Renault Crank and Rods

[loudoun]

All, forgive my ignorance here. I recently picked up a basket case S2 with a non Lotus spec Renault motor. The PO purchased a Lotus spec cam and pistons from R&D for a rebuild. However, before I reassemble, does the Lotus spec Renault use a standard Renault R16 crank and rods?

[Bryan Boyle]

All, forgive my ignorance here. I recently picked up a basket case S2 with a non Lotus spec Renault motor. The PO purchased a Lotus spec cam and pistons from R&D for a rebuild. However, before I reassemble, does the Lotus spec Renault use a standard Renault R16 crank and rods?

Short answer: yes.

[dakazman]

 Loudoun,
   Welcome to the Renault side.\
  Here is some good reading for you. 
 https://www.lotuseuropa.org/LotusForum/index.php?topic=1748.0
  Dakazman
 

[loudoun]

Thank you to you both. I have the crank at the machine shop to get balanced and polished. Do you think there is any issue with reusing old rods, or are there sources for new?

[dakazman]

Renault16shop has many parts and then some.
Dakazman

[Richard48Y]

I have a set of later/stronger type rods I would let go cheap.

[jbcollier]

Rods can be reused bit need to be checked by a good machine shop.  Very common to have the big ends resized.

[dakazman]

The Alpine A110 parts can also be used but have a higher price.
Dakazman

[jbcollier]

I bought some hi-zoot rods out of Australia.  Had minor clearance issues, just the usual fettling issues when fitting HP parts.

Make a difference?

For a stock-ish engine?  No.  Just get your old rods checked properly and straightened, resized, and/or rebushed as required.

For a warmed up engine that is going to live in the 5k to 7k range?  It is one of the usual mods to strengthen the bottom end.  It won’t make any more power but it will be less likely to put a rod through the block at very high rpm.

[GavinT]

The Alpine A110 parts can also be used but have a higher price.
Dakazman

Just a note here.
The higher HP Alpine/Gordini engines used 21mm fully floating gudgeon pins. (pic below)
The cooking varieties of the Renault R16 engines used 20mm press fit pins and a bolt/nut fastener for the bearing cap as did the Lotus versions.