Paul Richards

1 hour ago, Miker7 said:

Interesting comment - its just made me look at my picture compared to SLR No 77's. My top hose goes to the exhaust side of the engine. His goes to the inlet side. I can't really see it making a difference - it will still circulate around the heater matrix but ..... it is different!

Top heater hose normally goes to thermostat. Yes it will circulate, but it won’t help clear an air lock next to the thermostat using the method described by myself and SLR 77.

“First car for my son” - not a bad swap. But seriously I would recommend a Citroen CI, Toyota Aygo or Peugeot 107. All are basically the same car with a different badge. All are Toyota, well built simple and with good reliability. I’ve looked at many small cars and these are the most rust free. Cheap to buy and cheap to insure. 

I doubt lifting the expansion tank will help. My experience is that the overheating is caused by an airlock adjacent to the thermostat. That’s why a hole in the top of the thermostat is recommended to allow the air to pass through and hot coolant to come in contact with the stat and open it. The idea of raising the front of the car is to raise the angle of the thermostat housing to help air escape through the hole. 
Once you have filled via the expansion tank I find it helps to trickle coolant into the bleed T and keep shaking the hose to help it flow towards the stat and keep repeating until no more coolant can be added. 
Sometimes refilling goes easily, other times it can be a real pig. It just seems that sometimes you’re lucky. For some reason I’ve always found the 1.4 engine the worst to bleed. 
Good luck with it. 

If volts don’t increase when engine revved I suspect alternator. By the way. Oil pressure sender goes faulty as water and muck get in it. If you have fitted a new one seal the gap around the spade terminal with silicone to prevent ingress. It will increase the life. 

Not a problem. Even standard Caterham Sigma has different timing than Ford. Simply mark cams before removing old belt. 

Relay fitting instructions HERE if anyone needs them. 

Whatever you do make sure who does it is competent and aware that timing is not standard Ford and therefore normal Ford camshaft locking tool can’t be used. By the way £600 is probably about right for main dealer price. 

On 07/07/2024 at 16:52, Fallon said:

Cheers guys!

They look a much better job than a standard jubilee clip.

They do look much better but people have had problems with them not sealing properly. Stick with jubilee type clips. 

11 hours ago, Wrightpayne said:

Re Canley’s hub upgrade kit - I believe this is only for Triumph PCD wheels not Ford.

Their website indicates that they can supply with Ford 108mm PCD if required. 

You seem to have the job sorted. Redline will probably be able to supply your temp sender and drain plug. 
TOP TIP. I find the Apollo tank very lightweight and easy to damage when removing the drain plug to the point where some choose not to fully drain the Apollo. I use a small electric pump to suck out the oil from it via the breather aperture on the top of the Apollo. A suitable pump is often on offer at Lidl or on eBay. Similar to THIS.

Unfortunately Canley Classics upgrade kits appear to be out of stock. However when I changed mine some time ago I found Redline to be best priced. 
Assume I must have some of the older stub axles in my garage. If someone needs them I’ll have a look. 

What Malcolm says is spot on. If you do decide on a QED top hose thermostat do connect to the hose on the bottom of the expansion tank and not the small top hose. See my earlier thread on Blatchat HERE.

Details of top hose thermostat and instructions HERE

Black unit is thermostat housing. Cold bottom hose indicates thermostat not opening. This could be a faulty thermostat or an air lock. I’d be tempted to drain coolant and remove thermostat and change it and at the same time put a small hole in the thermostat to aid bleeding. Lots in the forum archives on this subject.

I think you’ll find replacing with hex head or square will have very little if any benefit and may give you even less room. Some people glue a short length of hex bar into the existing plug but if you do so don’t use a ratchet spanner unless it has a reverse switch.

If you really want to improve things you can fit a filler to the gearbox top and use a dipstick. 
TOP TIP. When topping up the gearbox use a simple oil can with a bit of tube attached.

Very nice. I think the V6 was actually 2.3L not 2.4L. In any event a very quick car. 

You’ll be lucky to find ZZS tyres as they have been discontinued. You’ll also find the 13 inch wheels and tyres will probably be a lot smaller resulting in speedo being inaccurate and front mudguards hardly filled. Also may find ground clearance reduced. Have you considered retaining 16inch wheels for road and a cheap set of second hand wheels and tyres for the track where ground clearance, mudguards and speedo are less likely to be a problem.

It looks like a Ford English axle to me. If it’s 108mm PCD that would confirm it. So would a picture of the diff. 
Previous owner did things right. Smear some silicon into the axle where the bearing sits before inserting the halfshafts. This stops oil leaking between the outer of the bearing and the axle case. 
I used to race stock cars using this axle and we changed diffs all the time and there would be leaks unless silicon was used. 

Simply cut a suitable washer in two and solder or glue into your existing dzus fasteners to turn them into wingnuts. 

“However, for tire repairs I would not want to have to remove the bonnet if Ididn’t have to. Where do I put it to protect it. So the jack and handle etc. will stay in the boot.”

I used to keep spare cables in the boot until once on the way back from Le Mans my throttle cable snapped. With all the luggage in and on top of the boot it took longer to get to the cable than it did to fit it. You can keep your bonnet safe by putting it in the cockpit (front near the dash and rear over the roll bar). Or simply put it on a piece of grass if there is some nearby. 

I have a K series and carry loads of tools and spares. I have fabricated a box out of aluminium that is secured in front of the heater using rivnuts. I use a Tupperware type sandwich box with tools and spares that drops inside it. On top of that I put my spare clutch and throttle cables and on top of them I put my bag that contains a jack, wheel brace, tow rope etc. All secured by stout bungee straps. Pics to illustrate. 

Tiny nut. 

A simple way of testing for leaks is with a small piece of tissue on the end of a stick or similar. With the engine running hold it near joints and look for the tissue “fluttering”.

Assuming battery is good I’d suggest checking and cleaning all the electrical contacts on the starter, battery and earths. K series click is normally only when engine is hot. 

Not sure that any of the things you have done would really cure rich running and I’d suggest that a 74c thermostat is too cold. Standard thermostat is 88c but most will use a 82c. 
As suggested a rolling road mapping session with the Emerald will sort it if it is running rich. However the backfiring you are experiencing could simply be caused by air getting into the exhaust system. I’d check for leaks around the primaries and cylinder head. 

4 hours ago, ScottR400D said:

No s**t?

If you look at it a cap head allows the bolt to be run in, the nut doesn’t need to turn, you just hold it. Try that with a hex bolt and nut. 

Anyway, off you go……
 

 

Fair enough.