11Budlite

I've driven the Mt Equinox road in Vermont a couple times in the past and had a lot of fun. It's a private road that's a little bumpy in spots but it has some really nice corners. And on clear days it has some fantastic views. It sounds like it's time to do a gearbox refresh on this Seven...

I say blame both of them!

I guess this would be a little snow....and it's still coming down pretty good!

Tom - What ITB's do you have experience with?

This is nuts! We had about an inch of snow on Thursday night and they're predicting 5-10" of snow through tonight. It just started snowing here a couple of minutes ago.... :banghead:

Some photos during construction here: http://www.blastolene.com/Work_in_Progress/deco.htm

Thanks for the update twobone. I might do the same thing to my Birkin this winter...

I can vouch for Tom on the vibration issue with these cars. I use locktite and also put a dab of Torque Seal on the bolt/nut interface that gives a visual indication if anything has started to come lose. Available at Pegasus and I'm sure many other places too. [/url]https://www.pegasusautoracing.com/productdetails.asp?RecID=3165 If you don't want to use Torque Seal I think you can even use finger nail polish.....you Miata owners probably already have a bottle in your glove box!

Ron - Nice photo, that must have been a fun drive! I contacted RetroFord about the BDA/Zetec cover and was told that they would be available in two weeks at a cost of 250 British Pounds plus VAT (shouldn't apply to US customers). That works out to $400.02 at today's exchange rate. The cover comes with a gasket, bolts, and a BDA cap. Anybody interested? I'd like to see a picture of the actual cover before I made a decision.

Congrats Aidan. Good luck on the registration/inspection!

Nice twobone, thanks for sharing!

Saw this and thought it might be a decent match for a Seven. Needs an oil pan which you would have to replace on a Seven installation and only has 24k miles. No affiliation, etc: http://cgi.ebay.com/06-07-FOCUS-DURATEC-ENGINE-2-0L-DOHC-24K-MILES-?cmd=ViewItem&hash=item43a6110052&item=290548940882&pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr

So I have a "monster" 948cc A-series sitting under my bench afraid to come out because of the "King Kong" 1798cc B-series in my '64 MGB sitting in the garage! I got rid of "Godzilla" a couple years back when I sold off my '72 Midget and almost all of my 30-year collection of Spridget parts. I almost picked up an early Lotus 7 S2 a couple years back which would have been the new home for the "monster" motor sitting under the bench. I wonder if that car is still for sale.... crazymike - I love what you're doing with your build. When do you think you'll have it done? Good stuff guys, I couldn't agree with you more!

That is a nice looking car, RHD too! Good luck with the sale.

Obviously if you're talking just pure performance/durability/weight/etc there's any number of modern engines that would out-perform and outlast some of the cool engines from years ago. It's not like I don't appreciate some of the modern engines and have even thought about upgrading the Zetec in my Birkin to a Duratec. But if you're old enough to remember seeing the 1965 Indy-winning Lotus driven by Jim Clark at the New York World's Fair, and think that one of the greatest racing engines of all time is the Ford Cosworth DFV that was introduced with the Lotus 49 in 1967, then you can understand my attraction to the whole Lotus/Ford/Cosworth connection. Check out some of the videos on youtube and tell me they aren't cool! PS: Just so you know I still have a "monster" 948cc BMC A-series from my first car, a '61 Bugeye Sprite that was totaled when a lady ran a stop sign, sitting under a work bench in my basement!

Thanks guys! Randall you are correct, the Ford casting number is 81BF-8250-AC on mine as well. I ended up fixing mine for the time being. I routed out the crack on the inside about .040" and roughed up the ID of the hsg. I cut a piece of mesh to fit the ID where it was cracked and bonded it to the hsg with the JBWeld. Let it sit overnight and in the morning smoothed it out a little with a die grinder and sanding drum. There's still plenty of room on the ID for the cap to function properly. Put it all back together and took it for a spirited drive and so far it's holding up fine. We'll see how long it lasts! Martin - I'll check that stuff out, but for now I wanted to get it back on the road quickly to take advantage of the nice weather we have. "You might even find one with the hose connection on the front, where it belongs, instead of the side." - It looks like the Ford Fiesta thermo hsg would accomplish this. It has the outlet towards the front when installed on the Raceline water rail, and has a boss for the fan switch. You would have to incorporate the radiator cap into one of the remote housings that go in the upper hose. Looks like this:

I guess it could be this one mentioned in the Focus Fanatics thread: http://www.retro-ford.co.uk/shop/content/bda-zetec-rocker-covers-available-soon

We looked into that a few years back but no one ever pulled the trigger: http://usa7s.com/vb/showthread.php?t=1586&highlight=cosworth There was some talk on one of the se7en lists about someone making a 1-pc cover that would replace the entire Zetec cover. Haven't heard anything more about it though.

Of course it makes absolutely no financial sense (hence the "money to burn" comment) but then again a Zetec or Duratec doesn't sound or look like a BDR!

For those Crossflow owners who don't want to upgrade to a modern Zetec or Duratec and have money to burn: [/url]http://www.wilcoxengines.co.uk/bda_parts.htm How would the stock bottom end hold up with this kind of hp? I thought it was recommended to go all steel above 145-150 hp?

I just located the intermittent small coolant leak I've had in my Birkin. It looked like it was leaking between the cap and the thermostat hsg but after I removed the cap and checked the ID of the thermostat hsg closely I see a very fine crack in the hsg. I can get one from the UK but prefer to find one local if possible. I might try to rout out the crack and fix with JBWeld but prefer to keep it as a spare. The same part was used on x-flow, BDR, and the Zetec Raceline water rail applications if I remember correctly. It looks like this:

No affiliation, etc: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1985-Caterham-Super-Seven-Sprint-/200661823499?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item2eb860700b

The ITV20's should be fine for your car for now. You probably have a rich condition somewhere in your map that will require adjustment to correct. You should probably read up a little on the Emerald ECU and make a determination on how you want to correct it. You can fix a lot of the conditions with a wideband O2 sensor and a laptop, but in order to optimize power, driveability, and fuel economy you really need to put it on a dyno with a knowledgeable operator. Here's a few links that should give you some decent info. [/url]http://www.emeraldm3d.com/ http://www.biggles.net/emerald.html http://www.our-nest.co.uk/Caterham/html_files/2006_emerald-k3.htm

I would check to see what your engine is running first. A lot of people were recommending Denso Iridium plugs when I was putting my car together. The stock plug for a 2.0 Zetec was ITV16 for years 97-04 according to the Denso site. For some reason they recommended ITV20 for '95-96. The Zetec SVT used the ITV24. I think Woody Harris used to recommend the ITV22 for a modified motor with a compression increase and stage 2 cams. I'm sure there are other spark plugs, including the stock Motorcraft plugs, that would work just fine.

Here's a photo of the ID on my left (driver's side) diagonal. The ID is BIY1899 on my car. I don't know if I've ever seen the 17 character VIN. I also have BIY1899 stamped into the frame below the rollbar mount. I think it's on the right side mount but I'm not going to remove the rollbar to verify!