CSR 260 Swirl Tower

[SamC]

Firstly, hello! – This is my first post having bought a CSR 260 on Saturday – I’ve been lurking and researching for many months though!

It is absolutely fantastic so far and I’m slowly getting to terms with understanding the mechanics of it. 

The first issue I have to address is a minor oil leak that looks to be coming from the lower end of the swirl tower.

Does anyone have an exploded diagram/photos/cross section etc. of the swirl tower that I could review please before embarking on the job?  Also I know I can get the seal kit from Caterham parts, however they are listing it as out of stock.  Any tips on where else to look for a supply?

Thanks! Sam 

[OldAndrewE]

Try Redline Components for any Caterham parts

[K7 VCT]

CSR260, is a nice entry level 7.

Welcome to the club

[SamC]

Cheers both.

I'll give Redline a shout.

I'm not adverse to taking it apart and seeing how it goes, but I'd rather know what I'm dealing with to avoid the sound of something plopping down into the bellhousing tank and having to drop the engine in my first week of ownership!!! 

[Wrightpayne]

My K series swirl tower doesn't have a gasket / O ring so I used Loctite 5980 which is a silicon based instant gasket. Readily available from Halfords.
 

Loctite 573 / 574 are specifically for sealing two machined faces. IIRC 573 has a longer work time and a lower bond strength. Typically used on 911 engine casings.

[SamC]

Hi all, thanks for your help.

I spoke to Caterham today and although they haven't got the o-rings in stock until next month, they did have the assembly drawing which they sent me.

This has all the o-rings and BoM on it. So I've ordered the seals individually from another supplier in a slightly better material so I hopefully won't need to do the job again.

If anyone wants the drawing just PM me.

Sam

[SamC]

So, I finally have an oil tight swirl tower! I use this forum a lot for looking over jobs I need to do before I embark on them so I thought I’d update this in case anyone else needs to do a similar job in the future. (Nothing worse than finding a thread on your exact problem but not knowing the final outcome/solution!!)

!!!Warning - long boring post unless you’re looking to strip one for the first time!!!

There were three leaks. First was the return line. The hose had taken a set and was no longer fully sealing. Nice easy fix!

Second was a nipped o-ring at the bottom of the tower. Odd as there is two o-rings here so I couldn’t work out why the second wasn’t sealing until later.

Third was when it was cooling, the small head of pressure in the tower was allowing the oil to wick up the stud threads which are thru holes into the bell housing tank.

Caterham didn’t have the o-ring kit in stock, so I asked for the assembly drawing and sourced them myself (PM me if you need the drawing or o-ring details). I changed the material from the spec’d Nitrile to FKM as that is more tolerant to petrol/brake cleaner etc. that may be in the nearby environment. FKM has a tendency to compression set (ie take a form at temperature then be less tolerant to movement), but I imagine it will be fine in this situation. If not, I’ll go back to Nitrile.

I cleaned the thread bores with a brake cleaner soaked cotton bud as best as I could, then put Loctite 577 on the studs.

When re assembling I found you needed to time one of the internal tubes, but it was impossible to do so whilst assembling it all at the same time. I ended up installing the internal tubes and top manifold without the main external tube fitted so that I could align everything, then (using a smear of Silicone grease in the big female o-ring grooves to retain the big 88 x 1.5mm seals) I fitted the outer tube and the top manifold.

It was then that I noticed that if you tightened the sleeve nuts the studs all splayed out! On closer inspection they were bending the lower manifold which opened a gap between the second o-ring and the main tube, hence why it wasn’t sealing properly. So I did the sleeve nuts up finger tight (just enough to torque the top k-nuts), and once the whole thing is assembled these won’t really be required. I’ve torque sealed it just in case so I can see if the studs start to loosen.

Most of that will be jibberish/irrelevant to the majority, but I thought it was only fair to contribute back to what is rapidly becoming a very valuable source of information for me! Hopefully someone finds it useful at some point!

[John Vine]

Good stuff!

If you have some photos, your write-up would make an excellent Maintenance Guide.  If you fancy having a go, ask Shaun for info on how to upload it.

JV