white_elite75

hello, I'm currently reviving an elite however the car came with weber dcoes rather than the correct dellortos. The webers are junk and I've heard that even the best tuners can't get the 907 to run properly on webers, so I'm changing them to dellortos. I know that the lotus engine always came with dellorto 45's, however I just happen to have a nice set of dellorto 40s on the shelf that came off another project, so I know its not perhaps optimal but I wanted to run these, ay least initially. so my question is whether anyone has any experience of using the smaller carbs and if so, to give me a steer with regard to choke and jet sizes. many thanks Grant

Hi Tom, thanks for your reply, I'm not too much further on with this engine, although I do now have a few more clues and a couple of thoughts arising from them. Upon inspecting the engine number stamping with a magnifying glass, it appears that the mystery 'v' in the middle of the number may in fact just be an error, under magnification is looks like rather than a v it is in fact two slashes with the correct forward slash just overlapping the backward slash, I'm wondering if the guy stamped the slash leaning backwards, then the foreman comes along and says, 'nah, mate, it's a forward slash...' so on goes another slash making a v. If that's the case then it looks like a normal number with year code letter, month and year then the unit number after the slash. Although a G code is apparently 1974 with pas, I can't find any reference to a code letter for 1973 so I'm wondering if the 1974 codes were just the codes for the first full year of engine production therefore including those manufactured in 73. I've also found clear evidence that this engine has been apart so I'm less inclined to think that the ancillaries can give any real pointers. So I'm thinking that this is a 'bitsa' engine which just happens to be built upon a really early block... Engine is on a chain hoist at the moment so very easily inspected - where should I be looking for these other engine numbers that you mentioned? Grant

Hi everyone, I'm new here and to lotuses. After many years messing with triumphs and mgs, I have finally bought a proper car and acquired a 75 Elite in need of serious restoration, it's been off the road for 30 years and is in a bit of a state, it's saveable but my goodness there is a lot to do. However, as there is quite a serious question mark over whether my engine can be revived, I recently took advantage of an opportunity to acquire a second engine (it was cheap and local-ish). The guy I got it from was not a lotus guy and didn't really have any knowledge to impart as to its origins however he had some other spares which appeared to have come from a series 2 Eclat, However upon checking with the elite/eclat workshop manual I can't seem to work out its origins. The serial number (please see attached image) is G7308 V3 667. From the manual it seems the the g prefix would make this a 74 engine and therefore Elite, but then the number would indicate that this engine was made in Aug 73 and therefore possibly a jensen Healey motor, but from my researches it doesn't seem that g was a prefix for the healey engines. Also confusing matters is that the engine, whilst visually similar to the 1975 unit in my car, does have some differences that would seem to indicate a later unit, it has the later lucas 45 distributor with the loom plug for electronic ignition and, although it is not present, the witness marks seem to suggest that the engine came with the later style auto belt tensioner. Carbs and intake manifold are gone so no help there, but definitely a manual car as clutch and flywheel still present. Also mystery engine carries a three belt pully suggesting power steering and air con (power steering pump still attached). One other thing to note is that the pulleys, whilst still square tooth, look different to the pulleys on my 1975 engine, they are black/dark grey rather than aluminium and do not carry the lotus script cast into them. Not quite at the stage of ordering parts as I have not stripped this new engine yet to see what maladies lurk within, but would be handy to know what its from, and also for curiosity... many Thanks Grant