The high quality spacers illustrated below have been CNC machined from an aluminium billet so they may fit any side-draft mounted Dellorto or Weber carburettor.
These spacers are an improved design that are a direct replacement for the original components as installed on Lotus Esprit, Elan, Elan +2, Elite, Eclat, Excel, TC Europa and Jensen Healey.
The original spacers were a die-cast construction with a wasted area around the locating studs and a flat bottom groove to locate the nitrile sealing ring.
From extensive experience gained in our workshop, it has been noted that on occasions the centre section has broken away through fatigue and left floating free inside the inlet manifold.
This type of failure is caused by the insufficient thickness of material left by the o-ring grooves that are present in both sides of the spacer.
Other problems also relate to breakages through the wasted section around the locating stud holes.
The new improved design solves these problems by using a semi-circular groove for the O-ring location detail.
This change in groove cross section imparts additional strength to the spacer thus preventing fatigue failure.
The change in external profile provides additional material around the stud holes to prevent breakages.
Great care has been taken to ensure these high quality spacers are dimensionally correct and are totally interchangeable with the original Lotus equipment.
It would be easy for Lotus Marques to source local aftermarket components but these items often cause problems as they are NOT the correct thickness.
The change in component overall thickness compromises the flexible mounting installation on every Lotus engine.
This is because the standard stud shank length prevents the nyloc nut applying the correct clamp pressure and in turn causes air leaks.
In addition to this, the aftermarket components cannot be serviced by simply changing the O-ring and therefore do not represent good value for money.
The aluminium spacers shown above are suitable for 40mm, 45mm and 48mm Dellorto or Weber carburettor installation on any Lotus vehicle.
These replacement parts may also be fitted to any four cylinder Ford race engine (or any other engine) that has an inlet manifold to adapt the original cylinder head to either a single or twin Weber configuration.
It is recommended that either Cosworth rubber spring assemblies or Thackery spring washers be installed in conjunction with the spacers to provide the correct amount of movement at the inlet manifold and carburettor faces.
Both types of spring mountings are available from Lotus Marques as well as a choice of regular Nitrile or superior Viton O-rings.
These aluminium spacers have been carefully manufactured in Australia using an Okuma machining centre.
For pricing and availability of these parts , please see our short-form catalogue on this web site or contact Lotus Marques.
Copyright © 2011 Lotus Marques