Vovchandr

The seller was incredibly detailed and I found the answer to my question "I'm very short (5'4") and my mechanic was uncomfortable with the fit of the shoulder straps on me. He cut away some of the seat so that the should straps would be more level with my shoulders. If you are over 5'8", you'll probably want to replace the driver's seat or find a way to repair the change."

Unrelated: your driver seat upper seatbelt cutout is a strange shape for some reason. It doesn't match the typical shape like you see on the passenger where the bow is facing upward, your bow looks to be facing down.

Unfortunately the seats are fiberglass resin and heat gun application will not work as desired. Only way of executing your plan would be somebody skilled in fiberglass cutting the seat down the middle and adding middle filler to stretch it out. While plausible this will never be cost effective after all the labor hours involved in making it look good still after all the work. Your best bet is a new seat. Caterham offers a different style Tillett in the later years but I'm not sure if it's any wider in the sides. Alternatively I'm sure there are aftermarket solutions but it's going to be very hard to find a seat that's narrow enough to fit into S3 but wide enough to accommodate somebody who's too wide for the S3 seat. Moving the seat further back but adding some kind of liner/spacer into the back is going to be your best cost effective option to get yourself pushed out from the seat sides Disregard the CF, reference picture of the new style seat

Darn. Going there this weekend as a birthday trip in wine country. Wish scheduled lined up. I'd like to see pics as well

This came up on my YouTube suggestions

Current checkpoint is next week to see if they the lash caps are around and to get shipped I'll never forget the episode of deadliest catch, where some small ~$3 bolt sheared in the engine and caused the entire multi million dollar operation to grind to a halt and boat had to limp back to the dock to get repaired. That's sort of how I feel right now with the lash cap hunt.

@Croc Artistry In Engineering in VA

Thanks John. I'd follow up on that if I didn't have a direct lead right now. My measurements came out to be about 9.06 width, 5.20 height, 2.67 depth and 6mm ID.

@CarlB It appears you were right on the money. I've visited a second Ford dealer who was also confused and couldn't find a lash cap. Running out of ideas I tried calling the original builder that I had on the sheet to see if they would be willing to help out. Sure enough the phone number was still valid, they picked up and were very nice and confirmed that they used their own lash caps on the intake side to work with the cam profile. I send them the dimensions of the one I have a few minutes ago, they will try to match it against the boxes of leftovers they have and send it over to me (maybe with a few extras)

Lash caps are in. Doesn't look like any of them will work. Called Ferrea and they don't really have anything that will work it seems. Debating on buying a stock head to source the caps but at this point in time I have no guarantees that mine are even stock at this point in time. Since the head was build who knows what the builder used.

Zetecs varieties are still very confusing to me. One of my timing belt idle pulleys came in different than what I've had. Started looking into it. It appears there were two different varieties of Zetec with no obvious distinctions. From everything I've seen so far I have a Ford Contour Motor due to it being VCT and the position of the oil fill plug. Still no idea why the yellow valve cover but those are seen occasionally. In the first picture you can see idler is same size as tensioner. In second picture, idler is bigger vs Here is what the part numbers cross back over to Smaller Bigger As you can see there is a lot of overlap in 99. Might be a half year model thing. With my Caterham being a 2001 I always assumed by engine is around 2000. Looks like it might be a 1998?

I find that remark strange too as I was able to find other topics and part number of people talking about them. I placed an overnight order for 4x of them to be here by Monday. Listed for "6.08 mm Lash Caps - Specifications: 6.08 mm - .239 ID - .120 Deep Ford Focus 2.0L (for Valve Stem Stock size)" I hope they fit. Order one size bigger and smaller as well just in case. They needed valve dimensions from the shop but the shop was unable to provide me with them until Monday.

News from the machine shop Cylinder #1 that was making noise had a stuck valve lash cap. Guy said he needed vice grips to get it off and you can see the imprint. He said it would likely have made the noise I heard coming from that cylinder. Not sure how but I can go with that theory. He also indicated wear on that bucket for that cylinder pictured below. (See middle bucket in shot) With a new lash cap everything can go back together to end the year but he did recommend fixing it over winter property. I potentially need a new intake cam as well due to some mild wear on the lobe. Finding a lash cap replacement is a little difficult so far. Went to Ford and they couldn't even find the cap on their diagram or give me a part number... But also said regardless it wouldn't be available. Ok. Once replacement is found I can start putting things together.

Is this just a regular yearly inspection? Where is this inspection taking place? Some sort of chain? This seems like a lot of work for something most "seasoned" private places wouldn't bat an eye at. Regardless of that, do you also have to pass OBD2 due to being 1996+?

Update from the machine shop - everything looks pretty good. I need a new valve bucket. No broken springs or anything.

Used in good condition from Norway. Went MIA for about a month in Detroit customs, then suddenly started moving and got delivered. I can live with it and fix it if it holds pressure. If it doesn't I'd likely have to escalate. So far shipping has claimed 2 windshields from UK and one bonnet which got a bit scratched and dented.

No updates from them yet. Will check in by the end of the week. Realized that I should test my intercooler for leaks because it looks like it was used as a soccer ball by the USPS system Also started to spin brush clean the coolant channels but the quality/effectiveness of these spin brushes seems questionable and I'm also uncertain how useful this task in on the grand scheme of things. Parts should be arriving this week - HG/Timing parts etc. Waiting on some other small parts from UK such as the exhaust bobbin.

Before you get too crazy consider this https://shop.oakmeremotorgroup.co.uk/product/footbox-cold-air-inlet?fbclid=IwAR3W4u0zMq701l68i9iMgwTnQNml1jsV4xL7bxFbFQqIKBbKpq5UwZFsFqU Wrapping headers certainly helps keeps the temps down. There is also reflective material you can put on the footwell in the engine bay to help reflect some heat off too

Out of curiosity, how do you guys control your manual ones? For me at startup the Accusump starts dumping oil as soon as I turn the key and oils up the head/cylinders I believe. As the engine starts up it gets repressurized and stays at pressure throughout until shut off. Then it maintains until started again That's if I leave it "on". If I leave it off or turn it off, it dumps the pressure and the car acts as if it's not there, with a little bit more fluid total. Also how much extra oil do you guys add to the capacity to account for accusump? Between shallow oil pan, accusump, remote oil filter and oil cooler in the front I have a LOT of extra lines and volume to account for and I'm never sure what the right amount is. Dip stick isn't accurate due to the shallow pan.

I have the Accusump with electric switch. I can't say that it's problem free but it's also not a complicated piece of engineering. I never had a problem with the switch or valve itself but rather the complexity of more connections and doing the preventive maint. on the sump itself. I think right now it reads too high pressure wise and has a small leak at a connection to the valve. It's a small electrical switch and a valve. I think over the past few decades basic switches have proven their reliability overall. If there were an extremely troublesome area we'd still have crank windows in cars instead of having them more and more electrified.

Small victory today I didn't see anyway to fit impact into the chassis directly so had to use extension and swivel adapter which im sure diminished the power. In the end, placed into gear all worked out

Todays moment of idiocy goes to me. Tried to get the crank pulley off with the impact. It was spinning the motor and not coming off. Trying to be clever and not wanting the engine to spin dry I poured oil onto each one of the cylinders so they don't spin dry against the walls during the process. Went back to trying to get the crank off and it spun the motor as expected until cylinders reached TDC and spilled the oil over into the galleys next to them. Looks like I'm definitely going to be in need of coolant flushing when I'm done with all this one way or another. Edit: After thinking about it, I'm just going to leave it in gear to stop from spinning and try again.

@CarlB thank you for a comprehensive guide. It's a lot to take in, I'll break it into paragraphs and follow it along. I looked at the imprint rings in the head from the head gasket and didn't see any tell tale signs. Not sure if it matters at this point in time either way. I'll tape the cylinders off & scrape the top and use those cleaning brush wheels from video to clean it up well. I'll get a good straight edge to test the top and good brushes to run into passages. There are plenty of crusty chunks that are coming off all around. I'll only use coolant from now on and avoid water. Machine shop has the head now under guidance of my experienced friend who's done a million of these. I have the tool and will use it to set TDC but I'm likely going to 0 out the cams, matching to each other, put everything back together and hope it starts as is and runs good enough to get it to a tuner. ~3% chance it will run better than ever and timing was off and head gasket fix resolved everything. Zetecs are not interference engines so I'm not sure the value of checking clearance of pistons to valves. Thanks for the advice/guidance.

So didn't expect to find my exhaust on the ground. Muffler boppin randomly failed