TheDingo8MyBaby

I always find it funny how these rich guys with vintage f1 cars drive them at 4/10ths of the limit. In the wet it's more like 1/10th.

I've seen much worse on much heavier cars without any issues. As long as it only cut into the tread, I'd say you're fine.

Is your gasket Cork? They tend to harden over time. I'd replace with a "paper" gasket. I would imagine Dave Bean or the other usual sources would have one at the ready. Since you have a super sprint - I suggest you ask what they recommend for an alloy rocker cover. I would say 5 ft-lbs or so. Try a 3/16" allen wrench. Use the shorter size to torque it down so you don't over tighten. Use a cross pattern and you may want to add loctite so the bolts don't come loose. Your breather vent may be blocked. If you get a lot of oil in the catch tank, it may behoove you to do the following: Shamelessly stolen from Roger King in the UK "What you need to do is to machine two inlet/outlets into the rocker cover. The first one should be above the breather canister and you should feed the hose that currently goes to the catch tank to this. Then machine the second hole into the rear face of the rocker cover as high as possible and lead the hose from this to the catch tank. You now have a breather system that still allows free breathing, but dumps oil straight back into the top of the engine. The quantities are not large enough to cause problems with oil build up in the top of the engine. On a healthy engine this new rocker cover breather will dump little or no oil into the catch tank. I do not recommend that you rely solely on the filler cap breather; not only is it quite restricted, but the main breathing is at the bottom end of the engine and there are insufficient passageways in a Crossflow to allow this pressure to get to the rocker cover without the external hose. Particularly as the oil is trying to go down them as pressure comes up. Later Caterham supplied Crossflows have only the filler cap breather, which seems to be simply because Ford deleted the block breather canisters on later engines; instead, Ford used a core plug to block the breather, presumably a)to cut costs and b)they assumed that the engines were destined for FF1600 and thus don't need a block breather because they are dry sumped. If you tap the holes machined in the rocker cover 3/8" bspt, you can use these part nos as screw in inlet/outlets - 1484835, 6148087. These are Ford part numbers and one is a straight outlet and the other is a 45 degree outlet. Both will screw into the rocker cover and then the hose simply pushes onto the them with a jubilee clip."

Try Apexspeed.com under the Formula F forums. Unless you're looking for a the caterham specific one - I don't expect you'd find one there.

High flow, low pressure is inherent in crossflows. My crossflow only runs at about 7 psi idle (warm) and 30psi at 3k. (though these are taken from the stock caterham guage which is inherently faulty) You can buy shim kits for

I just have a list of disqualifiers that I have in my saved searches. I only search in parts...so you can adjust accordingly. caterham -shirt -print -cover -book -guide -magnificent -magazine -watch -brochure -matchbox -manual -scalextric -model -tamiya -slot

On Saturday I took 17 to Canepa Motors to have a look at the motorsports museum there. From there I drove over to felton and took empire grade to 236 and took the long way back to hwy 9. It was a beautiful day. I had a light fleece on-even up in high elevation.

There's ways to fix that too... http://www.summitracing.com/parts/GFR-1001/ http://www.summitracing.com/parts/AAF-ALL54090/

To be a bit clearer - the name kent refers to the block, the crossflow is a type of head. The fiesta 1.6 (771 Kent block) will indeed bolt up to the t9 transmission. Some 771 blocks did not have the 4th boss (not just drilling-the boss is missing) for the motor mount - so check the block or make sure this will work for your application. In general, the 711 is the easiest to come by and the 771 and 711M are the most tunable. 711's should be a bit easier to find now that ford has started the reproduction of the blocks and Formula Ford is now Formula F - people are starting to ditch the 711 for the Honda fit motor. Here's a list of kent blocks: 681F6015DA (or 6915) - Tall deck crossflow 1600cc 120E6015 - First five main block 1500cc 2737E6015B - Tall block version of 120E 1600cc 771M6015CA- Fiesta 1600cc 711M6015BA - Tall block, big caps 1600cc 831C6015B34 - Service block - South African casting. Former block in SVO catalog. Quality questionable. 711M-6015-A-A - 1.3L 711M-6015-B-A - 1.6L 681F6015DA -1.6L Cortina 120E6015 -1.5L Cortina 2737E6015B - 1.6L Cortina 771M6015CA- Fiesta 711M6015BA -1.6L Uprated Stolen From: http://www.thekentlives.com/thekentengine.htm

Sparco also makes head support cushions and lumbar side cushions that I found more comfortable in my pro2000 than the longer lumbar support. Here are some of the products: http://www.winecountrymotorsports.com/index.php?cPath=131_132_52

Not sure how you go from an elite to a miata. The Miata is similar to the Elan, but not the elite IMHO

Alex did get FTD (excluding block's time) with his 7. They banned the 7 because it wasn't "fair" to everyone else, so he used his sc300 formula D car in the invitational. I've known Alex for about 8 years now. He's a damn good driver - both drift and grip.

Skip, Great work and I've never liked the wagon's much myself. They look stellar.

I find Paul Haney's book: Inside Racing Technology to be a little bit easier for most people to comprehend than the carol smith books. That being said, it doesn't have nearly the depth that the carol smith books do. http://www.amazon.com/Inside-Racing-Technology-Discussions-Technical/dp/0964641402

Plugs: NGK B8ECS Distributor Cap: Bosch, Lucas or Aldon type? Plug Wires: Taylor Coil: Bosch Blue or Petronix works fine

FYI - The second option shown doesn't have a camera. Traqmate is a good product as well and you can combine video from another source. Traqmate software is really easy to use but lacks some features. I know it's about double the price, but I would suggest the smarty cam from AIM. It just does video and GPS data seamlessly. AIM has great customer service and I've had really good luck with their products. Her other best bet would be to buy a mytach which is a GPS watch from AIM and tie the data into video from a go-pro with third party software (something like dashware from chasecam, or similar). This option is definitely less seamless and offers less functionality, but could work on a budget. The advantage to buying a racing GPS unit is the software and being able to analyze the data (not just in video form) to improve your driving.

Sounds like it could just be the belt is loose. Check your voltage at the battery when the car is on. It should be around 14 V

Looks like you lucked out. It seems to be a pretty common problem for the petronix.

Just don't leave the ignition on for more than a couple of minutes. This tends to burn them out.

Check out the yahoo group "side draft central" It's run by a guy named keith who has developed "hypo-jets" for DCOE. Most people have been ranting and raving about them. Do you have an aldon distributor? Most of the guys on blatchat have had good results sending their aldon distributors back to aldon to be re-springed for the proper advance. In the mean time, check float heights, check cleanliness of needles and buy a sync tool and even a colortune. You also may want to check the plugs.

troughdoctor: Ian may be able to suggest going prices - but I'd suggest asking on apexspeed.com forums. Magnesium wheels are approximately 20-30% lighter. Comparing wheel weights with different tires is useless as you never really know how much weight comes from the tire. Magnesium is not a great choice for a street wheel as they tend to be light as possible (not meant for potholes), they tend to become brittle and are prone to corrosion. At least on a race car they are (hopefully) crack checked from time to time. Sorry about wheel choices for 4x4.25. There are not many.

Where is the temperatures sender and thermostat? 85-90 is fine for the twin cam, though I've read people that believe lower temperatures (in 70 deg range - Tony Thompson) are better for the twincam. Is your switch out of a miata? I'd suggest getting one with a lower range.

Martin, Gymkhana is a little different than autocross in that a lot of turns are so tight that the fastest way around the corner is to slide the car. I also don't recommend trying to talk your way out of screwing around in a parking lot - I know plenty of people who have tried to go down that route with little luck. Andrew, I've had really good luck with Federal 595's in 14" size on my ae86. They're just about right for a low hp Car for gymkhana and they're dirt cheap too - and martin is right. Adjust pressure until you get the balance you're looking for. I've had 595's up to 60+ PSI. There's nothing wrong with low grip tires for low horsepower cars, other than the car being ultimately slower. I think it's a lot more fun to drive that way.

Have you checked your timing including advance? Fuel Pump?

It's seeping to the outside of the engine? You sure this isn't just the valve cover gasket? Is it smoking out of the exhaust or where the oil is seeping out of the engine?