CarlB

I didn’t give the second source of auto ignition. If the fuel doesn’t have enough octane the fuel will start to burn normally but as the temperature and pressure rises a second flame front will start. Generally this is a hot spot, but it doesn’t have to be. A Englishman did a lot of work on this. If you look on a BMC engine valve cover you will see a list of patents given to Mr. Westfield

You need the help of a good tuner. It sounds as if you are experiencing autoignition. This is the precursor of detonation. Autoignition is caused by a hot spot in the combustion chamber. You might be able to cure it by adding more fuel, or reducing the ignition timing. If the engine was dyno tuned before you got it, the problem is highly likely the fuel and you need more octane if you want to maintain the same power it had off the dyno. If you have a lambda sensor, leaded fuel will cause the sensor to fail, but it takes time. Most octane boosters are toluene. Toluene is used as a paint thinner and is 125 octane. The sweet smell of burning race gas is toluene. Sparkplugs are hard to read with modern unleaded gas, but look at the porcelain. The side of the porcelain not where the electrode sticks out. You do not want to see any silvery flakes. those flakes are your pistons.

When I got my car Michael told me that my car was the first Zetec. The kit was shipped back to Caterham after the SCCA approved the Zetec for production car racing. Michael even knew the guy who did the modification to install the engine. My car has the notched frame for the stock intake manifold. It didn’t have the brace or frame tube that would be connected between the side of the transmission tunnel and the front right suspension. The front connection is close to the rear upper control arm pickup. My car had the tabs on the frame for the brace. I do not know if other cars had the tabs.

Thank you for the information

I am curious about your fuel cell. Would you please post some pictures?

My car is a 1999 S-3. I can't speak for other years. If you look at the picture of the side of the cage / car you will see the rear attachment is different. This is what I assume is standard on Caterhams of my vintage, and I think I have seen on the metric cars as well. The two forward mounts are crossmembers that have been added. They are attached to the frame underneath the car. The cage tube fits down in a pocket and bolts in from the bottom. All the other connections are are where the normal roll bar mounts.

I want to point out that Caterham puts aluminum Honeycomb panels in the side of the car that do provide some side impact protection. I have a custom roll cage that isn't to difficult to remove. I am not aware of any cage or side bar configuration that allows the roof to go on. My cage bolts on like the regular roll bar in back. It bolts to the Caterham supplied points just in front of the rear tire, and has two cross members for the forward connections. The biggest issue with removing or installing it is it requires two people to lift it over the car.

The drawing above shows the nut but cuts of the torque spec. Nylon lock nuts are a one time use unless you get the aircraft ones. My ball joints are double nutted. If you know the size of the nut you can look up the torque spec on a general torque chart. Trying to get a torque wrench on the nuts, especially the upper one will be a trick.

I have one of there radiators as well and am very happy

There are lots of places on the web that tell you how to mount harnesses. You are correct the single crotch belt is mounted forward and the double one is mounted to the rear. I have not seen any place that says how the belt should be secured. The SCCA is not very specific. They allow belts to be attached to the floor if a large diameter washer or backing is used. My submarine belts are mounted with 1/8 inch aluminum plates top and bottom that are 4 inches long and 3 inches wide, as well as big steel bumper washers.

Thank you very much for the great pictures Croc.

You might want to look at this site. You have a replica of a Lotus and can title the car as a replica. https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/vehicles/reconstructed.html#:~:text=Every person who owns a reconstructed vehicle%2C specially,vehicle must be shown on the Virginia title. If you title as a 1962 Lotus there aren't any emissions and the safety equipment only has to match what was on the car originally.

Welcome to the Forum. I haven't been to many Cars & Coffee events but do enjoy them. I am not much of a early riser and my car isn't tagged. I live in Fairfax and it looks like we have several new owners in the DC area.

The Miata my be less trouble but nothing is more fun than a 7. Glad to hear you are thinking of keeping the car.

I can only second what John B has already said. What a great event! I was thrilled to finally get on track. I would encourage anyone on the forum who might not want to drive on track to come. This is a really fun event and you will meet some great people. I apologize to Kitcat for holding you up. However if the result is you keep your car, you will make all of us happy you can come out and play.

Thanks Croc

I forgot to ask. Will we be able to keep our cars in the garage or should I bring a pop up!?

I got my clutch done and will finally make one of these great events. Vovchandr I understand your frustration. Last year I did not finish re-wiring my car in time. I look forward to seeing everyone and hopefully your car will run or can be fixed.

If you do not have a stone, you can use a file and sandpaper. The file is flat.

Fingers crossed

Once upon a time a long time ago I was a Goodyear Race Tire Dealer. As a dealer we were given training by Goodyear and in my case Penske tire my distributor. The Track tire guy is correct about heat cycling tires. They have to be run on the car. Heat cycling tires makes them harder. If the car is getting the tire close to the temperature the compound will over heat, waiting makes the tire harder and stand up to the car better. If you follow Indy Car they talk about using scuff tires or new tires. The performance of a scuff might be better if the compound is slightly too soft. 3500 Pound stock cars with relatively skinny tires put sticker tires on and do not beak them in. They sometimes use scuffs. Putting a few laps with a cool down on new tires is a good idea, but if you can't it isn't a big deal. the break in gets the surface scuffed up so it will grip. It gives the driver a opportunity to make sure there isn't anything wrong, and it gasses some of the solvents used in the manufacturing. Even Hoosier's softest compound R25B doesn't get worked hard on our cars. Give them a slow warm up a few laps and a cool down. Inspect them to make sure everything is good and go out in the next session ready to go fast.

Thank you all for replying. I hope I have a solution on the way. I think I have a fix if it doesn't, I will make it work. Bruce Beachman is going through the same thing with a customer car. I am reasonably confident the slave cylinder (throw out bearing) was depressing the clutch in the static position. Kit Cat had a old post about getting a clutch from Clutch Masters and they were very helpful. Zetec cars came with a clutch used in the Focus ZX3. This is a 9 inch clutch and the finger height is different than what the stock replacement clutch people are selling now. The current replacement is a 9 1/2 inch clutch. Clutch Masters seemed to know the difference and were easy to work with. I should have the clutch Monday. I now know how much the clutch should push the clutch in and will make the measurements so I am confident the clutch is fully released before I put the car back together. If there is a issue, I learned a long time ago you can't work on a car without a lathe, a mill, a mig welder, and a tig welder. That aluminum plate the slave cylinder mounts to will get changed so the slave cylinder works. I want to thank Kit Cat and Vovchandr for there help. I have spoken to a number of people about this and will post a lot of information about this once I am confident of the solution. Bruce Beachman is a really good resource. He is trying to come up with the elegant solution. I want to get to NJMP. He is trying to find the parts used in the original design, so there isn't any need to make custom parts. My car is a very early if not the first Zetec car built. The car Bruce is working on is one that came with the SVT engine. The car Bruce is working on is original and it has the same Fidanza flywheel my car has. The SVT cars did not use the larger clutches the SVT Focus used.

I have a 1999 Zetec S-3 and broke the clutch at VIR. I contacted the clutch pressure plate manufacturer (LUK) and they told me the part number from the numbers on the pressure plate. When I got the new clutch it was 9 1/2 inches and the old one was 9 inches. LUK said it was superseded and it did bolt on. When I got it all together it was slipping badly. It appears the throw out bearing isn't letting the clutch engage completely. I am desperate to make it to NJMP!! Any help or good people to speak to would be greatly appreciated.

My Granddaughter goes to collage in Richmond. Unfortunately she is just getting back to school and can't go get the parts. JohnCh found some lash caps that are close. Speak to your machinist, he may be able to adjust the valve clearance by grinding the tips of the valves. This is a standard operation to adjust valve clearance. The issue would be if the valve tips stick up high enough from the spring retainers so the bucket tappet does not contact the retainer.

It is 150 miles from my house. How bad do you need someone to go down there?