Jonathan Kay

Have they changed since 2001? Jonathan

They might be assuming different types of flasher unit, but I think there's a workaround. Jonathan

Go ahead, laugh, but I had to work out which way the grain should run! Jonathan

Wire colours, please Jonathan

Throttle pedal positioning isn't odd IMHO. I'm a bit shorter than you and had to pack the throttle pedal to get the surface close enough to me even after using the closest position. Currently that's a piece of oak railing but now I've got the position I should ask someone to weld a plate there instead... Jonathan

Smart call. It will soon be fixed and you'll know it's good. Jonathan

I can't tell how much you know already. Do you know about the ways that track days are often organised: "open pit lane" and "sessions"? Preparation of most 7s for a trackday is very simple and obvious. There's lots in the archives on first trackdays: I suggest you have a look round and come back with specific questions. The instructors have seen it all before: don't worry about that. :-) Jonathan Edited by - Jonathan Kay on 31 Mar 2014 16:41:18

They are officially called anti-rattle clips, but that's not quite identical with saying they don't do anything else... are you going to find out for us experimentally? Jonathan Edited by - Jonathan Kay on 31 Mar 2014 16:33:06

There's a supplier of long stainless clips in this thread or you can daisy-chain shorter ones. Jonathan Edited by - Jonathan Kay on 31 Mar 2014 16:30:42

:-) TPS is a good idea! Jonathan

I don't think that it's anything to do with the change of fuel. I'd start with simple things first. Have you had a good look at and play with the the throttle pedal, cable, and linkages? Can you replicate the poor response when you play with the throttle by hand? Jonathan

:-) The bit I don't know is the pressure relief settings on different (common) 7 engines... AMENDED: The current cap on the Caterham Parts website labelled "Cap - Expansion Bottle - All Cars Not CSR" and "Cap - Expansion Bottle - Rover and Sigma" has 110 kPa written on it. (About 1.1 bar.) Jonathan Edited by - Jonathan Kay on 29 Mar 2014 19:23:50

Lots are 22mm. Can you see a serial number? Have you tried PlusGas, freezer spray and tightening it a bit first? Jonathan Edited by - Jonathan Kay on 29 Mar 2014 18:54:25

Sort of, but the figure of 100°C is misleading. The conventional practice is to run our engines all year round on a mixture of water and ethylene glycol which, of course, is best known as antifreeze but also elevates the boiling point even without pressurisation. (There may be some motorsport applications where it's better* to use water on its own.) So if you take the pressure cap off the time taken to get down to 100°C isn't relevant. Most (nearly all?) 7s run a sealed system with an expansion tank that is pressure limited at around 1 bar. (Does anyone have a definitive source of that figure to hand?) The increased pressure also elevates the boiling point. The things I would like to know about the suggested advantage of waterless coolant in reducing pressure are: 1 What is the liquid coolant pressure in practice? 2 Does decreased coolant pressure matter in an engine that was designed to run on a pressurised mixture of water and ethylene glycol? Jonathan * Because water has a higher thermal capacity than other coolants. Edited by - Jonathan Kay on 29 Mar 2014 18:36:36

AMENDED AFTER CROSSED POSTS Probably. Modern cars do drain some current at rest for alarms and life support for some fancy electronics, and IIRC someone in another thread had a rule of thumb for allowable current. I'd take it to an auto electrician after simple things as suggested above. Just one other thought: it's unlikely with your story, but new batteries can be duff. Jonathan Edited by - Jonathan Kay on 29 Mar 2014 12:16:47

*arrowup*That was an interesting typo. Were you thinking of the effect of Aaron the system? ;-) Jonathan

PS: I have no problem believing that in some cooling systems in some vehicles in some settings waterless coolant could have advantages. What I'm trying to find out is whether for most 7s in most settings it has any. From what I can tell so far this isn't the case. AFAIK nearly all of the cooling problems reported in BC are related to air in the system or thermostats, not to the coolant fluid. Jonathan

Thanks. 1 If anyone would like to see this demonstrated there's a video on the Evans website. 2 Where are those temperatures of 97.5°C and 125°C? 3 Caterbram referred to pressures in the system. Taking the cap off tells us about pressure in the gas headspace. If the comparison is between two fluids with different boiling points that test tells us nothing about the pressure in the liquid part of the system: in the block, the head, the hoses etc. Jonathan Edited by - Jonathan Kay on 29 Mar 2014 10:53:06

Quoting CaterBram: Definatley little or no pressure in the system and it appears to have more evan cooling.Thanks. How have you measured the pressure and evenness of cooling? Jonathan

Waterless coolant is discussed here and here and here and here. It would be very generous if anyone who uses it could make measurements of the effects in as close to a like-for-like setting as possible. This will take a bit of time, and, preferably, a change back to the other stuff, but it would be very interesting. It would be great bit of crowdsourcing to design the experiment on BC... Thanks Jonathan Edited by - Jonathan Kay on 29 Mar 2014 08:57:00

Quoting CaterBram: More Even cooling across engine with fewer localized hot spots. Low or no pressure in cooling system Are those observations after use or what you hope will happen?Quoting CaterBram: If your a tinkerer who has to drop the coolant fairly often will pay for itself in a couple of years compared to normal coolant.How does that work? If you change the coolant frequently for another reason won't a more expensive product cost more? Thanks Jonathan

No, it isn't. You would still have 12V between the battery positive, the feed to the switch and anywhere that is earthed. Relevant 7FAQ describing why you disconnect the earth side of car batteries. Think about this for any work, not just electrical. It also describes the hazard of tools contacting the battery directly. People have various rubber covers etc protecting against this. Jonathan Edited by - Jonathan Kay on 28 Mar 2014 19:28:34

I'll try and reduce the confusion and increase the agreement: flushing won't do any harm. (With K series engines the issue is the other way round: coolant that looks clean might have lost its anticorrosion properties, so it's important to replace it as recommended.) Jonathan

What's the voltage at the battery while cranking? When was it last running happily, and have you done anything to it? I'd run a good lead from the battery to the fuel pump, check you're getting 12V and then try and start. Some people recommend squirting Easy Start into the air intake and seeing if it will start. But you already know there's a problem with the fuel pump. Jonathan PS: Morning, Andrew :-)

I stand by my previously recommended products, although the prices might be out of date. If the old stuff looks evil you might want to flush but not otherwise. IMHO silicone hoses don't make any difference to the recommendation but visual inspection and tightening of connections is a good idea. Jonathan