Vegantune F3 Lotus Twincams

[Paul Hicks]

Does anyone have any information on the early 70's F3 1600cc Vegantune Lotus Twincam engines?
Were they fuel injected?

I've read information about the Novamotor Twincam engines having Kugelfischer injection and 3 bearing cranks.

Be nice to find out the specification of the Vegantune engines, and how they compared performance wise to the Novamotor and Holbay F3 engines.

[Paul Hicks]

[Neil Duke]

I have got a set of Vegantune F3 conrods somewhere.

[Mike Harte]

I believe that Miles Wilkins' book titled LOTUS Twin-Cam Engine, if you can get hold of a copy, devotes half a chapter to the Vegantune engine.

It is said to be a very authoritative book on the subject.

[Paul Hicks]

Thanks Mike,
Will get a copy, looks an interesting read

[zefarelly]

Book was very expensive but has now been republished, it is good.

A few friends generally refer to them as vaguely-tuned. Some are better than others!

[Bryan Miller]

A friend of mine purchased a 3 bearing block for his Formula Junior project which
turned out to be a 701M 6015 block and given that casting number you would expect 5 bearings , the block was not modified in anyway to remove numbers 2 and 4 mains , so these were specially cast by Ford in period .
He neglected to check casting number prior purchase and presumed it was a 109E 6015 block.

Bryan Miller.

[Paul Hicks]

Originally Posted by Bryan Miller

A friend of mine purchased a 3 bearing block for his Formula Junior project which
turned out to be a 701M 6015 block and given that casting number you would expect 5 bearings , the block was not modified in anyway to remove numbers 2 and 4 mains , so these were specially cast by Ford in period .
He neglected to check casting number prior purchase and presumed it was a 109E 6015 block.

Bryan Miller.

Block sounds a very interesting Bryan, I presumed the bearing housings would be just ground or machined away.
Maybe re-casting was needed to block the oil galleries. Has your friend found out where it came from?

I have reaad that the F3 1973 twin cams had to run airboxes with restrictions, but could they run steel cranks and rods?
I guess running a restrictor would mean the use of big valves and race cams was a waste of time?

Maybe better to develop a three bearing crank with lower friction that with lightweight pistons would rev free

Paul

[joutsen]

Vegantunes always ran (or at least were supplied with) Weber carbs (twin DCOE 40s for 1600cc) and I don't think they fitted 3 bearing cranks. Cast airbox and F3 spec restrictor limited revs to under 7000rpm. For this reason, high lift / short duration race cams, light porting and high compression would have been the norm for all F3 engines back then to maximise torque.

Greg

[Paul Hicks]

Thanks to everyone who has posted information

I'm planing to strip the lotus twincan engine in my F3 car in the spring and just wanted to get an idea of what could be inside.
I'm pretty sure it's a later engine built in the early 90s but the only way to find out is to dismantle.
It's an L block, dry sump, running on dcoe 40s and that's about all I know.

The previous owner did not believe the crank and rods were steel, which got me wondering what spec the 1972 period F3 engines were.
Read somewhere they had around 120 to 130 hp and replaced the 1000cc screamers to keep the costs down, so wondering if the engines of the day just ran iron cranks.

Paul