redursidae

Thank you all for the comments and ear-candy! Officially it has an LSD by the "goose it and find out" method. I went out on a drive yesterday to test the fan install and make sure the coolant level was good. The fan extensions hadn't arrived, but because I wanted to take it to Cars and Coffee with friends today I ended up using zip-ties like it gets done on oil coolers. Held up well yesterday and today. Also no drama with the radiator, and the oil pressure has continued to hold up with the fresh Amsoil. But I did shake a few gremlins loose, and it seems to have a fuel leak near the tank. From what I can tell it seems to be the filler hose is cracked, so I'll work on that this week. Also found out the fuel pump is on the side of the tank? That's a first for me. Signed up for autocross on April 18th. By then I'm planning to re-adjust the ride-height to have the proper rake, verify the corner balance, do a bolt-check and fix that fuel leak. The car seems happy otherwise. @Austin David The CFO approves of my plans, but it has to wait due to the engine build in the Miata still taking place. I want to keep a fun car drivable as much as possible too. I've been sold on ITBs for a long time, and have owned an ITB car for a few years now, so yes it's only a matter of time on this one. Thanks for sharing the audio clips. I know videos rarely do justice to these induction noises at part throttle, but I do enjoy hearing the differences as the RPMs and throttle angles change. Noted on the CAN gauges. I run a CANChecked in the Miata's dash (replaces the dummy oil pressure gauge) that is feed by the Link G4X. I'm a big fan of it as well because it fits cleanly and shows all the information I need. Once a standalone gets installed it will go with a CAN gauge as well. That is glorious! Thanks for sharing. I missed out on these unfortunately. That's ok, I'll keep looking. Very nice! I've seen this video before and really enjoyed it. Cool to know you're around here. Is your steering as heavy as he says?

Just saw your build thread and went for a read. Very good information, thank you. Seems you were able to resolve all the issues with the ME and trigger issues? Any chance you could take a video of the sounds with the ITBs? For science of course. I will consider 8s in the rear, maybe with 215s instead of 245s. The biggest worry will be ground clearance for the wet sump, because the 13s will lower the car 1.7" if my math is mathing. The sump is merely 4" from the ground at the moment, and although I can raise it further I'm afraid of making the geometry worse.

HA no, not yet. I’m still building condidence with it. It did very well in some hairpins in that mountain drive, so that’s promising.

One more picture taken by my friend in our first blat together

Thank you all for the warm welcome and answering questions on my first post. I've learned much about the car thanks to your help and reading around the forum. The story with this Caterham started after a fantastic 2 day trip to Arroyo Seco Raceway in January where I met Josh from Rocky Mountain Caterham, Nathan Down, and 4 Caterham owners that were very welcoming to me hanging about. It was a very special weekend to say the least. After the trip I knew it was time for a se7en and the Chief Financial Officer didn't object too harshly to the idea. But wasn't sure how or when to make it happen. I was interested in MK Sportscars with Miata components because I know Miatas well and were within my budget, but a few days later I get a text: I went to look at it with friends, and seemed like the right fit. Much man math later, one car sold, and I was able to bring the Caterham home. It is a 2006 Caterham SV with the Ford Focus SVT engine. Has regular floors, adjustable Bilstein dampers, 15x6.5 wheels and 195/50/15 R888R tires, Raceline wet sump, and had 1335 miles on the odometer. I don't know where it was built or whether it has an LSD. The previous owner did not drive it on the road much and most of the 800-900 miles he put on it are track and autocross miles. It is well broken in I've spent the last month getting acquainted with the car, catching up on maintenance and definitely not plotting mods. Some items addressed so far have been to install the headlights, fix a couple of issues with the tail lights, a quick ride height adjustment, replaced the timing belt and a fresh oil change. The front ride height was too low before, at 130mm and 25mm rake. It's now 140mm front and still 25mm rake. More adjustments, an alignment and corner balancing are needed. The timing belt was original from 2002 and I did not feel comfortable driving with it, even though it looked ok. Also put fresh spark plugs to have a baseline. The plastic end-tanks in the radiator were leaking, so ordered a new aluminum radiator. A few "while I'm in there" happened and I swapped all the clamps for some without hose-eating slots and replaced a heater hose that was cracking too. Also found that my radiator fan has the shorter style mounts, and had to get new extensions. I'm currently waiting on the extensions to arrive so I can finish the job. Before the radiator job started, I did an oil change to Amsoil 5w-30, because the weekend prior I drove it through the mountains and oil pressure was right at 1bar at hot idle. A bit too low for my liking, and figured a fresh change would be a good starting point. The first drive on the new oil seemed promising but that was on a cooler day. I have driven the car 170 miles so far. The power and torque is awesome, and definitely the fastest car I've owned. The suspension feels better after the ride height adjustments but it is still a bit stiff. The exhaust sounds good and pops a lot on decel which is growing on me. Next thing is to keep driving it to shake out the gremlins, dial in the suspension, and do an autocross and trackday to find what to do next. But I do have a wishlist for once I have the Miata's engine finished: - 13 inch Apollo wheels + Nova tires (wet sump clearance is a concern though) - Soft Bits for Sevens Half Hood - Aero screen - New belts - Tillett seats - Trackday roll cage - Standalone ECU still to be decided (Leaning Haltech or Link G4X) - Borla Induction or AT Power ITBs But overall very happy, and glad to have finally joined the se7en community

Shop run to pick up coffee beans

Sorry to hear about your Miata :/ . I read through your thread when I was researching se7ens but didn’t remember that part. No apologies needed! I don’t mind taking Miata detours

That's very light for a Miata! I guess it was an NA6 given the power? Do you still have it? Totally the case regarding attention. In only 2 small drives I've done in the seven I've gotten many pointers and thumbs up. People love it. Good to hear Miatas are appreciated here too. They're fun to drive, fun to work on, and a great canvas to experiment, learn and improve. But I have to agree regarding the sevens being an unique experience. Once I got to drive one (a 485 no less!) it was like nothing else and I kept EVO magazine's 420R video on repeat. Once I tried them on track...let's just say my wife has been very patient. Thank you, I appreciate that. Lots of thought and love has gone into building Scooter into what it is, and a lot is hidden from sight. I'll start a thread for building the Cat on here. It'll be a slow process given the Miata's engine is still in progress, but that gives me time to learn and get to know it some. If you have any questions or need help with the tuning side of things feel free to reach out on here or miataturbo.net (same username). That forum is a gold mine of information for modifying NAs and NBs, with NCs starting to make appearances in recent years.

oh that’s a tough question. My expectation is that I’ll enjoy them for different reasons; The Miata has a very good suspension package and should be smoother, more compliant, while still having a communicative chassis. The Caterham is raw and lively and that’s fun in a different way. In the short term the new BP6D should feel more special with the high compression, ITBs, cams and 8k RPM on the shorter ratio 6 speed. The Caterham would still have a better power to weight ratio, but so far I’ve noticed the engine feels less responsive than the ITB BP6D did. Sorry that I don’t have a clear cut answer for you, but I don’t think there is one. For anyone interested, here is my Miata’s build thread: https://www.miataturbo.net/build-threads-57/scooter-miata-journey-itb-noises-108848/ It’s a 2170lbs car, with a VVT engine swap, ITBs and headers. Lots of chasis and suspension work. Made 132whp and built with the Lotus 26R as my vision. I’m expecting the new engine to make around 180whp.

Oooff. I would rather not think where the rest of this dipstick may be. I’m going to go with “the PO fished it out”. I spent time yesterday setting the ride height. The front shocks were maxed to the low setting. Measured heights were 130mm front, and rear was about 150mm. The sump had 75mm to the ground. It now sits around 140mm front and 165mm rear with me in the seat. I’m going to raise the front a smidge more and lower the rear to hit the recommended 10-15mm rake. Went on a small drive today for a shake down and the front felt more compliant than before which is good for our mountain roads. Mom approves.

Didn't know it had ECU controlled fuel pressure. That's neat. Just a few days ago HP Tuners released full support for the SVT Focus while I had a ticket opened with them about it; fortuitous timing! But I'm going to let it bake a little longer and get a feel for the car and tune first. It honestly drives well aside from a bit of kangarooing at very light throttle, and constant pops on decel which I can do with a little less. Good to know on the Raceline sump and dipstick. Feeling better about it all after the input in the thread. and thank you!

Great points, thanks for that. I will follow up with him and ask how he arrived at his conclusion, but it seems it is somewhere in the ballpark of accurate. Thank you! It is well kept, and the battle scars it wears make me feel at ease when I track it Thanks for the reminder. I should check the transmission and diff fluid. I plan to change from Mobil 1 to Valvoline VR1 or Amsoil and when that change happens I'll measure how much comes out and go from there. No problem. I've been reading on Focus Fanatics that SCT is the current software available when used with an older dongle, but at this time I don't want to invest in a new tuning suite. I'll give it some time and see how the engine runs the next couple of months before making a choice.

I appreciate the info, Croc! Sent you a PM with the VIN. The ECU seems to be an Oak unit as you described. I did connect to the OBD port with HPTuners’ VCM Scanner and read the fault codes you mentioned (EVAP code etc.), no faults related to the engine. What I mean to say is that I couldn’t run a datalog, although I didn’t try with the engine running, only ignition on-engine off. The VCM Editor, the tuning side of the software, was not able to read the firmware or OS though. Do you know which software I could use for tuning on my own?

Thanks for confirming the pressure is within reason . Yep, it is about halfway between red and 2 bar. Oil is Mobil 1 5w-30, ~4.5 qts based on notes from PO I just went through. And here is a picture comparing the length of both dipsticks. Yellow handle is the one that shows full. Oil isn’t registering in the shorter one.

Thanks! Here you go

Friday I picked up a Caterham with the Ford SVT motor from a local autocrosser in New Mexico. I have been interested in Sevens since I first rode, and eventually drove one in 2020. I have a few questions I could use help figuring out, and forgive me if my search-foo has failed me: 1) How can I tell if this is an imperial or a metric chassis? It is registered as a 2007 Caterham SV, but the VIN indicates a 2006 code. I don't know how to tell the difference between brazed and tig welds. I was told it was metric, but found a spare set of blinker covers with paperwork indicating it's possibly imperial. 2) What is the correct way to check the oil level on the raceline sump? The dipstick in the engine is too short (seems broken), but the PO included another OEM dipstick that he used to check the level. The part number is 978M6750DA and seems to be an OEM Ford Focus dipstick that crosschecks to an SVT motor too. Using said dipstick the oil level is at the max mark. 3) The reason for my dipstick question is that after driving today I noticed the oil pressure hovering right above the red mark at hot idle, which should be around 1.2 or 1.4 bar if the scale is linear (17-20psi). Pressure climbs to 4 or 5 bar by 3k RPM. Is this normal oil pressure for this engine and this wet sump? It's about the same as my Miata at hot idle if the gauge is correct, but want to verify. 4) Any information on how to access the ECU and adjust the calibration is highly welcomed. HP Tuners says on their website that the SVT is supported, but when I tried to read the PCM with my MPVI4 it did not work. Scanning/Datalogging reads the ECU as a Ford unit, but wasn't as useful as others I've worked with. I need to address some maintenance items right away (timing belt, valve cover gasket, and radiator) then I want to track and autocross with it a few times this year. Very excited to have a Seven and join the community!