Mick Day

Personally I can't see any benefit. You still have to get the oil back into the engine & if you use an adapter plate that will still be vulnerable to debris. I assume you are using Think's FH6 filter head that does away with a sandwich plate?

Dowty washers (bonded seals) are available here: www.thinkauto.com. Fibre washers are OK for a while but Dowty washers can be used over & over again. In effect it's a way of getting a seal as good as an O ring.

My 1994 front suspension (common upper damper/wishbone mounting) was converted to wide track with no problem other than requiring an extended upper damper eye. Inboard pushrod suspension cannot be fitted to cars with this mode of front suspension; it would need a short front to convert to later suspension pick-up points.

I have a SPA tacho but find it doesn't like direct sunlight. The casing deforms & restricts the needle movement: anyone else notice this? It's been back to SPA for repair but still does it.

Most K series cars with a 6 speed box run a 3.92 diff. Assuming your 4th is direct (as is 6th in a 6 speed) then I'd go for the 3.77.

On my Ford Sierra type diff there is no drain plug. Ford specify life of diff on one factory fill. It's not like engine oil that degrades with combustion products. If it needs a small top up then any GL4 EP90 can be used. If it's lost a lot of oil you need to work out where it's going. 3 yrs 3000 miles is OK & really there is no need to change the oil. In fact my 1st diff went 10 years 35,000 miles when it was swapped for an LSD. Now 5 years on & 9000 miles on the same oil. It'll get an oil change when it needs to come out again.

You should have a look at here, here & here; or at least point the tester in the right direction. Now it is possible that the special notice (released 10/07) has been superceeded but I doubt it otherwise www.motuk.co.uk would have been updated. However assuming the government intends to eventually push this through then all vehicles registered prior to 2001 will have to buy new plates!

A few years ago on Le Sept we'd got up early for the drive to Mas du Clos. As I drove out of the hotel I could hear a rattle. Stopped the car, got out, walked round the car but couldn't see anything amiss. Got back in & drove off, rattle continued. Must be the headlight I thought, too cold to stop now, I'll wait until we get to the circuit. 500 meters later the rattle got worse & the bonnet started to lift..........................

Consider using concave mirrors for all 3. Initially I only had flat plane side mirrors: I then added a central mirror & have now changed all 3 to convex. Much better field of view. Edited to say convex! Edited by - Mick Day on 7 May 2009 11:42:52

Caterham used to fit a generic clutch to its lower powered K models. It now only supplies an AP clutch. The "cheaper" clutch was available from CC in 2002. Cover: 72600. Plate: C784AF. £55 plus VAT. I believe it was a Quinton Hazel part. The QH catalogue here recognises the plate but not the cover. The cover also has QY13000 stamped on it but that is not recognised. No Rover clutches will fit the later gearboxes (1996 on?). All K series engines used the same bellhousing & this limited flywheel diameter to those used on 1.4 & 1.6 engines. A Google search for the plate throws up quite a few references but not for the cover. Sorry can't help you on the uprated VVC clutch but maybe Darren can at CC.

Spooky this......... Just got my car out of hibernation & as part of the pre-season service decided to check the cambelt tension.......& noticed........ the blanking plate had cracked. The small bit that tucks into the bottom of the cambelt cover had a split in it. So made another one but will check this a little more frequently as it's difficult to see behind the oil tank. Cambelt tension was fine by the way. Template for blanking plate available here, bottom of the page.

Tim: YHM

Depends on the ECU I suppose. My GEMS ECU has a switch for either external (to the ECU) MAP sensor or for internal barametric pressure sensor.

The tapping noise from my K series came from a screw ingested into the combustion chamber. Rattled around for a while & then got stuck between valve & piston when it made a terrible noise. Bent 2 valves. Screw came from throttle butterfly.

Even so petrol went up 1p per litre 5 days BEFORE the tax increase round here.

Noises from a K series: Something loose: Plug lead cover Spark plug Exhaust collector Alternator belt Starter motor Loose exhaust header Check all fixings on engine Loose scavenge pump belt system. Failed bearing in pump pulley? However I'd be tempted to remove the cam belt cover & check the belt run & that everything is tight including the crank pulley, cam wheels etc. Was it a new water pump? To be honest I don't know what a failing one would sound like. Take off the cam cover as well & check torque of all cam ladder fixings: 7ft/lbs I think. Get length of wood, place to your ear & use it like a stethascope to listen to various things. I had an odd noise from my engine I couldn't pin down until in France it turned into a horrendous noise. Car recovererd to the UK & one of the throttle body butterfly screws had decided to take an outing into no 1 cylinder. For most of the time it just rattled around until it got caught between piston & valve, then all hell broke loose noise wise. Bent 2 valves in the process.

Good gear calculator here

Absolutely but the main advantage is using it to get the nut undone! The VW has a castellated nut so it's easy to mark the position; & guess what, when torquing back up it goes to exactly the right point! The other useful feature is that it bolts to the hub using the wheel nuts so there is none of the lifting moment when trying to do it on axel stands using John Howe's "K" tool to stop the hub rotating.

Pardon?

Having done up my hub nuts using the scaffold pole torque wrench it would be nice to have a more gentle approach to this. Those familiar with the air-cooled VW world may have come across this: the Mr Torque Tool. Having used it, it is simple in use & allows one to torque the rear hub nut to 254 ft/lbs using a torque wrench set to 35 ft/lbs!

Think about it: some modern cars are now going 2 years without an oil change. Whether that's a good or bad thing I'll leave you to decide. So leaving it for 5 years on a shelf away from the harmful thrashy thing we call an engine & maybe it won't be in that bad a condition. If concerned mix it 50/50 with new.Or just use it for top-up?

Is it just me or did the oil companies instigate a price increase to coincide with the increased tax?

Some info here, 1/3 rd of the way down the page.

The SBD dry sump system looks as though it's made by PACE. I have a PACE system on my K series. 1 big advantage of the PACE system over the Caterham system is that it has dual scavenge from the sump. If the passenger footwell has been shortened then you are half way there, although to be fair the Caterham system can function quite well using a non-bellhousing tank.