drew...

48 Seven has been a dream car since the early 70's - finally antied-up a year ago. Kit arrived New Year's Eve - First drive for me in a 7 and the for new Caterham S3 - Memorial Day 2006

Tom - thanks for the pictures they will be a great help. One question - is the cross brace in front of the seat attached to the new floor in any way?

First - determine gas or coolant - smell will tell you Second - if it is coolant bring the piston to the top of the compression stroke by hand with no spark plug(remove valve cover to insure your not in overlap) Three - use a compression tester hose and pressurize the cylinder with air while keeping the engine from turning over (in gear brakes on) use up to 100 PSI Listen and look at the radiator cap or bleed port, if you see or hear bubbles it is likely a head gasket - the strange thing is you would normally see an overheating issue if it is a head gasket. Does this engine have coolant in the intake manifold?? If you have a cylinder leakdown tester it will do the same thing - also good for telling you how rings and valves are sealing. If it is fuel that could explain your reduced compression, if the raw fuel has washed the oil from the cylinder it will not seal as well as the other three - thereby reducing compression. A quick check, once you've removed the liquid, would be to put a half teaspon of oil into the clinder, turn the engine over with no spark plugs and then run your compression check again. If it comes back near the 155-160 it tells you the valves are all sealing up equally and that the rings are the same with proper lubrication. Can you smell gas in the oil at all either at the filler or on the dip stick?drew...2006-12-18 14:14:27

I am looking for photos and advice on the lowered floors for a Caterham. Has anyone added this themselves? I am looking at the widsheild frame in a normal driving position and would like to lower the floors during our "downtime" weather here in Minnesota.

Recently joined the group due to encouragement from Al N et al from se7ens.net. After deciding I needed a Se7en in 1973 I finally got to the point in life I could; so I purchased an S3 kit from Chris at Sevens & Elans a year ago (11/05), picked it up in a U-Haul in Boston and hauled it back to Minnesota. Construction began New Year's Day, engine was started and car was driven for the first time on Memorial Day. My first drive (or ride)in a se7en (to that point I had only seen them as race cars and sat in one Chris had in a trailer). Having been crew chief for Paul Brand's EP National Champ MGB in the early 80's, a lifelong serious motorhead and as an R&D Engineer working on everything from M1 tanks to semiconductor processing equipmnent and plastic disposable medical devices the build was pretty straight forward. After driving the car around the block 3 times on Memorial Day it was put into a trailer and hauled out to Lime Rock Park for a drivers school. What a surprise to my ride along instructor Gary after encouraging me to take it to 110 on the front straight when afterwards he saw the odometer showed all of 22 miles. First thing out of his mouth was "the car was rock solid". As soon as I can figure out how to post a picture to share I will pass on a photo of "cool blue" (71 Vega Mediteranian Blue).

Coming from usa@se7ens.net - many familiar names

Another newbie - from Minnesota. Likely had the last drive of the season today (nearly 70 today expect low 30's tomorrow). Caterham S3 completed in May SVT 2 liter.