Dry Sump Register

[LJR]

For the 1982 model year UK Turbo Esprit yours is the 47th car. Pretty unusual specification too. The wet sump cars started at 1193 with no A/C and 1261 with A/C so yours should be a wet sump car. Best way to tell is the round access grommet in the right hand side wing trim in the boot

[dr_jayhart]

Do you mean the dip stick for the engine on the right side of the engine bay?

[Andyww]

If 1279 has a dry sump engine it might be worth checking engine number matches records. It is entirely possible that it maybe was given a dry-sump engine they "found" at the factory though, maybe ex-test engine? Interesting.

The wheels shown in the picture were never factory fitted to any car AFAIK.

[LJR]

yes its in a different place on the dry sumps

[dr_jayhart]

Hmm, I know the wheels are not correct when i mouth the car I had the original BBS instead of the wheels you see in the pictures.

I know for a fact its a dry sump as the dip stick etc is in the correct place. It was a Bell and Covell car some years ago and I have engine rebuild records etc. Will however check engine number. Where will that be?

 

J

 

[Andyww]

Its stamped on the edge of the block just ahead of the bellhousing, above the starter motor.

 

[dr_jayhart]

Ok, will be a bit dark tonight before i get home so will look on weekend. J

 

[dr_jayhart]

Here is the build sheet does this shed any light?

 

[Andyww]

If its a dry sump originally its strange Andy Graham didnt mention this. 

On the other hand dropping a dry sump engine into a wet sump car "after-market" would not be all that straightforward so i would think the numbers will match.

The most likely scenario seems to be the normally accepted changeover VIN from dry to wet is simply wrong. It might only be a couple of cars out as the VIN sequence would include Eclats and Esprit S2.2

[LJR]

Eclats and Excels had their own sequence and by 1982 the Esprit sequence was shared by the Turbo and S3 rather than the S2.2. I think a picture of the engine bay and a check of the engine number are required to solve this one.

[ChrisJ]

I have heard that there are some D/S into 1983.

[Andyww]

2 hours ago, LJR said:

Eclats and Excels had their own sequence and by 1982 the Esprit sequence was shared by the Turbo and S3 rather than the S2.2. I think a picture of the engine bay and a check of the engine number are required to solve this one.

True.

Although there would also be wet sump non A/C cars in there as well during that time.

[LJR]

Assuming that 1193 and 1261 are the correct changeover points between wet and dry sump there are 67 cars that could be dry sump Turbos without A/C. In this range I have recorded:

24 N/A

23 unidentified

15 Turbo don't know with or without A/C

2 Turbo no A/C

3 Turbo with A/C

That means there can be no more that 41 dry sump Turbos after 1193

[dr_jayhart]

Hmm, getting a little stressed. Shame its too dark to get down the garage.

Just found an engine rebuild invoice from nov 2003 from South West Lotus centre with same engine number.

Car has only done 8000 miles since and was owned by Bell and Covell until 2016.

Jay

[Steve V8]

Noted  the final part on that invoice, olive for oil pick up pipe. Do D/S cars have pick up pipes?

[dr_jayhart]

The manual I have with the car has pages in it for the dry sump engine.

[Andyww]

12 minutes ago, Steve V8 said:

Noted  the final part on that invoice, olive for oil pick up pipe. Do D/S cars have pick up pipes?

No, but that part is still present on D/S as part of the plumbing.

Early wet sump cars had dry sump stuff in the handbook. Most reliable D/S indicator is no oil filler cap on the cam covers. 

[LJR]

Mines the 31st wet sump with A/C, chassis 1402 and this is stuck in the handbook, I don’t think a dry sump handbook means dry sump car. 

[dr_jayhart]

The plot thickens, what date and number is your car?

 

[dr_jayhart]

Reservoir right of engine no cam oil filler. J

[LJR]

2 hours ago, dr_jayhart said:

The plot thickens, what date and number is your car?

 

1402 built October 82

[Andyww]

Defo a D/S. Assuming the engine number matches, here is a theory:

If the car was registered to Bell & Colvill when new it would not have been dealer stock, but a company car probably for Bobby Bell or Martin Colvill. It could even have been used for racing. Is there any evidence of roll cage mountings?

So, its possible they went to Lotus, being official dealers and asked them to build it as a dry sump. The engine number sequence would have been in line with current wet sump production as the blocks are the same. 

When they switched over from dry to wet, they did it as soon as they could rather than when they used up all the D/S bits. I know this as Bernard White who used to buy Lotus surplus parts had a pile of dry sump cam covers, pumps and other bits in his warehouse which I saw at some point. The A/C cars went to D/S as soon as they worked out how to fit the alternator in, above the A/C compressor on the right side without it fouling the plenum. So they almost certainly had the parts to build several D/S after the main run ended.

Martin Colvill might remember the car. Although B&C has been sold on, he still hovers around and was at the last open day. They might also have records still on site. Bobby Bell sadly no longer around having died in tragic circumstances.

Seems a very interesting car! 

[LJR]

I asked Bell and Colvill about historic records before and they said they had a computer system failure and anything more than about 15 years old is gone.

[dr_jayhart]

Ok so just got into garage and engin number matches lotus build sheet. So it’s an original dry sump? If not I’m going after the seller. 

J

[stephenwhyte]

I would expect your Esprit to be a Wet Sump model Jay, given where the chassis number falls given the car was an air-con model.

I had some correspondence with Brian Angus when I was trying to establish some info on my Turbo. I wrote this post on the forum at the time.....

“You may want to also add that according to Brian Angus 11261 was the first Air-Con Wet Sump model as quoted from an email I received from him when finding out more info about my car. Brian wrote "UK Car Unit No. 11261 (82 MY) which was A/C Spec and built in April 1982 and passed to Sales in April 1982"

So as a result there should be no more Dry Sump Turbo Esprits after chassis number 11261”

Yours certainly falls very close to the point where it could be either though - I’m sure if there’s anyone who will validate it, Andy Graham should be your man so maybe worthwhile getting back in touch with him.

Here is both club compiled registers for dry & wet sump variants to help with your validating :