ashyers

John, Congratulations on getting the car running again . If you have pinholes/porosity in the sump casting Loctite 290 and Primer T is your friend! Find your leak, clean it up w/ some brake clean, blast it off w/ air, apply some Primer T, let it flash off, then apply some 290. It works well for sealing casting flaws. Be careful though, a friend of mine managed to virtually glue the engine to the tub of a race car years back. The stuff wicked down the bore of the mounting bosses and bonded quite well to some long studs, not fun when you have to do a pre-race engine swap... Andy

I'm looking for a source for a 2003 Caterham heater core (plastic box, "7" on the front, hoses enter 90deg to CL of car). Any ideas? It looks like Caterham's only option is a complete heater box assembly that is a different design and does not work w/o a bunch of modifications. It would be great if I could just purchase a heater core. Thanks, Andy

Sander, I just picked up a 1/2 Hood and would highly recommend it. It's a great compromise between being sunburnt or baked alive. As far as the Webers, it's easy to change jets. Once you know what's in the carbs you could purchase jets a bit leaner for the altitude. Safety glasses with side shields and ear plugs are nice too. Sounds like a fun trip! Andy

Like my AFX slot cars...magnets!

John, When I built my motor I ordered a ton of O-rings from from "The O-Ring Store" (oring@theoringstore.com). The O-rings I used for my early SBD/Jenveys, which appear identical to your ITB's, were P/N V75135; AS568-135 V75 FKM. The O-ring Store is even in your neck of the woods. Andy

John, Sounds like a good plan since it doesn't look like a freeze plug would be too easy to install and tapping for a threaded plug looks like a bear too. I've had one to many run ins with those other plugs! You're getting close to done! Andy

John, I'm not sure if you're running the rubber coolant tube caps on the car, but if you plan to I'd suggest you don't. The dreaded ones from the "help" section of the parts store are made with rubber that is is very short lived. Andy

Morning All, I saw a thread on these gaskets (http://www.usa7s.net/vb/showthread.php?7810-Gas-Leak-The-Culprit&highlight=fuel+tank+gasket) and I checked mine less than a year ago and it looked OK, but I did pick up a replacement for the future. Well, I smelled fuel yesterday while replacing the rear wing hardware w/ nylon in hopes of some autocrossing and smelled gas. Upon inspection it appeared the gasket had swelled and was trying to escape! Fortunately no chunks went into the tank. The gasket I replaced it with is from a Mini and is a cork material. We'll see how that holds up. I love California "gasoline". Andy

John, I'm curious, what's the distance from the pan rail of the block to the outer surface of the oil sump (fins). I'm wondering how it compares to the dry sump on my car. I'm always paranoid about grounding out! Andy

If you're actually getting a voltage drop of over .5V in the alternator wire to the battery you should check that wire very carefully. Since you said that your meter was hard to read at that point and that the drop appeared to go away, maybe you're at the meters limits? I'd borrow a meter . It does sound like the alternator is toast if you're getting just a bit over 12V at the battery. I had one work fine cold and fail hot. It was irritating to diagnose, but sounds like you're nearly there.

Croc, You're causing flashbacks! You wearing jandals in the shop? The Kiwi's I used to work with did that and so did I, until a weld BB landed between my toes! Hope you find an easy way to get that tape off and heal up quickly! I had the same model battery do the same thing last year on a long drive. It inflated quite a bit and started leaking. The passenger was not pleased... Ended up being the alternator, the regulator failed and it was overcharging the battery. The battery was still functional! Enjoy you track day, I'm off for a drive with some friends today. We've done ~400mi. in the last few weeks, it's a nice respite from being trapped at home. Andy

Too bad you're in Florida, I picked up a set for the Shop last year... Try some of the local race shops. Anyone working with formula cars should have a set. You may be able to rent them for a few days. You may keep an eye out for a used set as some teams and individuals may have budget issues and be selling off surplus equipment. ps. The price you found is for ramps, not scales! Scales are a bit more $$

I was wondering if anyone has experienced a seat frame failure for this style seat: https://caterhamparts.co.uk/seats/4742-seat-sv-leather.html If someone has photos of a seat like this torn down that would be great! I think there may be a weld failure in part of the seat frame that I need to sort out. Andy

Just spotted this: https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/cto/d/north-kingstown-lotus-super-7-replica/7127852631.html

Here's a data point for you. I priced 1/2 hoods last week. Soft Bits didn't respond. Thundersports did. Standard SV 1/2 hood vinyl 191.67 pounds exc. VAT Standard SV 1/2 hood mohair 208.33 pounds exc. VAT in stock Shipping to CA was 60 pounds. EDIT: Just received a note from Soft Bits this morning so thought I'd better add it. Standard SV 1/2 hood 166.67 pounds exc. VAT estimated 4 week lead time Shipping to CA was 58.60 pounds. Andy

John, You may want to check the starter mount bosses. If you need to borrow a drill guide and goodies to fix 'em contact me. Heavy cast iron blocks do have some advantages... At least the main studs torqued up . Andy

Yep, I was after the long block. The engine is still in the back of the CRV, but I pulled the exhaust manifold, intake manifold, fuel rail and injectors off today to see if there was anything different from a regular gasoline motor and to lighten things up a bit. Looks like the answer is no. The interior of the ports look new, CNG is CLEAN!!! There is no carbon in the exhaust manifold, just clean metal, it's kind of weird. The head is the same as on my 2.3 and the front cover appears to be the same as a Focus part. There is a nice factory oil cooler combined with the oil filter bracket. I'm looking forward to checking out the guts. Andy

Spending too much time staring into a screen and surfing CL to blow off steam after another Zoom class meeting finally yielded something interesting. A 2011 Ford Transit 2.0L Duratec CNG engine, for the price of getting it out of someone's storage unit NOW. I've done little other than bring it home, in fact it's still in the back of the girlfriend's CRV. I'm curious to see what I find. I have limited experience with CNG, but it's my guess that they changed little more than the injection system when converting from gasoline. I hope that the insides of the engine are as clean as I remember CNG units being. On the CNG gensets we used to use the valves took a beating, otherwise they were great. So, does anyone here know what I can expect to find in a CNG Duratec motor? My hopes are that it will make no difference at all when I convert it to ITB's and a dry sump with new cams/rods/pistons... If nothing else I now have a lower profile cam cover for the 2.3! Andy

If the line is failing sometimes they will "shed". You may want to check your float bowls and toss in a new fuel filter.

I went through that chasing various tappets. I had to use various online sites and cross reference until I could figure out how the p/n system worked and I could order the thickness required. The parts guys at the local dealer were useless. I eventually ordered through Tasca with p/n only and no humans...

The 270/271 should work fine for what you're doing.

For that elbow some Loctite 680 should do the trick.

We were able to tune individual cylinders by a global %, but it was not a huge amount. If you're not running super lean it should work fine. Initial tests were done with no individual cylinder tuning at the track, then fine tuned on the dyno.

When you go down this road don't forget to try staggering the stacks. We had very good results with this in a road racing configuration. We ran equal length short stacks when running ovals.

Currently I have a hopped up '03 2.3L Ranger engine that I like, and am familiar with. I'm thinking about picking up some core engines. I like the Ranger's lack of balancers and timing chain setup. Anyone know what models had a similar engine? Thanks, Andy