Lotus Engine Internals

[rlearp]

Does anyone have some specs on the turbo SE motors, 89-95, such as does it have a forged crank, forged rods, maximum custom stroke, maxium overbore, and cam specs? Thanks much,

Ron

[Squelch]

Forged crank and rods... Rods are larger than a Big Block Chevy...

Overbore ? not possible with nickasil liners.
Stroke increse ?
Would push the piston out the top of the block.

[lotusguy]

Ron,

Anything is possible. You could slightly overbore the liners and retain sufficient strength, then recoat them in nikasil. You could custom fab new ConRods and lower profile pistons too.

But, by the time you were finished, I doubt there would be any kind of favorable cost/benefit ratio to be had. You'd be paying a thousand or two for a few percent performance increase.

There would be better ways to go such as working on the head, turbo, intercooling, adding NOS and/or H²O injection, chipping etc. These would, alone or in combination, give you much more bang for the buck. Happy Motoring! ...Jim'85TE

[wedg1e]

...or you could drop a Rover V8 in... :hehe;

Ian

[rlearp]

Rover hell, I'd put a SB Ford in there like my 40, it would fit fairly easily.

Strokes can be accomidated without pushing the piston out of the block. First step is to use a re-ground crank and clearance the block for the rod. Second step is to get a piston with the wrist pin higher in the piston. These are common now days but weren't so common 10 years ago. Trade off is a rod ratio that may not be favorable and of course, a higher mean piston speed due to longer stroke.

Thanks for the info. I'm not looking to do anything with it right now as there are much easier ways to get power as Jim pointed out. I just wanted to know if it sported forged parts or not as I'm making a lot of changes that are resulting in some dramatic increases in hp.

Thanks,
Ron

>> Edited by rlearp on Thursday 25th March 21:47

[rlearp]

Got some good info from someone who does 910 motors for serious sport. The rods are good stock, albeit heavy, but the crank IS NOT forged. Definitely cast but still seems able to handle 375-400 hp. Using a custom crank the motor can make 2600cc.