All Activity

I need to know what this device is. Is it for controlling the heater? I'm standing on the left side of a 2003(?) Birkin with the Zetec engine, so the left side of the photo is towards the front of the car. On the left of these photos are the spark-plug wires heading forward to the engine. On the right of these photos is the heater core with two heater hoses coming out of it. In the middle of these photos is the gizmo I want to identify. It's in my way. If it is needed only for the heater, I would like to make it go away. I do not need a working heater. I can bag it and tag it.

see below

So, you are saying that the Caterham triangular dry sump tank will fit in front of a Duratec in a S3 imperial chassis?

The footwell tank can be bought but would require other engineering/plumbing solutions that are already solved by using the Caterham setup. Assuming it fits in his imperial chassis, everything would be plug and play. Maybe I'm just lazy and I hate modifying stuff. But it seems any improvised solution can trigger a set of unintended consequences and further troubleshooting.

I thought Scott was asking if there WAS an off the shelf and well tested solution.

I put my tank where the battery mounts, and moved the battery to just in front of the cowl. Different engine, same chassis.

Berks County PA, near Kutztown. Here is a link to pictures. Let me know if it doesn't work. Price? I haven't really done any research so at this point I'm open. https://photos.app.goo.gl/v3AxFkQsUCCASLYv8

Why would you want to reinvent the wheel and engineer/fabricate a new solution to a problem that already has an off the shelf and well tested solution?

I would like to report that after years of troubleshooting, discovery, fixing, tuning and I movements my latest calculated mileage is a whopping ... 11.8mpg Short trips end up eating up half a tank or more. With the wideband live reading the problem is sort of obvious. I'm extremely rich at most of my fuel map and the sensor pings out at the lowest allowed sensor reading of 10:1 for most of the drive. God knows how low it truly is, so I'm running very very rich. Next step is to rebuild the map and see where that gets me. Good old chatGPT gave suggestions. Time to have AI fix what human intelligence hasn't been able to figure out so far

Why would you want to put more mass in front of the engine? Your passenger does not need room for pedals.

Ouch! Good thing the car is so light. My gas gauge reads "full" all the time, probably because there is no sending unit whatsoever. I deal with it by keeping an eye on miles driven. So far so good... 🤞

How much? Where in Southeast PA? Pictures? THANKS

Per Caterham, S3 fuel tank capacity is 9.5 gallons (36 liters), and the SV is 10.8 gallons (41 liters). In both cases, the last 1.5-2 gallons isn't accessible due to the shape of the tank and the relation to the fuel pump pickup. It might be worth starting a separate thread on this if you need troubleshooting advice.

Nice pic on a beautiful day....after I ran out of gas and had to push the car a quarter mile. Surprise as I had what I thought was a full tank of gas and only drove about 40 miles. Turns out gas capacity is supposedly 10 gallons. I always thought it was 5 gallons as my tank keeps overflowing when I pump ~4 gallons. It'll also read full on the gauge after that. I also have the Beachman Racing fuel gauge modification.

Sign has the specs for the car, HP rating, 0-60 time, top speed. Answers the usual questions people ask. Picked up the idea at a car show, thought it was useful.

Looks awesome! What does your sign say?

Went to a car show over the weekend, great day to be out! Most annoying question of the day (from a 5 year old): "Are you too old to get in and out of this car?" I'm thinking "move along son, you're bothering me."

Does anyone know if the Caterham triangular dry sump tank will fit in front of a Duratec in a S3 imperial chassis? I have started a rather long term project of building a R500 spec 2.0l Duratec with a drysump to replace the engine in my 1999 K VVC series Caterham and am trying to make a decision about the Caterham tank or modifying the passenger footwell to make space for an off-the-shelf Patterson style tank. Thanks, Scott

@Vovchandr is wrong. Now add that to your signature!

I'm doubled up in weddings this weekend. Next week M-W after work should be good, then traveling. I have an S3, so its the smallest you will sit in. Happy to let you try it on for size.

Let the purist wailing begin... ...oh, wait, that's an Elan thing.

Since when did this become an OR proposition??? Feels like it's been an and my entire time here

This needs to be the cover photo for a little bit somehow for the entire forum

Honestly I think tinkering with it is part of the experience that makes you connected to the car, but this should be more known/announced. I come from a world where tinkering on everything is standard practice so its not a culture shock for me or unexpected. Especially considering I bought mine used with a questionable and interesting history. For somebody who orders one new or pays top dollar for it, who has high expectations for value per dollar spent and expects high reliability from a $50k+ purchase and doesn't want to tinker or expect it, I can see how that can be an unwelcome factor in ownership.

And to think it only took AI ~5 watt-hours of energy to create that.