Motus crate motor for Europa?

[surfguitar58]

https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a23340313/motus-dead/?src=socialflowFBRAT&fbclid=IwAR3gfXVwq3q_nvriTVH6gB6ZRh2MwNWlJtJgvYpbvAHRzRBVHlzCNhL5cyQ

[Certified Lotus]

Never heard of it before but it does look interesting. And $10K for a crate engine is fairly cheap considering what it costs to completely rebuild a twin cam at the same power range. (I know, a bunch of you are going to tell me you can do it for far less). The only disappointing part is the torque, I would liked to have seen more than 123 ft lbs.

[BDA]

I had never heard of Motus either. Interesting idea!

I would say that Zetec crate engines are in the $2,000 range, the TC bell housing bolts up and there is substantial experience with Zetec transplants. I think the Zetec is probably best choice for an engine swap.

That being said, a Motus swap would be a very neat project!

[andy harwood]

Motus was a very promising motorcycle company. One of their bikes would have been great fun. The engine seemed to be great for a cruising bike, for a car, maybe not so much.

[surfguitar58]

I just thought this would be a winner in the battle for longitudinal room. It is basically 1/2 an LS engine. Of course, our buddy SofaKing basically has 2 of these back-to-back!

I recently saw another article in defense of the humble push-rod engine (which this is). Simpler and more compact was the upshot. Not sure I agree, but hey...

t

[dakazman]

  I been looking into these Lotus BDA blocks . I noticed the manufacturer number M-6010-16K and seem a good idea for twin cams. —The L for lotus , K for Kent. —-(corrected) It needs a pre crossflow head according to the builder. More studying fo me.
Dakazman

[BDA]

As you've found out, there are several variations of Kent blocks and I don't know what the differences are. When I was talking to Dave Bean about my motor, it seemed that one difference was the deck height but there are aluminum blocks. I suspect that any of the heads (BDA, TC, crossflow, YBB?, and as I remember from my racing days there was a flat head - no combustion chambers) will bolt up to any of the blocks but that's just an guess. I'd be interested to know what some of them are. Let us what you find out!

[dakazman]

   It’s seems to be a start for all the twin cams out there.
It’s a cast iron block . Still have a lot of questions about this but I found it interesting.
Dakazman

[Bodzer]

Very interesting. If we can tempt Rohan (rgh) onto this thread then we will be able to tap into his vast knowledge on engines. He is an invaluable resource on the Elan forum when it comes to twincams and racing engines.

[dakazman]

  Maybe Jojo can move these last few posts to another thread so not to hijack it.

 L - for Lotus, K- for Kent  engine blocks.
Dakazman

[Grumblebuns]

A few years back, I remember Ford re-introducing improved Kent blocks for the Formula Ford guys. I didn't realize there were two versions. From what I can gather the M-6010-16K is the original Kent block and has a "tall block" deck height (8.20") while the M-6010-16L, the Lotus block has the standard 7.9" deck height. Everything else is probably the same.

I managed to pick up the new Kent block from a friend of mine when he had a fire sale on his Europa parts.

https://www.pegasusautoracing.com/productdetails.asp?RecID=9127

 www.summitracing.com/parts/fms-m-6010-16l/

[dakazman]

  Grumblebuns,
 So what have you done with that block? Have you checked if the bell housings fit or what type head ?
Am also clueless in the reference of deck head height, and the pros and cons of two blocks.
 Am not building one but would like to know if the twin cam head will bolt up?
Dakazman 

[gideon]

Denis Palatov was considering the Motus engine for one of his D47 builds.  That was before Motus packed in the bike business.  I didn’t realise they were still making engines.  One advantage of the Motus engine is the interface to the gearbox is designed to accept different options.  Denis was thinking of putting a Hewland transaxle on there.  I don’t know if it ever got built like that. Google Palatov D47 if you haven’t read about it before.

[Grumblebuns]

  Grumblebuns,
 So what have you done with that block? Have you checked if the bell housings fit or what type head ?
Am also clueless in the reference of deck head height, and the pros and cons of two blocks.
 Am not building one but would like to know if the twin cam head will bolt up?
Dakazman

The Lotus block is a descendant of the original Kent engine so yes the new Kent blocks will fit the Lotus twin cam bell housing and heads. I'm definitely not an expert on the Ford Kent blocks. All of my knowledge comes from reading the catalogs put out by Dave Bean, both the "English Ford Racers Catalog" and the "Lotus Elan, Plus 2, Cortina" catalog. Both provide great information on the history of the Kent and Lotus Twin Cam engines and specifications.

The reference to deck height refers to the stroke difference between the two block now available. The 1558cc Lotus block has the intermediate stroke of 2.864"while the Kent block has the tall 3.064' stroke of the Kent crossflow engines. Dave Beans English Ford catalog has (or had) a tall block kit listed in the catalog. The tall block engine will increase the displacement to 1700cc. Again all this is from the Dave Bean catalogs.

We probably should move this discussion to a separate thread.

 
 

[dakazman]

   I have the bean catalog and that’s where I learned of the term BDA,  (not our member) lol but the engine itself. I do no know what a twin cam block looks like I in assembled . Finding a head seems difficult. Constantly reading about these engines and their sub assemblies is daunting.

Dakazman