JohnCh

After nearly 15 years on this forum, I guess I was bound to guess correctly eventually Glad you got it sorted and hope Murphy gives you a wide berth going forward. -John

@Crocyou can -- and likely will -- try harder than that! Yesterday when looking at the map, I discovered the lean condition down low was user error. Somehow when building out the map last year, I accidentally left the cells in that rpm range at load site 15 (full throttle) untouched from my previous map. Adjusting to a tiny bit richer than the corresponding cells at load site 14 as with the rest of the rpm range should sort that out. -John

@Angelo, that's one hell of a sales strategy! Anyone want to write the ad for my Westfield next summer? Glad to see this car has stayed in the community. -John

Welcome UglyFast (great name BTW!). In addition to Twitter/IG, do a build thread here. Great way to get help along the way from people who have been there/done that/ have the scars to prove it. Any more details on the 2002? Is that a 32/36 Weber? -John

I believe Westfield ceased iRacer production quite some time ago (it was released in 2013). However, I did hear rumors within the last two years they are working on an electric road car. Given the 2030 edict in the UK, I don't expect Westfield, Caterham, Morgan, and other UK-based fun car manufacturers have much of a choice. -John

Is this the answer to the question "who bought Angelo's car?" If so, congrats! -John

Revisiting this thread after nearly 10 months because the car finally made it to the dyno today! The shop, Vintage Racing Motors, focuses on building, restoring, and maintaining vintage race cars, including some very, very high dollar stuff. As a result of this work, they frequently put the same engine on both the engine and chassis dynos so have a pretty good feel about parasitic losses with their specific Dynojet. Byron felt 18% was correct for my car. It may be right, it may be wrong, but interestingly, using that number results in nearly the same output I expected to hit given my exhaust, which is sized for my older 210hp engine. That system should cap out at about 225hp. Peak number at the wheels today was 184hp which converts to 224hp using an 18% loss. More importantly, the curve looked great. Yes, there is some torque to pick up below 3500rpm by richening the mixture, but it's minor. The power curve is billiard flat from 7000-8000rpm, showing there is still some upside at the top. Might be the exhaust, might also be the 45mm TBs are a little small. Cam timing could also help in that range, but would come at the expense of the bottom end. Regardless there is some headroom available for future upgrades that don't involve opening the engine. I'm happy and finally feel confident to really drive the snot out it. The red line is where we started, the blue is where we finished. It's hard to read the rpm scale at the bottom, but the run spanned 2000-8000rpm. On the way home I was behind a Tesla 3 Dual Motor whose driver decided to show off shortly after the light turned green. He then tried it again as we merged onto the freeway. I don't think the result of either event was what he expected while driving his invincible Tesla -John

It's a great topic for the article section. I'll work with @Croc to get something up in the near future and collectively we can update over time. -John

Nearly 6 weeks after placing my deposit, I have a build slot from Caterham: the week of February 6th. Add in manufacturing and shipping times, it sounds like a late April delivery provided everything goes smoothly. Given they usually don't for me , more likely sometime in May. The plan is to start ordering various parts over the summer and assemble the engine in the second half of December. Much earlier than needed, but I generally take that time off from work and it ensures plenty of buffer in case things don't go as planned (see earlier comment). -John

My guess is there is no power interruption, but it's good to rule out things that are dead simple to check. Assuming power remains steady, I'd be inclined to focus on what's been mentioned by others and add some related things: When checking the CPS for tightness, make sure the gap is within spec Examine the trigger wheel and make sure no teeth were damaged when removing/installing the engine With the engine running, jiggle the connectors on the CPS loom to mirror vibration. It's possible a wire or connector was damaged when removing the engine. It won't hurt to jiggle other parts of the engine loom for the same reason. If none of that works, and it's easy to get to your ECU, you might want to detach it from the car while it's running, hold it in your hand and see if it still cuts out. With an old ECU there is always the possibility of a micro break within the circuit board that opens from heat and/or severe vibration. Given the sudden onset of this after an engine removal, this does seem a stretch unless you somehow managed to damage it during that process, but..well, Murphy's Law. -John

When the engine cuts out, does power to the rest of the car remain on or flicker? -John

@cemaykan check out this thread on CatKong, which you may have seen at Bruce's shop. -John

Sorry about the cone incident, but glad to hear the car met expectations. Great video! -John

I can share my opinion as someone who has owned Westfields for 20 years and who recently put down a deposit on a new Caterham. I think there are a few things at play. Westfield, for reasons I've never quite understood, has never gained a strong foothold in the US. Elsewhere that's not the case. According to Westfield they've sold 13k cars since '83, which isn't too far behind Caterham. If you visit both the Caterham and Westfield club forums in the UK, you will see the latter has a very substantial and active user base, and like Caterham, has had a race series for many, many years. In the US, there are very few of us. Fewer cars means less awareness and brand enthusiasm, which in turn impacts resale value. Westfield does place more of the onus for quality on the builder than does Caterham, which also plays into resale value, however, I'm not sure that is a big percentage hit on cars in the UK. Yes, a used Westfield is less expensive there than a similar spec Caterham, but so too is a new one. Regarding build quality, I've seen some Westfields that were noticeably inferior to a Caterham, and others that were their equal. Lastly, higher spec, well-built Westfields rarely come up for sale here. Most of them seem to come from the mid to late '90s, and build quality back then was more...variable. My initial car was built by the US distributor at that time for magazine tests (he liked to build the cars), and let's just say I was not impressed; magic marker cut marks were visible on the body, interior panels weren't installed as per the build manual, alignment was not done well, etc. My current car is at a completely different level, but as some here can attest, I'm anal and picky -John

You mentioned in the Tillett thread that you spoke to someone who worked for your car's former owner. Have you asked him if the car had similar issues back then? I wonder if you are simply having bad luck or if you are chasing old issues. -John

This raises the question if the gauge failed due to age/vibration or if something wonky happened with your fuel pressure to pop the seal? Have you been monitoring that during your diagnostic sessions? -John

There is a lot of information not currently on the site that may have been asked elsewhere or proactively answered on a blog. if we started a thread with pointer information for each of those, we would blow up the site. It's better to let people ask the questions when they have them, then those who know the answer, or who have a pointer, can provide it at that time. This ensures we get additional context that may not be addressed in that linked content. Alternatively if someone ran into an issue, figured it out on their own or found the information on their own, when they post to proactively share the information, they can provide context for the links. -John

Welcome @jzleach! Are you planning a new build or a pre-owned Caterham? If the latter, there are a couple of nice cars currently listed in the for sale section and if you haven't seen it, @Croc updates the thread below each weekend with cars listed elsewhere. -John

Is there a question or point here or are you simply creating a new thread to point people to existing content? -John

Let's please try to keep this on topic. -John

Please, please start a build thread in Off Topic when the time comes. I'm sure a lot of us would love to follow along. Are you keeping the NB engine stock? -John

And I'd appreciate everyone keeping item 7 from the Guidelines in mind when posting. Disagreements are fine, being an ass is not. And yes, you can quote me on that. 7) Politics: from time to time we'll hit a hot button issue. For the most part we have been able to keep the posts on-topic and issue focused. As long as that continues, we can enjoy a civil discussion. When the name calling starts it lowers the enjoyment of the forum for all of us. Thanks, John

Love the sound of that engine! That doesn't look like a particularly pleasant spot for a breakdown. Glad it worked out well. -John

Absolutely keep us posted. Regardless of which path you choose, there will be people with knowledge or direct experience to share their perspectives. There generally isn't one right way to do it (although there are often a lot of wrong ways) so its important to really think about what aspects are most important to you now and how that might change in the next few years. Best not to spend the money twice if it's not necessary. -John

There are some folks here with SVT engines that will hopefully weigh in. I believe some may have made the switch from the standard Zetec. Given the use you describe, how confident are you that 200-210hp will suffice long term? The advantage of the Duratec is less weight and a much higher power ceiling, but it's not a straight swap as you note. If 200-210hp really is all you think you will need for the foreseeable future, I'm not sure I'd make that investment, but I would strongly consider the SVT. It has a number of upgrades over the standard Zetec and could be a more straightforward project with future upside if you wanted to dig into the internals. Swapping cams and adding Throttle Bodies should get you pretty close to you initial target and don't require opening the engine, unless of course you wish to rebuild it first. -John