bball7754

I guess it's a special 40th anniversary edition, and that accounts for the grey dash and grey chassis? Steve

My experience with Caterham USA certainly changed after Ben left, and I'm going to leave it at that. I wonder if this change is being driven from across the pond. Tony F. certainly seems to be changing things at Caterham, and it would not surprise me if he wanted to increase brand recognition in the US prior to the introduction of the planned new Caterham model(s). Time will tell. Steve

Skip - Good call on the VIN being from Missouri. The original owner lives here in St. Louis. Seven was purchased from and built by Rocky Mountain Sports Car. I drove it once when it was new, and it was much quicker than my Crossflow. Steve

Tony - A quick search on Blatchat seems to indicate that the BCD is a "thinly disguised" Kent 234, and would use the same clearances. http://www.blatchat.com/t.asp?id=69820 Here is another link that discusses setting the valves. http://www.blatchat.com/t.asp?id=132298 Steve

Believe the 2003 should be "underslung", with the mounting blocks attaching to the lower frame rail. My 1998 is "overslung", which is more complicated to install post-build. Steve

The Caterham electrical oil pressure senders are known to be wonky. Mine was, to the point that I just ignored it. It would work, then not, then work, etc. Finally replaced it with a mechanical gauge. So, certainly a good chance that nothing out of the ordinary happened. Steve

Tony - As I remember, the only thing I didn't take apart/remove were the butterflies and shafts. I didn't need any special tools. I used the Pat Braden "Weber Carburetors" book, and the Des Hammill "How to Build and Powertune Weber and Dellorto Carbs". Think I also purchased the Haynes manual, but didn't really use it. Steve

Tony - Rebuilt my Webers about 3 years ago, and it's really pretty straight forward. I purchased a few Weber books, took notes and pictures. But, it's really just take it apart, replace the perishables, and put it back together. Nothing too tricky. I borrowed an Ultra-sound cleaner for the parts, but it wasn't large enough for the carb body. Took them to a carb repair place that did Ultra sound cleaning. Don't remember who I purchased the repair kit from. Pearce Manifold is good source, as is Dave Bean. It's a good winter project. Steve

Mike - In addition to being born on 7/7, I weighed 7 lbs. 7 oz. Steve

Karl - Even though St. Louis is west of the Missisippi, can I come again this year? This will be a great warm up to my 60th b'day on Monday, 7/7. Steve

Tom - It is. He rebuilt the engine, and the only real change was he used a thicker head gasket to lower the CR from 10.5 to 9.9. It ended up producing almost the exact same HP on the dyno. He only charged for parts, but since I needed another set of pistons, it was still not exactly cheap. I also took his advice and for track days have been using a mix of race and regular gas, to get the Octane up to the upper 90's. Seems like the prudent thing to do, and certainly cheaper than another engine rebuild. I've done two trackdays (one a 2 day, the other a 1 day), and no real issues - except for it spitting coolant out into the catch tank. Sound familiar? Think I've solved that also. He had removed the thermostat, so put that back in (new one), and I also think I underfilled the coolant amount. Also replaced the pressure cap. Anyway, since I've made those changes it seems to be fine. Should be good to go for NJMP next June. Steve

I had my Aldon distributor re-curved (as well as other general maintenance), but did not replace the Pertronix ignitor (http://www.pertronix.com/prod/ig/ignitor/default.aspx). After reinstalling, I had a miss, stumbling, and general erratic running. I replaced the ignitor, and all the issues vanished. Steve

Here is a link to a thread on my trailer. FWIW, I tow it with a Volvo XC60. http://usa7s.com/vb/showthread.php?t=6535 Steve

Falling through the floor is an actual possibility. Lots of posts on Blatchat about the rivets on the floor pulling out. I had read about it, but hadn't checked. Then about 2 years ago I had my Caterham up on stands and happened to glance over. At least 5-8 of the rivets were totally out, and several more were loose. Believe several other members here have had the same problem. Steve

Sort of like a resto-mod Seven.

Mike - Maybe try Redline in the UK? http://www.redlinecomponents.co.uk/ I understand the phone is your best option with them. Steve

Any mention whether there will be a trackday? Not a deal breaker (likely to go), but a part of LOG I've enjoyed in the past. Steve

William - sent you a PM on the removal. For the exploded view and parts, the BAT FF catalog has both. http://www.batinc.net/fford.htm I also have the Dave Bean FF catalog, which I could scan and send you as a PDF. I have the Wallage book. Have only used it for general reference, so not sure how useful it would be for leading someone through a rebuild. Steve

Mike - Picked up the engine Saturday. Less compression, less advance, pretty much everything else the same. Plan to put it in this weekend. Steve

Watched it last night, and appreciate that you were able to incorporate a portion of the 5 total laps I ran over the weekend. Not an easy task. Great stuff, already looking forward to 2014! If the NJ F1 race happens (I know, I'm not holding my breath either), would be great to combine the two. F1 Sunday, trackday Monday/Tuesday - or something like that. Steve

Mike - At Austin the Caterham driver from Dallas (I think) also lost a rear bearing. Here is post on Blatchat about rear bearing issues: http://www.blatchat.com/t.asp?id=231885 Also, my experience buying direct from Caterham UK is that the shipping amount for small things (like two new sets of bearings) is not that bad. Can actually be similar to what you pay for freight from Denver or Mass. Steve

Stig - agree with Mike, must have been one heck of a Xflow. Regarding the heater bypass connection, my Blatchat research (my primary go to resource for Xflow info) shows that Roger King supports removing it if there is no heater. I'm ok with it. C/R has been dropped to 9.9 and advance dropped to 34. He sets the timing on the dyno from the flywheel. Engine is still on the dyno, so I'm going to bring my timing light and see what it indicates at the pulley. He's as nervous about this as I am. Steve

Engine builder called today, and it's back together and running. He said he was looking at the head gasket, and it appeared that it was starting to burn through somewhere else. Confess I didn't really understand the impact of this, but basically he felt that the "hole" in the gasket was too close to the exact same size as the cylinder bore, so he wanted one that was "larger". He used different terms. Also decided that the C/R may have been too high. Almost all his engines are race engines running av-gas. So, he got a thicker head gasket from Dave Bean that also fit his other requirement. C/R is now around 10. Set the timing back a degree to 34 total advance. He'd had it on the dyno, and the impact in power was minimal. So, may never know but it might have been a perfect storm of the C/R, slightly too much advance, and maybe a bad tank of gas. I may run some av-gas at the first track day I do, just to be safe. Picking up the engine on Saturday.

Mike - This has moved into one of the top positions of possible ways to celebrate my 60th next year. Steve

As far as I know, the sender/temp gauge are fine. However, the sender is high in the block, and apparently if the coolant is turning to steam, the steam will generate a "normal" temp. That's why the builder is sticking with the overheating theory. But the coolant overflow is from the same area, and if coolant was rushing into the overflow tank, than I wouldn't think that the sensor was reading steam. Zetec conversion is looking better all the time - hindsight being 20/20.