VHPD oil consumption

[allegro]

Lets just take over this one. smile.gif

 

Andy Mac

teeth.gifOut of Control RED SLR teeth.gif

[Lawrence_Z]

FWIW

 

My K used lots of oil when new...around 1 litre per 500 miles :(

 

Caterham eventually discovered that my car and another had the piston rings fitted upside down...... by Rover when built, I may add

 

Since then virtually no oil consumption over 20,000 more miles :)

 

Lawrence Hoy

Scottish AO smile.gif

[Jon B]

Further to all previous threads, my SLR has been returned to Dartford for a full inspection (within warranty period). They have just phoned and informed me that the piston rings have failed, they are removing the engine and doing an engine strip down.

 

Any views on how this could have been caused or what questions I should ask when they call back?, are there other problems that can occur in the engine when the rings fail i.e loss of pressure leading to.....?

 

Cheers

[V7 SLR]

Piston ring failure? Hmm, I'd want reassurances that the pistons and liners are OK too then. And possibly the head/valves. If there's bits of rings being pushed about, they could have got into bearings, and ooh... everywhere.

 

I take it this is all under warranty, if so, don't worry about why it failed. Worry more about whether they will rebuild it properly. Not that there's anything wrong with their engine builders. It's just that originally the VHPD engine is built by Minister and NOT Caterham.

 

What you've had is NOT a normal failure as far as I have seen. Just make sure they rebuild it properly (i.e. that there's no other failed components) then engage in some sensible running-in procedure. I doubt you'd have the same problem again.

 

Edited by - V7 SLR on 16 Oct 2001 14:39:31

[Mike Bees]

Didn't Janspeed build at least the first batch of VHPDs?

 

Mike

[V7 SLR]

Not sure.

 

I know that PTP and Janspeed (same company?) were involved in (or totally responsible for) the VHPD head, and a friend with a 190 Elise says that Lotus AND Janspeed were responsible for the building of his engine.

 

Certainly (as certain as I can be using only the information from Caterham which changes according to who you speak to) from when I bought V7 (Nov '99), only Minister have built Caterham's VHPD engines.

[Jon B]

Have spoken to Dartford, their Caterhams engine guy will be doing the re-build. The engine won't be going to Minister. They say they outlined the spec on the VHPD, with Minister constructing and supplying so there is no need for it to go back there for any work.

 

They feel they have plenty of experience to fulfill such a project besides sounds like they will not allow any warranty work to go outside their business. I assume at the end of the day Caterham should know what their talking about as it's their engine builder doing the work

[V7 SLR]

Please don't think I'm trashing Caterham's engine builders because I'm not. All I'm saying is if they say it's rings-only and go to replace them without inspecting other potential problems (like if bits of rings have "travelled") then they'd be remiss. I think they probably will have a good look through the engine. Their engine building facility is a sectioned off part of the factory with good tools and stands, and looks to me like a nice enough place to work. If I was a Caterham engine builder, I'd go to work with a smile on my face.

 

Oh, think I'd better lie down.