After a routine compression and leak down test revealed a blown head gasket, a partial engine teardown exposed some nasty surprises: a warped head, three badly galled exhaust cam bearings, and four heavily scored cylinder bores. Not good, and very surprising given the engine ran well and never hot during my ownership. Depending on your perspective, I then had either a stroke of good fortune, or a lapse in sound financial judgment. I picked up a recently completed OmniTech (aka John McCoy) 1700cc stroker from a local owner who had sold his Elan during the long engine build and no longer had a use for it. ​

Although the engine was a lot more than I wanted to spend, it was considerably less than the original build cost and was a great spec: new block, with shot peened SCAT 1600 crank and rods, 10.5:1 CP pistons, Stromberg Stage 3 head conversion, OM-420 cams, baffled sump, and more. John recently broke it in on his engine dyno where it put out 162hp at 6333 rpm, but I suspect power will be closer to 150hp installed in my car given the differences between his dyno exhaust system and mine (large bore 4-1 vs. smaller 4-2-1 header). 

The engine came with the mechanical fuel pump removed and a block-off plate installed, which paved the way for an electric fuel pump conversion. A Facet Gold Flo pump was installed in the well next to the fuel tank behind the right rear wheel. A few custom hose brackets were printed to keep things tidy. This was also a good time to update the plastic fuel line that runs to the engine bay to an ethanol resistant Cunifer hard line.

The engine comes with John's preference of a points-based distributor system. He made it clear he doesn't like the 123 Ignition I was running on the old engine as he has reliability concerns and strongly prefers points-based systems. However, given I optimized the harness for the electric ignition, and had the tach converted to RVC, going back to points means some minor rewiring, which I don't wish to do. I also like the fact that I can have the ignition curve dialed in on the chassis dyno. At some point, I will likely switch to a 3D ignition, which is easier with the current wiring.

Sourcing parts has proven a longer process than expected. The Fidanza flywheel is backordered until the end of January, and the HD clutch, Weber linkage, and several other parts are proving troublesome to order from my preferred source. I think the holidays have been getting in the way and shortening their work week. The Coolex aluminum radiator with dual fans, however, has finished its trek across the pond. On my scale, its 7 lb lighter than my outgoing twin fan radiator.

Given I'd like to keep the engine clean, yet period correct wherever possible, I've opted for a black powder coating finish on the Coolex rather than bare aluminum, and for rubber fuel hose with worm drive clamps, rather than braided hose with AN fittings.

The airbox came from Famous Frank, purveyor of great interior reproduction parts. It has consistent depth across all four intakes, but is optimized for the standard, slip in velocity stacks, rather than the bolt on air horns fitted by OmniTech. Because the throttle linkage plate is sandwiched between the air box and carbs on #2 and #3, this leaves an air gap the thickness of this plate at #1 and #4. A few measurements and spacers were printed out of a suitable material for the area.  

After much internal deliberation, I'm opting to keep the RD enterprises header already in the car. If it proves to be too restrictive, I'll do the TTR large bore header down the road. I am, however, upgrading to their 2" exhaust now. The existing intermediate pipe has some issues, including an area necked down to 1.5" where the WBO2 bung was added, and a creative, but nonstandard mounting system. 

Shifter improvements - There are several mods available to improve shift quality ranging from easy to hard and from nearly free to ~$2K. I decided to start with two of the cheapest and easiest. First, after experimenting with adding weight to the shift knob and feeling a difference, I purchased The Bollock knob from Inokinetic. On my scale, weight increases from 118gr to 367gr (vs. a claimed 400gr) and it is a slightly larger diameter at 1.9" vs. 1.8". Second was Stan's Mod which adds shims, typically in the form of washers, between the floor and the bottom of the sheet metal shifter frame to reduce lateral play. Rather than washers, I opted to 3D print a custom spacer to maximize the footprint and to match the sawtooth shape of the floor rather than just sit on the tooth peaks. The photos of the spacer below show the POC version printed in PLA. The final version was printed in PETG-CF.

Between the two, shift quality is improved. It's a big enough change that I don't believe it's a placebo effect, yet not so big that it elevates it into the realm of good shifters. It has, however, moved it further into the more-than-acceptable-for-me category.

​Seats - Seat comfort has been considerably improved through a combination of tilting it back a few degrees via 3D printed spacers and adding the Sparco kidney/side pads. For the pads, I wanted to make sure they could be removed with no damage to the leather and ideally affixed in a way that allows slight repositioning. The fix was a sandwich of Command strips affixed to the seat, then EVA (a flexible closed-cell foam) stuck to the adhesive side of the Command strips, and finally adhesive backed Velcro loop material is attached to the EVA. The pads, which have Velcro hook material sewed to their backs, mount to this sandwich. This setup will allow for fine tuning of the pad position, while providing enough strength to keep them in place. Or so I hope.

Earlier, I had tested a Command strip on an inconspicuous part of the seat to check for any reaction to the leather or dye. After a couple of weeks with no issues, I'm optimistic, but I will pull them in a month or two to confirm, and then again after a longer period. Provided things are still okay, and this fix holds up to regular ingress/egress, I'll cover the pads with Alcantara for aesthetics and consider it done.

Tires - The car came with AD09s that had aged out. Unfortunately, that tire is no longer available in the US in 195/50-16 needed for the fronts, so after digging through a number of reviews, I went with the Bridgestone RE71RS. Not a good standing water tire but reportedly does well on wet tarmac and very well on the dry stuff. Given how I'll use the car, this should suffice. Tramlining, grip and ride were immediately improved with them installed. It's hard to say how much of each is down to a better tire and how much is due to it simply being a fresher tire. Regardless, these are very noticeable improvements.

Alignment - After the tires were installed, the car had its first alignment since leaving the factory. Because I will drive the car almost exclusively solo, I opted to limit ballast (176 lb.) to the driver's seat. But I did stick to the factory's other recommendation of 1/2 tank of fuel.

The target numbers are based on the commonly recommended settings on LotusTalk:

• Front: maximum achievable negative camber with all front spacers removed, and 0 toe.
• Rear: -2.5° camber each rear side, and 3mm (0.40°) total toe in.

The stock settings have significantly less camber front and rear, with a tiny bit of front toe out and a little less rear toe in. Caster is unchanged.

The top table shows the starting alignment numbers followed by the final numbers in the bottom table. Coming in with positive camber on the left front, and total rear toe over double the recommendation, was surprising. Even if I wanted to stick with the factory settings, things were still well out of whack.  

The great rewire project of 2025 is officially underway.  After nearly 11 weeks, the new wiring harness from AAW arrived.  While waiting, I pulled all the carpet, fixed a failed vacuum switch for the headlight pods, disassembled and refurbished the dash switches, refinished the nasty seat brackets, had the tach rebuilt and updated to work with the electronic ignition, figured out why the tach was blocked from mounting in the correct orientation rather than clocked by ~ 10 degrees, replaced the center console with one that is much higher quality, and started working out the plan for the incremental work I will tackle as part of this rewiring project.

First, in the unexpected scope creep category, the carpet needs to be replaced.  It was poorly cut and some cuts were made in a way that left big gaps which couldn't be filled by repositioning pieces.  The quality was also not great.  Because original-style loop carpeting is no longer available, a search has been ongoing for something close and cost effective.  After much internal debate, I've decided that it's better to buy a kit rather than source carpet and attempt to cut everything to shape myself.  This, however, does limit my options.  I am still waiting on one lagging carpet sample to arrive before deciding whose kit and which carpet to order. I may also redo the underlayment by strategically applying Dynamat Lite to quell some noise and potentially replace the felt underlayment with a more modern, lightweight material from DEI.  The stock fitment doesn't include insulation on top of the transmission tunnel behind the dash, or on the sides of the tunnel next to the seats.  I'm not sure why the former is excluded, but the latter is simply due to available space.  Thin Dynamat will fit perfectly in both places.  Click on a picture below to launch a captioned slide show.

​The AAW loom is overbuilt. Most of the wires are 12 or 14 gauge, with some as large as 10 and a few as "small" as 16 gauge.  Mounting the powerblock as supplied was problematic from an accessibility standpoint.  It's big and because the relays remove from the side and they point in opposite directions, finding a location that didn't intrude into the passenger space was a non-starter.  To address this, a new mount was designed and printed from PET-CF that points all fuses and relays forward and attaches to the firewall behind the glovebox.  I will fabricate a new glovebox dimensioned differently from stock and include a door at the back for access to the fuses and three of the relays.  The other six relays will be located immediately below the bottom of the glovebox.  Still easily accessible, but out of the way.

Next up is starting the actual rewiring process.  That sounds really simple.  Yeah, no problem at all...

I tackled the Porsche and Westfield logos this week. Both were surprisingly easy to trace, but the printing was time consuming, taking nearly a full day. For the Porsche logo, I opted to max out the Bambu's print bed and went with 5" tall letters that result in a 6' long logo. The constraining factor to print size was the width of the stylized letter E -- it's wide! Taking a cue from Porsche dealer signs, I went with red filament. 

The Westfield logo was a little more involved. Their logo is two colors: silver on a black background. Although I considered printing it as a single part, I opted to break it into two 9-3/8" (238mm) diameter pieces, plus the Westfield name, then press fit everything together via pins and mating holes printed into the surfaces. This gives it more dimensionality and it was also a new thing for me to try. Unfortunately, I am out of silver filament and had to substitute light gray, which isn't ideal. It looks fine, but the logo really needs silver for the starburst and name to pop. I'll treat this as a POC for now and will reprint it when I receive my next filament order. 

UPDATE 01/29/25: I ordered a silver PLA Silk+ from Bambu Lab and reprinted the Westfield logo. Unfortunately, I wasn't aware until after the initial test print that the Silk is finicky to print and is not recommended for use with my 0.6mm nozzle. As a result, the finish is a little inconsistent. Fortunately, it's not something you notice from a few feet away and the bright finish looks much better than the gray. Photos were added to the gallery below to show the difference.

I decided to try my hand at tracing a couple of car logos and printing them from PLA. My first attempts were the Caterham written logo that uses their custom font, and the Lotus logo using the font style and layout from the logo used until the early '70s. For scale, each letter in the Caterham logo is 4" tall (100mm) and spelled out is a bit under 50".  The Lotus logo is a little smaller, with the diameter of the C in the ACBC portion coming in at 6.5" and the letters a little over 3" tall (80mm). Each piece is attached to the wall with a non-hardening adhesive putty which makes it easy to make slight adjustments. Photos below include close ups of the finish. Next up, are attempts at the Porsche written logo and the Westfield starburst logo

If you're a car enthusiast — and if you're reading this blog, then you either are or you're horribly lost...or you're my mom — you really need to investigate 3D printing. Learning enough CAD to make interesting parts is surprisingly easy, and with a good 3D printer, the printing process is very straightforward. 

Although I show a number of the 3D parts created for my Caterham throughout this site, it's not the complete list, and those photos are spread across multiple pages and blog posts rather than cataloged in one location. I also haven't discussed the CAD software and 3D printer used for these projects. With this post, I hope to correct those shortcomings. 

CAD software
When investigating CAD options, my objectives were simple: it should be free or inexpensive, easy to use, and should have a good support base via forums or YouTube videos to help me learn how to do various things. After a lot of research, I settled on OnShape. Is it the best software that currently meets those criteria? I have no idea. Do I regret my choice? Not at all. It's been easy to use, there are a ton of good YouTube channels that explain how to do different things, the forums are vibrant, and I've been able to pound my way through various design quandaries to produce things I had initially assumed were out of my reach. 

3D printers
There are a number of choices today and a lot of YouTube reviews that dig into the pros and cons of each. After whetting my teeth on a Prusa Mini +, I graduated to a Bambu X1C for the Caterham parts and I love it. The Bambu can print engineering materials like Nylon, which require higher print temperatures and an enclosure to prevent warping, as well as various features like lidar for the first layer that make printing really easy. I also love the fact that the camera allows me to monitor a print while I'm in the house or my office. I have absolutely zero regrets with this choice.  Bambu's printers just work and they're easy to use.

The gallery below contains the various 3D prints I made for the Caterham that I remembered to photograph prior to installation. Click on a photo to launch the annotated slide show which describes each item. Hopefully these will give you some ideas and inspire you to pick up this skill to supplement your car hobby. Afterall, if I can do it, well...you have no excuses.

V2 of the Beeline mount is finished.  It relocates the display from the face of the dash to the top of the scuttle, where it's in direct line of sight while driving.  To make this location work while maintaining the design brief of being quick to mount/unmount without leaving a trace, it was clear the magnetic clamping system required a big redesign.  After straining my few remaining brain cells looking for the right solution, I eventually opted to change from a large standalone magnet that clamps to a thick steel washer embedded in the mount, to a two-part mount with several smaller magnets embedded in each section.  This smaller footprint allows the mount to fit on the leading edge of the scuttle where it overhangs the top of the dash.  I had initially dismissed this location as an option for anything other than a screw or spring clamp given the overhang is less than an inch at the top and quickly reduces to nearly zero due to the rake of the dash, but this just fit.

To add a little more friction and to protect the paint, the bottom of the base is covered with 1/32" thick neoprene sheet.  This setup has proven even easier to mount/unmount and store in the glovebox than V1; it literally takes just seconds.  Although a short test drive revealed no movement issues, a proper blat is still required before calling it done.  If there is movement, the plan is to stick with this design but invest in higher quality magnets to increase the clamping force.

Two weekends ago, I drove the Caterham followed by the Westfield.  That second drive confirmed the MOG seats are definitely more comfortable for me, but I also noticed they are slightly more reclined, which is a contributing factor.  Subsequent experimentation with rake revealed an additional10mm lift in the front of the Caterham's seat is my sweet spot for comfort and driving position; that's the equivalent of one Tillet spacer. Rather than use those spacers, which only achieve partial contact with the seat base given the base isn't parallel to the runners when tilted, I decided to print spacers designed to fit.  Certainly not necessary, but it soothed my OCD.  

​An 80-mile blat Sunday confirmed this seemingly simple change has made a noticeable difference to comfort.  For me, the MOGs are still a better fit, but that difference is now far more tenable.  I can live with this.

That drive was also a great test for the Beeline.  It proved that while it isn't perfect, it's still pretty damn good.  The biggest glitch occurred when approaching a street on the right, that from memory, was the direction we needed to take.  However, the Beeline indicated the next right turn was still over 8 miles away.  As I passed the street, the blue LEDs suddenly flashed twice, indicating the next turn was 50 meters ahead.  The display then immediately showed "rerouting" and a few seconds later instructed me to make a U-turn.  It felt like an indecisive backseat driver was telling me how to get somewhere, but at least it ultimately got it right.

The other issues are really just annoyances.  It appears the Beeline treats a waypoint as a direction point, counting down the mileage until reached and flashing the blue LEDs when 50 meters away indicating you're "almost at the turn."  That's fine when a waypoint is actually intended as a stop, but when not, it can be a little confusing for the perpetually paranoid; OMG did I just miss a turn??  There were also a couple of occasions when extremely tight turns resulted in the same behavior.  I suspect the road names changed at these points, but it was still a bit confusing, particularly when it's a blind corner and my paranoia tells me there must be a street immediately after the apex.  

The magnetic mount worked great with no movement from g-forces.  The display position is fine, although I may experiment a bit with a redesign that would place it above the top of the dash and therefore directly in line of sight.  Although more optimal for visibility, I'm not sure I want the Beeline to stand out quite that much.  With the current dash mount, it looks like some type of permanently attached gauge, and not something for a mouth-breather to opportunistically steal while the car is temporarily parked out of sight for an on-tour meal.  Regardless, the original design brief of an easily removable mount that leaves no trace will remain.  I have a couple of ideas though and may print some test parts this week.

Smart phones are amazing devices. By simplifying many tasks that were previously considered complicated or time consuming, they bring convenience to our daily lives. But when that same convenience makes you accessible to the office 24 hours a day via email, texts, Teams, Zoom, etc, it quickly loses its luster. Particularly on those occasions when you're trying to decompress from work. And nothing helps me decompress from the daily grind more than driving an engaging car down a back road for no other reason than to bludgeon corners into submission. That means looking at my iPhone for navigation while on a blat in the Caterham presents a contradiction.  

Enter the Beeline Moto II. Beeline combines a navigation app optimized for planning fun-to-drive routes, with a small device that leverages your Smart phone's GPS, but streamlines the directions into a small 37mm diameter screen that provides just the information you need to get from point A to point B. It's a simplified map display that shows both the distance to your next turn and the direction, as well as the current speed limit and how far into your journey you've travelled. Additionally, a small LED blinks once when you're 200 meters from the next turn, and twice when you're just 50 meters away. There are other screens available such as a compass mode that always points towards your destination, speedometer, journey progress, and battery levels of both the Beeline and your phone. Bottom line, it packs a lot into a small space while allowing you to keep your phone in your pocket where it's less of a distraction.  

​The Beeline is also light. Obviously, this weight is incremental to your smart phone, but at just 42 grams, the Beeline doesn't present the same type of load to its mounting system as a phone. This matters when you are bludgeoning corners into submission. Just ask anyone whose phone went left while their car went right.

For my installation, I 3D printed a small mount angled to face me and embedded a 3mm thick steel washer into the base. A fishing magnet located at the back of the carbon fiber dash grabs onto the washer and holds the mount in place. It's very secure when underway and very easy to mount and unmount, leaving no trace upon removal.

I rarely use sidescreens on the Westfield, and don't expect that behavior to change with the Caterham.  This means I need a safe, out of the way place to store them.  Unfortunately, my storage method for the Westfield's screens – fold in half, place vinyl windows face-to-face, then store in a made-to-fit bag – won't work for the new car.  Whereas the Westfield's method to secure the screen to the body when underway is a snap fastener on a small strap at the rear, the Caterham places its snap on the bottom of a foldable armrest that covers the lower door opening.  It's a better design as it firmly seals the bottom of the sidesreen at speed, but the armrest prevents the screen from folding flat for storage, and when it is folded, the armrest pushes against the vinyl window which can lead to distortion over time.

​The solution was to wall mount the screens in the garage.  I opted to mirror the car's mounting method and orientation by 3D printing receivers for the hinge pins, then attaching those to a piece of scrap plywood offset from the garage wall.  To increase visual interest, a removable 7 logo was printed to cover the screws that secure the top section to the base, which in turn is mounted to a wall stud. Click the first photo to launch an annotated slide show.