cookni Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 Hi, i've recently bought myself my first Caterham (1995 Vauxhall 2.0ltr 16v on carbs, HPC). I am wondering what oil i should be using and if anyone has any links to websites where this can be purchased. The vehicle has completed 20000 miles Secondly, My oil pressure once the oil/engine has warmed runs on idle at 2bar and when gunning it, at 4bar is this ok? if not what sort of things should i be looking at? Cookster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Area Representative peewee7 Posted August 6, 2009 Area Representative Share Posted August 6, 2009 Cookni, Firstly welcome to the Se7ening fraternity! As a new comer you will no doubt have many questions that will need answering, I have always found doing a search delivers… There is an awesome amount of info available above… Cant help with the first question but as for the second, I’d go down the mechanical oil pressure side of things as the standard CC sender is well known for its will to die and deliver a good reading… If you’re behind me and can read this, its because I’m letting you.... Pee Wee *arrowright*Pictures here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan c Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 Hi I have a similar set up and generally see between 4 & 5 on the prssure guage depending on how cold the engine is, generally I know its nice and warm when its down near 4. I can't say I have really looked at the reading at idle but i dont think its as low as 2. I wouldn't get too worried as the guages are not that accurate or reliable, an upgrade to mechanical is on my list of jobs to be done soon. I use Mobil 1 but can't remember which grade and can't look right now as I am about 5000 miles away from the car. Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger King Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 Your oil pressure is normal. It is not uncommon to see it drop much further at hot idle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caterhamnut Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 what Roger says. We were well into the red whilst queing at the tunnel a few days ago on a hot day - the odd blip helped. You will get lots of suggestions for oil, but I have happily used fully-synthetic from Halfords for most of our 106,000 miles. Silver plastic bottle in store. Others use Mobil 1 (£) Comma etc etc etc Angus's Adventures in Sevenland Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reg Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 The oil pressure guage is simply a waste of space on the dash. I don't track the car so why the hell would I be concerned about it? I don't recall ever owning a car with an oil pressure gauge before and have certainly never had any concerns about it in any other car. Personally I'd rather be watching the road than a hopelessly unreliable gauge. Welcome to the bizarre world of Caterham! 😬 Reg Marjason Silver 1800 K-series Roadsport C7 SEV www.marjason.co.uk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dickie Normuss Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 Cookster, for what it's worth mines just over 2 bar hot idle, just under 4 bar cold idle and just over 4 bar when 'pressing on' 😬. I use Mobil 1 0w40 (I think) but some people advocate 5w30 (again, I think) to avoid noisy tappets VX HPC - Loud and proud here Adding power makes you faster on the straights. Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick Day Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 I don't recall ever owning a car with an oil pressure gauge before and have certainly never had any concerns about it in any other car. Personally I'd rather be watching the road than a hopelessly unreliable gauge. That's a very profound statement. I think it was Stirling Moss who said: "An OP gauge gives all sorts of indications to the health of one's engine; a warning light just tells you it's time to buy a new engine!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Deslandes Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 Welcome to the world of proper grunty engined 7s. Assuming your gauge is roughly accurate then your pressures sound fine and you'll soon know if you have a problem as the hydraulic tappets will get noisy if the oil pressure or circulation drops off. Assuming you have a standard wet sump, if you're going to do an oil change you should also consider changing the foam baffle in the sump, unless you know that its been changed in the last 2/3000 miles. The recommended interval is 6000 although experience suggests that this is too infrequent and 3000 is probably better. This may be to do with modern fully synthetic oils attacking the foam and causing it to clog or break up. Unfortunately this means removing the sump but there was a thread on this topic in the past week which will give you a few tips if you want to have a go. There are several mods you can do to improve the oil system which has always been a bit of a problem on the Vx engined 7, with its very shallow sump limiting the amount of oil in circulation and causing surge and loss of pressure on high speed corners. None are too difficult and it depends on whether you intend to use the car on the track and if you want to get in there and have a go. Have a search in the archives or blatmail me if you want some more info. The engines are pretty much bomb proof provided you don't do anything too silly. Enjoy! Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadsport06 Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 Cookni, welcome to the world of oil pressure threads. I was never concerned about my oil pressure, the sender was poor from the start! After a year it was flickering like mad so I fitted the mechanical gauge set up (do a search if you want to swap over to this) and my gauge is now reliable. Yours sounds fine. Matt Lewis motorsport, does 0w40 Mobil 1 01922-692424 or 0791 0818110. He has an ebay site, but if you call him and stock up he should do it at a very good price. Last year I got 6 bottles of Mobil 1 for £22.50 each. I live near so pick up. I think delivery is £8. I need to call him later this summer to stock up again and see what price he can do the Castrol Edge Diesel 5w40 PD oil for my wife's tractor engine 😳. BRG and Yellow nose now with added brooklands Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reg Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 That's a very profound statement. I think it was Stirling Moss who said: "An OP gauge gives all sorts of indications to the health of one's engine; a warning light just tells you it's time to buy a new engine!" Well in that case my oil pressure gauge has been telling me it's time for a new engine for 10,000 miles (and it's only done 18,000 in total). 😬 Costco is another place for cheap Mobil 1. Reg Marjason Silver 1800 K-series Roadsport C7 SEV www.marjason.co.uk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookni Posted August 7, 2009 Author Share Posted August 7, 2009 Thanks guys, this has been some really interesting reading along with some helpful info. In answer to some of your questions: Think i'll deffo look into a mechanical OPG for the future but for the time being i'll try not to get too worried about the reading (difficult when it's a new toy you love so much) I've been contacted by a sevener fairly local who can supply rqd oil at a good rate......V Nice! think i'll look at 5/30 for tappet purposes???? Any advances on this comment???? Paul, enjoyed your comments and in reply; previous owner recently had sump pick up pipe clearance checked along with cleaning anti surge foam only a month ago, so assume, for now ok but again some thing i'll get involved with when rqd (found previous thread on this). However, i do fancy improving oil system, at present haven't got any intention to track the car but would be interested in what options are available. Once i become more familiar with the car i'm sure i'll have plenty more queries. Thanks once again guys. Cookster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mavic82 Posted August 7, 2009 Share Posted August 7, 2009 For what it is worth... Pressures are fine, choice of oil??.... I would steer clear of Mobil personally but that's just me. Castrol, Millers are fine. Guy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I reply to every thread Posted August 7, 2009 Share Posted August 7, 2009 The Mobil 1 0W is too thin for a VX - It can lead to low pressure and noisy tappets. The Mobil 1 "motorsport" blend - which I think is 15/30 is fine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lotus Boy Posted August 8, 2009 Share Posted August 8, 2009 My two penneth as a fellow VX owner. Car has always been on Comma Syner-G 5w/40 which is the recommended (by Caterham), except for one fill at 5w30 GM's own synthetic. I don't think running a 5w30 would be an issue. Agree though that Mobil 1 is probably too thin. The Mobil Motorsport oil is 15w50 and favoured by some of those who upgrade their VX's. I have switched to a mech OPG (Think Automotive - speak to Matthew Potter) but only because I have had two failures of Caterham's hopeless gauges/senders. Glad I have done it now though. As Paul says, a good thing to do is do the SBD mod (soz but no time for linky but easy search on here) which modifies the cam cover to stop oil failing through the inlet when cornering hard. Was a GM eco design but is designed for the engine when mounted tranversely. Simple job (can send you some pics of mine and info if you need it) and stops those heart stopping moments of seeing massive plumes of smoke pour out of the exhaust! Cheers Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lotus Boy Posted August 8, 2009 Share Posted August 8, 2009 Cookni - just realised you are in Essex. So am I! In Colchester If you want to meet up sometime that would be cool. Dave Edited by - Lotus Boy on 8 Aug 2009 09:12:01 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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