inchoate
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Everything posted by inchoate
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one of the winter projects I'm kicking around is setting up a stand alone AFR gauge that can be used with my various carbureted vehicles. I don't suck at tuning carbs but I feel like it would be nice to have some real numbers to inform my process. If I go ahead and do this I'd like to weld a bung into the Caterham exhaust so I can do some road testing. I'm thinking the best place is in the collector just upstream of the muffler. Does that make sense? Right about here.
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I went through all of this with my car when I bought it. My car was built to HPC spec according to the build sheet, but Caterham doesn't consider it to be an HPC car because the buyer never did the High Performance Course track thing. It doesn't have the HPC badges and I'm perfectly happy with it that way. In my experience it's pretty rare to come across anyone who even knows what a Caterham is, so I don't get too worried about the HPC thing. Just enjoy driving it.
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I was able to get copies of my car's order sheets and build sheet through the Caterham archivist via the British 7 club. Kinda fun and informative. It allowed me to confirm something that I had assumed about my car. Annoyingly the car was delivered with a bunch of extra stuff that I would have loved to have, but it got seperated from the car at some point.
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The dry sump was a bust but I got a new set of springs and actually set the ride height correctly and now it doesn't ground out the sump. I still try to be aware of bumps and such, but I can at least get in and out of my driveway without issues now. I'm still thinking about a sump guard but there's no real off the shelf solution and I've got enough winter projects as it is.
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Crossflow Cooling System -Overflow Tank or Expansion Tank
inchoate replied to KS7's topic in General Tech
I can confirm that I've also seen the same setup on every BD powered car I've laid eyes on. My car uses the same bottle but it's attached to the drivers side footwell instead of being up by the rad. -
my carbs do not have a starter circuit. cold starts can be a bit of an adventure but once it gets a little bit of heat in it it's fine.
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I ran into Dave at the Radnor show this year. He still had the Birkin at that time and was threatening to try to get a 7 thing together.
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Yes, the "dip switch" switches between high and low beam. My Webers have never had any provision for a choke. Like you say, you just need to blip the throttle for a little bit until they will idle. Think of it as a feature. Also, @Jacques, you have a PM.
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Here's my '87. As far as I can tell this is how it came from Caterham. The rocker switch is the lights, the toggle below and to the left of it is the dip switch, the button is the horn and the toggle all the way down on the left is the headlight flasher. I know my dash is filthy, sorry about that. You can check the wires against the wiring diagram if you need to confirm.
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My car came with an oil cooler but I've always suspected that it was overkill even though it's quite small. When I had the engine out this spring I replaced the sandwich plate with a Setrab thermostatically controlled one. I figure that way it will cool the oil only if it needs to. Seems to work fine.
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My motor had misab plates that were in pretty rough shape so I replaced them. I got a kit that had the plates and all of the mounting hardware but I can't remember where I got it from at the moment. It's a somewhat finicky job but not too hard if you've got the manifolds off of the car. edit: It looks like I got the sandwich plates and hardware from Burton Power but my guess is that you can probably get the same stuff on this side of the pond, not sure where though.
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Your hoses look exactly like mine. I've never had any leakage or issues of any kind with them. I guess you could replace them if you're taking the heads off but I've never seen the need.
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BAT is pretty well publicized at this point so it attracts a lot of people who don't necessarily conform to the traditional way of doing things. I sold a car there back in 2016 and it was a good experience but as with everything ymmv. Fwiw there's a lot of the same stuff going on on Reverb and some of the other specialist auction sites. It's annoying, but honestly I can't get too pushed about it. If it annoys you too much don't buy or sell through them, there are lots of other options.
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There's actually some stuff on youtube. I found this video informative. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11OUPwT_dYY&ab_channel=StephenMorten there's a part 2 as well.
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Caterham is involved, so strange combinations are the order of the day.
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my 1700 BDR block is painted a similar red. 1600 BDRs are unicorns among unicorns and the blue cam cover is distinctive. I'd leave it as is if it were me, but you do you. Interesting trivia, the 1700s have gold cam covers but they just painted over the blue.
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+1 for getting in touch with the MG people. They were helpful to me in the past. There's a Haynes book that's pretty good, but it's not always easy to find.
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Indeed, redline MTL is the way to go. If you get a new T9 get some sort of documentation, they come in many flavors. Also, not to be that guy, but it's not all that hard to rebuild a manual transmission if you have average mechanical skills. There's a fair amount of information out there if you look. If nothing else it's less expensive to ship some gears and bushings than a whole transmission.
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Putting a 123 in my '67 Cooper S was absolutely transformative. Much better drivability and top end. I'm still working out the kinks on my 7 but it's headed in the right direction. I'm a firm believer in their products and the guy who used to work on my Mini now recommends them to all of his customers after seeing the change it made in my car.
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glad you got it sorted out. I'm a big fan of the 123 ignition and I was surprised that you were having issues.
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Set the engine to TDC and then install the distributor. Your "static" timing gets done through the ignition curve. It's well worth reading the installation instructions and the user manual, lots of good stuff in there.
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I'm running a 123 on my 1700 BDR and I'm quite happy with it. When you say you never got the green LED on installation what do you mean? That might be the issue. Also, have you called 123? I've used their ignitions on two cars and they've been super helpful whenever I've reached out to them, that said I've been dealing with the US distributer. What ignition curve do you have loaded? The brass port is for vacuum advance. I have a cap on mine but it's not necessary, you can just leave it.
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@JohnCh supplement, i'll never get rid of the caterham @Bruce K budget is mid 60k, i could go more for the right thing but less is better. i've thought about cobra replicas but i've never driven one. my guess is that there's a pretty wide range of experiences there. i do have standing approval from the wife for a GT40 but that's still very low to the ground. @Vovchandr S2000 is an interesting idea...
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here's a question: what's a slightly less suicidal alternative to a 7? I'm looking for something with the rawness and simplicity but without being quite so small and deadly. I love driving my car but it's at the point where I feel safer on my motorcycles than I do in the Caterham. I've looked into modified Miatas, Exiges, Caymans and some other stuff but everything has significant downsides. any and all suggestions appreciated.
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Which Tillett did you get? i'm starting to lean in that direction for my car.
