jean materne

Hi Christian, Is your cage still available ? I'm looking for a Roadsport cage for my car, an ex-academy 2003 model of which the cage had been replaced by a standard roll bar when I purchased it. If Christian's cage is not available anymore and if anybody has one for sale, I'm in the market ... Or, where is the best place for purchasing a new one ? Thanks for your replies. Jean

Hi Tery, I haven't noticed anything of this kind. And in these conditions the ride is smoother than with the 175/55 R13 CR 500 fitted on the car when I got it. I have checked, the pressure is 1,5 kg/cm² (which is closer to 22 PSI) but I had tried 1,3 - 1,4 kg/cm² before and in these conditions, I could feel the lack of stiffness of the flanges. Increasing the pressure by 0,2 kg/cm² made a huge difference and a car much more pleasant to drive. Now this is just my experience with a car which I'm still discovering. I have no idea of how these tires would behave on a racetrack. I just like to say that for those who want 185/70 R13 tires and who are happy with fast touring, the Rain Expert look like something to try.

Hello to all. This is about my recent experience with 185/70 R13 Uniroyal Rain Expert tires. My car being an ex-Academy model and the official paperwork mentioning the original 185/70 R13 tires size, it must be fitted with such tires for passing the yearly MoT inspection here in Belgium. So, as the Yokohama A021R were not available anymore, I purchased one set of Uniroyal RainExpert, not being convinced that it was the best possible choice but as there was not much information about anything else more recommendable…. They were fitted on the car just before the trip to UK, beginning of November last year, for attending the London-Brighton run with other members of the Club. So I had the opportunity to test them on a long journey. It was a good surprise. With a pressure of at least 1,6 kg/cm² (23 PSI), the flanges are stiff enough for the car to offer a good stability and precise steering (at least in my opinion). These tires were very satisfactory and offered an excellent grip for the fast ride which we had on little twisty roads, in all sorts of treacherous conditions . Besides of that, compared to lower flanges tires, they offer more comfort and good cruising speed at lower revs, which can be appreciable on long distance trips. What I’m not so found of, is the look of the car with these tires, especially from the rear as their profile is not the sexiest... For the summer anyway, I intend to buy a set of Appollo wheels which I will fit with 185/60 R13 Toyo R888 and I will take this opportunity to have the set up checked (although I can’t feel anything really wrong with this). I guess the car will handle even better with these tires and I’m very curious to compare. Last good thing with the Rain Expert : they are not very expensive. If anyone has a similar or another sort of experience with these tires, I’ll be glad to hear about it. Like about any other advice concerning recommendable tires for 13” wheels.

I wonder why this T-bleeding part is not something standard on all the K-engines. Before fitting that one which can be seen on the photograph, I had also battled with an erratic water temperature (the fighting was also due to an expansion bottle cap which was not perfectly tight - water level raising excessively in the bottle and eventually coming out). With the T-bleeder at the highest point of the water circuit, the filling is extremely easy and the bleeding doesn't require any special awkward operation. For those who don't know, this is the procedure which I have used and which has given me total satisfaction (water temperature rising very quickly and stabilizing at 82-83 °C - and this for the last 1300 miles without touching the coolant circuit) : Remove the expansion bottle cap and the radiator upper bleeding screw Fill via the T-bleeding piece : water flows gently in both loops (the by-pass loop - including the heater for those who own one - and the radiator loop) The water fills progressively all the cavities in the engine and the pipes. As the level goes up, water starts to appear in the expansion bottle and as it reaches somewhere between the minimum and maximum, it also normally starts to flow out of the radiator through the bleeding port left open (screwing a small plastic pipe in this place allows to make sure that the level of water gets a bit higher and that the radiator is completely full) It is the time to close the expansion bottle with a (perfectly tight) cap and quickly put the radiator bleeding screw in place. Then one has just to complete the filling of the by-pass loop, eventually pulling the T-bleeding part upwards, so that the final level of water is above the highest point of the heater and makes sure that no air is trapped. When the T-bleeding part is full, just put the cap on it. Hoping to have been helpful to some of you, I wish you all a happy new year. Jean http://www.heberger-image.fr/data/images/40990_IMG_1397.jpg

Thanks to all for your answers and advices. I just ordered the part from Caterham, with reasonable delivery charge to Belgium (!). And hopefully, it should have the "old style" plug.

Good evening, I need a new temperature sender (as shown on the right of the picture) for my 2003 1.6 k-series engine. Can someone tell me the name of the manufacturer (VDO?), the part number and where it can be ordered ? Many thanks in advance for your help. For those who remember my (long) thread about k-series (presumably) oil sump gasket leak, it was in fact the rear crankshaft seal which was faulty (as someone very early mentioned). The engine has been taken out of the car and the seal replaced. Oil and water were filled in last night and the engine started at 1 AM. We tested the connection of the water temperature sender and it is OK, the sender is faulty. I'll get back to this repair with a few pictures in the corresponding thread. Thanks again to all those who offered advices and comments. Jean http://www.heberger-image.fr/data/images/23771_temperature_sender.jpg

Glad to read such good things about k-series sump gasket. My problem with this gasket is not yet solved (refer to the post I started in January - I've stopped posting, afraid of feeding up the community...! ) : one careful installation of a new gasket : leakage apparently from the rear wall of the sump removal of the gasket, careful inspection of it and of the sump, careful installation again : leakage from the rear wall of the sump again removal of the gasket, careful installation with Loctite red RTV silicone : same storythe sump is off the engine again and I don't know what to do or what to check. If someone hasn't read my post and has some idea or similar experience to share .... Thanks

Little update. No time for working on the car during the last two weeks. Today I drilled 3 holes in the gasket "shelf". I'll try to find the right RTV silicone sealant this week so that the (hopefully) final repair can take place next week-end. http://www.heberger-image.fr/data/images/35928_IMG_0757.jpg

Thanks for the advice Geoff. I believe we did it that way (we have torqued the two bell housing screws at the end, I'm sure of that, but maybe they were already too far just before that final tightening) and I'll certainly do it that way when I'll put everything together again for good. As I said, I'm very curious to check if the holes in the bell housing and the threaded holes in the sump are properly aligned when the sump is pressed against the bottom of the engine. Not possible this evening unfortunately.

Thanks for this proposal Bob, I've just seen your post. My gasket is still in very good condition and I'm sure I can reuse it, probably with some good sealant after drying it. Elie Boone actually suggested that the two horizontal screws linking the sump to the bellhousing might prevent the sump to be properly pressed against the sealing face of the engine (did anybody experience it ? - slight misalignment between the holes in the bell housing and the holes in the sump) This is well possible, details of the pictures which I took after the removal of the sump seem indeed to show some evidence of that. I'm going to check and I'll keep you all informed if it is the case.

Thanks Ian

Hi Ian. If you've read my previous posts, you've understood that I won't (and can't, from Caterham at least) buy a new gasket. I'll try to do either without it or with the one I have + sealant, and in this case, I will punch some holes in the "shelf" of it. Any clue, whereabout or how far back I should look on the blatchat to find a bit of direction for this modification ? Again thanks for your help offer. And enjoy your visit in Belgium.

If the sealing faces match perfectly, it is indeed worth trying with some sealant and no gasket (this is what is done on the k-series Lotus Elise engines). As I said in my previous answer, I will check the matching of the two faces and I'll also follow your advice about the short lengths of studding. For information, I called Darren at Caterham this morning to find out if they had any new gasket on stock. They haven't and won't have before 3 - 4 weeks. He advised me to clean the gasket as well as I could and fit it back with some sealant. He told me that it should work. Thanks to all.

The top face sealing surface looks OK, quite smooth and without any dent or any sort of defect. I will anyway test pressing the sump against it without any seal just to check how the two surfaces fit together.

Thank you Ian. I'll check with Darren or Tim (at Sevens & Classics). I would like to be sure however that the new gasket which I have just removed cannot be used again. It's very nice of you to offer me this service but I would not like to cause you any trouble and as I said previously, I won't probably be able to attend Elie's party on Sunday. We'll keep in touch anyway.