JohnCh

Jim, I am running the Ford viscous coupling unit from the Sierra. I believe some people are using these in Caterhams (I have a Westfield) but for a new car you are probably looking at either a plate-type LSD from the factory or a Quaife. Consequently I am not sure how much relevance my observations have with respect to noise and clunking. That said though, the only time I am aware that I made the change is when I accelerate out of a corner...or do donuts ;-) -John Throttle Steer

Jim, This summer I upgraded my car from a 120hp crossflow to a 190hp Duratec. I never really missed having an LSD with the crossflow, but traction became a huge issue with the Duratec, so I installed one at the end of the year. The LSD was a great addition and has made the car a lot more fun to drive. Highly recommended! -John Throttle Steer

If you want a lot of photos, then don't miss Tom's build pages. -John

I just replaced my A032Rs with Toyo T1-S in preparation for USA2005. They're quite light (although I don't believe they are quite as light as the CR500) and early impressions are very favorable. Size & weight data is available here. -John

I have never felt the need for a self cancelling feature when I drive the car, but it seems that none of the other people who drive it can ever remember to do it manually. Since one of those people is my wife and she doesn't like me telling her how to drive ("honey, The turn signal is still on") I think it will come in handy :) I really bought this unit for two reasons, the first of which is pretty stupid: 1) for some inexplicable reason I wanted steering wheel mounted turn signal buttons and the only ones I could find that I liked were momentary style which won't work with the standard setup. I tried to find a circuit that would enable a momentary button to act as an alternate action switch, but I couldn't find anything without the self cancelling feature that wasn't really bulky or obscenely expensive. 2) I liked the brake light feature. At first I thought the strobe-light effect would annoy those behind me, but then I realized that I would rather annoy the guy in the SUV behind me who has one hand on his cell phone and the other on his latte (oh the joys of living in Seattle) than have him rear end me while approaching an intersection. BTW I went home at lunch to take care of puppy duty and discovered that if the right signal is on and I push the left button, then it will switch to a left signal rather than turn on the hazards as I guessed earlier. -John Throttle Steer

I haven't tried that yet (I just finished up the install yesterday). My guess is that you need to cancel it first or the hazards will come on, but I will give it a shot when I get home tonight and report back. -John

I just performed this conversion a couple of days ago. I looked at the unit from Signal Dynamics, but I didn’t like the fact that you need to remember to hold down the button for different lengths of time depending on how long you want the signals to operate before canceling. I finally came across a brilliant little unit manufactured here in the States but typically not sold to the public (he prefers an OEM model, but quite frankly I don’t think he is pushing this item at all). The signals self cancel after 15 seconds, but the countdown clock doesn’t begin until after the brake pedal is released. You can also cancel the signals at any time by pressing the button again and pressing both buttons at the same time will operate the hazards. Lastly it has a very interesting safety feature that flashes the brake lights 3 times upon initial application to alert the person behind you that you are actually on the binders. I opted to hook up the last feature just to my roll bar mounted brake light, but you could just as easily set it up to work on all the brake lights. When I mentioned to the owner that there was a small, but untapped opportunity with the Se7ens and Cobra kit car market, he asked me if I would like to become a dealer. If the unit lives up to my expectations, I may take him up his proposal and offer a group buy to BlatChat and WSCC. Pricing would most likely be around $65 although I may ask if he can modify the unit to add some user adjustability (length of time before the unit cancels, adjustable audio output, etc) which would affect the end pricing. Is this something that would appeal to folks? Thanks, John Throttle Steer

I am running the LM1 in conjunction with an Emerald on my Duratec. It works great! -John Throttle Steer

Here are the dimensions for the Golf rad I am using. The matrix is 430 x 325 and the matrix with header tanks is 525 x 325. Add 7mm to the width for the fan switch bump out located about 150mm up from the bottom, and add 5mm to the height where the header tanks join the matrix. let me know if this doesn't make sense. Cheers, John Throttle Steer

Glad to. I'll try to measure it when I get home tonight. Cheers, John

I am running the rad from an '85 1.3L Golf in my Westfield (VW part no. 171121253CJ). It is the same external dimensions as the Polo rad, and shares the same header tanks, but is a dual core so it offers additional cooling. Mine weighed in at only 1.755kg, which is 5.735kg lighter than the boat anchor that came with the car! -John

Does anyone know the flow rate of the stock injectors for a 2.0L Duratec? I am switching to higher flow units and need to know the flow of my originals so I can update my Emerald map without having to start the tuning process from scratch. Thanks, John

Make that 5 posts I opted for the 2.0L since the power & torque potential seemed more than enough for me, and I felt it would be a little more rev happy with the shorter stroke. BTW the car returned this weekend from the shop that built the roll over bar and exhaust manifold. A few photos are located here -John Throttle Steer

It's already happened here in the States. Beginning in model year '04, the Focus offers an optional 2.3L Duratec outfitted for ultra-low emissions (PZEV). Part of that emissions package is the coil-on-plug design. -John Throttle Steer

When I ordered my bits from Raceline, I asked Chris about the necessity of the key way mod. He told me not to worry about it while I am still running the stock cams, however, once I upgrade to the 220hp spec (next winter?), then it's mandatory. John Throttle Steer