Mick Day

I'd remove the spark plugs after re-filling with oil as you may spill some oil down the empty plug sockets!

Andrew If you have a spare set of wheels then your chooses seem to be ACB10's or slicks. ACB10's are crossply so you'll have to change your front camber settings to between 0 & -1 degrees of negative camber (depending on preference). Yokohama however supply crossply & radial slicks for 13 inch wheels. On the experience of Le-Sept 1999 those who ran the 2000 odd miles on road & track (4 tracks) with new ACB10's had well worn tyres at the end of the trip. I'll be driving the whole event (only 3 track days) on 32R's but will make sure I have some new rubber on the rears. Hope this helps, Mick

Chris Fitted my Apollo tank with the help of a professional mechanic. We couldn't get all the oil unions to seal so in desperation I took it to Caterham. Now it leaks worse than ever so it'll be back again next Thursday! I some how wonder whether plumbing PTFE tape should be used. Mick

I've just fitted one. Drain the oil from the sump only, any remaining oil in the tank will drain once the oil filter is removed. The fitting instructions indicate approx 6 litres, however rough calculations of the volume of the tank alone indicate 3 litres giving a total volume of 7 litres. Perusal of the se7ens.net site show most users running with about 7 litres of oil. This brings me onto measuring the level: Caterham instructions say run the engine for 2 minutes (from hot or cold?), stop engine for 30 secs & then dip the oil. What do other users do?

Try William Haig; he'll be needing a new job soon!

I fitted the Alcon front brakes in 1999 with Mintex 1144 pads. I too had the impression that progression was improved but still the rears locked before the fronts. After discussion with James Whitting I fitted green stuff to the front & harder standard pads to the rear & much, much better. If you want to stay with the standard front brakes then why not fit Hawk HP plus pads available from Cambridge Motorsport (01767-677969). You will find the front discs will wear quickly but at 14 UKP a throw can be considered a cheap consumable part. Mick

Try fitting an Apollo tank & stopping the oil leaks. Mick

Graham 1st thing to make sure is that you have the right pattern ali stanchion; if you're keeping the wiper mechanism in situ then you want the right ones to clear the mechanism. Secondly decide whether to bolt the screens just to the ali or through the scuttle as well. I've fixed mine to the ali only & the whole assembly seems rigid enough. Thirdly the screens fold backwards so the feet need to be towards the back of the ali. There should be some centre punch marks which determine the inboard end of the feet. Forthly I fixed mine by bolting from underneath the ali (you need to countersink the bolt heads). You can also fix your mirrors this way. It seems that aeros create less turbulance than later Superlight type sceens maybe because of the air gap below the screens. Angle of attack is adjustable so plenty of scope for driving the car to work out what is best for you. Finaly go see Keith's as he seems to have made a reasonable job. PS Keith: have you seen the various mesh grills that have surfaced since your Ring trip? Mick

Thanks everybody for all the tips, especially fixing the pipes to the sandwich plate before fitting & tying a spare altenator belt in place! Chris: can you give me a URL for the photos? Mick

Picked up an Apollo tank from Caterham last Thursday & 2 minutes into fitting it realised there are parts missing!!??** Thank you Caterham! The photo's supplied (B/W photocopies) are not too illuminating & the problem I can see is the oil pipe take off from the sandwich plate may foul the alternator. Any tips anybody? Secondly the instructions recommend routing the oil pipes through the alternator belt: how do you stop the belt fouling the pipes? Anybody got any photo's of their car showing how they did it? Mick

Chris Good luck with the GEMS, I have the same ECU: who's doing the mapping for you? Mick

No problem: all that's needed is a suitable grindstone to modify the tongue. Mick

This reminds me of the day in the Student Union car park at B'ham University attempting to service my first pride & joy: a Mk 1 Ford Cortina. Took the contact set off to replace with a new one & dropped the screw into the distributor. I could see it but couldn't reach it. My tool kit at that time consisted of a few adjustable spanners & the odd screw driver so no help there. Then a flash of inspiration: all I need is a pair of tweezers. The 5th girl I accosted agreed to lend me her eye-brow tweezers & I retrieved the said screw in double quick time, hence the tweezers in my tool kit should anyone want to borrow them. Mick

This all presupposes that your sensors & gauges are sensing/reading correctly. My previous 1.4 & new(ish) 1.6 read similar oil pressures: 4 bar idle when cold sinking to 2 bar when hot; 5000 rpm sinks to 3.5 (ish) bar when hot. 115 deg C water temp seems a little high to me but maybe on a hot day with a lot of right foot? Pinky: is this figure paddock talk or from an engine guru? Mick

Check the throttle pedal bush hasn't siezed.. This happened to me once on Le-Sept & only a quick flick under the pedal brought my blood pressure back to normal! Mick

Congratulations Tony. My K on TB's etc runs with a GEMS ECU which retains the closed loop system & lambda probe. In fact I'm still using the original exhaust with cat. However, just as Peter says, it's probably completely shot by now & does nothing. Bearing in mind that the cat. (supposedly) only chews up approx. 1 BHP, how much better would a 4:1 system be? Mick Day

14 inch wheels no problem & will give better ground (speed hump)clearance. Don't throw the 13 inch ones out though as you'll need these for track days. And before you ask most people get bitten by the bug sooner or later.

Hi Tony I'd agree with Andy's posting on this. Prior to doing my epic re-build I considered this route. One thing to bear in mind is Dave Andrew's advice on valve sizes: the 1.4 bore is 75mm which will limit the size you can go to on valve diameters. Certainly turbo/supercharging is an option. Consider though what you will spend: it may be better to bite the bullet. Mick

I bought a Momo alu gear knob from DT. Comes with 3 set screws which hold it onto the gear shaft - no problems. Mick

Andy >>I've also just gone through a similar upgrade path >>to Mick, only the mechanicals were done by Ratrace >>and I think I've gone a bit more "extreme". You certainly have! Mick

Chris The project was mine I just conned JW into doing the mechanical work! He did a great job but was let down by circumstances i.e. **** happens!! Roger Barry has already dropped the hint of a LF article; I'll think on it. Mick

Perceived wisom is that no one (as of yet) has been able to modify the Rover MEMS except Rover. Let the buyer beware! Mick

Try fitting the cam shafts as they are part of the up-graded package.

Anything can be converted, it just depends on how much knowledge & patience you have. Firstly the 1.4K block, as supplied by Caterham, was the old "wet" linered version which cannot be upgraded with a simple liner/piston/crank change. So unless Arrowstar have come up with a "fix" you will need a new "damp" linered block. Secondly quite a bit of machining needs to be done to the doner block to make the starter motor fit (taking away the engine number; think on that!). Thirdly there is an issue on which flywheel to use with the 1.8 engine (probably wont fit Caterham bell housing but can't remember exact detail); no problem with the 1.6. Thankfully the cylinder head is common with 1.4, 1.6 & 1.8. However if you can get a VVC head this is the route to go minus the VVC bits. I assume you're ditching the Rover MEMS in which case you can forget about the Rover immobiliser. I went down this route last Winter in changing from 1.4 to 1.6. Biggest problem (apart from the crank breaking on the doner engine)was the coil. The 1.4 uses a conventional coil whilst the 1.6 & 1.8 use a more modern electronic coil. It took ages for this to dawn on us. No problem in sourcing the coil but try getting the plug on its own! Initially Caterham wanted to sell a new loom but after a bit of arm twisting supplied the plug. The loom had to be modified (done by Southern Carbs) to link up to the injection along with a new crank sensor. I'm using the Piper BP270H (hydraulic)cams in a standard head with Jenvey throttle bodies controlled by a GEMS ECU, although the Emerald is flavour of the month. Both these ECU's are plug compatable with the Rover MEMS. On the subject of injectors, I don't think there are any problems in using 1.4 injectors in a 1.8 engine. If you do everthing yourself then look on a budget of about £3000 for engine, cams, ECU & throttle bodies. Good luck. Mick.

If your 1.4 K is running on the standard Rover MEMS there is nothing that can be adjusted. All a rolling road will give you is BHP & torque figures. Why not try a standard Rover (or Caterham) dealer who will have the necessary to plug into the diagnostics of the ECU.