gundersen

Quoting Birkin S3 ZA.: One other thing that can cause the exhaust sound to be louder is the cam timing, the further the exhaust cam is advanced the valves will open sooner and let a bigger pressure wave exit the chamber. But its not one of the things I would not recommend trying to change, just something you can consider when you are planning to build a new motor. Now that sounds interesting...why don't you recommend changing it? I would think that it would be quite easy to do the experiment if verniers where fitted. Can't valve to piston contact, which I presume is the most imminent danger, be checked by turning the engine over by hand?

Seems to me that whenever oil is being discussed factual arguments tends to leaves the room 😬 But I am watching this space with great anticipation.

Thanks for the replies @Mankee: I have ordered some acousta-fil, so lets hope that it takes the edge off. I have never had a static reading done, it has always been drive by readings. The meter stands 1/3 up the straight, and I was probably around 6-7000 rpm in fourth or fifth. It seems that the sound is not so much related to the actual rpm's, but more related to how much pedal I am giving. @Grubbster: Good advice, but the silencer itself seems to be pretty uniformly colored. The perforated tube also looks intact the whole way down, so since it was packed last year it makes sense that all the stuffing is there. @Rj: I am hoping that it was a one time thing with an overly strict track marshal. Perhaps I should let Carsten try it next time and see if I can hear where the noise is coming from, I just thought I was pretty safe with the airbox...

Recently at a track day and got measured at 107dB on drive by, the limit here is 100dB so I was quite close to getting kicked of the track for the day I simply cannot understand why my car makes so much noise! The setup is: * VVC engine with solid 285 cams (185bhp) * Jenvey throttle bodies with bernard scouse airbox * 7" powerspeed 4-2-1 exhaust with cat The exhaust is only a year old, but just to be sure I had it disassembled to check if there where any stuffing left. And it seems there is. I am desperately trying to avoid Carsten's solution, so any recommendations are very welcome 😶‍🌫️

Trouble is, that while drive by lift off have been a good solution at Padborg Park for some time, they are now banning cars just for "sounding too load". Even if we don't trip the meter (singular). That said, I got a 107dB at the meter on the first run, so that might be why they had an extra eye out for me the rest of the day.

I was under the impression that the R888 was a suitable alternative, how come there is almost no mention of them here?

@Birkin: Good luck with the Omex, based on the little communication I have had with them they seem like really nice guys Quoting dannylt: Why bother with sequential? Batch injection with single injectors is good for 300+ bhp, and is simpler...It is my understanding that batch vs. sequential has nothing to do with top end bhp. Sequential injection offers better emission and fuel economy (if set up properly), but at the cost of added complexity and tuning time.

Quoting Birkin S3 ZA.: ...but still needs the starting fuel mapping done right, Its been over two years now since it was fitted. I would like to stick with companies that know what's going on, I do live in a third world country 😬 Aahhh yes, not a sunshine kind of story I can only relay information that I got from my tuner, and he was none too impressed with Emerald but Omex was a lot better. When I was researching which ECU to use, I came to the conclusion that as long as you stick to these low budget ECUs there really isn't much difference. But it is quite difficult to make a comparison without having tried them out, as they all can do pretty much the same. And all brands have proponents and opponents... If you are feeling brave and in a DIY mood, you could always try a MegaSquirt

Quoting Birkin S3 ZA.: The place I use has not seen any of the UK makes and suggests trying our local ones, that I want to stay clear of.How come? Mostly asking out of curiosity as I have just bought a locally developed and manufactured ECU...locally to Denmark that is, not South Africa 😬 The one I got works like a charm, has a rock solid reputation, and the best part is that the guy who developed it lives 30 minutes from my home and does the tuning himself.

I get what you are saying, and it makes sense. But surly the environment in a ultralight or microlight aircraft is ATLEAST as extreme as a Caterham with aero. And I assume that radio communication is quite important to them, so they must have found some way of making it work

Quoting Molecular--Bob: Unless you are mapping it yourself, i would ask the rolling road and see if they have a default option that they know well. Emerald may very well be the best choice if you are near it's creators, but going outside the UK very few tuners know of them. Talk to your tuner/RR and see what they recommend, all ECUs does the same thing anyway

I was looking on ways to make the starcom work with the aero, and I got to thinking. Since most motorcyclist wear a helmet, the motorcycle style headsets might not be the best suited to un-helmeted aero driving. So I thought that the ultralight/microlight air planes might be an environment more similar to our caterhams than a motorcycle. They are not exactly cheap, but not prohibetively expensive. This company makes several types, and their top model cost $275. I found this description of headsets, and their properties... Has anyone tried using such a headset in the Caterham? or any general thoughts as to the probability of it working 😬

Quoting rgrigsby: The later model Autocoms have a background noise sensor which seems to make a huge differenceFunny thing is, that TecStar (owner of both starcom and autocom) strongly recommends Starcom for "kit cars". I wrote to both starcom and autocom sales and got an offer for starcom from both

Hi Ian, Sounds like an interesting project you got going there As Oliver says, fueling is not that hard to get almost right. I believe that the Megasquirt software even have an auto-learning mode that can help. Ignition is impossible to get right without going to a rolling road where they can measure the power. So if I where you, I would set the ignition timing conservatively and then play around with the fueling using the learning mode. It would be a shame to knock the engine to pieces. ps. have you tried looking at the values from some of the Emerald maps available? AFAIK the Emeral software is available free of charge.

@Piers: Looking forward to the review @daz: I am in the exact same spot, many different settings on the box and add to that the different types of headsets and you got yourself a big pile of steaming hot confusion. But generally I can gather from the lack of responses that there isn't many, if any, that has gotten the Starcom to work with an aeroscreen

I have decided to ignore the noise issues for a while, and focus on getting the basics up and running. So far, I have been unable to find a usable configuration that will allow me to talk/listen whilst driving anything above 30mph with the aero. Have anyone gotten this to work? if so, I would very much like to hear: 1) What headset are you using 2) How is your starcom unit configured (vox, muting etc.) 3) Any other useful bits of info that might help Currently I am using a set of standard starcom peltor ear defenders, but the wind noise is deafening and vox is not working probably

I did a similar thing over the winter (although as mankee I replaced the VVC mech). I found the cylinder liner retainer clamps (18G 1736) at rimmerbros, but they where pretty expensive (£217.00). So I just used a block of wood held down by the old head bolts, but if you are going to do a lot of work on it that might not be a good solution. I am not sure you need the retainer clamps if you lock the flyweel, but no doubt somebody with way more knowledge than me can advice on that. In the end I used the same gasket as Mankee. I tried a MLS one first, but that one leaked badly (quite possibly my own fault). If I did it again, I would definitely get a full gasket set...you will need all of them anyway

Quoting Jonathan Kay: What was the local name of the solvent you used? Some "methylated spirits" = "denatured alcohol" contains added oil, usually petroleum oil. this, to the best of my knowledge it is clean. The wife uses it for polishing windows, so it can't leave much behind Oh, and I used 292...not cheap.

A mis-application perhaps, but one widely recommended on this forum Also: "Sikaflex®-292 is suitable for the structural jointing of marine components that are subject to a high degree of dynamic stress. Ideal applications include the bonding of the reinforcing grid and bulkheads to the hull shell, as well as the bonding of fly bridges, ceilings and rubrails or bumpers." quote: http://www.sika.com/ So if we are getting into pedantic mode, we are all mis-using it since it has been designed for marine use.

Reading your comments about white spirit I thought that can't be right, it doesn't leave any residue behind...but it seems that I and my lack of understanding of British household chemicals is the source of the confusion. What I used, and wrongfully termed white spirit, was denatured alcohol. As far as I know, it doesn't leave any residue behind. But as always this is an eternal argument, and people will always be split into gluers and bolters, and I just switched camp 😬

Only a sandwich between the bigheads and the wings, used two bigheads for each end of the wing so four bigheads pr. wing. But it was the bond between the sikaflex and the wing that broke away, so I can't see any amount of sleeving/tubing fixing that.

Until yesterday I was a firm believer of Sikaflex, but loosing a wing down the straight at full chat is scary! I had roughed up the area with the back of a knife, degreased with white spirit and let them cure for three days before driving. And the wings stayed on for about a year, until yesterday. So, from now on it will be bolts for me 😬

I am very appreciative of all the input! 😶‍🌫️ I think the diagnostic way forward is: 1) Check all earth connections, especially the one at the right engine mount. Perhaps even add an additional earth directly from the battery 2) Disconnect the alternator belt 3) Try and disconnect the plug leads one by one Provided that the noise goes away at any of the steps, I should have a pretty good idea of what is going on. Fortunately I have a track day coming up this Monday, so it will probably have to wait til after that. But I will be back with an update

Both positive and negative connected directly to the battery. What you are describing sounds a lot like a ferrite choke, I tried one of those to no effect Oh, and I forgot to mention that it is an k-series EU3 with (standard) wasted spark ignition.

Thanks guys for the input. @Ian: No, nothing else connected. The test setup is as simple as it can get: straight power cable directly from the battery to the starcom unit, then a single headset plugged into the unit as the only thing @Rj: I will see if I can catch you today @TJG: Good idea, I was looking for ways to test it...but it is a bit hard to disable the ignition while keeping the engine running 😬