slomove

I went through 2 VDO electronic pressure senders and finally switched back to a mechanical pressure gage. More accurate, reliable than the electronic one and the gage has anyway a wider sweep angle. However, if you are using the car on the track I think an oil cooler is mandatory for reasonable engine life. I have an oil temperature sensor installed in the sump front plug and before I installed the cooler I had the gage regularly pegging above 130 degrees C. Who knows how hot it really got. Then I installed a Laminova heat exchanger and the temperature never went beyond 120 degrees C. If you want to hook up a cooler you should also install the filter on a remote mount. Then the space problem goes away and you can place the filter for easiest access and where the change causes the least mess. I have it mounted to the chassis tubes in front of the passenger foot well.

Yay....I found a way of torquing the heat stud nuts without removing the camshafts. I found very slim short 12mm 12-point sockets that will just barely slip in between the camshaft and the head. Once seated on the nuts I could tighten them with a 3/8" wobble type extension that can be tilted in the socket to also avoid the camshaft that would normally be in the axis of the stud. So far so good, now I must see what to do with that one sticking piston ring.

It is an age thing. But as far as I know they are not easy to replace. But what has that do with Se7ens?

I am not sure if our cars even fall into the "Classic" category, except original Lotus. They are sure specialty cars for enthusiasts and some high end ones very expensive. They do hold their value quite well after the initial drop but not really an investment.

Not sure but I see that they charge $250 for a 12V power socket. Good deal.

I am in the process of installing my rebuilt cylinder head on to my older Zetec engine. I have ARP head studs that can be re-used and a Victor Reinz composite head gasket (not MLS). According to recommendations I should mount the head, install the cams and run the engine a short time, then take then cams off and re-torque because the gasket may settle and make the studs loose tension. Real pain in the butt. Last time I did that 5 years ago, only to find that the nuts did not budge a bit at re-torquing. That means the significant work (taking off the cover, removing the cam shafts, tightening the head stud nuts, mounting the camshafts, adjusting the cam timing, closing the cover etc.) was a waste. Apparently the gasket did not settle at all or not enough to make a difference. I am wondering if I should just skip that step. Any opinion?

I know but I am not aware that the engine ever had bad coolant. But then, somebody had the car 5 years before I got it and drove it only 600 miles during that time. Who knows what that does. Anyway, I found it a bit confusing to order online and ended up turning my own plug from 1/4" aluminum sheet. That way I could make it fit exactly and hopefully eliminate the corrosion.

I was wondering about that. But looking at the table of galvanic potential, I find there is about 200mV between the aluminum rail casting and a steel plug but 500-600mV between aluminum and brass. Or does that matter anyway? Maybe I should try getting an aluminum plug? Or maybe not worry about it because it took anyway 16 years to rust through.....

I am having some moderate engine rebuilding done (ZX1/Zetec-E) and I got the head back, looks like new. The engine builder installed new valves because the old ones were heavily pitted and the remaining flange was too thin after grinding. The only thing that worries me is that they insisted that the new valves need no new, higher keeper groove that the previous engine builder put in to avoid coil binding of the stronger Kent valve springs. They are sure it wont bind even with the stock grooves. Well, we will see. Now I am going though some of the removed pieces and found the steel freeze plug in the bottom of the Raceline water rail thermostat housing is almost rusted through. It is about 1.1" diameter. Where can I get a new one and is it easy enough to pound in? I would hate for it to start leaking on a trip far away from home.

I really like the precise torque adjustment in 1950. But maybe they had calibrated mallets?

Yes, and solid center line (equivalent to double yellow here) be damned, too. I guess that is normal. At least most drivers do that only when technically feasible and no police is around. If you go further south in Europe you can not rely on that anymore. There is more reliance on the horn and a guardian angel.

Hey, at least you can get quality beer in Germany for half the price compared to the US (incl. the tax). Just don't buy soft drinks which are the other way round. Last time I was there I bought good California wine cheaper than the same label here in California. Not to mention my surgery in Germany for a broken ankle including a week in the hospital was half the price of the 2-hour rushed outpatient screw removal here in the US. I think most of the price difference other than tax and exchange rate fluctuation is just the established price level or because the supplier can make another buck. For that matter, the company I work for sells our products (industrial instrumentation) in Germany about 30% higher than in the US or China. Why? Because they can. I bet that is the same reason why Levi's sell for at least twice of the US price over there.

I have no ideas how much a valve job for that engine is in Germany nowadays, but just for comparison (and to let you know other people have same issues): I took my my 16 valve Zetec head to an engine shop yesterday for a valve job here in Los Angeles for $385. It had pretty ugly pitted exhaust valves, most likely due to bad air filter and/or running lean. The engine shop was also working on a BMW V12 engine. Think what a valve job or new head might cost for that one and you won't feel bad anymore....

The political polarization has completely abolished rational discourse (just like gun laws or health care). It is not anymore about facts or science. The conservative side tries feverishly to find reasons this is a conspiracy and liberal setup (see this post) while the progressive side tries about as feverishly to rationalize sometimes fuzzy science. While I lean to believing the current climate trajectory (especially the speed of change) is mainly man-made, I gave up on believing we can do much about it a long time ago. I appreciate all serious conservation efforts but more as an entrepreneurial drive and not so much for the effect. In terms of economic effects, I believe the net outcome will be neutral or maybe slightly positive. Starting new things usually creates more jobs, opportunities and financial benefits than clinging to yesterday's technology and ideas (ask the US textile or furniture industry). Maybe I am a selfish person but I keep burning gasoline in my Seven. Otherwise the Chinese will do that for me and there is no difference for the climate.

I tried to figure out how to do this but including the travel from/to Vancouver, pick up from transport etc. it will be almost 4 weeks. Unless I retire by that time which is unlikely I am not going to make it. Oh well. There are other destinations.

I also tend to use higher pressures on street tires. I did use 17-19 psi on my track slicks and the old ACB10 (back then when I used to go to the track), but for road use, even with "high performance" tires I need 26-30 psi or the they will show higher wear near the walls after a few 1000 miles. I think these tires don't get the proper shape at lower pressure no matter what the car weighs. I did not feel any squirmishness at that pressure. That said have not tried R888 or CR500s.

It is a strange situation. Esslinger does not sell Zetec parts anymore officially but a web search still shows an Esslinger web site for the parts that link to the ZXtuner site. But there the cam gears are shown to be out of stock. Apparently nobody cared to remove these old pages. Fortunately Esslinger is only 10 minutes away from where I work. I went over there and asked and they still had a set rotting away in their warehouse. They were happy to get rid of them and sold me the set for $120 (used to be $320 list). So I am not going to complain. I still did not try them on but I am 95% sure it will fit.

I absolutely believe you that you have relevant Zetec knowledge. But in that regard you are not correct (or maybe too young to know ;-). The ZX1 was used on the Ford Mondeo in Europe as 2.0l and a few other models with smaller displacement. It was "value-engineered" for the US Market. They got rid of the under-piston oil squirters but I believe made the rod bolts somewhat bigger. But otherwise it is the same silvertop engine with hydraulic lifters. It was installed in Contours and Mercury Cougars from 1994 until March of 1998. Then they switched to the ZX2 with VCT. Not long ago I purchased a spare engine from the scrap yard that belonged to a 1996 Contour. You will find a few of them in older Birkins (including the Dunnell tuned engines from Pete Challinor). It is a nice engine but some spares are hard to come by nowadays. I.e. the special bolts for the crank bearings are not available anywhere in the US.

You can buy Hella hi/lo beam halogen projector modules for $127. I like them better than the HID ones because they are much cheaper, ample bright, don't have the additional ballast circuit and can flash. But they are just the core. You would have to craft a housing around it like the ones on my car, then paint them, wire and fabricate an appropriate stalk or receptacle for you car. If you have access to a 3D-printer I can mail you the .stl files that I used (if can still find them, that was 5 years ago).

Just as an additional data point...my home built enclosed tilt-bed trailer is about 1,500 pounds. It is based on an open trailer with a 3,500 lbs torsion axle intended for 2 motorcycles. Obviously that was a somewhat bigger project that took me 2 months of evening work to finish. Since I am a woodworker, the shell is all DF studs and 1/2" plywood. With my old 2.7l V6 Hyundai Santa Fe I (180hp) could actually get 19 mpg towing. With the new Santa Fe with 3.8l engine (280 hp) that dropped to 16mpg. Still not too bad. Some more pics of the build here.

Cool! Then I will just order one from Esslinger. A bit cheaper than Ken Cams and no international shipping

Aha....thanks, good comparison. Do you happen to have the ZX1 with the metal valve cover? I believe the camshafts are the same for all Zetec versions but I am not sure. I got a lead for similar pulleys from from Esslinger or CFM but they list Zetec ZX2 and ZX3. Yes, I am not that picky driving one or the other dirt road but 99+ percent of my driving is on normal pavement.

Unfortunately not. The pulleys used to be totally even outside and nicely anodized. In the meantime I found another picture that took in 2009. It shows the pulleys and that it had already dug in but not as far as it is now. Back then I just did not pay attention. The timing belt is actually kept in place by flanges on the crank pulley.

The remark with the shrinking pulleys was meant be a joke. But I replaced the timing belt and....only slightly better. Then I had a closer look and found the pretty adjustable aluminum pulleys did shrink indeed. I don't have the timing belt cover on and I guess the road dust converts the timing belt into a belt sander. After about 30,000 miles there is now a step of approx 30/1000" on the pulleys where the belt runs. Considering the circumference and that the belt goes approx 300 degrees around both pulleys it could account for about 0.16" belt slop. Maybe I should carefully check how much a new set of pulleys is.

I must admit I did not check much of my engine (old Contour Zetec ZX1) except fluids since I rebuilt it 4 or 5 years ago. Today I noticed the timing belt whipping in idle and found it to be quite sloppy. This belt was new at rebuild time. I don't think it was loose enough to skip or I would probably have noticed... I tried to take the slop out with the tension pulley, but found the adjustment slot in the pulley hub is at its end. Can it be that the timing belt stretched? I mean, the pulleys probably did not shrink Anyway, I will get a new belt and while I am at it adjust the valve timing just to be sure. Anything else to check?