jbcollier

A very early Caterham Seven, literally in the first batch made, went for $27K. It needed a minor amount of fettling but it was a proper TC equipped car in reasonable nick. That was a good deal for the buyer.

I'm about to fit a new top. My old top had a header "seal". Really it is just fabric sown around rubber tubing. More of a draught excluder than a seal. It is called "fur flex" (photo below). The top is certainly "original" but the "seal" might have been added. The new top has nothing, nada, just vinyl, albeit two layers Here's a sample of the "seal": For those of you with Lotus Seven S2 or S3s, or early Caternam Sevens, could you look at your soft top and let me know what you have. Thanks.

Tapered pipe thread plugs, perfectly normal behaviour. Only get 10cc out when draining? Serious problem! You need to find out why and where all the oil went.

Anything on BAT needs careful vetting. A lot of sales actually do not go through for reasons from 10 year olds bidding for fun with their parent's credit card to cars being deceptively presented. I personally know of one Europa sale where a barely-running-project car was sold as a top-quality driver. As far as I know, it is still not on the road.

There are LHD Sevens already here. Much simpler to buy here.

I use semi-fluid grease or steering box lube (similar). it's sort of a mix of grease and gear oil. It flows in everywhere and easily moves around as the rack moves back and forth.

The scavenge pump is always a much higher capacity than the the pressure pump. They do not pump air and will not create a vacuum in the crankcase.

OK, we are no longer talking a stock engine. 80 psi is a LOT for a Twink. I would indeed put in a flow restrictor to the head. Measure the current passage and reduce it by 25% to start. You are going to have to run the engine without the cam cover and make sure the cams are getting adequate oil flow at idle and not excessive at high rpm. It's going to be messy but worthwhile.

Restricting flow to the head is common in racing engines as they spend all their time in the upper rpm range and can suffer from more oil being delivered to the head than can flow back to the sump. For the street it is not a good idea.

It is pretty easy to pull a steering wheel off the column spline and no need for an impact gun or puller. Loosen the nut using a breaker bar and socket, bracing against the wheel itself. Back off the nut but leave it in place with at least a few threads engaging. Wiggle the steering wheel side to side while pulling it off. It will just pop right off. Now the bad news. The replacement stock type bushings out there right now are crap. They don't last long. Go with the uprated type you referenced earlier.

Holed float?

Most overhead valve engines do not have direct oil feeds to the cam lobes. The oil is pressure fed to the rockers which then drip on to the valves, down further to the pushrod holes, lifters and then to the cam lobes. Some oil is also splashed about from the crank. This means it can take a while for fresh oil to reach the cam lobes on a cold start. ZDDP was a common additive to reduce wear. It's not the zinc! That is just part of the molecule carrying the very-useful, phosphorous. This is NOT an issue with overhead cam engines as the lobes run in oil baths and/or are directly pressure fed. So, you do not need high phosphorus in a Lotus twin cam but you do in a Ford crossflow.

The requirements for successful combustion are actually quite narrow. But, when they are in place, it doesn't take much to set it off. You can put cigarettes out in gasoline all day long and nothing will happen, until...

You need to be careful with compassion-less housing. There are several kinds. Compression-less housing for shifting is not very strong. It will fail under load. Compression-less housing for brakes has an extra wrapping (often kevlar) to prevent the axial wires from failing under load. Either use regular lined brake housing -- absolutely fine for this application -- or make sure any compression-less housing is the proper stuff for brakes.

Not meant to injure, my apologies. I'm a retired mechanic and have dealt with many. many owners who's first instinct is to start twiddling screws on the carbs when there is an issue. Your issue is that the throttle plates are not seating correctly at idle, full stop. The fact that the idle changes as it warms up is not indicative of any issue. Engines idle slowly when cold and then speed up as the engine "loosens" and less of the air/fuel mix is condensing out on cold surfaces. The fact your engine idles normally when cold -- which it shouldn't -- does not point to any particular fault, other than the throttle plates are not fully seating at idle. What can cause the throttle plates to not seat correctly (hang up)? - not enough slack in the throttle cable when at idle. Just a little tight means the cable acts as a spring. You push down and the idle is normal. The cable isn't too tight so it doesn't lift the throttle back up when you release but it will still "hang up" again when you blip the throttle. - return spring issue. Weak, broken, or missing return spring means the internal return springs in the Webers themselves are insufficient to snap the throttle fully home. The weight of the pedal and friction in pivots/cable/linkage cause it to, yet again, hang up. - improper sync. Someone has tried to adjust the idle using the balance adjustment. This can cause one throttle to hold the other slightly open, giving an elevated idle. When you push down, flex/spring tension/etc allows it seat better and the idle goes down. Then it just hangs up again when you blip the throttle. - cable issue. Frayed/kinked/dirty cable can bind in its housing causing friction which prevents the throttle returning fully to home. You push down... etc, etc. I could go on and on with even more things I have encountered in my long career but an experienced eye will find the issue quicker than reading any long treatise.

There are a number of things wrong in IamScotticus's photos. But, they are not photos from JohnnyJayhawk's car so of little use is figuring out what is actually up.

The idle slowly gaining while it warms up is due to the simple fact that friction and mixture requirements change as the engine heats up. Your issue could be caused by a number of issues ranging from insufficient freeplay in the throttle cable to someone having tried to adjust the idle speed using the balance screw.

I think you have an issue that would be easily solved by someone familiar with multi-carb set-ups. And, that you are not that person. It is not hard, and it is easy to learn given the right instruction. But, if you don't know what you are doing, it is so easy to make it worse. Find a shop or local mechanic that is knowledgeable and ask them to show you what's wrong and how to do a basic balance and sync.

Are you experienced with balancing and syncing carbs?

Most “early” cars had in-cab heater units that blew cabin air through a coolant powered heat element. Are they ideal? Absolutely not. Are they better than nothing? Yes, thank you very much. They “work” is about all you can say. Later the same units grew demister ducts and flaps which you had to manually work, reaching way under the dash to do so. Eventually some bright bulb figured out that using fresh air greatly improved both air quality and demisting ability, and we were well on our way to the voice-controlled, 5-zone, climate controls modern cars provide.

In a perfect world, and you are parked, it does just recirculate. In real life’s turbulent cockpit air, it actially works quite well.

Hmm, I don't think the chassis plate is original.

No S1/2/3 Lotus had screen demister vents.

I use my heater all the time. Drove to Jasper when it was 8C/46F. 3.5 hours at 120kph/75mph with the top down. I was nice and toasty, thank you very much. I have power sockets added for heated motorcycle gear but it would have to be fair bit colder before I hooked them up.

I bought the Pirellis for my Seven from Longstone. Came quickly and all five spun up nice and true, and took very little weight to balance. I like the tire but have no seat time in the car on anything else. I also chose "fat" 165R13s -- at least they were considered "fat" in the 1969! I'm not racing and am just enjoying the car as designed. The Edmonton Police just run winters all year round. Saves money in the long haul and doesn't compromise safety too much though I wouldn't line up for a long, high speed chase in summer with winters on. Studded tires? That's a tough one. Under certain conditions they are known to "skate". Back in the old days when rubber was uselessly hard in winter, you bet, studded all the way. Now? I'm not convinced though I admit that every winter I have at least one sphincter-puckering moment where I revisit/regret my decision!