1967 S3 (Millington XE 2.0L and Sadev)

[Rosteri]

Hi! I built this car from a non-rolling chassis during the past 12 months, so this is more of a documentation thread to give a little back to all the internet sources (including this site), that helped me build the car. This seems to be one of the friendliest 7 forums, so hopefully you accept me even though I'm currently residing in Europe! 

 

The starting point was a disassembled project car, that had been imported 23 years ago from the UK and even though the paperwork was 1967, it clearly had a Caterham S3 chassis already at that time, which was also somehow labeled with a Westfield chassis number. The paperwork was referring to a Lotus 1967 S3, even though in one of my Lotus books the S3 didn't start production before 1968... I was able to find a few pictures and data of this specific car from the internet with the wayback machine, it was aluminium / red and the engine was apparently a Lotus Twincam in its 90's configuration. The car was taken off from the road around 2007 and it had lived in various storages in boxes, owned by several people during the past 14 years. The previous owners had collected a random collection of bits and pieces, some were new, some second hand and some literally pure trash. It had new sheetmetal, fresh paint and a few dents and scratches from being transported around. It had a diff, shafts, wide track font parts and a newly rebuilt Type 9 gearbox (20 years ago by SPC) with Quaife clubman straight gears. I'll document this thread in chronological order, so no, there is no logic in the order... 

Edited July 11, 2022 by Rosteri

[JohnCh]

Based on your first post, this should be a very interesting thread to follow!  The mention of Millington is intriguing. 

 

-John

[Rosteri]

Thanks John! The first thing was changing the steering from RHD to LHD and sampling thru the parts. The diff had a ZF LSD in it (yes!) and I machined and welded down the original Ford backplate.  The original 13" minilite wheels were a bit corroded, so some media blasting and powder coating made them like new again. The watts linkage and the dedion axle were not a pair, so the dedion mounting point received some excenters to provide the linkages more space (with a possibility to reverse back to original. A carbon dash was ordered and arrived, but the front indicator mounts didn't feel right (too large). An old (and leaking) tank came along with the chassis. And I managed to find a seal kit for the original Girling tandem cylinder - so no more excuse to eye a new AP, rebuild it was.

Edited September 12, 2021 by Rosteri

[Rosteri]

The electrical system was selected and orders started coming in:

Motogadget M-unit blue with RF ID key

Ecumaster black ECU

AIM MXS 1.2 Strada display over can-bus to Ecumaster

Wireless buttons for steering wheel from Blinkstop

 

The car came with an old radiator, which seemed to be from a R420 (non-race). For some reason the radiator was separated from the oil cooler, which I later learned was because it was leaking... but at this stage I proudly welded them back together and fitted. The cowl was made to fit with some separate bottom brackets and by cutting of wide strip of material. I also purchased a large fan to mount in front of the coolers. The front number plate hangs low and I don't like when they bend, so some carbon fibre was laminated behind it to make it stronger. Also found a rubber 90 degree fuel filler hose. Caterham supplied the rear brakes, the car came with James Whiting Alcon 4 pot brakes (nice!). 

 

Edited September 12, 2021 by Rosteri

[Rosteri]

Then had the RHD to LHD conversion inspected by local authorities, it was easy to lift onto a small trailer with and engine hoist and my shop lift - all was ok, we were good to continue. Next was the fuel tank conversion to fuel injection. I built an in-tank swirl pot with a transfer pump that would fill the pot (VDO) and high pressure pump in the pot. 

 

 

[Rosteri]

Ordered new swivel linkages for the rear sway bar, the original Caterham ones didn't feel that great. Got some LED light inserts (Highsider, Germany) for my 5 3/4 carbon buckers that came with the car (yes!), used Kellermann motorcycle LED indicators for the front with some custom brackets - they turned out really nice. The AIM display was a nice piece of kit, however when the sun comes from the back I must say it is impossible to read - I would now go for something else. For the battery isolator I went with Cartek, so I could have a cutout on both sides of the car. Simon from Meteor provided new Nitron dampers with his custom valving. 

 

 

[Rosteri]

I decided to put all electrics inside the scuttle, but accessible, so started with a simple tray layout. Also used a laser to make some rubber seals for the tank. The battery is a Lifepo and decided to use it also to mount the ECU. 

[Rosteri]

The wheels needed center caps, so made them including the retaining springs. 

[Rosteri]

To make filling up easier I made a special nipple to connect a breather pipe to the filler neck rubber, also finalized the tank fuel system with a filter. For the ecu, fuel pump and electric fan supply I used automatic fuse switches from Blue Sea, together with the Motogadget M-unit there were no other fuses needed. Chassis wiring was straighforward, I used Mil-Spec aircraft wire and didn't use the chassis for ground at all -  I rather have one ground point which is pulled to every electrical unit separately. I also had some old Lotus logo 3D stickers made for the shifter and hubcaps. The shift knob is also custom made. 

 

Edited September 11, 2021 by Rosteri

[Rosteri]

New Tilletts B6 arrived. They barely fit into the car, I barely fit into the Tilletts... The tank honeycombs needed some trimming and it was a big relief to find the roll cage attachments in the frame. Digging them out and drilling the cage was quite interesting, I also didn't use washes for spacing but made some spacers out of alu.

[Rosteri]

My rear fenders were carbon, but not in very good shape. Also the mounting holes were pretty randomly spaced... but when I looked at the price of new ones, I decided to fix them by laminating some more material to the flange, I also used a drilling template out of plywood to help place them symmetrically. This was also becoming exciting, as I found locally a C20XE head that had been CNC ported, but no other work done to it - so Opel/Vauxhall C20XE engine it shall be! The head was soda blasted to clean it out and all oil plugs had to be drilled out, as they were simply too tight. I was going for coil on plug ignition, so distributor parts had to go... Made a break light and used Sikaflex sealant to fit it to the roll cage tube shape, then mounted it with double sided tape. Also made an engine stand adapter for the C20XE block.

[Rosteri]

Work continue on the head and I used an old 22XE block to dryfit the engine. I had some old Caterham HPC engine mounts (in horrible condition) and I was really worried about the drysump pump, as the original HPC had a fancy pump with a long driveshaft clearing the waterpump on the intake side. My only option was the exhaust side, which had the engine mount, alternator and steering column at that exact location... 

[Rosteri]

Next some 30 x 30 mm aluminium rails for the Tillett seat with multiple fixed position options. The seat is slightly tilted backwards for more head clearance. The coil on plugs came from Honda Type-R (Denso DIC-0105). The 22XE crank weighted more than 18 kg and the iron block more than 40 kg... too much!

 

The Ford diff has no handbrake cable mounts as the newer ones, so had to creative and made a bracket into the propshaft tunnel. I then routed the cables around the driveshafts. Turbosport.net sent a nice package: Drysump system, flywheel, dual clutch, larger valves, dual valve springs, race spec camshafts, cam pulleys and solid lifters

[JohnCh]

Lot of great stuff here.  For my upcoming Caterham build, I too am using the wireless buttons from Blinkstop, and an MXS 1.2 fed via CAN from my ECU.  One of the differences I've noticed between my Westfield and the Caterhams I've driven is that the steeper dashboard angle on the Caterham seems to generate a lot more glare from the gauges when the sun is behind the car.  I plan to mount the MSX at an angle so the face is aiming at me rather than the sky.  

 

How has the Motogadget worked out?  I'm also toying with including that in my build.

 

-John

[Rosteri]

And Millington sends a 2.0L (86 mm bore and standard deck height) engine block and cam cover - the weight is now bearable, this time around 20 kg. My "kit" came with a few old Bosch starter motors, so I picked the smallest one and reconditioned it. The camshafts had the distributor attachment, so I cut it off and plugged the oil passage. I was able to borrow some flaring tools over Christmas, so I switched to make some hard fuel lines. I was on a roll with the pipes, so I also made the filling venting system out of hardline and added a venting line with a checkvalve, which closes if I flip the car over. 

 

[Rosteri]

1 hour ago, JohnCh said:

Lot of great stuff here.  For my upcoming Caterham build, I too am using the wireless buttons from Blinkstop, and an MXS 1.2 fed via CAN from my ECU.  One of the differences I've noticed between my Westfield and the Caterhams I've driven is that the steeper dashboard angle on the Caterham seems to generate a lot more glare from the gauges when the sun is behind the car.  I plan to mount the MSX at an angle so the face is aiming at me rather than the sky.  

 

How has the Motogadget worked out?  I'm also toying with including that in my build.

 

-John

Hi John, that is a good idea to tilt the MXS. The motogadget has been fantastic, I love its keyless start function (mobile phone) and the fact that I can use the app to switch on everything separately to test them. The MXS actually has one output, and I'm using its built in light sensor to serve as an automatic switch between DRL and low beam - the MXS output controls one relay, that just switches the low beam output from Motogadget to DRL in daylight. Blinkstop has overlapping functions for light and indicator control, but I use it only as a relay to switch my steering wheel buttons commands to the Motogadget (to GND).

Edited September 11, 2021 by Rosteri

[Rosteri]

I also made hardlines from the tank. The drysump pump was much too low, so had to design a new mounting point and attachment plates. Saenz conrods and Omega slipper pistons arrived (only one compression ring), made a longer drive pulley for the drysump pump and started to make the engine mounts. I tried to match the HPC location for the C20XE engine, but ended up with an engine/transmission 4 mm more backwards. This doesn't sound much, but caused quite a bit of trouble...

[Rosteri]

The engine gearbox contacted the footwells on both sides... I reused the original caterham mount on the intake side, but added one support tube and an alternator mount. The alternator is usually on the other side, but this is where my pump is now. The alternator is the small Nippon Denso unit, this one is most likely from a Kubota. The new drysump mount looks good. I also make an adapter to fit a VDO oil pressure sender - Later on I end up with 3 versions of the oil pressure sensor setup before the final one due to space restraints...  And I cut the footwells for clearance. The bonnet clears the engine - great! But my new Quaife gearstick is far too long...

[Rosteri]

So the gear stick needs some attention, out comes the hacksaw again. The alternator clears the chassis tube - barely... The head receives a coolant bypass AN8 fitting. This is found in the original C20XE intake manifold, but usually not found in throttle bodies. Race engines don't usually use it at all, but it warms up the engine faster and just makes engineering sense to maintain a proper flow also when the thermostat is closed. As my engine is more rearward, I now don't match the mounting holes in the chassis... so I modify the old mount to have 4 mm offset. I used 2" Sabelt endurance harnesses, which have the lapbelt as a pullup, but had to modify the bottom mounts to fit chassis points. 

Edited September 11, 2021 by Rosteri

[kayentaskier]

WOW, what a skill set you have! Thanks for sharing this build with us.

Jim