have a better setup now so if you go to him be sure you ask about that if that's an issue for you.

[dakazman]

 That is one impressive build, you have outdid yourself and I’m looking forward to reading more of your story.

Dakazman

[Runningwild]

BDA. This is the rear disc kit I got from Banks. Same as yours? 

[BDA]

That does look like mine (except I didn't get the new calipers!  ) It's a Ford unit, right? It's possible I could get a little brake force out of the parking brake with some additional adjustments and since I'm under the car for a while, I might try but Richard told me not to expect much from them so I don't think I ever worried much about adjusting when I built the car. Besides, I'm not a parking brake user. I was taught to use them sparingly back in the days of rear drum brakes because of the danger of warping the drum. That certainly doesn't apply to any of my cars any more but I retained the habit. Another reason I'm glad I don't live in San Francisco!

[surfguitar58]

My rear brake kit from Richard is fine but the parking brake is useless. He may have a better setup now so if you go to him be sure you ask about that if that's an issue for you.

Hi, Newbie here.  Just found this thread and am blown away. Beautiful resto, and like everyone else, totally jelly of your workspace. One newbie question: Who is this "Richard" I hear everyone talking about? Have heard him mentioned a few times and sounds like someone who can help with my front end issue. Congrats on the yellow TCS, can't wait to see the finished product.
Tom

[BDA]

Richard runs Banks Service Station aka Lotus Engineering (or is it the other way around?) in the UK. He has developed a lot of great kits to improve the Europa and probably knows more about Europas than anyone on the planet. He's a great resource and a great guy. This page may be useful to you (http://www.lotuseuropa.org/LotusForum/index.php?topic=1389.0). His website is listed there but to make it easier for you, here it is: http://www.banks-europa.co.uk/index.php


Some of the things he's developed are a twin link rear suspension, rear discs, vented front discs, adjustable front A-arms, and boot lid gas struts to name a few. He also sells his own frames and body kits not to mention regular spares for S1s, S2s, and TCs.

[EuropaTC]

The cams are the only difference between the Engines. My Elan TC uses Kent Cams and the Europa Engine has a Cosworth intake Cam (it was already on the head) and the exhaust Cam was reground to change the profile. Both engines have custom pistons and completely built heads with new valves, springs, etc.
My Elan is very quick. I expect the Europa will be the same 

A bit late responding on this one, but the Kent Cam application is interesting. When I looked earlier this year they listed quite a few cams and I only recognised the CPL2, L1 & L2 cams. I was put off because apart from the CPL2 they listed everything else as competition with no power band references or comments as to how each cam responded, just the valve timings.  And I'm not clever enough to know what power band I can expect with a specific valve timing, just that it will progressively move away from where I'd normally expect it to be.

But your Elan curve is very impressive, did your builder tell you what model of cam was used and if so, is the car tractable on the road ?   I have sprint cams in my Elan which I understand are the CPL2 equivalent and that's very smooth from 1500rpm upwards. I'm very tempted to go slightly different with the Europa (QED is current favourite) so I'm looking around at what's in the "sprint plus" categories.

Brian

[4129R]

Because of the extension for the pulley for the alternator drive on the inlet cam, Europa cams can be harder to find than normal TC cams.

[Certified Lotus]

Here is the full dyno plot of the TC in my Elan S1.  The type of cams, pistons and size of valves is included.  I do have a slight low RPM stumble (below 2500 rpm) that a friend of mine thinks can be tuned out with some additional weber carb adjustments. About 2500 rpm's this engine just pulls and pulls all the way to the red line without missing a beat.

[EuropaTC]

Very impressive. I see you've got 1.6 inlet valves in there which I think are the max size you can go to on the seats.  My first attempt hasn't turned up the cams but as I was reading it sideways on the screen (!) I shall print out the page and try again later.

I find these numbers very impressive. Back in the 60s/70s we thought that 125bhp was pushing it for a road engine but it seems that 140 is the new 125....

Brian