Anaximander

Ian, What an incredible labor of love it will take to get this car somewhat near what it was like in 1961. I was living in SoCal and in 1966 almost pulled the trigger on a Lotus 7, I think it was like a 1962? and my father said that I would be crazy to drive it on the LA Freeways even back then before they were so congested. I instead got a red 1964 TR4 and zoomed around SoCal in that. After all these years, it is terrific to see someone with patience take on such a challenging task to rehab it to a driveable state. Much good luck with the rebuild!

Actually, having owned that car and knowing its history along with 5 other Stalkers and one I just completed building last year, with a new crate LS3/480 and all of the other components, it was a good buy. I had several conversations with the seller and it was a case of a couple of California shops not knowing what they were doing and floundering around while the seller was having to pay stupid California shop rates. Like most of our se7enesque cars, it will take some fiddling from someone who knows the car. I suggested to the seller that he direct the buyer to Scott Minehart who knows these cars better than anyone and have him straighten out the relatively minor problems that can be addressed. The fiberglass work is kind of hacked up a bit and I don't know what he can do cosmetically but I don't think that wouldn't even be a big deal with Scott's fiberglass skills. We have to remember that to replace this car would be on the order of about $60k so getting it for slightly less than $30k with the BaT 5% surcharge was a pretty good buy. In terms of lots of concerns and red flags, that was at a time that the seller bought the car and didn't know how to properly set it up. There are some relatively simple idiosyncrasies to the cooling system that neither the seller or the shops knew how to deal with which is common knowledge amongst us Stalker owners and likely lead to the destruction of the original motor and inability to get the new engine cooling properly for the track. I think it is a lesson in connecting with the right people that know the idiosyncrasies of your particular se7en and getting sage advice from people that really know the equipment you are working on. There are lots of opinions/suggestions but I think a smaller percentage of people that actually know how to deal with the interesting variety of se7enesque cars and there problems that we are all interested in.

Croc and gang, I was thinking about pulling the trigger on this F1 car until I read that for 1/2 a million $1's that you don't even get an engine or transmission. Now if it were 1/10 the price, it would be on my short list and I would put an LS3/525 engine and transmission in it. That would fit my budget much better. The video was amazing how the driver's could take all that raw horsepower and play with it like it was a toy. I can't even imagine that level of car control. Oh well, I guess it won't be on my Christmas shopping list.

jmardy, I went through all of your extra pictures. That sure looks like a very meticulous and beautiful build. It kind of caused me a bit of PTSD symptoms for my 2022 Stalker AXR build that I was never sure would work out as well as it did. I am unfamiliar with GBS designs but you could definitely see all the care and precise fettling that went on through the build and by your account has continued to this day. I would think that someone in California would jump on this car because all of the difficult work of getting it street legal in the State has been accomplished. Much good luck with the sale. You might want to share with us how it drives and how it compares to other se7enesque cars like a Caterham. I went to the GBS website and found a link to some of the company's videos: https://www.greatbritishsportscars.com/video-gallery

In reality, if the owner was having any difficulties on the track with all of the added radiator, it is likely that all he had to do was remove the current fan and he would be getting much better flow-through cooling. I was the second owner of that car and bought it from a very experienced Stalker builder who had really dialed it in and during my tenure with it, I romped around the mountains and even did a couple of autocrosses with it. It is a very stable car that blew the doors off a Hellcat one day when I came up to a light outside the city limits. The Hellcat owner asked what I had in it for an engine and I said, just a LS3/480. I said to him that he had 707hp but he also said he weighed x2 as much as I did or more and it wasn't a fair acceleration comparison to the speed limit and maybe a couple of miles over .

Dan, I suspect that things have been busy. How is your Miata-based se7en coming?

Dan, Good progress on the roll bar install. From what I understand, there are several substances used in powder coating and one of them creates a harder shell than another but the costs are higher. Have you heard back from the oil pump vendor? I am wondering if the suggestion from fastg to just use the original oil pump with a new seal and the anaerobic sealant might be the best way to go?

OK Dan. Here in the States, we have a saying "No guts, no glory" from a former Air Force Major General back in the mid last century. I suspect that you are likely obsessing over the possible outcomes of the installation of the oil pump seal with some anaerobic sealant. I've have been holding my breath for days so you could have installed it in my mouth and the sealant would have cured already. We are all waiting to see what the leap of faith is going to produce on you ameliorating that oil leak. We all have our cumulative fingers crossed for you, in a mass, superstitious cult-like manner. Soooo, let us know how this critical hack works out.

Dan, Looks like your making progress in spite of the oil leak issues. Good job! I had to laugh when I saw your use of heim joints for your roll bar as my Stalker AXR uses a TON of them in the suspension setup for unbelievable adjustability capabilities. The suggestion of using anaerobic sealant (sealant that works in the absence of air) sounds promising. It does make one wonder if the seal and dimensions of the oil pump opening were as well engineered as they could have been given the amount of money they wanted for that specialty part. Let's hope this fixes the problem. On my Stalker, we had to add a shim ordered from McMaster-Carr to get the proper interface between my halfshaft and the custom built rear differential which is something I didn't expect to have to do but it worked out perfectly. So, hopefully, the anaerobic sealant will end your misery of this oil leak and you have lots of other fun things to finish up. Dan, These build threads are soooo helpful for all of us. I began to wonder where the name Heim joint came from and it turns out that it was named after a German company during WW2 that developed the joint. In reading about Heim joints, it stated that one of the down sides to the joints are that they can wear out faster, especially if not kept properly lubricated. As I mentioned, my Stalker AXR utilizes a lot of Heim joints in the construction and it was recommended that one use WD40 to keep the joints lubricated and helping to prevent rust and contamination issues. Well, I know from experience that regular WD40 attracts a lot of dirt which would add to the wear so I used WD40 Silicone (also hydrophobic) which was recommended by my garage door technician as an excellent lubricant for all of the frictional surfaces within my two sets of garage doors. So, this morning, with a rag to prevent overspray and using a can of WD40 Silicone with a built-in spray straw, I gave a shot to all of the Heim joints on my Stalker AXR. Thanks for taking us on your journey. I think we are all benefitting from the shared experience.

Dan, Has Fab9tuning gotten back with you about that oil pump seal? It was suggested that you mentioned installing the pump seal which suggest that they might not come installed? Hopefully Fab9tuning will give you some insights into what might be going on? This is an interesting mystery and we are all pulling for you on this issue. If it makes you feel any better, when I was building my AXR, one of the half shafts was not staying in the differential properly for some unknown reason (which became known) and it took a dickens of a time to figure out how to prevent it from backing out. Oil leaks are a bear!

Hey all you wild and crazy guys and gals. If you want to be able to hear anything as you get older, wear ear plugs, always, even before startup! The mufflers combined with the wind will eventually damage your hearing and could do it rather quickly. The only time that I don't wear earplugs in my sevenesque cars is when I am wearing a full face fully padded helmets and doing autocross which lasts for about a minute a run or less. I figure there is still a fair amount of racket but the helmet is attenuating a lot of the damaging frequencies to my tender inner ear physiology and I need to hear the groans and chatter of my tires/suspension. On my motorcycles, I still wear 29 dba attenuating earplugs with my helmets due to the wind and muffler noise. Just sayin'... From all that I have read, hearing loss is cumulative and most often does not come back after physiological damage. I have over 450k seat miles on motorcycles/open cockpit cars and I can still hear you softly sniggering that I am overly paranoid about protecting my hearing

Dan, It seems like your kind of up against it. IMHO, I would contact a specialty company like Flyin' Miata who sells a ton of specialty parts for Miata's and has very extensive experience with building Miata engines for all kinds of applications. They may be able to give you some guidance as to what you might need to do at this point and they may have just the right parts you need to get over this oil leak issue.

Dan, It's just like Roseanne Roseannadanna' (portrayed by the late, great Gilda Radner) was known for saying in the 1970's: "...it just goes to show you, it's always something — if it ain't one thing, it's another."Mar 14, 2020

I am cranking up the wattage on my ebike to a 1 gigawatt motor and decided I needed better tires for traction. Just need to figure out how to mount them on the spoked wheels? The rumor that Goodyear was buying Cooper Tires and reportedly shuttering Avon is told in the sticker that came on my Avons. There are also rumors that someone else may buy the Avon brand from Goodyear and continue to produce race tires. Supposedly, Goodyear has notified Avon Tyres in the UK that they will be discontinuing production at the end of this year. I hope this is not the case because I really like they way they work on my Stalker AXR.

DanM said, " Looks like I may have to replace the new crank seal that came with my Boundary oil pump." First thing that comes to mind is that the "new" crank seal may not have been the proper one for your YM Miata engine. The second thing that everybody warns about is not putting any scratches on the crankshaft when messing with the front seal. If there are scratches on the crank, some have suggested that you cannot get a good seal. As I mentioned before, this is an amazing opportunity to learn the nuances of the engine you rebuilt. Few people can say that they really know what internals they have in their engines. You will not be one of those people.

DanM, I am glad that you called Megasquirt. Unfortunately, the forums can sometimes lead you in the wrong direction and most people do not know as much generally about the system as the manufacturer. Congrats as JohnCh said on getting fire to that beautiful build you are doing. Keep remembering that you have joined a relatively small group of people that have brought a whole new car to life. That is quite an accomplishment and you now get to glow (for a few minutes) before you continue the hard work of finishing the project. Then, you get to actually DRIVE your creation. What fun! Anaximander

Dan, I experienced a niggling problem with my FiTech system and had to make several calls to the manufacturer and talk with their technical help desk. Even after numerous calls, there was one last element to perfection that had eluded me and so I re-read the installation manual and found a partial sentence that I thought might be explaining the problem. I called the FiTech help desk and they advised that switching the O2 sensors leads could not lead to any problems for my rich/lean condition. When I did this, my AFR's almost instantly reached stoichiometric balance and the car has been running beautifully and the ECU continues to learn my driving habits and the engine is a dream. You may have to call Megasquirt and find out if you have the correct parameters (firmware) set into your ECU to match up with your model year engine? Much good luck on this interesting journey.

Dan, Did you ship your wife and family to a boarding school arrangement so that you could work on your project day and night? With beer if necessary??? In the day, craft beers made wrenching seem more worthwhile. Where are we at in the process? What have you ruled out so far? Curious but bored minds would like to know

DanM, When I had a 1992 Miata, I found that I had to take off the valve cover and replace the valve cover gasket to properly re-install the Cam Angle Sensor. The reason for this was that the two flat ends of the sensor are square and the ends are not chamfered at all and I had a devil of a time getting the Cam Angle Sensor with square tangs into the cam shaft female part that is also square and not chamfered/bevelled at the end of the cam shaft. In some YouTube videos, they suggest that you can do it by feel but there was only one video where the installer actually was able to do it with the valve cover in place. All the other videos paused as they figured out how to get that darn thing back in. Maybe you will be one of the lucky ones that can get it in without having to remove the valve cover on the Miata engine?

DanM, Your post shows that you definitely have your priorities straight in that you took care of your family as the top priority yesterday. Now, send them off to a boarding school along with the wife and work feverishly on that car day/night until it is ready to race (Just kidding!). Having helped build my Stalker AXR last year, I completely understand how much emotional energy it takes to get over the last humps after all of the hard and excellent work you have put into the car. When you get first fire, I assure you that most of the memories of pain and suffering will quickly evaporate. It is amazing how few ever get to experience what you, myself and others have gained from putting a car together that did not exist. It is quite a feat and you are getting closer by each attempt. Keep up the good work and if possible, enjoy the thrills of your current challenges and the satisfaction of knowing that YOU have almost built a running custom made car!

Sir Spinsalot, Thanks for not thinking of my excitement about this very comprehensive assessment as over the top. Job well done! It's folks like you that make this forum one of the best and the knowledge base about these cars is superb! This looks like a very nice car for the money. If I didn't have a Stalker AXR that I built for autox, I would be all over this if Cueball1 isn't interested. It is not often that someone can get such a great "look-see" from an experienced seven owner/builder. The lack of side curtains and top is not in the least a show stopper for me. These cars were meant to be out in the elements and to have your hair (I don't have much left personally) in the wind for fun blats.

I can't stand the suspense! Kitcat, get your butt over to that Birkin in Cincy and let us and Cueball1 know what you find. It is like an Easter egg hunt on a grand scale. BTW, Cueball1 gets first dibs on the car. He has been patiently waiting for a good se7en and we all as fellow forum members need to give him this shot if he decides to take it. Please don't bid against our fellow enthusiast.

Mike, All you have to do is click on the pink Reply box in the upper left hand corner of the ad in the link and it gives a Craigslist email contact. You copy (to copy, use your mouse and highlight the email address, then right click on your mouse button to Copy, then go to your email account, go to the address line, right click again and Paste the email address) and tell the seller in your email that you would like to get their phone number and that you will give them a call to arrange and inspection for an interested fellow enthusiast. Let them known that your a se7en owner yourself.

wdb, I looked closely at the pictures and what I see is a car that has likely been sitting in the seller's garage. There is a patina of dust on the seats, wheels and a few other places but I do not get a sense of the car being "beat on"? As Bruce suggested, getting a compression check, log of maintenance and a look over by and experienced se7en owner would be a good way to go. I have seen numerous se7ens that were not garage queens but had been well sorted and were not immaculate. Bruce's example that he sold, is frequently not the norm and was reportedly specifically designed to show well to others. As others have said, just about any of these cars require some level of constant fettling and that is supposedly some of their charm. If one wants a bullet proof little roadster, then get a newer Miata

Croc, Glad I live in Florida. We just offer the technician a case of of Lite beer rather than a Moal and they are willing to consider working for much less pay per hour. As we say around here, "Dadgummit, that there is ridicalus Noooo Yorky prices!" Bob aka boB because my mama was worried I might suffer a brain injury if I was to be so stupid as to pay $500/hour for an oil change and might spell my name backwards. She also gave me a protective helmet that is far better than my Sparco Kevlar race helmet to ward off stupid!