Gridgway

Sadly I have had cause to take the head off my newly built crossflow. One of the things I have noticed (apart from some valve to piston contact) is that the block doesn't seem to be machined orthogonally to the bores. One one side (the exhaust side, not that I think it matters which side) the piston crowns is dead level with the top of the block. On the other side the piston crowns are about 0.33mm proud of the block. By my schoolboy trig, that seems to be about 1/3 degree off orthogonal. All the pistons in the bores as references are the same, so it's lateral wonk and not fore to aft wonk. Whilst it's offensive to my sense of geometry, is that actually a problem? It certainly means the squish will a bit different from side to side, if that matters. Cheers Graham

What a great thread. At the moment I'm just doing a few fixes. Next winter I'll be assessing the wiring. I'll take the scuttle off and decide what to do. It's only got two fuses atm, so I'll definitely sort that out. I can see my challenge. Rectifying it rather than a whole new loom! Although if I could get a suitable caterham loom for the period I'd probably go in that direction.

Vehicle wiring products also do tracers by the meter for 1mm (and possibly above)

That looks good Tony, thanks. Looks like thinwall is the thing now.

In my BDR project in its fixer-upper stage, I am doing some small wiring jobs. I expect to be doing some more proper rewiring next winter. I essentially have some Halfords wire 5A and 17A, but that's running out, so need to get some more. I could of course just pop to Halfords and get some more, but I thought I would seek advice on here about what's best. If I look on Polevolt for example, they (only) have thinwall cable in a range of plain colours from 0.5mm (I assume that's 0.5mm square mm cross section) up to 8.5mm. Theie min postage fee is quite high for small orders. Any recommendations of what type of cable to get and who to get it from in reasonably small quantities? Thanks Graham

I do understand that it's a harsh environment in the UK with salty roads and I'm personally ok with having my 7 off the road over winter, I too think it's not really good enough. Useless powder coated chassis tubes have been a thing for ever more, They were a thing in the mid 90s when I got my first Caterham to use as a daily. It literally rotted away. And no I didn't man-up, get out my wire brush and POR-15! That's nearly 30 years ago! Mind you when I got my next one, an SLR and asked Caterham about any head gasket issues - they brazenly said "oh no we don't see any problem there, we've never had a head gasket failure" Bit then it was ok with my R500 that firstly grenaded at 450 miles (not the bearing issue), then sat around with it's new engine for 6 months whilst they worked on the R500 solution. Quality is definitely at the forefront of all they do!

I'm still not getting this. The oil pickup must be substantially below the level of the oil to be pumped. How does lower air pressure affect this? Also how much below atmospheric pressure would a sealed crankcase be? And is this related to oil usage (burnt) that the OP is asking about?

Not sure the catch tank is an issue as there's nothing in it?

I'd say that was what my SLR used to use on a track day. Nearly caught me out first time as I thought it used nothing! That was no oil used on the drive to Barcelona, thirsty at the track and nothing on the drive back (to the UK).

Well I still think that the underneath chassis protection is not up to the mark. I've POR-15'd as much as the next man, but on a Caterham which is a couple of years old, it's poor.

Almost anything which is more than "put it away when the salt came and got it out again when the salt left in the Spring"! Rightly or wrongly, they don't do well being used with any amount of salt down

apologies I mis-understood. But still they have definitely serviced Caterhams in Caterham and then when they moved that operation to Gatwick.

can't give a specific number but my SLR used pretty much nothing on the road, but I remember a lot being used on track

Well that's not the case. I used to get earlier caterhams serviced at the factory when Len Unwin was in charge of that bit!! Then they used to do servicing at the showroom by the station. Then that all moved to Gatwick.

Yes indeed Jonathan. Just my thoughts 1 I assert that even those standards which claim ethanol proof don't seem to produce hoses that have longevity 2 Good point, but it's not hard to find fuel hose that is proof against ethanol and no sensible Caterham DIYer will be fitting cheap tat I suspect! 3 Many (petrol) cars last a long time (measured in decades). The Fabia on the drive is 17 years old with 130k miles. It doesn't seem to need new fuel hoses Something doesn't stack up.

Just a silly off the wall question, but are we sure that it's ethanol that is the problem? My BDR resto project had fuel in that was pre-ethanol (yes, that old) and the fuel pipes were completely shot. I think it's a very difficult problem of very poor quality rubber that just hardens and breaks with exposure to petrol. Nothing to do with ethanol. But that's just a theory.

Looked rather like car washing 101 to me! Anything equivalent out there about how to rust proof the rust attracting bits?

sorry, probably being unobservant here, but can someone point me at the LED lights on ebay? Thanks!

Ok, so it was a rhetorical question. As someone else has point out, these cars new are huge prices, it's not unreasonable that they have chassis paint/coatings that last for more than 5 minutes and survive damp and salt! Feels like the cars are put together from generic tat from your favourite kit car bits supplier!

Is that what caterham say?

I'll have to disagree with that. The only neglect that comes into car warranties is failure to service. Not failure to wash. Not failure to scramble underneath every year and fruitlessly spray anti rust stuff everywhere. The general acceptance of shockingly poor quality of paints and coatings around caterhams astonishes me.

Well if they don't provide any terms they can't use them to refuse to fix stuff under warranty!!

Caterham Gatwick not caterham at all? Yes they were! Weren't they?

Ah the most hateful job. Lying on your back on a cold garage floor with the underside of the car 2" from your nose trying to clean off then paint!

What bushes would you do and why? The Caterham metallastic bushes are virtually indestructible and are certainly not in need of replacement on a car of this age surely?