Lotus 2.2

[bmxdave]

Does anyone know much about the older Lotus 2.2 engine?

 

Are they any good? Reliable? Tunable? Expensive? Easy to get hold of?

 

Its a tempting proposition for the cortina.

 

I dont really know much about them? Is it a fully in house build or is the block from a normal car? 8v or 16v? I only know they where in the sunbeam and the Lotus's around at that period. Never seen one in an OSF though.

[Guest MK1gaz]

I've had one in a lotus sunbeam and they are good . Expensive to build but they can make 220+ bhp and lots of torque plus they sound the tits

[john_3.0s]

there was a mk1 escort in classic ford years ago with the 2.2 lump in it, go well i should imagine

[V8ian]

I have seen one in a Mk1 escort, Based around a Vauxhall engine if I remember correctly, Getting the gearbox may be a problem as the Lotus used a dog legZF in the sunbeam and do not seem to come to too often, the lotus {Eclat??] has a front mounted engine which has a Lotus designed box, the last one I saw appeared to be a ford 4 speed style casing may be stuffed with either Renault or Austin Maxi internals The engine is slant 4 and leans over at a funny angle, came in various forms and the latest came as a Turbo engine in Esprit?? The engine was fitted to all the wedge style Lotii, Chevete HSR, Possible the Firenza Droopsnoot, Jenson Healeys and the Sunbeam Lotus

[Retromotorsport]

First out in the Jensen healys ... Lotus used them to test the engine and made changes when it went into their Lotus cars .. on the whole its a good engine, theres a few specialist builders around , Gary Kemp, Martin Shirley, one of the best has retired from building them (allthough hes still building mine hehe) and that was Steve Greenald,

 

The JH engine is a 2l engine ..the 907 allthough the 2.2 crank fits in this, later engines that where turbo'ed are 912's .. for an alloy engine its heavy, it is based on the Vauxhall slant 4 but the only part thats changable is the crank i belive .

 

Power and torque are good, but modern engines beat it .. the gearbox to use is the ZF dogleg 5, this costs around 4k reconned with the £1,800 escort gear cluster..brillient box though.. Martin Shirley does a toyata gearbox conversion for then which is cheaper.

 

As for being used in escorts...it would have been if Keith and Mike hadnt made the BDA , to my knowledge there was only 3 escorts that had this engine fitted. Geoff Lanes (SEOC essex rep) brothers car ..(crashed and i had the engine) the red car in CF and mine ... which after a crash the engine and box was quickly slung in another car to use.. this then got flooded while in storage and the shell was sold on.. the engine is still with Steve G .. its been under his bench for 7 years now ,,lol.

 

If you put it in an escort engine bay be pre[pared for a nightmare, doing anything with the dizzy is a nightmare, the exhaust manifold will take 2 days to take off, etc etc .. the gearbox tunnle will have to be enlarge ..

My car was spaceframed at the front to avoid this .

 

The best thing about the engine... the looks when you open the bonnet along with the " have you got an engine mount gone mate"

 

Would i fit one again in my own car .... no .duratec wins hands down

[Guest MK1gaz]

A duratec only wins if you've got £15,000 for a top notch one with all the bits as a lotus 2.2 with only head + cam mods will make as much power as a very expensive duratec

[stu]

my mate went the fiat twin cam route with his mk1 tina great car

[Jay_harrier]

(L)oads (O)f (T)rouble (U)sually (S)erious rings true with me, a friend had a Skip Brown tuned Sunbeam and was forever having heads warp, another chap had an atmo Esprit - it lived an John Welch's workshop, the car did more miles on road test than the owner ever got.

 

I'd liken them to running a BDA, expensive & needing constant attention - there are far better options out there, XE for a start

[bmxdave]

Fair dos.

 

I guess its not worth it for me then. I figured if i was going to upgrade to a more modern engine id like to keep it lotus or ford.

 

I think ill just tune the crossflow a bit more then save up fore a decent zetec and put one of those Lotus lookalike rocker covers on so it looks like a Lotus engine

[Retromotorsport]

A duratec only wins if you've got £15,000 for a top notch one with all the bits as a lotus 2.2 with only head + cam mods will make as much power as a very expensive duratec

 

Gaz we have been down this route mate .. its dosnt cost 15k to fit a 250horse Duratec in an escort ..

 

And my Lotus was slower than my pinto even with more power..may have been the box though.. and about the same as the x-flow

 

Just like to add, i still love them engines ..hence why i wont sell mine .. one day it will go in a special escort .. one day .. one day ..