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K Series Glazed / Damaged Cylinders - Engine Gurus Please Help!


revilla

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It's certainly been quite a journey, and quite a learning curve for me!

My car was getting the reputation of being the "2-Stroke VVC" (thanks to Ian James for that one).

@Golf Juliet Tango: I understand where you are coming from when you say "You have also convinced me to leave my engines to a professional!", but I don't regret tackling this myself for one minute. The sense of satisfaction you get when you finally beat something that has been testing you for this long is incredible.

I'm a committed K-Series and VVC lover, I love my Caterham and I want to keep it well into my old age if at all possible. Parts are already becoming more difficult (and more expensive) to get hold of and I think there's a danger of a lot of the accumulated body of specialised knowledge of these now obsolete engines being lost over time. They are different and unusual in many ways and I think the more that people can do to learn about these engines and get involved the better (although I know its not everybody's cup of tea, so please don't think for a minute that I'm berating you in any way for not wanting to strip your engine!).

I will be forever grateful for all the help and advice I've had from the likes of experts such as Dave Andrews, Dave Fender, Roger Fabry, the collective Power of BlatChat and many others (sorry if you've helped me and I haven't mentioned you) who have had the time and patience to help me work through problems and offer advice, even at times when I've felt I've not been able to send very much in their way in repayment. I've learned so much about what makes these engines tick (quite literally with a VVC!), their oddities and foibles, fault diagnosis, engine building techniques (and a lot of it by doing it wrong the first time and learning from my mistakes) ... I just hope I get plenty of chances to pay it all back to the Caterham community as a whole and contribute a little towards keeping these K Series on the road for many more years to come.

I'm finally beginning to feel that I have rock-solid, good-as-new engine to enjoy. If it doesn't have to come to pieces again for twenty years I'll be happy - but I think after all this time I'll miss building these engines, so I'll have to find alternative ways to keep myself busy in the garage *smile* 

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I just hope I get plenty of chances to pay it all back to the Caterham community as a whole...

I think you've done that in spades already, Andrew.  You're well respected as the K electronics man-to-go-to, and now you can add "VVC specialist", not to mention "tech documentation wizard", to your CV!

JV

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I think there's a danger of a lot of the accumulated body of specialised knowledge of these now obsolete engines being lost over time.

This is where the club has a very important role to play. We wish Caterham Cars every success in developing the car but we can be those who maintain the repository of knowledge.  Many members (if I remember correctly it is about 40%) are of long standing (at present this is defined as over 10 years) and they have the knowledge.  It is for this reason that Barry produced the faq pages on "yellow Blatchat", these became and were extended for the guides section on the new site and will progress into the TechWiki currently under development.  For the same reason, we created the LowFlying archive.

 

As for expensive parts for obsolete engines I can only say "I run a Crossflow in the Seven"

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