CarlB

The pressure vacuum tester you are showing above might not be the tool you want, if you haven't already gotten it. Stant makes a tool I think will do a better job for you. There are several manufactures that make similar tool so you might want to shop. the advantage to this tool is you can test the radiator cap separately. To test the head gasket you want to do it with a cold engine. If it holds when it is cold, it will hold when it is hot because everything expands. My Zetec car does not have a heater and I use the same funnel you have. It works great. I bleed the top of the radiator when I get coolant in the funnel. Then I run the car until the thermostat opens. That will get the air out of my car. I have a Raceline water manifold, but I do not think it will make any difference. I did not have a problem before I installed the Raceline part. If your heater works you probably do not have clogged water passages. when you are bleeding the air from the system make sure the heater is on full blast. There are two types of chemical cooling system flushes. Acid based cleaner/ flushes with a neutralizer if it was harsh enough, or base cleaners. The good ones are no longer on the market. Most are base cleaners. 90% of them are baking soda. Baking soda was the neutralizer when the cleaner was oakite. Baking soda might get your system clean. Flush the system without the thermostat and let the engine run until it gets up to temperature. drain that and flush again with fresh water. If that comes out clean you are good. https://www.amazon.com/Stant-12270-Cooling-System-Pressure/dp/B0002SRGWU

I recently needed longer studs as well. The ARP Miata studs I believe will work if I remember correctly. You want to measure the diameter of the part of the stud that goes in the wheel hub. Not all 12 X 1.5 wheel studs are the same diameter on the part in contact with the hub. I went through the Dorman catalog and couldn't find what I needed. I had a lot of hesitation but what I got was good quality from Ebay. they were long studs for a Kia. I cut them with a grinder to what I needed.

I have a oil pan on my car that comes down to the level of the bell housing. I have the skid plate mentioned above and it does a good job. The plate goes under the leading edge of the oil pan so what ever you run over slides down the pan instead of banging into it. I 100% agree about the 13 inch tires. I have both and the car feels very different between the two.

Thank you all. I have gone back and forth on this but I think I am going to stick with a fast rack. I installed a slightly larger wheel but I do not have any reference. I did a track day with the car and because of the lock downs it has been a year sense I drove the car.

My car has a fast rack in it. I understand the difference is the normal rack is two turns lock to lock and the fast rack is 1.75 so the ratio isn't that different. I would like to ask everyone who has used both their opinion. My rack needs to be replaced. I don't think it affects my driving but it does take a lot of strength to turn the wheel. especially with 10 inch wheels and autocross slicks. The resistance might be the result of the worm rack but I do not have any perspective. I did a track day and after a few laps the car was less connected. I am confident the rack is worm and causing the problem. I can feel some play in the rack now. All the suspension joints are good.

Gratten is a really nice track, but your car will be killer at Waterford. Waterford is very small you can probably set a track record. Perfect for a Caterham.

Croc is correct. You want someone who is familiar with racing and preferably open wheel or sports racers. I have never had good luck with commercial shops even ones that specialize in high performance work.

Yes it is Michaels car. The red is almost gone. The only thing on the car are the numbers I put on it. I have the seats and will put them back when I decide I don't want to track it most of the time. They are very comfortable in compared to the Tillett seats. The hardest part of the process was removing the carpet glue and all the rivets to remove the red interior panels to paint black.

If you look at the Amazon page. The other sync listed that they are suggesting you purchase is a Unisyn. They are very accurate from reading to reading, not a specific number. They go against the trumpet like yours and there is a plate in the middle of the hole on top of the throttle. The plate screws in and out and there is a small ball in a tube that goes up and down depending on the vacuum. I can't remember the correct name for the tube with the ball, but they are cheap and accurate. Amazon.com: Uni-Syn Carburetor Synchronizer/Carb Synchronizing/Balancing Tool Weber Su Type: Automotive I was looking at your pictures a little closer and it appears your throttle shaft runs through all four individual manifold runners (in the same plane as the camshafts). One throttle shaft for all four butterflies and cylinders. My unit has 4 throttle shafts one for each cylinder or butterfly. The shafts are vertical or run in the same plane as the engine cylinders. I will ask Quicksilver, but this might be something made for them. When the Formula Continental car came out Quicksilver was contracted to take the Zetec engine and engineer the parts necessary to get in the car (Dry-sump, front drive and alternator, engine mounts, manifolds, headers, etc) They had a power level they wanted out of the cars and they came up with a reliable repeatable combination. I think they built about 40 cars and all were delivered with Quicksilver engines. My engine is not all out. It makes 188 HP. It could be tuned up to make 200, but it was intentionally not optimized. It is a little rich and could be a little more aggressive with the timing. The car is much better than me. It runs on regular high test from the pump and only has 10 to 1 compression. The head has been work on but not a lot and it has mild cams. The prior owner built this engine after throwing a rod from a bad down shift. I believe the motor that lost a rod had bigger cams and more compression. They spun it to 7800 and made 220 HP. My motor is intended to live and the ECU cuts off at 7200. The use of a vacuum signal in addition to the throttle position sensor and RPM makes the engine run better at part throttle. Not having a vacuum signal makes so you have to run real rich on throttle tip in to accelerate. It still accelerates as well but it burns more gas and is terrible for emissions.

I have TWM throttles. I do not have a IAC. I do not remember the size, but they make two sizes for Zetecs and I have the bigger ones. They were installed by Quicksilver, they were not installed by Caterham or a dealer. Each butterfly has a throttle stop and a idle adjustment. The throttles are partially open at idle. Each butterfly has to be adjusted with a tool used to tune SU carburetors called a Unisyn. You can probably tune yours the same way motorcycle guys do it with four vacuum gauges because you have the ports for vacuum.. The vacuum needs to equal on all four throttles. A Unisyn goes over the opening for all the air. My car has a Pectel ECU. I do not know what Caterham used. Quicksilver builds Zetec engines for Formula Continental SCCA race cars and a lot of the parts for my engine are the same as they use in the race cars.

My car does not have the vacuum ports. The engine is tuned on throttle position and RPM only. The throttles are tuned so they pull equal vacuum at idle. It works fine for me. I wouldn't bother to change it. The idle is higher than if it used a vacuum signal and it runs richer under acceleration. I don't have big cams, but no vacuum works the better than including a vacuum signal if you are running long duration cams.

I am not a fan of the Ford box in my car. I do not know if it is inherent in the design or just old. It takes a lot of force to change gears. The synchronizers seem to take a while to match the speed of the gears. Is the Caterham 6 speed better? Vovchandr I am curious about your sequential gear box. I assume it has helical gears. Do you drive it on the street? How hard is it to get it in gear when you are stopped? How much maintenance is involved with it?

You will definitely need different injectors. The energy content of fuel is directly related to the weight of the fuel and and ethanol is much lighter than gasoline. You will burn 30 to 40 percent more E-85 than gasoline.

Here is a picture of the car when I brought it home. Rain mist and all. I autocrossed it for a year and was chasing lots of gremlins and figured I would take three or four months to improve the reliability. that got a little more extensive than I first though and it took about a year. I apologize for not being very good with computers. I have had a hard time getting these pictures loaded because I took them upside down on my iPhone. This isn't a right hand drive car. Sitting on scales ready for a alignment. Couldn't find a autocross for this weekend so I am going drag racing to make sure nothing falls off. Next weekend two days at Summit Point. Same car different view. The red lettering is a hold over from the red interior. That will turn to yellow. I want to recommend some companies that helped me get this done. Pegasus racing supply sells quality stuff and has very good service. They will answer your questions. Rebel wiring is a street rod shop that I got my wiring harness from. They were very helpful and custom made the wiring for the car. QuickSilver race engines builds great engines. Disclaimer - The owner has been a friend of mine sense we were both in high school. He built this engine as a reliable street engine for the prior owner five or six years ago and we ran it on the dyno this winter just as it came out of the car. It made exactly the same power (188 HP). That is a testament to the prior owner's care as well. When you see the car ask me to show you the engine wiring harness. Diebold Autosport made a professional level wiring harness for me. It looks like something on a Indy car. For all your fastener and materials you can't get better service than McMaster Carr. They get stuff to me in one day. Call in the afternoon and you have it next day. I also want to give a big thank you for helping me to Beachman Racing. Bruce bailed me out of some stupid mistakes. He knows the cars and gives very good advice. You have to be careful about his shipping. I got some seats from him and they were packed so well it took better than a hour to get all the peanuts picked up.

Thank you _ will try turning it over a few times. Topical that I can't figure out up or down with my phone. Thank you for the help and putting this forum together.

E-85 will make your engine run cooler. You can probably add some timing and get a small increase in power. The biggest gain is E-85 has oxygen in it. You can get a controller that is compatible with a number of ECUs that will allow you to switch from gas to E-85 without doing anything. Having one is highly recommended because the ethanal level in E-85 varies from 51 to 85 percent. Your engine needs a different amount of fuel as the percentage changes. If you want the full benefit of E-85 you need to raise the engine compression ratio. If you do it the engine will run like you are using 100 Octane race gas, but you will no longer be able to switch back to regular high test gas. The down side is corrosion. Everything in the fuel system needs to be compatible. Aluminum is not compatible with out being anodized. Only some of the AN hose is compatible.

When I try to upload pictures they come into the post upside down. I tried turning the pictures upside down in my file and then uploading, but that didn't work. Is there a fix?

I have a 1999 S3 and have removed mine. I just pulled hard on the wheel. If you look at the tube that holds the bushing for the steering shaft you will see some small holes where the rubber part of the bushing sticks out. I didn't need to do this, but you could help the process by pushing the parts of the rubber sticking out the hole into the tube. You will need a new bushing. The nylon part of the bushing will probably come out.

I do not know if it will have speakers, but the University of Sheffield has a EV Caterham. I couldn't download the magazine or get a link. The magazine is called Lowflying and is in the March 2021 edition. I think it is the publication of the 7 club in the UK.

Carbon can be sanded or cut with the same tools as steel. To cut carbon I typically use a cut off wheel. For drilling I use a carbide bit. The kind that looks like sandy bumps.

I was thinking about making my own carbon dash. I didn't want the lay out Caterham supplies. I recently found this company Ultimatecarbon.co.uk . I was a little confused when they suggested having the dash lacquered, but they are talking about regular automotive clear coat. I am very pleased with the quality. It is a vacuum bagged part and very high quality. The first picture is the dash I made from aluminum and I am not particularly pleased with. The second is the ultimate carbon dash on top of the alu dash

All three cars are very different and I don't think you can compare them. All three are really great at what they were intended to do. Everything has trade-offs. I can't afford two of these cars, but I have the one I want. I think the Caterham is more fun. I like being connected to the road.

What Hoosier tires are you using?

The companies that make engines for ships are building engines to run on ammonia and using wind power to generate hydrogen is a way to store energy and power engines. There are electric drones flying around without batteries. I do not remember the name but it isn't battery. The process has been known for sometime. It is a chemical reaction that produces power and it is as energy dense as gasoline. Once the device stops producing electricity it can't be recharged. The device has to be recycled. There are some very light electric motors being made for drones. It seems plausible to me a toy like a 7 could be made electric without changing its lightness, but you would have limited range. Real transportation faces some big hurdles. Engines with some form of energy storage are probably going to be slightly more efficient and as clean as electric cars. The grid in major metropolitan areas of the US will not support the increase and there is a lot of opposition to expanding it.

Its only normal if you are trying to induce oversteer to get the car to turn. The weight shifts to the front under braking and the front should wear more. If the brakes are working properly have someone slowly step on the brakes. with the car in the air and someone turning a front wheel and someone else turning a back wheel the fronts should stop first. Racecars have ways of changing that balance and it is sometimes used to get a car to turn better.