JohnCh

Don't forget, in addition to the 8 intake valves, you have 8 exhaust valves. If those are visible from the intake, then you have a serious problem :jester: Have you removed the sparkplugs yet to look for damage? If something is banging around the combustion chamber, it can visibly damage the plug. Shining a flashlight down the sparkplug port "could" also reveal a piece of metal on top of the piston, but I'd spend $40 and buy a borescope that you can put down that opening and give it a good once over. Nothing may have broken off, but you could have bent a valve. I have this one that works well and would do the job. -John

Check out Protex. They make a number of different styles and their site includes dimensional drawings which should come in handy. -John

Hmm... Although the article called it a Westfield, upon closer examination, I'm not sure what this is. It has some Westfield elements (scuttle, dash, transmission tunnel) but some Caterham elements as well (door sill angle, rear wings/tub interface, windscreen pillars). Whatever it is, it's a more interesting camera car than a Cayenne.

Apparently fast SUVs have become the standard camera cars for high speed automotive and motorcycle video work. A German film production company, however, has taken a different approach and decided to add some lightness in the form of a bike-engined Westfield. Slide show here, and video of it in action is here. http://www.usa7s.net/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=14910&stc=1 -John

I should have known better than to think you missed one, let alone two cars :banghead: Fortunately the Elan doesn't need a restoration; just dry weather so I can enjoy it. Upgrades though are another story. I recently swapped out the crappy M&S tires for a set of Michelin XAS FF in the correct size (BIG difference!) and a larger, hollow front ARB just arrived from the UK. I suppose the next step is an LS swap :jester: -John

I don't recall seeing either of these cars in previous posts. They are offered by a Seattle shop that imports cars from Japan. The Caterham is RHD with a 1600 Crossflow and the Fejer is LHD with a 2L Toyota mill. No idea on condition, but pricing seems very reasonable. '88 Caterham S3 RHD '84 Fejer Super Seven -John

I had to replace some tappets about 6 years ago and discovered it was a lot easier buying them from my local Mazda dealer. Below are the part number conversions from my notes: 3.302: LF01-12-556 3.382: LF01-12-561 3.522: LF01-12-568 3.625: LF01-12-574 3.650: LF01-12-575 3.725: LF01-12-578 -John

Moved to Parts section. -John

Hate to admit it, but Croc is right once again, including time of day (I usually call between 6-7am PT). Although I've never dealt with SBD, short phone calls with all the other vendors -- and there have been a lot over the years -- has always proven the most expedient approach. -John

Build threads are too few and far between. I'd love to better understand your plans for the upgrades and then critique, er...I mean observe this from the sidelines. :jester: -John

I have MOG seats which are similar to the Tillets. Because the shells are so thin, they do make a significant difference in available space. With the runners in place, and 1/4" spacers in front to increase tilt back, my butt is -John

The manufacturer already did that This shows it putting out 2 liters of fuel: It's certainly an interesting concept. The size, weight , and price are big improvements over Halon and Halotron, but I'm not as enthused over the engagement mechanism or the inability to stop the stream. With a regular fire extinguisher you simply pull the pin and squeeze the trigger which doesn't really take any practice to accomplish quickly. With the Element you need to remove a cap and strike it against the end. In the panic of a fire, with never having tried this before, I wonder if it could add precious seconds doing multiple strikes at different pressures, or in my case, finding the cap that I carelessly threw to the ground while attempting that initial strike. When using a fire extinguisher on my car in the past, it was helpful stopping the stream for a second to examine the engine bay and assess if I needed to reposition it. With the Element, it appears there is always a smoke screen partially blocking your view. Not sure if these concerns are valid or if they outweigh the benefits, but I am looking forward to reading more reviews. Given the price though, it might be worth having one in the car to supplement my Halon unit. -John

The WWABFM is coming up on Saturday the 21st in Kenmore. I had hoped to use that as an excuse for a Seattle-area se7en owners meet up and possible drive, but I'm no longer able to make it this year; however, I'm throwing this out there in case any of you are interested and would like to organize something. Event info is located here: http://wwabfm.com/ -John

Safety. I think all of us have had our brushes with people who simply didn't see the car because it's so low and small. Best advice is to drive defensively aggressive; assume all other drivers are either playing Pokemon Go or holding a mocha soy latte in one hand while texting with the other, and then use the car's power and agility to keep you out of their way. it's similar to riding a motorcycle, except there's no danger of tipping over at a stoplight. -John

Unless someone had rear fenders made from aluminum, your car should have either fiberglass or carbon fiber front and rear fenders. Pretty sure CSRs had the latter, but someone with more knowledge can correct me if that's wrong. I'm an advocate of bright colors in a se7en to help them stand out to other drivers, so would definitely prefer the blue to the current config, but not everyone is as paranoid as me about that :-) -John

That's good advice for a highly collectable car or one that is sure to obtain such status down the road. For a Caterham? That seems like wishful thinking. IMHO you are a long, long way from a CSR200 becoming the kind of car that is purchased to sit in someone's garage as a historically significant object or piece of static art where things like production-year correct paint is an important valuation factor and point of personal pride. Color popularity and paint quality are far more likely to impact the price when you resell, so I'd steer clear of something like hot pink or any other polarizing color that will limit the pool of buyers or drive down the price to allow for a repaint. The current factory blue on a car that is still being produced (albeit in limited markets as Croc notes) doesn't seem particularly risky. Create the car you want and then drive the snot out of it. That's where the beauty of a Caterham (or other se7en variants) shines through. BTW since the car is together and drivable, I'd delay painting the car until you've spent some time with it. There may be other things you prefer to change and the current finish may actually grow on you. -John

Raceline also sells a smaller bellhousing to take advantage of the dry sump. They previously told me it uses the same clutch as the standard bellhousing, but requires a new flywheel. My notes don't indicate if a different starter is also needed. -John

Miata.net is the big forum. Lot's of information including a garage section full of how-to write ups. -John

Thanks, someone else reported this a few days ago and I've already alerted Mazda.

I'm not sure what happened. Your initial post was in moderation, which I approved, and why people could see a thread exists, but then for some reason it reverted back to moderation when you posted again and subsequently hid all your posts from view. Also odd -- although it has happened a couple of times recently -- your posts no longer showed up in my moderation view, so it wasn't clear there was a problem until I examined the thread after reading APinSoFl's post. Hopefully your sale goes more smoothly than your posting history here -John

That car is in Vancouver, WA (just across the river from Portland) not Vancouver, BC, so no importation issues to consider. -John

Given the risk to a se7en and its passengers from just a minor rear impact, I'm fine with displeasing the person behind me to reduce that risk. Besides, people are often so interested in these cars, I don't think the annoyance factor is as high as with a normal vehicle. The proof to me that this setup makes a difference came with dissuading tailgaters who were trying to get a better look at the Westfield. Before the blinking module was added, it would usually take 2-3 taps of the brakes to get the person to clue in and back off. These days I rarely have to hit them more than once. -John

More effort, but I wired mine into a brake flashing module that rapidly flashes the light 3 times before going solid. A little annoying for those behind me, but it definitely gets their attention. -John

I forgot that car started life as a SEight. The 4 cylinder cars have a mush smaller tank and a different shaped boot box. Here is a picture of one shamelessly stolen from the Internet. http://www.usa7s.net/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=14098&stc=1 -John

Rob, do you have a long range fuel tank? I've never seen one without a flat bottom before. Thanks, John