Rob Walker

You know it makes sense Mark! If the prop comes undone it could seriously injur you or the driver

You MUST use loctite, the blue coating only identifies that they are the specially hardened and tempered bolt. You will note that the bolt threads into the flange without any resistance there is no plastic locking film present therefore Loctite or similar is escential.

Chris, You have my e-mail. Rob Edited by - Rob walker on 21 Dec 2002 10:58:51

Use new blue bolts plus Loctite.

Steve, I had my rear dampers `overhaulded` and the valving dynamically checked by messers Prodrive. I was very dissapointed with the results, despite getting a printout that both damper were matched I could feel with hand pressure that they were not balanced, they scratched the piston rods, and the bodies of the dampers and charged me and arm and a leg. Since their work one of the dampers has leaked and now needs replaceing. I would advise you to buy new or go the cheapy AVO route. Rob

No problem Rob I wasn`t annoyed just that we keep covering the same old ground. I have serious doubt`s about the suggestion of applying more spring pressure against the CRB. The uprated AP clutch is only rated at 129 lb/ft max torque capacity and any additional pressure against the cover fingures via the CRB will reduce this capacity further. Rob

Famous last words. Edited by - Rob walker on 18 Dec 2002 09:12:50

Wanted a pair of driveshafts left and right sides Thanks Rob

Oh this has been done to death. IMO the bearing fails because it has been fitted with the plastic sleeve section not set concentic with the metal bearing section. When this happens the metal section scuffs against the clutch fingures prematurely wearing these and in the process generating heat, this unwanted heat then compromises the bonding between the plastic section and the metal bearing section and the two can separate. I am well aware that this bearing is designed to be self centering and in most cases this works as designed, its the ones that are too stiff to self center that fail and have been fitted without centering the bearing manually before installation. IMHO if you were to apply 80-120 nm of torque to the release bearing against the clutch fingures you will partially declutch and clutch slippage will result. The other factors that may influence the life of this bearing are the higher normal revs at which gear changes are made on the Caterham I cannot remember downshifting on my road Tin Top at 7500 and many are running with uprated AP clutch covers that has a significantly higher spring rate than a standard road spec cover.

I had to have my block skimmed to achieve the desired linner protrusion when building my latest engine. The original Rover Linners were 001" below the top of the block when I stripped the engine, this would have given doubious gasket clamping.

Andy, Simply get the bearing in your hands and you should notice that you can move the carrier laterally with respect to the metal bearing portion by applying sideways hand pressure . When you have noted this its simply a matter of using your eye to set the bearing to run concentric some bearings are supplied that need no realignment and I think this is why the problem has been missed. Certainly Caterham make no mention of it in their build manual.

If you remove the large rubber plugs from your cam cover, this will allow air to be drawn into the top of the engine. Therefore the engine will no longer be running sealed and the scavenge pump will no longer create a vacuum within the engine, but it will be necessary for the air entering the engine to be filtered at the entry point or you risk drawing in dust/grit into your engine. Oil consumption will be slighty increased as a greater amout of oil vapour will be vented from the engine.

Simon Lambert was certainly aware of the problem when I had my bearing fail about 18 months ago.

There is another important point to watch out for when installing the CRB. The bearing needs to be checked for being concentric to the support sleeve. If the bearing is installed without cenrtalising the carrier each time the clutch is depressed the steel portion of the bearing scuffs against the clutch fingures prematurely wearing them , causing the bearing to overheat and then the bearing can separate from the plastic carrier. So before installing any new bearing hold the bearing firmly in one hand and apply lateral pressure untill the carrier is running concentric with the bearing. This mechanism is designed to be self centering but in my experience it often fails to do so resulting in early failure.

Steve, I run the breather from the top of the belltank to my catchtank which I have fixed to my bulkhead, I then run a larger bore pipe from the top of the catch tank to vent below the car. This takes away all the nasty oil smells below the car.

As with many things there are pros and cons. On the plus side there will be less oil vented from the bell tank breather, less windage due to less oil mist within the engine which may liberate more power. On the negative side IMHO the rear crankshaft seal can suffer and leak due the vacuum that remains within the engine after the oil pressure has gone on shut down, this vacuum pulls the seal inwards and off the crank. Its been suggested than oil retention in the head and poor drainage of oil down from the head are not helped by running sealed. There also must be greater losses to turn the pump producing this vacuum as apposed to running without vacuum, I intend to measure this at my next RR session. My advise is run sealed if your car is still under warrenty. Rob

Perfectly normal if you are running with the engine sealed. The big question is , is running with the engine sealed the best thing to do.

All the parts have come off Julians SLR, he has fitted a dry sump system so the parts are no longer needed. The bellhousing will fit any K series to a ford gear box and the sump will fit any K series.

One other fact you should be aware of before you take the plung is that a starter kit will be marked as such on its VIN plate and whilst its easy to avoid a Q plate the car will always have a reduced value as compared to a same spec car built from a full knock down kit, typically -30% . Caterham told me that they never buy back cars built from starter kits.

Depends on what offset you choose and the type of RARB you fit. Running with the -ET18 you may just get away with 7" on the rears, with the Caterham upper mounted type. The Caterham lower mounted type or the juno/freestyle 9" should be possible.

RS14`s are Black.

It may be prudent to try your standard brakes with some really good pads fitted ( Pagid RS 14 )and a brake bias valve in the rear circuit and some good quality fluid Castrol SRF.

Nig, The standard fuel pressure is 3 bar nominal. Its likely that your fuel pump is the 19 grams/sec one. IMO this will have to be changed if you are seeking a reliable 230 plus bhp, I swapped mine for the 27 gram/sec JPE pump, this is also fitted to the R500. Now that you have fitted 1227 cams to your high flow head, I do not think you will have a problem with the big SAAB injectors they work perfectly in my engine. I still STRONGLY advise you to have them cleaned and flow checked before you RR/ Map your engine. Its just false economy not to do so, if your engine doesn`t deliver the beans you won`t know where to start looking for the loss of power. Also be aware that the only check you have on mixure is a Lambda probe in the fourth branch of your primaries, if you have a duff/partially blocked injector fitted to 1 2 or 3 you will not see this and you may damage your engine. Edited by - Rob walker on 11 Nov 2002 17:52:00

Hoopy, I would caution you in reading too much into the colour of injectors as the various motor manufactures specify different colours and you simply cannot assume, say a green injector will be a high flow type. IMO the optimum injector for a high powered K 210 - 250 bhp is the Bosch 0280 150 420 these are 320 cc/min at 3 bar, have a 23 degree spray angle and are fitted to 1992-1997 Vauxhall Colibra and Vectras Turbo models, and for those colour conseous they are lime green. They are also high impedance and as such are compatable with the Emerald M3D. Rob

Well done Dave, in view of the above a 1997 or very early 98 must be the best vintage to own! 😬