JohnK

WestTexasS2K, One last thing, is there a good way to identify the diff you already have, beyond the color of the plating on the end cover bolts?

WestTexasS2K, Thanks very much for the complete data. I, and I'm sure all the other Ultralite owners out there , am/are happy to have this info.

WestTexasS2K, These are timely comments re the Subaru rear ends - My kit came with a 3.5455, mechanical LSD diff :-( , so I'd like to swap it out with an LSD closer to a 4.11. Any guidelines for getting all the parts / models correct along with identifying the model(s) I should be after? I have inboard brakes so I sure don't want to have to change axles.

I agree with Kitcat re personal experience. My Honda 2000 engine fired up instantly after not having been run for well over a year, and ran through its warm up control sequence with no complaints. I'll bet that there really are some issues, primarily because using Ethanol as a gasoline additive doesn't have a lot of history behind it yet, but getting all of the ducks lined up (and a clear picture of what the problems are) will probably take as long as it takes people to realize that Ethanol is a really lousy solution and things move on to something else.

Green with envy. You must arrive at work in great spirits after a drive like that.

And, for us technical wanta-knows, an explanation. http://www.seafoamsales.com/tech-info-gas-engines/

Chuck, OK, and thanks for the explanation. The laid-over position the XR7 uses for the engine certainly exacerbates the situation, and I realize that, as Loren emphasizes at the start of this thread with his notice of a baffle for the stock sump, even the stock configuration is insufficient when pulling Seven-level Gs. I have been planning on fitting a dry sump system because it really makes sense, but at this point I need to get the car on the road and dial in all my changes. The short sump and your Accusump will tide me over until I get the energy to do even more work on the car. Add up the pieces' cost and list them, let me know when you can get them to me and I'll send you a check. Without a heated work-space, I won't be able to do the work until next Spring, so there's no rush. If you don't have my contact info, send me a msg via this list and I'll get it to you. Thanks again, and I look fwd to hearing from you.

Hello to both Mike and Russ, Great to hear that there are others out there that know about Trials. I had a Frank Hipkin Sprite back in the late 60's, Starmaker 250 engine, 15" of ground clearance, ... and a friend with a huge farm complete with heavy woods and a river valley. No one knew what the dickens Trials was all about but the woods-riders were amazed at what you could do with the bike. And, yes, moving to a Seven as the years pass certainly seems like an understandable move for a Trials rider. Much enjoyment and luck.

Hi Chuck, I'm interested, but first, what made you decide to move from the short sump + Accusump to a dry sump system?

How about sharing it here? :-)

Appreciate the source and credibility info re the baffle. Looks like a nice piece. However, as is the case with many sevens, a priority concern is ground clearance - with my build I've got 3 1/2" which makes oil starvation on long sweepers seem pretty far out in the future. I do have an S2000 sump that's been shortened and looks similar to those shown in the threads on dry sumping this engine, however being a suspicious sort, my plan is to fit that sump along with an Accusump oil accumulator to protect against the inevitable moment of starvation - and ignore the power losses from all the oil sloshing about. Anyone have any experience here?

I went to several different places in my area with pictures of the car (WCM Ultralite) and a request that went: I have all the bodywork that I've disassembled from the kit car I'm building and am interested in having it picked up, painted and delivered.* This is not a show-car, I just want a good paint job.* The surface area is about 70 sq. ft.* It's about 50/50 aluminum / fiberglass.* The aluminum is alclad* with the protective plastic sheeting still attached. The fiberglass is OK, but you can see the impression of the cloth underneath the gel-coat - again, not a show car. Parts: fiberglass hood; 4 fenders, two side panels, one rear panel. If you're interested please let me know. I got only one response from a guy I had met years earlier at a automotive paint supply store and who, luckily for me, had a lot of experience, enjoys his work and was (is) hungry to set up his own shop. His bid of $2,500 was in line with what one other credible shop had guessed at. Work is half complete and will, from all appearances, turn out much, much better than I'd hoped for. I really lucked out. I'll guess that you'll have to do a lot of legwork finding someone - other comments were that such work just wasn't worth the hassle when they could make so much more swapping body parts for the insurance companies. Another high-end shop told me they did an MG TC with the parts off for $8K.

Mondo. Your approach to the problem is a rare combination of perspective and measure. You'll never earn a Darwin Award.

I think it's really common for someone with a new toy to want to take the thing apart and fiddle with it to make it better, somehow. Perhaps I approach this too logically, but considering the article attached to the post http://www.usa7s.com/vb/showthread.php?t=3533 along with all the other bits and pieces of info that have been published about Caterham's investments in suspension development, my first response is "Don't touch the thing!", and my second is "I bet it'll take me years to learn how to drive this thing well." Old guy thinking, huh? Probably a consequence of looking back and thinking of all the failed attempts of my youth, attempting to make my vehicles my go faster

W.W.Grainger has a section on air compressor layouts with explanations and recos on diameter and distance. Plastic is a lot cheaper than black iron or copper, but regular schedule 40 isn't that strong. Consider using CPVC which is higher spec and only a bit more than PVC. Been using it in my garage, running the line from the basement, for a few years now - but of course this isn't subject to heavy-usage/commercial use. Only problem I've had was with an underground section of 3/4" copper which couldn't withstand the cold, in spite of being insulated.

Sorry to read about your friend's accident and injury. But in spite of his accident he was certainly very successful in duplicating the Wright's work, and got to enjoy the fruits of his work for some time. You say that the Wright Flyer used a launch assist, which I had forgotten. So the people in Toronto building the ornthopter are following in those footsteps in that they solved the level flight issue before tackling the problems of take off.

Hi Steve, I think Onithopter means flying by 'flapping' wings, which is what it does once the tow car gets the thing up in the air. Martin, My take on this is that the wing machinery that you need to build in order to take off is really different than the wing you need to just keep flying once you're in the air. And even level flight is really hard to do. I'll bet the students who built it will be bragging about it the rest of their lives.

I think it's safe to say that this is amazing (even the music fits). http://www.physorg.com/news204386550.html

From my build files: 300 series stainless in not heat treatable, therefore it is immune to mass quench effect. The weld metal will not be embrittled by cooling, and since stainless is very ductile it also reduces the stresses in the joint due to contraction of the adjacent metal. That makes it a good choice for welding 4130 chassis tubing, particularly heavy cluster joints. Also it's good for welding dissimilar steels since it suppresses outgassing of sulfur, lead, etc, which makes it a good choice for welding free-machining steels used in some steering spline weld-on ends (free-machining steels contain lead for ease of machining). A note on MIG: When faced with building a steering column which required welding spline ends to (plug fit) a hollow shaft, I found out my TIG machine left me in the lurch. Because TIG is slow, building such a shaft will result in unacceptable warpage. The solution is MIG because can do the weld before things move out of line. I wound up taking it to a driveshaft place where they have a MIG (with stainless wire) plus a lathe to handle such problems.

Considering that the S2000's trans is so far advanced over a Ford T9, at first read many may wonder why one would consider such a switch - hence the note as to the sense of moving to a trans specifically designed for racing use, and that such trans have a T9 interface. If the clutch salve cylinder delay mechanism is indeed the key to syncro failure that's good to know (I did take mine out). But I do know that starting at 2004 Honda added carbon fiber to the synchros, suggesting there was some experience that Honda had that argued for making the synchros more robust. I have to expect that if the problem could have been solved by deleting the delay mechanism, they would have been aware of that as a much more efficient solution.

I needed to make a hold down for the footwell cover on my ultralite and used a strap, a spring and a buckle to do so. The only spring that worked right couldn't be secured to the buckle so it kept falling off, of course always at the just the wrong time. So, I took a piece of soft iron wire and welded it on to one of the hooks on the spring. The heat was so localized that it didn't cause the spring to lose its temper and the soft iron bends easily so it can be secured by hand. TIG welders are amazingly versatile. 8 amps DC, mild steel filler rod.

RE: why, when the S2000 has such an extraordinary trans would you want to mate the engine to a T9? Car & Driver wrote about their picks of top sports cars one might consider purchasing used, listing the watchouts that you might expect for each. For the S2000 they noted that hard use would do in the synchros and that a new box was $2,000 or more. In such a situation moving to a high-end / racing trans might make sense, and the T9 is a common interface.

I can understand your fear, especially since you work with the technology. For the record, I recall quite a few years ago seeing a virtual reality setup at a mall that had the room that the user sat in (I think it was a roller-coaster simulation), and it was suspended by a set of hydraulic rams so the user could experience the changes in G's that accompanied the display. At the time I thought it was the best VR setup I had yet seen since it didn't rob one's vestibular/balance senses. Your comment makes me wonder that I've never heard of any gamers being homogenized by a run-amok machine. Anyone else?

Top winner in the Progressive Insurance X-prize competition for a 100 mpg car. Company really invested some money; bet it would be a fun place to work. http://www.physorg.com/news203833502.html Guess I can't call my car an ultralite anymore; check out the weight for a 4-seater.

I'd like to have that kind of nervous system!