Be clear and read Catastrads's post again ,the compact bell housing and the short bell housing are quite different. The compact is designed to run with a 7.5" flywheel and mates perfectly with the Raceline Dry sump pan. This means there is no 40mm step between the end of the sump pan and the leading edge of the bell housing . You also need a special starter motor that runs a large pinion . You also need the special 7.5" flywheel and clutch kit and the flywheel is quite heavy. I see no need to shorten the passenger footwell with either bell housing unless you wish to site the Dry sump Tank there. I can also confirm that it is necessary to shorten the input shaft both the splines and the overhaul length on the 6sp Caterham gbox with both the compact and short bell housing. If you opt for the short bell housing to mate with the Raceline Dry sump pan you will have to find some way of filling the 40mm gap between the pan and the leading edge of the bell housing, Caterham sell a nasty bit of tube for the job or a better solution is to have a machine shop make you up a bespoke tapered block/skid plate out of solid nylon or PTFE.
There has also long been the debate that the Duratec does not need a dry sump as the Raceline wet sump pan is all you need. Well yes this is largely true but be aware that the Raceline dry sump pan with integral oil pump gives you 40mm extra ground clearance at the front of the pan. Also there is substantial windage of the oil within the Wet sump pan this leads to high oil temps, this is more of an issue with the higher tuned engines that will rev to 8500rpm.
Lastly I take 300bhp+ from the SBD with a pinch of salt, lets just say its a remarkable result.
Rob
Edited by - Rob Walker on 9 Jan 2014 11:15:37