pethier

Update! Ron texted me. It was not the thrust bearing that locked up the engine. The oil pump grenaded. The engine was essentially at idle when the incident occurred. If I had been on the freeway at 3000 RPM, the damage might have been a lot worse. In the interest of getting this car back on the road for LOG, Ron is not going to clean the engine for shrapnel, but use the block from the engine that I just bought.

MGB533 gives me nothing on Moss.

Deserves its own thread.

I sent you a message via USA7s.

I had a Renault-engine Europa. The calipers were seized. Back then, you could order calipers for a Spitfire at a regular parts store. While I was at it, I bought stainless pistons and put them in the new calipers.

This is not a new rebuild. This is an experienced engine. Ron may be onto something with his thrust bearing theory. Remember that the engine has lived long and well in the Birkin so the problem would likely have to do with the change to a Caterham. I have never heard of this problem, but Ron has. At this point I only believe one thing: I will be at LOG driving my truck. Whether it will have a trailer attached is not yet certain.

Wednesday. Drove to Ripon and bought a Zetec motor which reportedly passed a compression test.

[I intended to post this last night (Tuesday) but my internet provider was having technical difficulties.] Pride goeth before a fall. Got the car all buttoned-up Saturday evening. Went out for gasoline. Car was driving FANTASTIC. The Isanti crew must have disconnected the steering somewhere along the line, and put it back together one notch off. The wheel is turned a bit to the right when driving straight, but I don't think the alignment has changed. There is nothing loose up there. The temp gauge does not work. I am not too worried. Putting fuel in is a pain. Facing the car downhill helps. I may have to bring ramps to the station... Figured I would take it on the freeway on the way home. Pulled out of the gas station, easy on the power, nothing outlandish. Ready to short-shift into second, the traffic light changed red. Put in the clutch and shifted to Neutral to coast to a stop. Engine died. No noise, jerk, or commotion. Just died. That's weird. It has been idling beautifully. Turned the key to restart. URK. What? It started with no trouble a minute ago. A couple of guys tried to push start it. Fifth gear. Two guys running pushing on the roll bar. Let out the clutch and the car stopped on a dime. Called son-in-law. He showed up with jumper cables. URK. Disconnected my battery and attempted to start it using only his running car. URK. He took me home and I got my rig. Still don't have the remote on my trailer winch replaced, so ran back and forth from the button to the steering wheel to the button. Took it home and went to bed. Up at six Sunday morning, tossing tools into boxes. Made it to the event and checked in. Didn't walk the course. Conscripted angelic autocrossers to push car. URK. Theorized that starter was stuck. Counter-evidence is "why did it die", but started to try to remove starter anyway. Needed an 8mm Allen on breaker bar. Winched car back into trailer. Went home. Got 8mm Allen from my shop. Safest way seemed to be to leave the car in the trailer and keep the straps over the back wheels. Jacked up the front and shoved the race ramps under the front tires for safety. Removed starter. Bolted and taped the cables together, taped up the solenoid wire, secured everything with cable ties and went back to the event because I had no other way to test this. Conscripted more angels to push. URK. Went back home again. Parked rig and jumped into Cayman. Arrived back at event. Found more angels: My XU competition and the eventmaster let me run in two heats to get my six runs. On the drive home I got the idea that I must have dropped a valve. Had supper and collapsed watching footie and F1. Wrote a note "Scope Seven" and taped it to the bathroom mirror. Monday other chores then on to the Seven. My scope has an articulation on the camera so I could look backwards and see all 4 valves in each cylinder. Nothing wrong there. Rats. It's in the block. While I had the plugs out, I put an 18mm socket on my 24" breaker bar and checked to see if I could turn the engine with no compression. When it seemed I was tightening the bolt, I stopped. No point breaking something. Did a quick measurement of piston height. #1 and #4 were the same height. #2 and #3 were the same height. Not a broken con rod, then. Tuesday. Ron the tuner is back from vacation. I towed out to his shop and reported that I had done my homework and that the car had run great. Then I told him the rest of the story. We pulled the car out of the trailer. Ron yanked off the timing belt and it looked perfect. He easily rotated each camshaft. It's in the block. Ron says there is no knowing why without a tear-down. Fast way to get back on the road: Get another engine and take off the head. Install it. Put on the head with the trick cams and the Hayabusa injection. Then figure out how to keep it from happening again. Ron thinks that MAYBE it is the thrust bearing at the front of the engine. The throw of the clutch pedal is longer than it has to be. Since Birkin pedals and footwells are not the same as Caterham pedals and footwells (and it was changed from cable to hydraulic), that could be correct. Mounting a block in the footwell might be an easy prophylactic. I had already considered this sort of thing when rearranging the throttle cable. I had adjusted it so the pedal hit the footwell when the throttle shaft hit the stop. Technical question, and the answer may be different for different cars: With Zetec engines, does it matter whether the donor car had a manual or automatic transmission? The donor car for this Birkin was a 1996 Contour. I'd expect that most of those cars were automatics.

It is a great idea. It came from IamScotticus.

I have located what I assume are the original Caterham factory mounts for my 1700 Super Sprint (which I assume is the same as other Kent motors). They may or may not be the same as a Lotus mount. In any case, they have been sold with my 1700 Super Sprint engine el al, pending delivery. You will note that the engine interface is quite unlike the Zetec

When I transported my ex-Birkin Zetec stuff from Steve's place to the shop in Isanti we kept the engine upright. Steve and I stabilized it with its Birkin engine mounts and couple of 2x6s, then put four ratchet straps on it.

I took out the oil cooler on my 1700 Super Sprint Caterham. Now that I have the Zetec in, I hope I don't need to put the oil cooler back. I have my air horns living in the place where the oil cooler used to live. I am a Minnesota autcrosser like the Birkin guy who sold me his entire Zetec package, and I don't see an oil cooler in that pile. Neither of us are into endurance racing.

Yup. Looks Birkin. Found my Birkin/Zetec mounts today. Forgot to shoot them.

Test drove 74PHIL to check cooling system. Changed a couple of hoses around. Finally figured out that thread size on the Euro Van 3-connector fan switch was the same as my old Rabbit, with a little help from USA7s. Amazoned in a two-connector Rabbit/Golf part. After a short test drive, I left 74PHIL running in the garage while I prepared to reunite it with the front fenders. The radiator fan came on! Little victories. It appears that Caterham used both Metric and Imperial bolts to hold on the front fenders.

Moved throttle cable closer to pivot point to increase pedal travel. Drilled new lower hole in panel and shortened the ferrule (?) to reduce wear. This gave me the opportunity to reroute the cable. Carefully set cable fitting so that pedal hit bulkhead at full-open throttle.

Wow. I sure have been neglecting this thread. Right now, I am rerouting the throttle cable to slow down the action from handlebar grip to foot pedal. I think the cooling system is OK now. Next test drive will tell my if I am putting the front fenders on and going autocrossing Sunday. My tuner may be back from vacation Monday and we will discuss the next step. No time for pix right now.

I have a set of Birken mounts for Zetec motor. I bought all the Birkin parts my friend Steve did not need for his Electric Birkin project. I'd compare the mounts to my Kent engine but it is in a different city right now. If the OP finds out that Kent and Zetec mounts are interchangeable, I'm open to offers for my Birkin/Zetec mounts. My Kent-buyer has a car that is unlikely to use Birkin mounts.

Totally different head. Caterham chassis mount is vertical. Birkin chassis mount is horizontal.

Remember that my Minnesota license plate is 74PHIL. Truck is a white F-150.

Thanks. I will have more on this by tonight, I think.

I was there in Gettysburg, and ran both the autocross and the track day in my Elise. I had originally planned on doing both in my 1979 Caterham, but I had sold it to a gentleman on Cape Cod before LOG. LOG readily accepts Seven clones. Oddly, there was a shortage of them at LOG43 in Texas, the first LOG to which I brought a Seven. About the reaction to the reaction: I was at an Evolution Autocross School with my shabby Europa S3. The professional autocross instructor did the same thing your track instructor did. When I got my Elise I was not pleased that the steering was so slow. Finally got that fixed with trick steering arms. There was absolutely no learning curve. The first slalom I hit felt perfect. How they should have built all of them.

I hear you. When I had the Elise I considered driving it to distant events, but never did. I did drive my Cayman to the Porsche Parade in Oklahoma City this year, but that's a regular car.

Heck, yes. I hope to have all the wrinkles ironed out on my engine swap. All booked up with Lotus LTD and the hotel. I'll be towing from Minnesota. I'll have my Seven in the trailer and my former engine et al in the truck bed. Hoping to find a little muscle to help out with the transfer of hardware from my F-150 to the non-Seven vehicle of a USA7s member meeting me at the LOG hotel on Friday 5 Sep 2025. Many LOGers make the work lighter...

Glue? My tunnel carpet is held in by two screws, a handful of Velcro strips, and faith. Right now it's out, pending the completion of my engine swap. I took out all the rest of the carpet in the cockpit last year. I don't race, and I have not taken the Seven to a trackday. Autocross-addicted since 1968.

There's a funny echo in here.