Shaun_E

Dave - if you can't source a coil from here, the best price I have seen is £30 from Elise Parts. I assume it's an EU2 coil you are looking for.

Yellow SL #32

Locking the fronts first is better than locking the rears. Ultimately it is the tyres that will determine when the wheels lock. It is more normal for Caterhams to be overbraked at the rear and a brake limiting valve is often fitted to reduce the effectiveness of the rear brakes. The fronts and rears are on separate circuits so there is no ability to bias them.

It could just be that the rear brakes are not operating correctly - perhaps the adjusters have seized or the pads are worn or glazed. New pads would probably sort things out.

Dry sump on the road won't really give you much advantage - the extra ground clearance is minimal. It will prevent oil surge on track though and I guess if you do lots of high speed corners on road then it will prevent possible surge in that situation.

Word of warning - with the Caterham dry sump system, check the oil level regularly and do not allow it to drop at all.

Yellow SL #32

I haven't fried mine yet but I'm sure you could find a voltage regulator in Maplins which would protect it.

Yellow SL #32

Nothing in the UK MOT manual about speedometer - there isn't even a requirement that you have one!

Yellow SL #32

Bad luck Nick - hope it passes next time.

Angus - yes crane is back in my garage - seems like it never left 😳. Engine out and a slot with DVA booked for 9th July - fingers crossed it's just a case of new bearings. If the crank is damaged then I won't be sprinting on 15th July ☹️.

Yellow SL #32

And just to be pedantic , for MOT purposes you need a drivers side mirror and one other.

And I guess I should take up dominos as Simon Lambert nearly caught me at Longcross 😳. My excuse is that it was my first ever sprint and it was a bit wet...oh and Simon is a nutter 😬.

Yellow SL #32

Anyone had a reply yet? Just checking in case my mail didn't get there.

Yellow SL #32

YHM

Yellow SL #32

Try SVC or they are £9.26 from Caterham.

Yellow SL #32

The normal rule is to start at the furthest point from the master cylinder so I interpreted that as do the outer bleed nipple first. Worked fine on my front AP brakes (dont have the rears).

Yellow SL #32

My solution was to remove the existing battery tray (drill out the rivets) and then cut some right angle ali (from B&Q) to the correct lengths to form the sides of the tray - I then rivetted these to the top of the footwell. I used some straight length ali bent to shape (in the same way as on the existing battery tray) to secure the battery. I have seen a nylon strap used instead which is a neater method. It's not the most elegant solution but is effective. I am using a Red Top 15 battery and mounted it lying on its side.

Yellow SL #32

Got one from halfords for about £40 - they do several sizes and I just got the smallest. It is not a tailored fit but for occasional use does the job well. It doesn't pack down as small as the JJ one but I have used it when going away for weekends including trackdays and it doesn't take up a massive amount of space.

Yellow SL #32

Bare stainless. No sleeving required.

Yellow SL #32

I can't remember whether it was a gear cable or brake cable but they are all plenty long enough - just cut it to length (using sharp cutters to reduce fraying). The throttle cable connected to my Jenvey's is a bike cable. The nipple fitted neatly in the top of the accelerator pedal and we just fed it through the old outer and cut it to the right length. In an ideal word you would solder the end to stop it fraying but for an emergency spare it is not an issue.

I think it cost about £3 and that was for a stainless one. you can even get teflon coated 😬.

Yellow SL #32

Just get a bicycle cable for the throttle cable spare - they normally have a suitable nipple on one end and the other just slides through the throttle cable outer and is clamped onto the throttle body.

Yellow SL #32

When it was first built, hot idle was 28 to 30 psi - admittedly in the winter when I rarely saw much more than 60 degrees oil temp.

This has gradually reduced over the last few weeks to less than 15psi and then this week has dropped steadily to now be 8/9 psi.

At higher rpm I used to get over 60psi but now get about 50psi.

The engine feels and sounds rougher than it was for the first few months (coincidence?). I have done 3 trackdays and 3 sprints in the last 3 months. At the first trackday I don't remember the low pressure warning light coming on (set for 15 psi).

Yellow SL #32

Dave - I'll do that but I did use the throttle to raise the revs to about 1200 and the oil pressure was still only about 11 or 12 psi

Yellow SL #32

Having chatted with Oily, I will be removing the head to check the big ends. I will also check the other things Peter mentioned and probably get the scavenge pump refurbished (thanks for the link Dave J).

Yellow SL #32

Peter - thanks for some clear explanations. I will try and clarify things.

1. Possible running with low oil level: I would be surprised if the pressure pump has been sucking air, even with it running a litre of oil less than recommended. I can't however rule this out and, unless another obvious cause of the low oil pressure is found, will take the advice to take the engine apart and get it fixed.

2. Low oil pressure: All pressures quoted are when hot i.e. oil temperature over 70 degrees. I realise that ambient temperatures have increased recently but the pressure drop over time has been siginficant at the same oil temperature - I have however noticed that the idle speed has dropped a couple of hundred rpm (don't know if that is significant really). It takes about 2000 rpm to get 30 psi and then 4000+ to get to over 50 psi. The oil pressure at 4000+ has also had a corresponding decrease and at 70 degrees is around 50psi.

I need to check the other possible low oil pressure causes you suggest.

a) where is the PRV and what do I do to check it?

b) can the pressure pump be removed with the engine in-situ?

c) I'll check the steel tube - does it have to be ground down accurately? How do I check?

Cheers,

Shaun

Yellow SL #32

Engine was only built 7 month's ago ☹️.

It must have been losing oil quicker than I thought - I had to put about a litre in when I checked it the other day. I know I should have checked it more frequently - angry with myself

Will get it stripped and checked and hopefully back in the car for Loton Park.

Bummer is that we were due to go for a weeks holiday in Scotland in it, leaving on Saturday - no chance of fixing it before then.

I'm a bit worried about the scavenge pump now. It had ingested something when it was on the old engine but a very slight score on the rotor was easily polished out - should I replace it?

Yellow SL #32

Mark - its a Stack unit and I fitted a new sender yesterday to be sure. I was keeping my fingers crossed but it was really just wishful thinking.

Yellow SL #32

Dave,

I will call you in the morning. I think I need to replace the bearings and it wouldn't hurt to fit a new crankshaft oil seal. I think I'll get a new oil pump as well.

We checked out my gold pump, which was fairly new, when we built the engine and although there were a couple of scratches on the rotor it was OK. I hope I don't need a new pump.

The cam seals were replaced when we built the engine as the old ones were leaking a bit. The leak is defintiely not at the top of the engine so I suspect the crankshaft seal is more likely the culprit.

Shaun

Yellow SL #32

I've had a persistent oil leak for the last 2 or 3 months from my dry sumped K-series. I've tried tightening every joint I can find. I did find that a couple of the allen bolts holding the conning tower to the bellhousing were loose and oil had escaped there so I tightened those up. There is a more significant leak though from the front of the engine which I haven't been able to locate the source of. Over the last few weeks the oil pressure at idle has been steadily dropping and when hot is now about 8 or 9 psi. This is clearly not right and I don't want to destroy the engine by continuing to run it.

Although the oil level did get quite low at one point I don't believe the engine has suffered oil starvation although I can't completely rule it out. I have been using Mobil 1 0W-40.

So the question is "What do I do now?"

Is it just a case of removing and stripping the engine or are there some other things I can check first? Is the oil pump a likely point of failure and if so can it be changed in-situ?

I have just fitted a new presssure sender and it reads the same as the old one - it's a Stack dash (the sender is made by VDO).

Yellow SL #32

I bought a box of 200 pairs of 3M 1120 disposables from Greenhams. They arrived next day. The 1100 model are the normal ones - the 1120 are designed for smaller ear canals which works for me and my wife but wasn't much good for a colleague who rides a motorbike.

Yellow SL #32

I mounted mine as Peter says with the adjuster at the bottom. The bugger is that it is then difficult to adjust the ride height. I guess damper adjustments are more frequent that ride height so this is the right compromise. By running them upside down you get a marginally reduced unspring weight as well.

Peter - I went for 250lb/in front and 150 lb/in rears. The ride seems fine and even with 2 up and lots of luggage, have not bottomed out the rear on anything other than speedhumps. This setup seems to be what most of the decent sprinters are running but the R400 race drivers seem to go for a higher rear spring rate (215lb/in IIRC). I am led to believe that Nitrons add a bit to the spring rate so I guess you'd want to go somewhere around 200lb/in to get the same sort of handling. Personally I think this will be way too harsh on the road.

Warning - don't run the dampers at anyting much above full soft on the road else you will lose your fillings!

Yellow SL #32