LocostUSA.com

Learning how to build Lotus Seven replicas...together!
It is currently March 29, 2024, 12:35 am

All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 3 posts ] 
Author Message
PostPosted: November 22, 2022, 8:27 pm 
Offline

Joined: January 27, 2010, 1:11 pm
Posts: 540
Location: Jefferson City, MO
We had a nice day today in mid 60s in mid Missouri, so I pulled the Se7en out for one last drive, but she is now tucked away for the winter. :cry:

Now the winter projects can start.

Last winter, I rewired the car and fixed a brake balance issue. This winter I have a few more projects to work on.

1) Last year, I built a megasquirt but didnt get around to wiring the car for the megasquirt. I want to get the car running on the megasquirt. Going to keep the car fully stock otherwise, but the long term plan is a mild turbo. I am still collecting the parts for this though.
2) Fenders - I keep saying I am going to put fenders on the car, but never seem to get around to it.
3) parking brake - the car originally had a parking brake but my cable splice to extend the miata cables snapped. I prefer having a parking brake so I want to fix it.
4) Radiator Shroud - I am running the ubiquitous civic half radiator, but I never put a shroud around it. When I do eventually put the turbo on, I am sure the cooling system will be taxed more and I wont get away without the shroud. So I want to get the shroud out. Its good practice even without the turbo.
5) Coolant piping - I did the coolant reroute common to NA Miatas. To get the coolant from the rear of the engine to the radiator, I have a steel 1 1/4" hard pipe. I want to swap this out to a piece of aluminum or copper.
6) Coolant swirl tank - to bleed the coolant system, I have a ss bend at the rear of the engine with a bleed port at the high point. I wan to remove this and install a swirl tank at the rear passenger side of the engine. This will give me a better way to bleed the air out of the coolant as well as a better way to check and top off the coolant. Right now the cap is under the nose cone and its a long drawn out process to pull the nose cone due to the front splitter I now have on the car. It should also give me a little extra coolant volume to help with the previously mentioned turbo. There are a few premade swirl tanks, but I am going to try my hand at fabricating one as the hole I have is tight.
7) One of my rod ends is starting to get loose on the front left upper A Arm and needs replaced. I got about 5500 miles out of this first set. I will order a few and do a good check on them as I do my bolt check to make sure I don't have any others wearing out already.
8) Roll bar - i have a new roll bar main hoop. that I want finish into a second bolt on bar that is shorter than my current one. My current bar is built to meet SCCA specs for size and height. I am tall and with a helmet to meet the broomstick test, it has to be very tall. without a windshield it looks a little odd. The second hoop I have is bent to match the angles of the kirkey seats I have so I want the height to follow the kirkey seats as close as I can.


What are your winter projects?

Chris

_________________
Build on

Chris
Build: NA Miata based +221 Se7en


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
PostPosted: November 23, 2022, 11:15 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: October 24, 2008, 2:13 pm
Posts: 5326
Location: Carlsbad, California, USA
One of my "projects" will be following your experience with the MegaSquirt wiring and install. I kept my donor computer and wiring, but keep thinking it's smarter to change over to MegaSquirt as it is so well supported and there are tuners who know it well.

Please post about it when you can.

Happy Thanksgiving,

_________________
Damn! That front slip angle is way too large and the Ackerman is just a muddle.

Build Log: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=5886


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
PostPosted: November 26, 2022, 1:27 pm 
Offline

Joined: June 15, 2010, 8:29 am
Posts: 651
Location: Duxbury, MA USA
I also have a Megasquirt project. I had a grounding issue with the MS in my Europa and it was impossible to find the stray ground, so decided to redo the wiring and connectorize everything to make things easier to take apart. I have relay boards in the Seven and the Europa and I dont like the screw clamp connections. Anyway, the Europa setup seems to fit the bill so I think a winter project will be to do the same for the Seven.
Took the Seven out yesterday for probably the last time for the season...temps around 40. Summer tires are teflon...my gosh, wheelspin everywhere. No joy in the corners as I did not trust the grip, so its time for its long winter nap.

_________________
Parts left out cost nothing and cause no problems!!


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 3 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Jump to:  
POWERED_BY