ashyers

Bill, I have a 2.3 Duratec w/ a T9 and lightened steel flywheel. The clutch is from AP and it's part of the CP5352 family. There are a bunch of different versions w/ different spline arrangements depending on your input shaft. Mine's a -5. Unfortunately there's no P/N visible on the AP pressure plate, but there are 3 offered for that clutch. It's rated for 250 ft-lbs of torque. (Edit: The PP may be a CP5905-1 from comparing Burton's description and a photo I have.) This may help: https://apracing.com/drawings/2018%20Product%20Catalogue/High%20Performance%20Clutch.pdf The clutch is of a more conventional design with a organic lining and no floating pucks. Seems to work pretty well and when we pulled the car apart it didn't exhibit any weird wear from the PO's 7000+ miles. Hope this helps! Andy

mr, Nice to meet you at the event. Thanks for posting your video, now Hilde and I can discuss our driving on Sunday and see where we were on the course without a million hand gestures and references to cones (!). We could see your steering inputs when we were working station 6 and your in car video really puts it into perspective. You were working hard! That car of yours has plenty of grunt, it squirts around the course. From what I saw once you get the vertical motion calmed that thing will be a rocket. I'm hoping there's another event scheduled prior to September. Andy

That was SUPER FUN!!!! The event yesterday was well run and limited to 50 participants, so Hilde and I did a total of 17(!) runs. This is a good thing because the first 3-4 runs for both of us were ugly, no cones, but one DNF and lots of sloppy driving. I did 7 runs in the morning and Hilde did 10 in the afternoon (someone didn't want to give up the driver's seat...). It took about 3 runs to get acquainted with the car and the remainder of runs were an effort to actually use it well. The car's ability to recover from ham fisted driving was impressive! We both managed to overdrive the car and induce impressive amounts of understeer. My LF tire thanks me for that... The ability to steer the car with the throttle is wonderful, no snap/catch/snap, it's super controllable and had me laughing out loud in my helmet. Sorry no video/photos, we were a bit too busy for that. The take away from the event is the car was great, but the driver's both need much more practice. The good news is we both had a good time and I didn't get into trouble while in the passenger's seat, this may be due to the loud exhaust and full face helmet! Unfortunately we have to wait until September for the next event. Few places in the area are willing to rent out parking lots/air fields so getting seat time around here is not as easy as it used to be. We're looking forward to September. Andy ps. Anyone know how to keep the windshield washers from spitting up during hard corners? I put a loop in the hose, but it had little effect. It's distracting!

Taking the Caterham out to play tomorrow at a local autoX. It's been a LONG time since we've done an event, all of the local venues shut down years ago, and it's the 1st time we've run the Caterham. I followed the advice on the forum and fitted nylon bolts to the rear wings and fabricated a nerf bar to keep cones out of the fender without exhaust "protection". I'm really looking forward to the event! Hilde and I have put a bunch of miles on the car since the COVID adventure has started, so hopefully we won't do anything too spastic! It will be fun to see how it does when there's no trees to hit or cliffs to descend from. If you have any last minute advice post up, I'll check this before we head off to help set up the course at 6:15 :auto: . Andy

If the cable is 1/16" OD you can replace it with an appropriate bicycle cable. You can also solder on a new barrel end or purchase one that clamps on via a set screw. You may want to replace the cable, I had one die about 2 months ago and I now consider it a wear item. If you do use a clamp on barrel end be careful not to over stress the cable when you clamp it, it'll fail at the stress riser.

John, Who said anything about removing the sump?! I've used this to seal stuff up externally and it works as long as the surfaces are prepped as I stated. It wicks in and then cures very quickly with the Primer. It may do the trick for your issue without the major pain of pulling the sump. Andy

I had a very positive experience working with Jo M. at Oxted Trimming Co./Thundersport. I purchased a 1/2 hood recently and was very satisfied with the product and the service. Jo responded to my emails promptly, provided the proper guidance to ensure the hood would fit my car well, ensured the order was processed quickly (order to arrival, England to California,7 days), and dealt with a minor issue regarding tie down straps by having some custom ones made for my application. It was a real pleasure dealing with Jo and Oxted and thought I should pass this on to the group. Andy

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