View single post by Esprit2
 Posted: 04-18-2020 02:03 am
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Esprit2

 

Joined: 05-01-2005
Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
Posts: 573
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"LOTUS" Cam ID . . . C. . . . . . . D . . . . . . . E. . . . . . "104" .. . . .105. . . . . 106 . . . . "107" . . . . 108
Int. Opens, BTDC . . 26° . . . . . 25° . . . . . 27.5° . . . . 32° . . . . . ??° . . . . . ??° . . . . . 22° . . . . . ??°
Int. Closes, ABDC . . 66° . . . . . 65° . . . . . 52.5° . . . . 60° . . . . . ??° . . . . . ??° . . . . . 50° . . . . . ??°
Exh Opens BBDC. . . 66° . . . . . 65° . . . . . 52.5° . . . . 60° . . . . . ??° . . . . . ??° . . . . . 50° . . . . . ??°
Exh Closes ATDC. . . 26° . . . . . 25° . . . . . 27.5° . . . . 32° . . . . . ??° . . . . . ??° . . . . . 22° . . . . . ??°
Overlap . . . . . . . . . 52° . . . . . 50° . . . . . 55°. . . . . . 64° . . . . . ??° . . . . . ??° . . . . . 44° . . . . . ??°
Duration. . . . . . . . . 272° . . . . 270° . . . . 260°. . . . . 272°. . . . . 296° . . . . 320°. . . . 252° . . . . 304°
MOP. . . . . . . . . . . . 110° . . . . 110° . . . . 102.5° . . . 104°. . . Per Event . Per Event. . . 104° . . Per Event
Lift. . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.340". . . 0.350" . . . 0.344" . . . 0.420" . . . 0.433" . . . 0.450". . . 0.378" . . . 460"

The A & B cams were development cams, and I've never seen specs published for them. The 105, 106 & 108 were competition cams that Lotus never sold to the general public. I only mention them to fill out the 'naming' number series.

Then Dave Bean sells a BLL-104, BLL-105 & BLL 107 that apparently do NOT mimic the original Lotus 104, 105 & 107. And to add further confusion, It appears that Dave Bean also sold/ sells (?), a DB3-104. Is that a BLL-104 with a different name, or is it yet again different. And are there other CB3 cams?

DBE. . . . . . . BLL. . . . . DB3 . . . . BLL. . . . . BLL
Cams . . . . . 104. . . . . 104 . . . . 105. . . . . 107
Duration . . . 290° . . . . 290° . . . 295° . . . . 270°
Lift . . . . . . . 0.420". . . 0.420" . . 0.425". . . 0.375"

Delta Motorsports sells the same BLL series of cams that they seem to be getting from Dave Bean Engineering. Unfortunately, they've not been able to get any more information out of DBE than you or I.

In either case, if you have heard about the Lotus 107 cam improving the 907's low-end torque and driveability, the BLL-107 cam is NOT the same. Durations of 252° for the Lotus cam, and 270° for the BLL cam can NOT give the same result.

Similarly, if you're thinking about a Lotus 104 cam with 272° duration for a street-hot cam, the BLL-104 with 290° duration is NOT the same.

I mentioned earlier that I bought a pair of "104" cams on eBay, and they turned out to be "Delta 104" cams. What's that? Delta Motorsports knows nothing about them, and Delta Cams disavows any knowledge of them. But they are not the same as Lotus 104 cams, and I don't know what they are.

If you go out into the market place shopping for a 104 or 107 cam, what is it that you really have in mind? In the early days, when J-H owners started swapping cams to improve low-end torque and driveability, the Lotus 107 was all there was and they liked it. It was only after other vendors wanted some of the action that other 107's began to show up. Same with Lotus 104 cams being first, and others coming along later to muddy the waters.

Established names provoke certain expectations. I do wish that aftermarket companies would either accurately clone the originals (may be intellectual property issues involved), or be creative enough to come up with their own names for different products.

Personally, if a cam doesn't say Lotus on it, I don't know what it is.

Regards,
Tim Engel

Last edited on 05-16-2020 10:07 pm by Esprit2