New to site few questions about CAV GT

[Veek]

Hi Nathan,

I think most of your questions have been answered but I would like to offer some suggestions and reinforce some other comments.
1. I have an early MONO CAV and I've been really happy with it. There have been several issues I've dealt with that in most cases had to do with errors in the engine installation, (hose routing causing water cavitation, wrong starter, loose drive coupling bolts etc.), and my own learning curve. So I'd recommend you get someone that has built out a CAV before to do your car if you buy new. They'll have learned some of the quirks and will be a great source of knowledge to you.
2. Keep an eye out for a used car and you may just stumble on something. I found my car through friends in the exotic car business and got a pretty fair deal.
3. See whatever you are going to buy first. The RF saga is a sad lesson and the idea if spending $65-75K sight unseen on an E-bay item is a very courageous choice indeed. Instead, you can network with forum members (as you are doing) and have someone knowledgeable go with you to see a car of interest. Before I bought my car I had the guys at Alex Job racing go over it and they saved me a lot of money in getting a host of little things corrected before I put down any cash.
4. Alignment, alignment, alignment! I've held a national SCCA competition license for decades and I still wasn't prepared for the scare of the bump steer effects of one of these cars under hard braking. It took a while, but once the set-up was correct, it was night and day. For the unwary, these cars can be lethal though. I wouldn’t try to set any track records on my first outing.
5. Be prepared to do your own work. I suspect you won't find any two CAVs exactly the same. Bob Childress' car is a great example of the incredible quality that an owner can add to a vehicle. I suspect the day I finish my car will be the day I sell it.
6. My CAV insurance is about the same as my Corvette but the insurance company knows it's a weekend driver. That was the one problem I was worried about but it was a non-issue. They actually insure a couple of CAVs and knew the car.
The only registration hassle I had was the CAV VIN has fewer digits than normal but the DMV was eventually able to show a little elasticity on the issue. Their big concerns were that I wasn't trying to re-badge something stolen. Once they looked at the car it was no problem. I live in Florida so your NJ folks may not see it the same way.
7. Dynomat makes great sound and heat insulation for the cockpit and BSR makes heat shielding for the rear deck. The first makes normal speech possible underway and the second preserves the paint and rear shell from the engine heat. I think they are a great add to any car.
8. I also added a license plate 3rd brake light and LED interior lights because I thought they looked cool. (When I want to horrify my adult son, I threaten to put purple neon underlighting to the car)
9. If you shop a CAV made before the AutoFutura era, verify the front safely upgrade was done with the lower ball joint block hardware and the ignition switch relay kit was installed.
Hope that helps.

[Bob Gaines]

Veek, would you explain in a little more detail about the front lower control arm safty issue and the ignition switch relay issue? I have #36 mono and would like to know.Thank you. Bob G

[CliffBeer]

Veek, ditto on Bob's question. If this improvement falls into the "must have, safety issue!" category then I'm sure there are more than a few other CAV owners who would like to hear about it.

Thanks in advance!

[Veek]

Hi Folks,
I think we've covered the ignition issue recently on the forum. There is a pretty simple test. Take the car on the road and turn on everything electrical at once. Wait about 5 minutes and if your ignition key it warm (mine was quite hot) to the touch, you probably need the upgrade. You can contact Roy Sayles for the upgrade kit or I can e-mail you a diagram to fix it yourself.
On the front ball caps, I want to emphasize this is only an issue on pre-AutoFutura CAVs. I have a 2004 letter in a PDF file from AutoFutura announcing a warning and a check procedure. (I thought it was great that they were doing this even though my car was from the pre-Autofutura era when they had nothing to do with the problem, they still helped with a solution.) I'll see if I can attach it. If I can't, please shoot me a PM with your private e-mail addresses and I'll send it to you from my home ISP as an attachment; same thing goes for the ignition upgrade. Once we get the CAV Registry up and running, perhaps we could house all the things of this nature on a server.
As an editorial comment, the fact that John, Jean and Lana at AutoFutura have been so helpful to me personally with information and support on stuff like this is one of the best things CAV has going next to the "CAV Users Group".

[Nathan]

Thanks again Veek.

There are several things I got going for me. The 914 guys are without any doubt the best group of car guys in the world. I have 2 guys that I can rely on for any alingment issues. They are used to dealing with problems like bumpsteer. Had to do a bump steer to my 914 already.

Second is we have a shop to use. The company that lets us use there shop is building an even bigger shop with everything. Paint booth, powercoating possible water jet. So we do have access to anything and everything you could imagine. I'll be making foglight and turnsignal brakets from scratch this sunday. In 2 weeks a splitter.

Something tells me they wouldn't mind taking a look at the GT40 either

I'm pretty sure I am gonna get a new car. The shop in NY that puts the motors in for CAV is gonna have a brand new one in there shop next week so I will see one for myself then.

I'm starting to get some prices down and I think the car I want is gonna tip the 100k mark

[Ian K]

Originally Posted by turboman808

Hey just wondering what you think I might be looking at as far as price for a roush 402 IR with a 6 speed ZF transmission installed? I'm gonna meet the engine builder in a few weeks but curiousity is killing me.

ROUSH Performance Engines



But yeah something like the roush is what I want. 50-100 more hp would be even cooler though.

Thanks again guys!!!

Last I saw, a 6spd RBT ZF is $16K US - and that may not include any work
necessary to flip it over. You'd also probably want to upgrade to 94mm CV
joints at extra cost. And there is an optional 6th gear - 0.642 instead of the
standard 0.704.

Ian

[JCoop]

Cliff, I didn't realize you "stole" your GT. Great deal!

Veek, I think it would be a good idea to post the ignition relay mod diagrams in the gallery section here. Ditto for Bob Childress' pics that take it a few steps further with the A/C wiring mods. You both have been a great help to us CAV drivers.

I can attest to the necessity of these mods to the early CAVs. Very important safety issue as well.

[Veek]

Hi Folks,
Attached is the wiring diagram which comes with the ignition relay kit. I have a big warning that goes with it. NOT ALL AUTOMOTIVE RELAYS HAVE THE CONTACT SPADES IN THE SAME ORDER. They may look alike in the plastic bubble in the parts store but they are not. Check the relay to be sure the spade numbers are consistent with the diagram. If you don't you could burn up your wiring, your car and you! If you need to do the mod, my recommendation is you locate your CAV dealer and get the kit; that way the risk is eliminated. The relay I used is the Bosch 30A #0332019 451.
__________________

[Veek]

Let's try the attachment again...

[Veek]

Sorry about the resolution on the diagrams. That's as good as I can get without exceeding the file size limit.

[JCoop]

Great, VEEK


BTW, if anyone needs one of these relays, I have an extra as the minimum order from my source was 2. I think it's $4.

[Veek]

Not a problem. I received an e-mail that the attachments don't show on some screens. So I'll reduce it one more time and see if that gets it. If you still need it, send me a PM with a e-mail address.