horizenjob

I'm not sure corrosive is the right word, though it is the result. Methanol and Ethanol are strong electrolytes. So if you have dis similar metals in the fuel system they will support an electrical current that will quickly turn your fuel system into a battery with a short. Years ago we had a local circle track convert to methanol. The Weber side drafts were fairly resistant. A friend with an engine on a dyno using a good quality Japanese side draft, like a Weber, did not have such luck though. After sitting on the dyno over night, it refused to start. Opening the covers over the float bowl revealed that in 16 hours the fuel had completely congealed into a solid milky white material and the carbs were totally destroyed. Used to be the Indy car folks would always "pickle" their engines (which run %100 methanol) every time they shut down after running. The system was switched over to a pure gasoline supply and run until it was purged. This had the extra benefit of providing enrichment for cold start the next day! Alcohol is a great fuel, but it just isn't the same as gasoline. It's good that MTBE has been removed from fuel, it was starting to show up in water supplies in the NorthEast and that was a terrible thing. It is almost impossible, even for a lab, to remove MTBE from water. Using corn (food) to make fuel is just wrong...

I'm very fond of these engines. Had them in my Formula Ford and my Fiesta. They are very small. The one in my FF is something like 19" tall and rather short too. Nice advantages in a Formula car. I think the weight is in the 225 lbs. area and they now have aluminum heads available. These engines founded an entire racing industry. Lotus built their twin cam head for this engine. Then Cosworth built their twin cam belt drive version - the BDA which ran in Formula Atlantic. You can see the heritage in the famed DFV, which still has three letters in it's name! :-) There is a huge variety of parts available for this motor. From cheap dry sumps to the finest Cosworth steel. The motor in my FF was strong and reliable, I never used the clutch to shift. That includes the occasional missed shift as a novice or the time I just forgot... They run to almost 7500 RPM these days in FF, still on the stock carb. Street cars run to about 140 HP, race engines to 165 or so easily. I understand the Brits get over 180 and run to almost 8500 RPM on the stock crank and rods (maybe?). Quite a nice antique. The xflow will go to 1750 cc, I believe. The twin cam and BDA can go to 2 litres with aluminum blocks. They still have room for the pushrod cam and may use it to drive the oil pump. I am not sure if you can install the pushrods in those blocks though. Drat I was looking at one yesterday and forgot to check. Will have to go back there... Good for small spaces. New motors are better, but bigger for the most part...

I heard Mass had adopted new regulations in the fall or at the end of 2010. Does anyone know what the upshot of that is? Any more comments from people in progress on registrations/inspections?

They do make 6 litre flat fours... Lycoming. They are very light too..

Harbor Freight does sell small electric lifts for the ceiling with remote controls on a hanging cord, I think the small one is good for 400 lbs. I like the pneumatic seat or cushion idea, also perhaps some type of scissors jack on the seat might work. They also make rising platforms for motorcycle mechanics. two of those front and rear. Perhaps just one on the right side, activate it and it would roll you out... I just hurt my shoulder the other day and am starting to wonder if extraction from one of these cars would be difficult... Formula Fords are comfortable for sleeping in...

I wouldn't expect you to feel any slop in the driveshafts. Unless your using those old rubber donut things, and then it would indicate replacement time. Generally you would want longer then shorter arms. Just to keep the geometry from rapid changes at the ends of the travel. But without specifics it's hard to say! Inboard brakes make a big difference in unsprung weight. How does that work on the car you work on, are there diffs that provide the mounting for that or is that a custom attachment?

Thought it looked more like a missed up shift...

Sanity checking the basics would be a good idea. Timing was mentioned. Make sure they are sync'ed at idle. They make cute little airflow meters for this, or toxic mercury column type things or if nothing else try the hose - listening method mentioned. Has the car been sitting over the winter or some other time period of months? That might mean some blocked idle or progression holes - most common thing I find. Have you always had this problem? Looks, from your picture, like your aircleaner sits out in the airstream. That can cause a little bit of fuel haze to be blown back onto your clothes. Since the exhaust exits rear, that shouldn't get on your clothes so much. The dangerous thing is you can't assume from the color of your exhaust pipe that the motor is not dangerously lean at high speed for example. You can easily have both or multiple problems. That's why dyno shops are so helpful. If it's a Birkin, does that mean it's jetted for foreign fuel? Just wondering if you think it was jetted by people who knew what they were doing doing, like the factory with many motors or is this a custom? The UK sites might be helpful, should be many people willing to share setups. I hope you get this to work well, I really like those old xflow motors...

I think that's for television. He seemed very good, he could really spin that steering wheel. You wouldn't see any of that if you were making him work to stay in front of you. Thought it was a good case for round steering wheels, as opposed to those ecentric shapes you see sometimes. Wish I understood his language, or better yet had a day to follow him around and get some serious old school learning!

I am curious about some of the notes here. It's a good idea to check nuts and bolts, but it shouldn't be required very often. Surely the vast number of cars on the road don't receive this treatment. And there's quite a few crucial nuts not being examined on the lists here, connecting rods, drive shaft and transmission bits for example. Yellowss7 said "The Nylocs had come loose on Both upper A Arm bolts. Other side had also come loose." I wonder if you found a cause for this. If it was me, I will admit likely cause would be not being properly tightened in the first place. But another cause could be repeated use of the nyloc nut. They must be discarded once they no longer require firm wrenching to put on. The root cause here is the safety issue, not repeated checking. So checking your nuts a good thing, occasionally . More importantly, developing an ability to see your car and look at different things at different times, so that your seeing things with a fresh mind - so to speak. I have found wrenches, cracked disks, cracked frames, wear and abrasion on critical items, broken motor mounts, and drive shaft joints. Learning to look at your tires as you approach your car ( all of your cars ) is a big deal. That can change every time you drive the car! When I ran a racecar, I spent little time just going around re-checking torque over and over. Maybe that explains the Lucas starter that ejected itself from my xflow during practice in a driving school. But there are a lot of things to look at, look at all the other things too. The starter was funny because I found it the next day during a walk around with some other drivers before the race. I walked over picked it up and said "Hey, look what I found". Pause. "Wait, this looks familiar". :o So the moral is keep your eyes open, you never know what your going to find - or where!!!

Is it possible to upload a video here? I have a clip someone sent me from the uk forum, after I gave someone a driving complement. I don't feel bad "echoing" here on this forum, since it was posted on the other seven forum, but I don't want to put it on You Tube...

He put a lot of effort into that video for his car. He obviously had a lot of adventures in it. Also there was some honesty to it. Some of these videos you only see other cars being passed. I liked the moment here where you see smoke pouring out the rear of the car, I am guessing he braked a little late there. And the occasional off road excursion. It's funny how you feel bonded to a car after some adventures... This shows that feeling well.

You can see the coolant, just before he hits it. In another view from one of his other videos, you see him climbing out of the car and then some guy in a car three times his size t-bones him. He's lucky to be alive. He had an accident, but moments later things went his way when they could have got much worse. This happened at Spa, so you can find that looking thru his list. I liked this video a lot...

I liked this vid on youtube. He has a good number of videos, but this one is different. "Death of a Nail" Death of a Nail, Jackel

The video of Richard Ince is impressive. It pretty much outclasses most of the competition seven videos I see. He goes at it hammer and tongs. No showing off. Uses almost al the exit many places. No backing off the throttle. Takes even the highest speed turns pretty aggressively. This is worth watching over and over again...

A few comments and suggestions. If you find a dyno shop that seems to report %10 less then others in the area, that's probably the honest shop. Taking the measurement slowly is probably better. My mechanic used to emphasize reading the area under the HP curve for the range your interested in. It helps even out the little peaks and valleys and the area is what you use on the track. I'm a little skeptical of the difference between crank and wheel measurements. Something to wonder about, there are 750 watts in a horsepower. So if you lose 26 HP in the drive train - that's about 20 kilowatts going into the diff and transmission. That seems high, but maybe. An electric space heater is typically 1.5 kilowatts. Also wondering if some of these transatlantic issues are caused by different gasoline formulations? Do they use %10 alcohol in Europe?