The Lotus Grand Tourers

Help needed ,hi im new on here i don't have an excel but have an excel engine and gearbox which is being fitted into a group 4 chevette hs rally car everything was fitted engine mounts made and chassis brackets welded on and then sprayed up looking great, then when the engine was refitted something had moved ,believe a spacer under the sump had come out dropping the engine on one side causing it to foul on the steering rack ,to alter it now would cause alot of head ache with gearbox etc , so i was going to alter the sump either gring it back or cut a piece out and weld it back up again ,the piece that needs altering seems to be very thick as ive tapped around the sump and you can hear where its thin or thick ,i was hopping to alter it without removing it but if it needs welding ill have to remove it ,ive added a picture of the area its just behind the front bolt on the left side from the front any help advice would be appreciated thanks
http://s267.photobucket.com/albums/ii28 ... s002-1.jpg

rlf444w wrote:Help needed ,hi im new on here i don't have an excel but have an excel engine and gearbox which is being fitted into a group 4 chevette hs rally car everything was fitted engine mounts made and chassis brackets welded on and then sprayed up looking great, then when the engine was refitted something had moved ,believe a spacer under the sump had come out dropping the engine on one side causing it to foul on the steering rack ,to alter it now would cause alot of head ache with gearbox etc , so i was going to alter the sump either gring it back or cut a piece out and weld it back up again ,the piece that needs altering seems to be very thick as ive tapped around the sump and you can hear where its thin or thick ,i was hopping to alter it without removing it but if it needs welding ill have to remove it ,ive added a picture of the area its just behind the front bolt on the left side from the front any help advice would be appreciated thanks
http://s267.photobucket.com/albums/ii28 ... s002-1.jpg

I would personally give Mike Taylor a call at LotusBits, as he is our local 912 guru and runs various Lotus rally cars.......

As Jerry suggests.

The thing with these engines is that the early ones twisted under load and that was corrected (or limited) by the later sumps and ladders being stiffer. Cutting and replacing should be fine but you'll probably need to remove the sump to do it as you'd really want to weld a perfect joint and any contamination from inside could prevent that, better to see the joint from both sides before deciding it will do the job.

Have got some pictures of my engine and sump dismantled which should help you, if you pm me you email address I will send them over.

Oli