Vovchandr

Here is the new scribe mark for the raceline oil pan with 5L. Right through "L" on "full"

These are on order now. They are nationally back ordered in places. RockAuto had them

See the quote I'll paste below from late 2021. As you can see on the Thermal camera Cylinder #4 was cold and was a problem back then too. That was a test of both since the head gasket swap. Likely less than 500 miles on the car since then and 2 track days + tune done in mid 2022. I'll do one again soon for a sanity check but I don't expect results to be much different.

"What's the quickest way to get the right answer on the internet? Post a known wrong answer and you will quickly be corrected" That's two people that have amended my statement. While yet, it's incorrect, for the sake of a quick discussion with a stranger at the pump, this works far better than the pedantic minutia details of saying how it was the "13th design, but he kept number 7 open for it in his sometimes chronological naming convention of vehicles..." Thanks for the correction however. As I've said to the other party, I've said this so often, I actually forgot what the reality was.

I'll DM you for that conversation

Yeah my VCT did nothing, even before I put on the the adjustable cam gears per your advice. I'm open to options. If I can have a more healthy regular Zetec with some head work I'd be happy for a direct 1:1 swap. Just don't want to go through this and dyno 130whp again even if it runs better. Napkin math says a "170" crank hp engine, with ITB's and a better header would do better than my Zetec. I do have a quote from you saved from a long time ago explaining the differences to somebody "I am sure you are happy with it , Take a Zetec 12.1 with the same mods you have and you will have the same HP # as you have now with weeks less work , money , headachs Tha Zetec makes 130 The SVT makes 170 Thats a 40HP diff , 15 of that came from the header that been proven over and over again so that leaves 25HP , 10 came from the compression that leaves 15 , 5 came from the larger air box/snorkel , MAF and TB , That leaves 10hp , I feel an easy 5 of that came from the cams alone which leaves 5 HP I have allways said that a good combination working and tuned properly makes for slightly more HP , I am taking that last 5 HP and giving that mostly to a good working combination and the head I am very conservitive in my numbers above that I gave each part as you can see it leaves little performance coming from the head alone I have allways said the SVT heads exh side is the same as the Zetec head , the intake side is very nice and flows well BUT it doesnt do much good on the intake side if the exh side cannot get enough out to let more in Tom" & this to another person. "Its worthless to install the SVT head on the zetec engine for more performance Take the zetec you have , go to 10.0 compression , stg 2 cams with adj cam gears , SVT Inj , 65mm TB , a good tune and be done with it Tom"

Here's a video. You can clearly hear the misfire at idle and then I pull the plugs 1 by 1. When I pull cylinder 4 plug it starts to sound normal instead of the "wob wob wob" type firing I've had since pretty much I've owned the car.

Correct. I'd be swapping over to SVT from this, so a long block. I believe the ITB's should work on the SVT head as well. Worst case scenario, I'd settle for another Zetec. Not sure if you recall but the VCT has been disabled, so now it's just in the way.

Swapped around the wires, moved around the injectors and still the same old same old. All have spark. #4 seems to run cold. Maybe a leak down test next...again. Maybe it's a cracked cylinder at the bottom of stroke and I'll never catch it. Either way wouldn't be surprised if I give up on this block by end of year. Don't have the time like I used to and frankly getting tired chasing the problem. @1turbofocus you have any SVTs laying around? In meantime swapped around oil filters and found one that works half decent compared to what an OEM stock long one would be. Wix51374. Didn't like Wix51394 that some recommend because it was physically smaller on the gasket size and overall diameter. Good news is, so far no cooling issues but haven't driven on street yet this year. Also for the first time properly scribed the mark for what 5L of oil should look like on the dipstick without accessories of Accusump or oil cooler and the lines. Goes right through the letter L on "full"

I tell people it's a continuation production of a 1957 Lotus 7, which was the 7th car owner of Lotus designed. It's still made to this day and mine is XXXX year. Rights were sold in 1973.

Looks like the end of the plugs are wrong for that plug wire kit. It seems to be a half year thing, no big deal. My ends either "clip on" or a wide enough not to slip off the coil pack terminals as is. New part #52099 for anybody readying this who needs this. No local available for that NGK so for now I'll get a temp regular replacement. Also curious enough the resistance on NGK's is minimal compared to the other wires. In the meantime also ordered a mechanical oil pressure gauge

They are not... But congrats! You're officially an influencer... Quick run to store fixes things Will test in a bit and report The ohm values didn't look friendly. They put out about 3.5k but went into NA once I wiggled it...

Pretty sure I replaced them a few years ago but will definitely give them another look while troubleshooting now. .

Pretty sure my Cylinder #4 is misfiring. Temperatures on it are reading drastically colder than the rest #1 450 #2 500 #3 475 #4 250 Also the sound is of a slight misfire Switch the coils between 1 and 4 due to the wasted spark trick and still no change. Going to do another compression and leakdown test, take a look at the spark plug etc

I just have a overflow catch can

Appears that one I've ordered might have been too tall

Don't believe it's stock, ordered it from Caterham just to be sure It's behind passenger seat but above the axle. Kind of a PITA spot to get to and the wrenching is from behind the seat with limited and blind room Don't have the part # offhand

Didn't really see anything that strikes my fancy Anybody order anything?

delete

Oh, I didn't know that Mystique and Contours had them. Maybe I do have a stock motor after all with internals. Who the hell knows but this supports my theory that Contour or Mistique was the donor car for the VCT stamped valve cover engine. This is what the troubled lash cap looked like. Shop said they had to use vice grips to get it off the stem

Pretty sure we settled on the fact that mine are stock. He opened up the valve train by getting the cover off at some point during the tuning. I think at some point I'm better off just ordering new cams and getting another tune. For those wondering, quick google search just found Tom saying that SVT cams aren't interchangeable with non SVT and vice versa.

Is this stock or with modifications?

Question as somebody for whom valve train optimization is a big black box. My Zetec was modified to have lash caps during the original build. At some point in time one of the lash caps was seized on and I replaced it (after a VERY long search to find a match). Machine shop did some valve magic they said they needed to do to make things work again properly. Does any of this sound normal? Any issues that can be caused by using lash caps? Stock motors don't use them.

Don't believe I posted our local superstar efforts in video department The American Job - A Sevens Adventure

I'd be more okay with this concept but still not the same