Cost to build a Twin Cam?

[pinkprincess]

As the subject says, assuming you can find an original block, possibly for reconditioning if necessary, can anyone give any kind of estimate as to what it would cost to put together a 'new' 1558cc unit as per the short lived SIII Seven?

 

Including/excluding costs for missing/uprating parts from Burton etc. and somebody to put it all together?

 

Purely out of interest at the moment, until I get some reasonable/exhorbitant/astronomical quotes

 

RW04FUN

RW08FUN

 

[Normans_Ghost]

Rich, apart from the parts costs which you can get from Burtons, the real costly bit is balancing the cylinder cc. Twinks should have equal capacity (down to last cc) combustion chambers and it's a very time consuming job to measure, strip to remove a few thou from crown and rebuild to measure all over again.

 

But if you do take it on fit the Burton front cover with removable water pump.

 

^{Norman Verona, 1989 BDR 220bhp, Reg: B16BDR, Mem No 2166, the full story here}

You and your seven toThe French Blatting Company Limited

[JACK FLASH]

Rich,

 

If you are interested I know a complete and supposed orginal 1558 Lotus Twin Cam for sale.

 

When I am back from holidays, I can give you an idea of the cost of the rebuild of my tall block Twin Cam. I didn' t use the special Burton water pump cover because I hope to be lucky. For the price of this cover you can take the head off a couple of times.

 

Jack Flash

j.jackflash@hotmail.com

[Normans_Ghost]

Jack, I agree but what do you do after a year

 

My Lotus Cortina had the head off for water pump at least twice a year. Ok, it was running a dynamo and the belt wasn't too tight but the pump bearing went after about 8000 miles.

 

The Elan engine was rebuilt by Pat at kelvedon (I was too busy in those days to do it myself). The pump leaked straight away and rather than take the engine out and all the way back to him we introduced copper filings which sealed the carbon ring in the pump. Was Ok for the rest of the time I had the car.

 

^{Norman Verona, 1989 BDR 220bhp, Reg: B16BDR, Mem No 2166, the full story here}

You and your seven toThe French Blatting Company Limited

[Englishmaninwales]

Norm

I was sure this was down to quality. My father's Lotus Cortina ran its original pump from 0 to 80 k miles over 15 years. The engine was rebuilt in 1980 and the pump was replaced as a precaution. It then suffered numerous failures until he got rid of the car in 1983. People blame the dynamo belt tension, but Im not so sure.

 

Malcolm

[dikko]

Norman, it's a 5 minute job on a cross-flow wassatheproblem? Bit of plastic, grease and syringe...

[JACK FLASH]

Norm,

 

Thanks for the tip but since it is now 2 years after the rebuild and everything is holding together I am really hoping that my engine also lasts 80 k miles.

 

BTW, I am using an alternator and a one-off tensioner thanks to the genius of my local Ford historic guru.

 

Dikko, don't make fun of Twin Cam owners and our exhaustive maintenance procedures since we are the true guardians of Seven history.

 

Jack Flash

 

😬 😬