Rob Walker

Once again some people are just living in dreamland. The apollo system does nothing to prevent oil surge, how could it. If you are not experiencing oil surge using the apollo you are simply not cornering fast enough or your oil gauge is so damped you don`t see it. Every two or three weeks we have the same old tosh posted. Very boring

There is no need to leave a sealed battery on any charger once its fully charged and not in use.

I have this problem, gonna try varnish and throw some sand on it before it dries.

I drill a series of holes from 4mm opening up to 12mm then finish of with a file. Sorry no pictures. The repeaters are very neat being 25mm outside diameter and 15mm high. and orange in colour.

Fill the scratch with epoxy and then polish out.

I fit the Fiat ones to the cars I build. They are tiny and pass SVA. Same as fitted to the F355 ferrari , Barchetta, Coupe cost £21. Edited by - Rob Walker on 5 Apr 2006 20:52:42

Has to be a 3mm radius or greater or it will fail on external projections. In practise this does mean one jot as they except a bit of rubber stuck over the problem which you can remove when you leave the test centre. Your mounts look a nice job bye the way.

If you have a crank sensor problem or the Emerald is not reading the flywheel pattern the small LED on the end of the emerald will not change from Red to Green as you crank the engine , it will stay red.

The problem is that most use a system that uses the rear wheels as a datum. This is all well and good if you are running a parallel rear end as per the latest de dion tubes but most have the older 20 minutes toe in type. So you need someone that uses the front wheel only method such as the old Dunlop tracking gauges. Or make something up yourself. I have made my own, two circles of MDF that I clamp to the front wheels, these have two 1 meter lengths of 1" steel box section bolted on ( looks like two big lolly pops). This allows you to take a measurement close to the wheels and then at 1meter. Easy to work out the tracking from this.

I have come accross this problem on are you sure the calipers are at fault, as some of the caterham rear discs were incorrectly manufactured and were too big on diameter. I returned 4 discs to caterham which were 2mm too big on diameter and as the brakes heated up they fouled the caliper. If your discs are correct you should have around .060" clearance between the disc and caliper.

Hardly the club spirit old boy.

Geepers £75 for Yoko 32`s thats a bit expensive they cost less than that new.

Franky they are a bit narrow the standard R400 race cars ran 7" fronts and 8.2" rears. As to the level of grip ??????? Who knows it depends on the compound obviously and how the slicks were used and stored. they could be hard as rock and offer less grip then fresh Yokos. The known quantity is that they are cheap and will give you several cheap trackdays.

I only fill mine to half way joint and use Castrol SRF it does not leak . SRF does not damage paint .

Rik, I have seen this before, some of the steel head to block dowels supplied with the uprated head gaskets were too long thus not allowing the head to seat properly. If the head was porous it would only be a a very small weep of coolant . You have my sympathy. Rob

Martin, The exhaust manifold studs are not on the block on a K series they are on the head which is removable. If your chassis has non removable engine bay diagonal braces I would say you will have to remove the head to get access. with head off any competent engineering workshop should be capable of doing a helicoil repair. As a temporary job until a more convienient time to remove the head you could bond the stud into the damaged threaded hole with JB weld available from Halfords, its a type of epoxy. Make sure you degrease the hole first an some heat will also help. Rob

Why are you still confused? Think about the problem, ignore what retailers have told you, its simple enough. If the oil pickup is interrupted during cornering you will get surge end of story. There are several reasons why a simple apollo is specified in grad racing , mainly on cost grounds. Not wishing to confuse you further but the VVC is more likely to suffer top end damage than the normal K derivatives as oil pressure is used in the operation of the VVC mechanism.

It will be loads of hassle to source all new bolts aftermarket. Caterham sell complete fixing packs, rear axle, rear suspension, front suspension etc they are a bit expensive but probably cheaper than running around sourcing yourself. Edited by - Rob Walker on 16 Mar 2006 09:43:36

The Caterham ali knobs are 3/8" UNF

Pinstripe Pete, The apollo system has nothing to do with the way in which oil is picked up to supply the oil pump. Therefore oil surge during hard cornering/braking is the same as with the wet sump. The K engine has the unwanted property of creating a lot of air bubbles in the oil when using high revs, this is possibly due to the shallow sump design and high oil level within the engine or oil retained within the head as the engine is canted over, the apollo is designed to remove these bubbles and vent into the cam cover. If you run without an apollo on track its possible to get air into the hydraulic cam followers and the top end of the engine will sound very tappety. Its also undesirable to have air bubbles pumped through the main and big end bearings under load. The only answer to oil surge is a properly designed drysump system or acusump or clever sump baffling , go slow around corners

Pinstripe Pete you are under the wrong impression if you think the Apollo Tank does anything to prevent oil surge it does nothing. It is a simple oil/ air separater. Its design is to remove air bubbles from the oil, this function it does well.

Lotus Esprit S3, it fell to bits, 3 cracked windscreens, 2 exhaust manifolds, gearbox input shaft bearing, one engine plus loads of small part failures. Great looking car but a nightmare to own. I once took it on a track day at Thruxton, it lasted about five laps the brakes were on fire and the whole body was creaking during hard cornering. I stopped before it fell to bits again.

Martin the yellow springs are usually 180 lbs.

Looks like it will be suitable for most applications and reasonably priced especially when there is a 2 for1 offer on.

I noticed this new product for sale yesterday £32 for 5 L anyone know if its a true synthetic, the viscosity is good and its marketed as a track day oil. I wonder if its the same as the Caterham oil? Rob Edited by - Rob walker on 14 Mar 2006 09:08:54