On the standard Twincam head bolts there are two washers that have the flats on them to miss the cams as you have found out. That was standard from the factory from the 60s. One issue with reducing the washer size is that it's a know problem that the original Lotus heads go soft and then the head bolts recess into the casting. I would want the support washers to be as large as possible.

As Stan Laurel once said to Oliver Hardy "Why get married, just find a woman you don't like and buy her a house". You say don't assume anything, yet you are quite happy to rebore a block without getting the pistons first so you can physically check their size to make sure you get the right piston to bore clearance.

Lee, American octane is measured in AKI, Europe uses RON, slightly different values, be careful with those rover pistons and compression ratios

As i'm sure your aware Lotus twincams have two washers with flats on them, knowing how soft Lotus heads are personally i'd want the washers as large as possible. Something else to check is the valve clearances...... We have had Lotus twincam heads that have been set up perfectly on the bench but when the head was torqued down would do odd things to the valve clearances. We thought it was just a one off but i've seen it on multiple Twincam heads now so we set them after the head is fitted and torqued correctly.

Don't do it mate! I drove to my wedding in a '69 Aston Martin DBS V8, the same as James Bond drove to his wedding (though his was a '68 straight six). Unfortunately, my wife didn't get shot. I've never forgiven Blofeld!

Lotus Twin cam engines 1963-75 came out of the factory sprayed entirely in battleship grey with a black wrinkle ( or crackle) cam cover stove finished in black or in red for SE engines then reverted to black on all the big valve engines Elans and Europas with polished fins '71-75.

Good Luck! and Congratulations!

Great video today!! Congrats on the wedding!!!! 🎉🎊🎉🎊

Good luck Lee and huge thanks for the videos

When measuring the bowl/compression chamber, get yourself a 250ml burette. Another option is a graduated pipette. Much more accurate and consistent results. That 2mL syringe technique is like you're 'rubbing sticks together for fire over there'. Always look forward to your videos. Don't make me 'cross the pond' to show you a proper method!

So much detail fantastic.

Congratulations to you and the Mrs

Good luck with the wedding, wish you both all the very best.

You might want to use the washers with the notches They will spread the load better than "neatly machined" small ones.

Have a fantastic day best of luck to you and your family. Take care

Good luck lee hope ya manage to get your hands really clean 😃

Good luck and congrats 👏

I had aa 66 Elans SE for about 30 years. See this engine is like seeing an old friend.

good luck with your forth coming wedding Lee!

It's time to voice something I've been contemplating for a while. It's quite obvious that the company name comes from the induction roar of an accelerating engine and then the sound of the over run on closing he throttle, cheers

You need to get yourself a proper Rottler hone machine mate, they really leave the rest of the market in the dark ages. And you really need to be able to check your surface finishes in RvK approaching and exceeding 50 for these 1mm and now 0.7mm piston rings people are making great power with .. With all these successful LandRover repairs, you might get appointed official repairer to the Royal Family lol

Congratulations to you both on your wedding day tomorrow.

Good luck bro!

One cock up I would find more than any other when working on Datsun L series, was a thermostat housing bolt touching the timing chain.

another great vid

Congrats

Great find! Relax on your Wedding Day and say as little as possible...good tip! Thanks.

We had issues with the land rover V8 petrol engines, the cylinder liners move with piston movement. Weve jad a few shops rebud the engines, Ive even done a rebuild myself from the crank and crank bearings up without issue.. tbey also had headgasket issues and I dont recommend using the Land Rover headgaskets. All the other gaskets are fine. Just the headgaskets weve seen leak coolant and oil to the outside of the engine. the rocket shaft bolt holts need to be clean of oil and the headbokts are supposed to be lubricated with oil, and torques to 15, 30ft/lbs then 90° then another 90°

Congratulations on your weddingWishing you good lock and happiness in the future

remember US octane is not the same as EU octane.

I would've said putting a flat on the washers that need it is a better idea than fitting smaller washers! Also, I built a 4.7 Ford V8 for myself (in the UK) and I even went as far as to contact the refinery to see what the actual octane of the fuel is in my area- turns out 95 Octane is usually at least 97-98 (95 is the legal minimum). I went with 10.5:1 cr and it doesn't knock, but higher than that is pushing your luck- and why run 11.3 when it's in a flippin' Landie anyway? I wondered why you took 60 thou off the skirt bottom too- unless it's a clearance issue with the crank? Great videos btw- thanks for making them!

Good Luck on Saturday 😃😃😃😃

Nice find with the washers plus nice fix. Have a very nice Wedding day & no rush back from your Honeymoon weekend.

just fit a wild cam with plenty of overlap and thats your dynamic compression ratio back down to 9.5:1😉

🎉go Lee hope the wedding is all good 😊

Another good man lost to marriage... Good luck Lee, hope you both have a great day.

That cam was madness waiting to happen, Nicely done Sir, Job done correctly with the washers.

Possibly not Monday 😉

How does this guy stay in business? After watching this I would never let him near a motor.

Personally Lee I think 11.4/1 CR is a bit on the high side even for S/U petrol unless the engine is properly dynoed and setup for it, so might be a good idea to let the customer know, something else you could do is to install a slightly cooler running thermostat to give a wider margin before det sets in, good luck 'Sausage' HTR Ltd

I wish you a GREAT FANTASTIC wedding!!!! (you’re not supposed to re-appear up here until you two spent a GREAT time enjoying the honeymoon.....)

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding. Now you will always have that ball and chain on your leg. I've had one for 44 years.

Love the channel Lee 👍 I find it interesting you talk in both imperial and metric. Im an engineer and can use both but 95% talk in mm and microns. Is it because your machines are mainly in imperial or is it because the data on the old stuff is in imperial? I find myself converting to metric in my head or on paper when in this situation. Keep up the good work. Matt

Best of luck for the wedding. :)

I would have put flat in washer, more diameter = more support.

Thanks Lee. Wishing you a Deluxe day for your marriage! Have some fun with family. Best wishes!

Good luck

US 90 octane is equivalent to 95 Euro.

Hey Lee Std bore size is 94mm on 3.9lt, 4.0lt, 4.2lt and 4.6lt 88.9mm Std bore size for 3.5lt

The Rover CR seems scary high, I think the early P6s were about 10.5::1 and a problem when 5 star fuel was discontinued. If it does not pink it should gain some power though. Good Luck with your wedding and best wishes.

Don’t do it lee it’s only a piece of paper lol 😂 good luck 👌

If you need luck your marriage is off to a bad start. What you need is faith in Your decisions that allowed you to get to this point. I do congratulate you for stepping up and embarking on a new life's adventure. Best to both of You.

Be very careful, the later 4.0 and 4.6 Rover RV8 engines were totally re-engineered and not a lot is inter-changeable with the earlier units. The 4.0 litre engine was actually a 3.9! The 4.2 unit was always a bit of an odd ball..

It was pretty easy to find out the washers were touching. Cause you couldn't turn the cam! Im a bit with the others, big washers with a flat like the other builder had done. But I'm sure yours will be fine.

That silver paint looks a bit naff.

Unless it`s got a very fast ECU with good knock sensors then 11.36:1 on 97 octane is going knock like f**k.

Rimmerbros has 020 oem pistons for the v8.

You cant fit the Lotus head on with the studs in place as the cam chain guides which sticks up at an angle fouls the head as its slid down into place. The customer will have to go slow around right hand corners with the standard pickup to avoid oil pressure loss also

I can tell from the alternator belt pulley on the intake cam, that Lotus engine is from a Europa.

Honestly expected you to say "God save the Queen" when the pistons were at half mast 😂

Wow 11.3cr on an old skool chamber design and clockwork ignition oh em geeeee!

The golden rule is to never bore a block until you physically have the pistons. This is particularly important where clearance sizes vary between manufacturers.

How you are going to set the cam timing on the Lotus ? hopefully not just by the punched dots ? .I would want to know the camshaft timing degrees ,then set up with a degree disc on the crank and a DTI on the follower timed @ MOP - the proper way .

You cannot compare directly US and EU grade petrol as they are calculated differently, which results in the US fuel having a lower designated octane rating. Modern engines i.e. anything with electronic fuel injection can handle higher compression ratios because the ignition is moderated with knock sensors. I agree that yout customer should use superunleaded not just because it has a higher octane rating but because it is likely to have better detergents and additives. Also, large parts of the Country have superunleaded without any ethanol added (check out the fuel suppliers websites) despite being designated E5 (5% Ethanol). Ethanol is dire for engines, particularly classic ones as it is hydroscopic and can cause corrosion, eats any brass in the system and goes off quicker in the tank. I use superunleaded in our Skoda (VW) 1.5TFSi engine and get around 7-10% better fuel consumption so that there is no cost penalty. I presume that you will recommend that the engine be rolling road tuned to account for the higher compression ratio. The static compression ratio , which you have measured is not the critical one. The dynamic compression ratio is the proper one to consider, which will account for the valve timing of the engine. The dynamic compression ratio, which affects the detonation in the engine is much lower than the static compression ratio and changes with valve timing

would the curve in the crown of the factory piston affect the propagation of the flame front?

49 years of wedded bliss run away now

what about timing changes with different burn rate fuels ?. ps the very best of health and happiness in married/family life, God bless.

Wont work ? 🤷🏻‍♂️- sorted now 🙈🙈😂

You're making life difficult for yourself with that syringe not to mention the lack of accuracy. Get a proper burette, they're not expensive. My brother once measured his bowls with a squeezy fish, as you can imagine it was several CC's off reality

QUESTION: Do all you engine builders replace frost plugs every time you rebuild an engine block OR only as and when required? Cheers!

In most countries (including all of Europe, Australia and New Zealand) the "headline" octane that would be shown on the pump is the RON, but in the United States and some other countries the headline number is the average of the RON and the MON, sometimes called the Anti-Knock Index (AKI), Road Octane Number (RdON), Pump Octane Number (PON), or (R+M)/2. Because of the 10 point difference noted above, this means that the octane in the United States will be about 4 to 5 points lower than the same fuel elsewhere: 87 octane fuel, the "regular" gasoline in the US and Canada, would be 91-95 (regular). How is UK "headline octane" displayed?

don't do it run now while you have the chance.. lol.

Do u have sound?

i see you had some piston rings but have you got the right ring for friday good luck and all the best a thing to remember never go to bed on a argument and if your partner is in the wrong apologize and that will go a long way we have been married for 51 years and still together .thanks for the video but what landrover is the lotus engine going in

Hi Lee. Get some Holden Red motor 6 cyl pistons to suit a 173 block. Same as rover......

The Americans actually use a different rating system not RON Their 91 works out the same as our 95

American pump gas isn't that low in octane. Europeans use ron, americans often use (ron+mon)/2 as octane rating whis is known as aki as far as i know

14 x 2ml syringes?? You got too much time on your hands mate FGS! £2.50 to buy a 50ml syringe, save yourself hours. You can tell you're from Barnstable. #Tight Lol!

Paint the rocker covers lotus yellow...?

Congratulations on your marriage, best wishes to you and your bride

US Octane rating is not the same as ours. (RON+MON) /2 gives US 95 much the same as UK97/98

Don't understand rocker cover on a twin cam.

Just as well you didn't just bolt it down and start it up, the compression on that V8 would have it a bit more power wouldn't it? congratulations on getting married I hope yous have a long and fruitful life together and bring happiness to you all (you and your loved ones) all the best

Hi the sound seems to be missing

Americans use different octane rating than Europe, theirs 91 is ours 95. The problem is that they can sell as low as 87 as "regular"

I thought the Americans used a different ratings/measuring system and their 91 is the same as our 95 no ?

There are no "rockers" (ROCKER cover?) on a Lotus Twin Cam engine...😉

1mm is a bit thin for a compressed head gasket? Lee, buy yourself a good pipette, you do enough of these to justify it. The way you cc now induces error and spillage. And really....you bore a block before you have the pistons in hand because someone "has them in stock"!! You never machine anything until you have the bits in hand, and I am sure you know this.

American Octane is not the same as European Octane. You can't compare the two figures. American 91 Octane is the same as European 95. European octane is RON - American is PON which is the average of RON and MON.

Dont think you`ll get them Monday the country should be shut down