JohnCh

I think a lot of people don't like them simply because they don't care for the aesthetics. Nothing wrong with that. How do you feel about that aspect? -John

Kudos for calling it a bonnet. To achieve elite status, you'll need to start making aluminum a 5 syllable word. I still struggle with that one There is some truth to rocks ejecting over the bonnet with mud flaps. I live down a long gravel driveway. When driving it at low speeds, a small piece of gravel will occasionally kick up and land on the bonnet. However, I've never noticed this occurring on the road. -John

No, I don't have a sense of humor, and I'm borderline pathologically vindictive. I smell a ban coming... Okay, that scores you some points and pacifies my ban finger. Now back to our regularly scheduled build updates from Greg. -John

I also did mud flaps. I cut them to size out of a pair intended for a truck and attached them to the base of the fender with the same style dome head fasteners used to attach the fender to the stays. They work well, but over the years they have arched backward a bit from air flow and should probably be replaced. I suppose I drive too fast If you look closely, you can just make one out in this picture. Edited: one advantage to working from home is I can pop into the garage to take photos. I've replaced the picture mentioned above with a couple of closeups. Quality isn't great, but I'm supposed to be working at the moment. -John

Depending on where you drive, the stone guards can look worse for wear after a while and will really stand out if the rest of the car still looks good. Murphys' Law indicates that if you make them hard to remove, you will want to replace them relatively soon. If, however, you make them easily removable, they will still look good many years from now. -John (Murphy's Law Disciple)

I don't like this type of bullshit on the forum. Lightguy, you fired the first shot and Apex responded. As far as I'm concerned, you've both had your say, and this discussion is finished on the forum. Period. Revisiting will result in deleted posts and a very long time out. -John

Glad you found it when you did. A press fit without an additional mechanical fastener does seem a bit odd given the pressure involved, but I don't see a groove or other indication of a fastener in the white plastic housing. Do fingers from the fitting go through the slots in the white plastic? Perhaps that's enough? Interested to see the resolution. -John

You're close Greg. I bought the Elan because I've wanted one since I was a kid, almost bought one instead of the Westfield, and wanted something I could use when rain was possible. In fact, that's why I went for the FHC rather than the convertible. Far more practical! From a safety perspective though... Although the Westfield looks far scarier to the casual observer because it's...well, there's not much there, and the Elan looks like a real car, looks are deceiving. The Westfield has steel in key places like the sides, and between the front wheels and the occupants, whereas the Elan is just thin fiberglass everywhere but the central backbone. It is fun though. I took care of the other gear yesterday. Only took a few minutes since this time I knew what I was doing. Hopefully the engine will be fully assembled this weekend and ready to drop in the car. Of course I fully expect to uncover a host of other things I forgot to do during this long layover that will add to the timetable. You may still beat me! -John

Hard to tell if the passenger seat is far more faded or if that's just the lighting in the different photos. I'd be tempted to give both seats a very thorough cleaning and proceed from there. If the fading is inconsistent and it looks like the seats don't match but the fabric is in good shape, I'd investigate upholstery sprays that restore faded cloth, or speak with a good detail shop in your area. That could bring the seats back to a level where they don't stand out even if you decide to go down the polished aluminum path. I'd also speak with the upholstery folks to see what they would charge to properly finish the edges of the crotch belt cut (or practice on an old shirt or rag and see if you can do it yourself.) If $100 makes it look finished, it might be worth it. Regardless, I don't think they look that bad. Someone may decide they want to replace them, but they are at least serviceable. -John

You're the one who brought up spending $1000 to recover the seats, I was just providing another option at a similar cost I do think that spending money to go non-stock, and do so in a way that isn't highly popular, will narrow your market. For better feedback on the seats, it might help to post some photos. The consensus may be they fine as they are, or it could be they are a major problem and you need to do something. My guess is the former, but we really don't have anything to go by. -John

At todays' exchange rate, a new pair of cloth seats from Caterham is -John

Good point Mike, I forgot to account for the Vlad factor. Never mind :jester: -John

Given the difference in offset, any concern about changes to the scrub radius negatively impacting handling? It's not a huge amount, so probably not a big deal, but given the Caterham's best feature is arguably the front end, might be worth considering. -John

Between the Westfield and the Elan, it's hard for my wife to take my car-related safety talk seriously. Yesterday afternoon I wrapped a piece of 600 grit sandpaper around a large shoulder bolt, slipped it through the hole in the cam gear and rolled it around the bench for a while. Worked great and that gear is now a slip fit on the cam. I'll remove the other gear and tackle it today or tomorrow. -John

Good to know you haven't had an issue. SBD Raceline, and Raceco (back when Ammo was still around building Duratecs) all recommend the manual tensioner for engines that spin at high rpms. Outright failures aren't common, but they have seen them, and finding broken teeth in the sump from the plastic ratcheting mechanism is reasonably common. Apparently letting off of the throttle at 7500rpm plus can result in enough chain stretch that the tensioner over tensions the chain resulting in broken teeth or accelerated chain guide wear. It seems like a prudent upgrade. The Kent gears are adjustable in the same sense as the factory units. Unlike the Massive items, they are not marked by degree, which isn't optimal for dyno adjustments. However, I'm fine losing that feature to have that specific cam grind. These things are always a compromise. I agree about tuning on the dyno, but unfortunately I don't have one in my garage. When I asked my wife about buying one, she said something about already having too many tools and that a dyno won't make the kitchen function any better. Hard to argue with that logic. The degree wheel is to ensure that the cams are at a known and safe starting point until I am able to get the car to a dyno facility. Given the current situation out here, I doubt that will happen for quite a while. Thanks, John

Just got off the phone with Kent. Surprise, surprise, they haven't seen this before. He said the gears are heat treated and sometimes can expand a bit during that process, but not to this degree. He suggested attacking it with sandpaper. I'll give that a try this week and see what happens. -John

Way too close to the finish line to throw in the towel. I'm not sure I would characterize the build as rough -- a vortex of WTF moments is more appropriate -- although it still has the potential to turn out that way. If that happens, this thread may become the manual for performing an exorcism. The good news is that I went through the timing exercise before calling a halt due to the cam gear issue, and it was looking good. With cams at the baseline setting, the crank rotated without contacting any valves, dial indicator readings were repeatable, and it appears the machine shop located the keyway in the correct position for the crank position sensor. I even found the alignment tool for the latter, which I was sure I had thrown out. -John

Thanks Shane. I've updated my post with the new emoticon. -John

After unsuccessfully trying to reach Kent's technical department for the past hour (I'm sorry, no one is currently available to take your call), I had an epiphany and did a search. Yep, today is also a holiday in the UK. Do we have a Bollocks emoticon? Edited to add the new Bollocks emoticon -John

Thanks Shane. I must admit I never intended for the thread to become this interesting, or to last this long. :banghead: -John

I removed the timing chain and exhaust side gear from the engine, and put the gear on a DTEC10 cam to make sure my memory of fit was correct. Surprisingly it was. Although tight, the gear was easy to rotate on the cam end by hand. In contrast, the gears are a tight enough fit on the new DTEC20 cams that a gear puller is required to remove them. The calipers showed the problem. The nose of the cam end that forms the stop for the bolt and sticks through the face of the gear (see left side of photo) is .006" wider than the nose on the old cams. Just enough to cause a problem. I think I'll hold off any attempts to enlarge the hole in each gear until I can speak with Kent Cams tomorrow. -John

Head is torqued, cams are installed, and the chain drive assembly with new mechanical chain tensioner is in place. The factory Duratec uses a hydraulic tensioner, which works fine, but can have issues in high rpm engines that result in over tensioning or broken teeth on the plastic ratcheting mechanism. The fix is a simple modification that replaces the plastic ratchet with a threaded metal stop. I ran into a slight issue when attempting to time the cams. Kent uses their own adjustable cam gears that aren't interchangeable with the factory set. For some reason the tolerances between my old gears and new DTEC20 cams are much tighter than with the old DTEC10 cams. They're more of a press fit than a slip fit which means they aren't really adjustable, but I tried anyway until running out of both patience and time. I'll remove the timing chain and cam gears tomorrow, take some measurements, and figure out if lightly sanding the coating might free up enough room. If not, I'll call Kent on Monday. -John

Mike, thanks for posting those. Great reads and photos. I even recognize a couple of the cars from USA2005. Ah, to be on a tour right now, driving like a hooligan on epic roads in the middle of nowhere... -John

FedEx has updated the tracking. It still shows it arrived in Troutdale yesterday around noon, and was in transit to Westminster shortly after, but they have now added that it left Troutdale last night (timestamped more than 8 hours after the In transit to Westminster timestamp) and arrived at my local hub early this morning. If that's true, I should have the head torqued this afternoon. -John

Nice looking pre-lit Westfield just landed on BaT: https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1984-westfield-seven-2/ -John